Red and white are the colors of the Bremen flag, affectionately called the "bacon flag" by the locals. Yet green would be so much more appropriate as the city color! And not because Werder Bremen, the legendary soccer club, also has green as its club color. The reason is different: Bremen is the greenest city in Germany! No matter where you are: Only a few steps separate you from the next park or green space, from a playground, a cemetery or the banks of the Weser.

Rhododendron Park

Citizen's Park

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City Garden Vegesack

Blockland

Werdersee

Speckenbüttel Health Park

Bremen's green spaces are much loved and enjoyed by the locals. At the top of the list of Bremen's most popular parks is the 200-hectare Citizen's Parka magnificent landscape park in the heart of the city. It is called Bürgerpark because, in the good Hanseatic tradition, it is financed by private citizens. You can tell which ones by the discreet plaques attached to benches, bridges and monuments that bear witness to who the donor was. Highlights in the Bürgerpark are the animal enclosure, the Emma Lake with its rowing boat rental, the many sunbathing lawns and the Finn track, which is so popular with its joint-friendly surface that even joggers from the surrounding area come to the park especially for their runs. Bremen drive.

Not only green, but all shades of this world offers the Rhododendron Park: One of the largest collections of rhododendrons and azaleas in the world thrives and blooms here (especially in spring) on 46 hectares. Over 600 species! But you don't have to be a botanist to enjoy the beauty of the park. There's also a rose garden, an orchard, a botanical garden and more. Admission is free, but Bremen*ers often gratefully leave a donation.

How to get to Bremen by train: Plan arrival.

Vegesack - fat ships and old villas

In the north of Bremen, the Vegesack city garden the most beautiful green oasis far and wide. The former botanical garden stretches directly along the Weser promenade in the Vegesack district, the so-called "Maritime Mile. While jogging, walking, or reading on the lawn, you can always catch a glimpse of the fat ships that pass by here. But it's also nice to look at the stately old villas in the other direction and walk through the avenue of densely planted kugel maple trees directly on the water. If you're already in Vegesack, you might as well take a look at the Utkiek a viewing platform at the southern end of the Alte Hafenstraße. Here you'll not only find the most beautiful view of the Weser up and down the river, but also a narrow arch which, on closer inspection, turns out to be a whale jaw made of bronze. A reminder of the old days when Vegesack was the center of the Greenlanders.

Active wellness in Bremen

Bremen residents who like to ride their bikes are often in the Blockland can be found. This is an agricultural recreation area in the north. Quiet marshland where more cows live than people. Nice and flat. Meadows and ponds. Almost no cars. There's no sign of the big city here anymore, but you can whiz along paved roads through beautiful nature, bent low over the handlebars.

Bremen is so green that it even has a recreational lake in the city area! The Werdersee is not a real lake, but a separate branch of the Weser, but with maximum recreational potential. You can look forward to excellent water quality, a sandy bathing bay and many sunbathing areas, fishing spots, surfing and rowing possibilities and even a slipway for boats. You can also have a barbecue.

Bremerhaven: the green maritime city

By the way also Bremerhaven has a lot of water and beautiful greenery to offer! The Bürgerpark right behind the main station, for example, where you can embark on a pedal boat for a ride across the boat pond. Or the Speckenbüttel Health Park in the north of the city: Here everything revolves around wellness and health. You can get your water fix in the Kneipp facility, work out on the running track, develop body awareness in the motor skills park, and take a deep breath in the Willow Castle, a vegetal dome structure.

How to get to Bremerhaven by train: Plan arrival.

Cover photo: Please dive deep: Sea of flowers in front of the Wallmühle in Bremen © WFB

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