Bremen is the city of four animals, and you will meet them before you have parked: a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster standing on each other's backs in bronze beside the town hall. In the Grimm tale they set out to become musicians in Bremen, but they never actually get there, finding a robbers' house on the way, so the city is the destination of a story whose characters stopped short. The statue's front legs are polished gold by visitors rubbing the donkey's hooves for luck.
Bremen is a free Hanseatic city, a city-state in its own right with about half a million inhabitants, and its centre has the confidence of a place that has been rich for a very long time. The town hall and the huge stone Roland statue on the market square, dating from 1404, are on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The Schnoor quarter, a tangle of small lanes with tiny houses, is a favourite for browsing and a coffee, while Böttcherstraße is a short, brick-built street from the 1920s with a distinctive, slightly eccentric character, and a carillon of Meissen bells that plays at midday.
This is also coffee country. Bremen has been a major coffee port for more than a century, and the smell of roasting beans still drifts over the city on some mornings. The Beck's brewery sits beside the Weser, and a cold glass of it is a fitting end to a ride. Fish and kale are traditional, and a proper Bremen dish is Kohl und Pinkel, cabbage with smoked sausage, which is more of a winter proposition.
For a rider, Bremen is the end of the Fairy Tale Route and a place for fuel, a meal and a stroll, but not for the riding itself. Roads around the city are flat, busy and straight. Stuhr, just to the south, has plenty of stations and supermarkets, and the road network is dense. The best part of arriving is the approach along the Weser, with its green banks and sea breeze. Park near the market, as the old centre is largely pedestrian, and explore on foot. Allow some time for the trams, which are many and efficient, and give them room.