Bremen; or how I lost it for a moment

If I had written this post about Bremen twenty minutes into visiting the city, it would have been a rather unflattering image. It would have been along the lines of "Bremen sucks! Never visit it, the people are impolite assholes, the city is ugly and the stupid Germans with their stupid environmental badges can all go to hell!"
But let's rewind to the start. We stayed in the Novum Hotel in the outskirts of Bremen and for a three star hotel it was pretty decent. The next morning, we wanted to visit the city and instead of choosing to take the train there from our hotel and keep the car parked, we made the imbecile decision to drive into the city with the VW bus. So, German cities can be weird with their cars. There is a green badge you can get for your car and without it there are cities you cannot drive into because there is an "environmental area" which you can only access with the badge. Now, anything helping the environment is, of course, good, but I must say I find the title misleading as it simply should alleviate the parking situation in bigger cities, which has not so much to do with environment, as any car - regardless how old and dirty it is - can buy such a badge (according to a German). Additionally, I have to state (and you can see I am still a bit loaded about the whole trip), I deem it rather hypocritical to have "environmental car badges" but still be the only country incapable to enforce highway speed limits which would contribute not only to environment, but also to safety...
Moving on. We drove around the stupid environmental area for nearly an hour before, at the very outskirts (ironically), we found free parking. Now, we needed to walk two kilometres into the city and if this wasn't enough to lower my mood, a fucking cyclist nearly ran me over as, apparently, have of the footpath is designated for cyclists, but how should we know? After shouting some abysmal comment after him, my mood was below the cellar and I stomped into the city, so angry I wasn't sure I ever could grow to like this horrific city. 
BUT, after an enormously long walk and a deep-set frown on my face, we crossed the bridge into the old town and, I had to admit, it was absolutely stunning. Once more a medieval city core which made you imagine people running around in dresses and medieval leggings, merchants beckoning to customers and heavily loaded barrows being pushed around. 
And there was actually a market at the market square and I ate the best crepe I ever had, filled with Kinder chocolate. My mood alleviated, I was welcoming the pleasant appearance of the town. We went down a little lane named Böttcherstrasse where little shops were nestled next to each other. We also went to the Bremer Stadtmusikanten, of course, but is a rather disappointing little statue in the corner of one of the many squares. Still, it's worth a visit. 
We only were in Bremen for a day, so we couldn't explore everything, but what we saw was pretty nice and for anyone being partial to medieval cities which have a clearly designated market square (or more than one), with little lanes leading to hidden treasures, Bremen is a city for you to explore! 

In the late afternoon, we travelled down to the border to the Netherlands and slept in the car in a town called Emmerich am Rhein. From there, we will set off to the Netherlands and Amsterdam and I will update you as soon as I get round to writing the next post (and have wifi).