Germany - Lower Saxony - Bremen

Greetings from the Hanseatic City of Bremen.

Sent by Anna from Bremen, Germany.

Bremen (Low German also: Breem or Bräm), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (German: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, IPA: [ˈʃtatɡəˌmaɪndə ˈbʁeːmən] ), is the capital of the German state of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (Freie Hansestadt Bremen), a two-city-state consisting of the cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven. With about 577,000 inhabitants, the Hanseatic city is the 11th-largest city of Germany and the second-largest city in Northern Germany after Hamburg.

Bremen is the largest city on the River Weser, the longest river flowing entirely in Germany, lying some 60 km (37 mi) upstream from its mouth into the North Sea at Bremerhaven, and is completely surrounded by the state of Lower Saxony. Bremen is the centre of the Northwest Metropolitan Region, which also includes the cities of Oldenburg and Bremerhaven, and has a population of around 2.8 million people. Bremen is contiguous with the Lower Saxon towns of Delmenhorst, Stuhr, Achim, Weyhe, Schwanewede and Lilienthal. There is an exclave of Bremen in Bremerhaven, the "Citybremian Overseas Port Area Bremerhaven" (Stadtbremisches Überseehafengebiet Bremerhaven). Bremen is the fourth-largest city in the Low German dialect area after Hamburg, Dortmund and Essen (read more).