Bremen: Organic Ice-cream

If you fancy a freshly made organic ice-cream in Bremen be prepared to work out – hope for good weather, rent a bicycle and do as many locals do: Set out on a 15 kilometers ride, first in direction University, and then on the dyke safeguarding the land against the river Wümme to a dairy farm run by friendly family Kaemena in Niederblockland.

On the embankment cars are allowed with a special permit only, but an astonishing number of locals come here by bicycle, foot or skating to enjoy an organic ice-cream (the scoop goes for 2.20 EUR in 2023), coffee or cold organic drink and enjoy the farm and the countryside. The ice-cream is made right here on the farm: from the milking station to the ice-cream factory it's only about 25 metres, and another few metres to the cafe. Don't miss the poppy seed ice-cream and the varieties based on buttermilk and yogurt. And please, avoid ordering your ice-cream in a one-way paper cup: for a little surplus you can have a vegan wafer cup (free for two or more scoops), compostable if you do not eat it. You may also take a free wafer ice-spoon instead of a plastics one.

Opening hours on pleasant summer days may be a little longer than announced, and the ice-cream parlour is closed in winter.

The farm itself is driven according to the seven Bioland principles, with about 80 cows (which all have individual names) and calves who are fed by and kept together with their mothers until they eat grass and hay (which is at an age of about five weeks). The cattle race comes without horns naturally, so no harm is done to the animals in order to remove them. The farm also keeps a few other animals like geese, two pigs, a couple of goats, pheasants and chicken (both hens and cocks) and gives home to a lot of wildlife like a sparrow colony and swallows.

There's a nice playground for children, and if you want to stay longer (minimum one week) the family rents out several pleasant holiday apartments (but make sure to book well in advance for holiday seasons).

In May 2022 the Kaemenas opened a new Sunday-open ice-cream parlour cum farm shop in the Neustadt. If you don't want to have your ice-cream on the go, there's little seating, a few benches outdoor, and some high chairs inside, to have a coffee, milk-shake or a "cold" chocolate with ice-cream. The cafe participates in the Recup scheme, so make sure to have your hot or cold drink to take away in a returnable cup.

Unlike the cafe at the farm this place will keep open around the year and provide you not only with ice-cream but also with cheese, jogurt, and milk.

Starting with the covid-19 summers a stylish mobile coffee bar of the Coffee Bike franchise has been popping up in the very city centre on Ansgarikirchhof during the warm season. In addition to the fully organic coffee drinks there is a separate mobile booth with Kaemena's ice-cream. Unfortunately they do not offer neither eatable ice-cream wafers nor earthenware cups for the coffee, so you are forced to enjoy it in non-compostable one-way cups unless you bring your own.

If you are in the vicinity of the university's refectory around lunch time on a weekday visit the organic ice-cream booth inside the Uni-Mensa: Opposite the refectory's check-out you get the scoop of organic ice-cream produced in Hamburg at an unbeatable price (1.30 EUR in 2023). They offer three dairy and even more vegan flavours (my favourite: the vegan salted peanut butter). You may pay cash or by the Studierendenwerk prepaid card.

• Kaemena, Niederblockland 6, daily 12–18
• Kaemena Neustadt, Langemarckstr. 178, summer(winter): Mon–Fri(Sat–Sun) 13(12)–18
• Coffee Bike, Ansgarikirchhof, Mon–Sat 11–18 (warm season only)
• Uni-Mensa, Universitäts-Boulevard 3,, Mon–Fri 11:30–14:15

Closed

• Lütt Köök Huus, Markthalle Acht, Domshof 8–12 (sold Kaemena ice-cream on the go)
• Eisdiele bey Kaemena, Delmestr. 22

Germany: Bremen and Lilienthal

The hanseatic city of Bremen is one of Germany's most bicycle-friendly cities and a destination of several short and long distance well-kept bicycle routes, among others the Weser bicycle route. Given the shortage of bicycle space in rapid long distance Deutsche Bahn trains it may however be challenging to get here by train with bikes, especially on short notice and during high traffic periods on summer weekends or school and public holidays.

The city has been climate- and environmentally (as well as socially) conscious for a much longer time than most other major German cities, and so you'll find probably many more interesting places than I am able to list here.

• Coffee and tea houses
• Restaurants and fast food eateries
• (American) bars
• Ice-cream
• Package-free and zero-waste shopping in Bremen and adjacent Lilienthal
• Convenience stores open on Sun- and holidays

Public transport and bike rental

Bremen has a generally well working tram and bus system for which tickets are easily available from ticket machines inside the vehicles. As these ticket machines accept cash you can travel without additional carbon dioxide emissions generated by data tracking apps.

People in Bremen use the bike a lot: With many bicycle lanes, bicycle-first streets paved in red and virtually no hills it's convenient to ride a bike even with a Dutch bike and when it's raining. Compared with other major (German) cities most car drivers are used to bike trafffic and behave respectfully.

To rent a bike there are several app-based schemes. I prefer the friendly service of local bike shops which not only spares the climate for extra carbon dioxide emissions by privacy-invading data tracking, but allows for chats with interesting local people.

Unfortunately, the most convenient of them, the ADFC-Radstation at the main train station closed in 2021 in consequence of the covid-19 pandemics. So you have to invest half an hour or so to find one of the reliable bike shops with rental service during their opening hours. You may prefer to ring in upfront to make sure a bike is waiting for you (especially for the weekend). Prices in 2022/23 were about 12 EUR per day for a 3 to 6 gears city bike.

Most of the shops I am aware of are in the bicycle-friendly neighbourhood of Neustadt: The Fahrradstation Neustadt (which I have not used yet) and Fahrrad Witt a few steps from the tram stop "Pappelstraße" are both located south-west of the river Weser. The Witt bike shop is very convenient as you can return the bike out of their opening hours: Lock it to a chain in front of the shop, put the key into the letter box and send a text to the shop. The number also works as a help line in case the bike is broken, even outside the opening hours.

While the Witt bike only has three gears, the third Neustadt-based bicycle rental, 1-2-3 Rad at Buntentorsteinweg, rents out six-gear bikes with a hub dynamo at the same price plus a 30 EUR deposit which you'll get back when you return the bike. They also offer bikes for kids and youth (as well as tandems) and run a rikshaw service.

From the main train station tram no. 6 to Arsten will take you there. A little German is helpful in order to communicate with the friendly (but nerdy) mechanics. Do not hesitate to return with the bike when you find it misbehaving after the first few hundred meters. As long as you stay polite they will see whether they immediately can fix the problem or hand you a new bike. I also love the place for their hand-written (and stamped) receipts.

Renting bicycles for kids isn't easy, but with the Bartels bike shop in Oberneuland there's a second bike shop which is happy to help you if you let them know in advance. They also rent out child carriages (your kid should be able to sit, though). The downside is that this shop is quite a way from the city.

• Witt, Langemarckstr. 232, Tue–Sat 10–13,Tue–Fri 15–18 (summer-closed until Sep 4th, 2023)
• Fahrradstation Neustadt, Lahnstr. 33, Tue–Sat 10–13,Tue–Fri 14:30–18
• 1-2-3 Rad, Buntentorsteinweg 270, Mon,Tue,Thu,Fri(Wed,Sat) 10–18(13)
• Bartels, Oberneulander Landstr. 39, Tue–Sat 10–13,Tue–Fri 15–18

Closed

• ADFC-Radstation, Bahnhofspl. 14a

Dresden: Organic pubs and restaurants

Forget about sushi, pizza, pasta, burgers, curries and other globalized commonplaces – in Dresden it's much easier to find hearty home-cooked dishes made from locally sourced ingredients rooted in local and regional food traditions. This does not necessarily mean German – mind you that the borders with Czechia and Poland are close, so many menus reflect influences rather from Eastern than Western or Southern European cuisines. Many dishes include meat, yes, but all the places I am covering here have a decent selection of tasty vegetarian options readily available.

Old town

A few steps from the Altmarkt, just across Kreuzkirche you'll find Cafe Aha which is covered here. Longer west, facing the modern building of the University of Music in Schützengasse you may be surprised to find a small island of baroque buildings with a wild garden, housing the city's environmental centre, and a great disappointment: The cosy rustic wholefood restaurant on ground flour dubbed Brennnessel ("stinging nettle") once used organic ingredients and still can be found listed as an organic restaurant, but alas! – no more.

Neustadt

For rustic food and surroundings head for one of the oldest independent pubs in town, the Planwirtschaft ("planned economy") in the Neustadt neighbourhood, popular since its beginnings as an illegal pub in the late GDR. On mezzanine level they serve breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as coffee and cake while the basement houses a pub which opens in the evening. When it comes to their supplies they focus on buying from local farms and enterprises as the (unfortunately not organic) independent butcher's directly across the street or a tea shop next door from which they also source the organic teas on offer. The goat cheese is always organic. They used to have an organic meat dish (which was marked as "bio" on the menu), but unfortunately no longer. My vegan dish of the day (celeriac in a hearty plum-fragranced sause with polenta and green salad) was absolutely tasteful. Have a tasty organic apple cider or beer, and ask about organic ingredients.

Young German kitchen is the promise of the Lila Soße ("purple sauce") gastro bar within the eccentric Kunsthofpassage with its small boutiques and lovely places. Apart from daily changing main courses (most of them meat or fish, and often with an Italian touch) you can order tasty German "tapas" to your liking – warm, cold and sweet – served in a glass as well as dips and bread. None of the courses are fully organic, but many ingredients are, and chances are high that you can combine cleverly if you ask. They offer organic softdrinks, but no organic alcoholic beverages.

In 2022 the Neustadt neigbourhood seems to be the vegan hotspot of the city: Many shops advertise vegan dishes, but most of them use cheap products from industrial agriculture and highly processed conventional food. A notable exception is the Wurzelküche ("root kitchen") using organic and regional produce as much as possible. Many greens come from communal allotments and urban agriculture projects in Dresden (e.g. at the Japanese Palace) which are not organically certified but work according to principles of sustainable, agro-chemistry-free farming. The place closes too early for dinner, but salads, bowls, wraps and potatoes with a vegan alternative to cottage-cheese in different varieties are lunch stuff anyway. Raw and baked cakes as well as ice-cream cater for the sweet tooth.

Out of town

If you take the urban train number 2 from the Neustadt train station, either on the way to the airport or to a stroll in the woods of Dresdner Heide, get off Bahnhof Klotzsche (one stop before the airport) and have breakfast, lunch, tea or a snack in its 110 years old railway station. Since the folks of Vorwerk Podemus took over and restored the historical building in 2015 it has been home to a bicycle shop, an artist's studio, an organic supermarket, and the now fully organic station restaurant dubbed Bio-Bahnhofswirtschaft with its pleasant beergarden. Travellers and ramblers may be glad to hear that they can fetch an organic breakfast or packed lunch on the go, though unfortunately not on Sundays as the restaurant is closed that day.

The vineyards on the slopes of the river Elbe around Dresden form Europe's smallest, most northern wine region, and fortunately the Saxon state winery of Hoflößnitz in Radebeul turned organic. The small town located west of Dresden on the northern shore of the river is famous for the writer of travel fiction, Karl May and its Museum of North American Indian Culture and can be reached easily, both by urban train, tram no. 4 and bicycle. Follow the Elberadweg cycle route on the southern shore, cross the bridge at Niederwartha and turn back east on the northern shore cycle route through Radebeul until you find signposts pointing to the vineyards on the hill.

The Hoflößnitz winery has a small self-service restaurant, the Hoflößnitzer Weinterasse, with an outdoor seating area shaded by horsechestnut trees from where you have a great view over the grapewines and the valley while tasting the local wines. All wines, but not all the food are organic: Your best choice is the "Winzerplatte" – home-made white bread with pickles, a little salad and a number of spreads of your choice of which the bread and the vegan spreads are organic. There's also a small museum with information on all Saxon wineries and a wine shop where you can buy their products, mainly white and sparkling wines. Stick to Hoflößnitz for organic ones.

• Planwirtschaft, Louisenstr. 20, Tue-Sat 17–24
• Lila Soße, Alaunstr. 70, Mon–Fri(Sat–Sun,PH) 16(12)–22
• Wurzelküche, Alaunstr. 11, Mon–Sat 9–19
• Bio-Bahnhofswirtschaft Bahnhof Klotzsche, Zur Neuen Brücke 4a, Mon–Sat 11–18
• Hoflößnitzer Weinterasse, Knohllweg 37, Radebeul, Apr–Dec Tue–Sun,PH 12-18 or longer depending on the weather

No longer organic

In 2012, when the Mensa U-Boot ("submarine") on the campus of the Technical University on the campus of the Technical University was opened after major refurbishment work it was re-opened as a fully organic students' refectory offering one vegetarian and one omnivore meal at a very competitive price. All food and drinks at that time were certified organic. Unfortunately this is no longer the case in 2022: Given low frequent visits during the Corona pandemic the staff decided to not prolong their organic certification and turn to cheaper ingredients.

• Biomensa U-Boot, Potthoff building basement, Hettnerstr. 3

Closed

The following places ceased to exist, although you still may find references to them on the web:

• Lilisou, Louisenstr. 58 (vegetarian, burgers, soups, curries)
• Lingner, Lingnerpl. 1 (German, international)
• ElectricLotus, Louisenstr. 58 (vegetarian, ayurvedic, Indian)
• Abutheke, Alaunstr. 68a (Middle-Eastern)
• roots, Hauptstr. 35 (vegan fast food)