Europe : Central Europe : Germany : Lower Saxony : Osnabrück
Osnabruck
Osnabrück [1] is a city in Lower Saxony.
Understand
Osnabrück is a typical mid-sized German town. It is home to around 160,000 people and a recent survey proved them to be the most content citizens in Germany. Osnabrück has seen its share of history and war. It was the ultimate city where the 30 Years War ended and over 2/3 of the city was then destroyed in World War II.
Get in
By plane
Flughafen Münster/Osnabrück FMO is the best choice. The airport is quiet and efficent yet sufficent. There are flights from dba/Air Berlin, eae/KLM, Lufthansa, hapag-fly/HLX/TUIfly.com and other assorted charters such as sunexpress.
The bus X-150 is an express to the city center and train station. A one-way trip is about nine euros.
Many travelers choose to use other nearby airports for budget airlines. These include: Bremen for easyJet and Ryanair, Düsseldorf for Air Berlin and Cologne for germanwings.com.
By train
Osnabrück has many daily rail services. Die Bahn opereates trains and connections for around Europe and Germany
Osnabrück is about 3 hours by express train from Amsterdam, Berlin and Cologne.
By car
A1 Autobahn from Bremen/Cologne.
By bus
ecolines carries passengers from Riga.
There are a few other weekly services but trains normally out-bid them in price and flexibility.
By boat
There are no bodies of water navigatibale by boat in the Osnabrück area.
Get around
The city is most easily navigated by city/regional bus. The Stadwerke Osnabruck operates standard daytime as well as NachtBus (night) service on Friday and Saturday. The have an online trip planner as well as digital signs as bus stops to inform you of the current predicted wait time.
Fare information is posted inside all shelter and most bus operators speak some English. Tickets are bought from the bus operator of from vending machines on the Neumarkt. Bus operators are obliged to give change if you over-pay in cash.
Some Osnabrückers choose to ride a bicycle to move themselves through the city. While utilizing the red-colored cycling lanes in Osnabrück one should exert much caution. These lanes are often narrow, at street level, and/or shared with the city buses and taxis. This leads to a least one bicyclist death a year in Osnabrück. Please do use your best judegment and walk your bike on the sidewalk if you feel uncomfortable. Aditionally there are many places where bicycles (and all cars) are forbidden in the city center. If you are riding on a street where there are no cars, be sure to double check that bicycles are not forbidden, because the police will stop you.
See
The Osnabrücker Rathaus (city hall) played a key role in the end of the 30 years war. In celebration with the authorities in nearby Münster, a peace treaty was signed.
The Felix Nusbaum Museum is an art gallery dedicated to the Osnabrück native, Felix Nussbaum, a Jewish painter who was executed at Auschwitz during the World War 2.
Heger Tor and the neighbor old city are remnants of an earlier manifestation of Osnabrück. Two-thirds of the city was flatted during World War II, so, there are limited remnants of original pre-war buildings.
Do
Talk to locals. Sit in a street cafe.
Learn
Among other (technical) schools Osnabück is home to a university. The university has several campuses dispersed throughout the city.
Work
Buy
Shop on the Grosse Strasse (Big Street).
Eat
Osnabrück offers an array of foreign cuisine in addition to the "typical German food."
Budget
The best place to get a quick bite is at a Döner (Turkish Kebab) stand or restaurant. There are several local operation offering this type of food throughout the city.
Mid-range
There are many "Gasthäuser" and "Lokale," the local old school sit-down German food places.
Splurge
Drink
You will never have to look far to find a drink in Osnabrück. There are many youth and student oriented bars and clubs as well as bars and clubs for the more sophisticated.
The Gruener Jaeger an original beerhall serving the local Osnabrücker Pils.
Cafe Orient serves a variety of German beers and offers Shishas (hookah/water-pipes) in a warm den-type environment.
Cubana (no, not the airline!) serves carribian style, on the premise of being a cocktail bar/dance club.
Alando, the largest disco in town offers several huge themed rooms.
On a nice summer evening you will find many people congregate in the Schlossgarten (Palace Graden) to drink together.
Sleep
Budget
Mid-range
Splurge
Contact
Stay safe
Osnabrück is extremely safe. There are break-ins and sometimes drunk British soldiers getting largered up, as well as, rowdy trouble making kids. Overall there are still only very miniscule amounts of violent crimes.
Cope
In some parts of Osnabrück, locals resent the British military bases in town and are reluctant to speak English unless you have made an attempt in German. In others, people may automatically recognise that you aren't German and may thus begin a conversation in English.
Get out
This page was last edited at 21:53, on 26 March 2009 by Ricky Iskandar. Based on work by Ulf Harnhammar, Wikitravel user(s) Morph, The Yeti, Jonboy and Linus88 and Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel.