Hotel UberFluss

High-design boutique hotels are not exactly new, but there’s still a little thrill in coming across one in an unexpected place, like the Hanseatic port city of Bremen. Here, quite literally on the banks of the Weser, is the Hotel ÜberFluss, an exercise in historical contrast: it’s a modern building grafted onto an old merchant’s residence, which is in turn built atop the ruins of the old city wall.

That’s the exterior — the interior is one hundred per cent contemporary, the sort of chic and cheeky stylishness that’s big business in Hamburg, in Berlin, in Amsterdam (and it’s the work of a Dutch design firm, incidentally). The color scheme is heavily monochrome in places, earthy in neutral in others, and decorated with classic modernist furnishings and oversized black-and-white photo prints. Creature comforts aren’t forgotten either; the bathrooms, particularly, border on decadence, many of them open to the bedroom.

The same can be said for the spa, which swaps the usual tired Zen clichés for a darker, more dramatic, underground sort of vibe. The restaurant, FreudenHaus, serves a contemporary take on regional North German fare, and the associated lounge is the hotel’s point of interface with the local nightlife scene.

Please note:
The pool and sauna will be closed for maintenance from October 26–30.