The annual May Concert Festival coincides with the height of the German asparagus season for which Schwetzingen is world-renowned. The town on the Jade-Bay has Germany's largest tanker port and miles of beach. EXPO 2000 projects regarding long-term studies of marine life, coastal aquatic evolution, winds, tides and alternative power source investigation are worth visiting. Whale watchers will want to see a major Pottwal or Sperm Whale Exhibition documenting that creature's precarious existence. Here the Ariane rockets and the EU portions of the giant space module are slowly coming together.
Groups can actually visit the assembly area under strict security.
Write to the Bremen Tourist office for details. West of Bremen, along the Ems River, is the town of Papenburg. Here, brand new 83,000 ton cruise ships, and monstrous cargo and tanker ships are launched some 60 kms from the North Sea from the B. Meyer Shipyards. Construction times are being reduced to just a year for these floating hotels destined for the Caribbean and the Pacific. Built indoors on two parallel construction docks, future ships will soon exceed 300 meters, more than the length of 3 consecutive NFL football fields.