I sometimes get the feeling that Berliners aren’t really into the idea of any other German city. When you ask them where to visit, they suggest London over Leipzig, although if pushed, you can usually get ‘Hamburg, Freiburg, Dresden’ out. Andy uses the word parochial, but he is pretentious…. (I am just jealous because I didn’t know what this word meant, and kept trying to spell it with an e).
We’ve so far only seen a few of Germany’s towns- but most of the big ones.
This time up, Hanover. Just another ‘ugly’ city, which turned out to be quite beautiful.

Part of this might have been because we got to meet up with a ‘local’ and ex work-mate, who showed us around her new University (complete with greenhouses filled with all the ornamental plants you can imagine)- thanks N!

And part of this might have been because it is SPRING, and we were gifted with amazing weather!

 

 

We arrived on the bus in the late morning, and spent the day pretty much just wandering around.

 

 

Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall)

 

 

At one point Andy and I split up- he had to run errands of all things- so I made a beeline, first for the Oxfam (I got a Harry Potter book in German- wish me luck!), and then for this little lady:

.. whose position might be clearer from this picture:

The market hall contained a variety of bakeries, deli-like counters with pastes, meats and cheeses, and ready-to-eat food-hall stops. Plus, fruit- I managed to buy some strawberries (just coming into season).

But I didn’t feel like staying out of the sun for too long.

These fellows above are the ‘Goettingen Seven’ who are (very indirectly, and it sounds like a bit of stretch to me..)  ‘attributed to the creation of a liberal republic in Germany’ (wiki link here).

 

Did I mention that it is Spring?!

 

 

Squash dem flowers!

 

It was suggested to us, that while the inner city of Hanover is not too much to look at, the very large gardens and the lakes around the city, are quite remarkable. Tripadvisor seems to agree on this- and if you check out a map of the city you’ll see very big bits of green.

We decided to the big green part to the top-left of the city- Herrenhausen Gardens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

^The ‘Welfenschloss’, which is part of N’s new University.

 

German Proverb: If there is sun, man must make fire and grill. So it is Said, so

Andy is a magician!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw only a small fraction of the Herrenhausen gardens, before heading over to meet N. Given that the city also holds several other gardens and lakes, and the whole place is generally small enough to ride across in 20 minutes (NT, Pers. Comm.), it must be a pretty lovely city to live in- at least in the Springtime!

As mentioned, N spent the evening showing us around her new place, and we gossiped on the new and the old. I didn’t take any photos- so the German-residers will just have to go there and visit her themselves!

That evening, we had ‘very authentic’ Mexican food. These one are for you Asdru: