Hanover

Since I had my training in Hannover the past two weeks and didn't really get to see much of the city, I decided to go back last weekend. Patrick came along and we ment up with one of my training friends and her fiance who live in Hanover. They were excellent help for exploring the city. We saw a bit of history, a bit of the present and I got a few good photos.

Most of Hannover was destroyed in the war. As such, there are few historical buildings but the city is organized in a very practical manner with the train station in the heart of the city. There was one Synagouge in Hanover, it was destroyed in 1938 and never reconstructed. The rest of the city was destroyed in 1939. The statehouse type building (see photo with 3 flags) has dated replicas of the city from the 1600's, pre-war, post war and present. In the 1939 model, the city is almost completely destroyed with the exception of this building. This building suffered only minor damage yet it was the largest building in the city at the time.

We went to Hanover on a Saturday as there is a fleamarket along the river every Saturday. The weather was against us and the market's showing was pretty pathetic. However, in the summer I can imagine it will be very different. There were still over a dozen tables/tents set up where people were selling everything from old shoes to antiques. I don't really know anything about German antiques so I didn't buy anything. Maybe next time, any suggestions?

Since it was a bit rainy and quite windy and cold, my friend directed us indoors for a warm drink. We went to a cute tea shop which is aparently the oldest tea shop in Hanover. The walls were painted a dark green, the celing black(I'm sure to hide the smoke damage) but the seating was cozy with a dark floral apolstry. It was the kind of intimate place were two strangers would share a table during peek time. Immediately, I thought it would be the favorite spot of any writer. I could picture the pages of a novel being penned in the corner over several cups of tea, coffee and hot chocolate. The place barely serves food other than cakes but has an amazing variety of beverages. I had a hot chocolate first and a vanilla tea second (we stayed for awhile). I learned just how popular coffee and cake really is in Germany around 3pm. And the cake is huge and rich, I don't think I could ever eat an entire slice without making myself sick.

I somehow think the picutres uploaded twice but since Blogger now thinks I am German, I cannot navigate a solution right yet. Note the photo of Big Boy. I think he was lost as there are zero Big Boy restaurants in Germany but he was just hanging out in the street.