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| Whenever we got lost in Hanover, we looked for the "Witch Church' to orient ourselves. |
Cities in Northern
Germany are studies in contradictions.
Bremen is a
blue-collared, working class city, where beer brewers and factory
workers rub shoulders with students and artists. That strange mixture gives you
a city that's grounded and unpretentious, yet still artistic and surprising. My
kind of city.
Hamburg is a sprawl
of sailors, refugees, drifters, musicians, bankers, ship owners, and old money
at the mouth of the Elbe River. It's a city of work ethic and debauchery, with
a worldliness that accepts everything and anything, because there are better
things to do than judge someone for who they are or what they do – like make
money or party.
To the south of
these fine towns is Hanover, a mid-sized city that's a little tougher to pin
down.
Every region in
Germany speaks German a little different, from the rocks-in-your-mouth dialect
in Cologne to the Bavarians' take on the language, which the rest of Germany
unjustifiably snickers at. I've been told the German that Hanoverians speak is as close as you can get to the original High German. I'm
no expert, but the German I heard in Hanover was definitely clearer and
easier to understand for the slow-learning, novice German-speaker.
Hanover is a city
that wears its white collar stiffly, but unlike other German cities, Hanover is
not a city of bankers or chemists or engineers. It's a city of culture. There
are theatres everywhere, an opera house with a packed schedule, and enough museums
and art galleries to please every artistic inclination.
And yet, our only
full day in the city was a Monday, so every museum in the city was closed. The
Sprengel and its collection of 20th centuries masterpieces was off limits. The
Kestnergesellschaft was a no go. The edgy, ultra-modern KUBUS was not edgy enough
to be not closed for the day.
And since this is
February, the Botanical Gardens and the gardens around the Schloss Herrenhaus
would have been a dreary, cold walks. The giant forest in the middle of the
city would have been nice, but barren.
But this is turning into a blog
post about what we didn't do, let's get down to what we did do.
We wandered around
Hanover's lovely old town. We ate pizza at an amazing Italian place – by the
way, the best Italian food I've eaten has been at Italian-owned restaurants in Germany,
not tourist traps in Italy. We froze walking around the old city hall
and the local man-made lake. We warmed up over kaffee
and kuchen. We even did a little window
shopping.
Clearly visiting on a Museum Monday in February meant what we didn't get a complete
sense of the city's culture or its big cityforest. So a return trip with better weather on any day other than a Monday
might in order. Even with 36 hours in the city, Hanover showed it's depth, we just need to time it better.