Germany

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Hannover
From Venice we flew to Amsterdam, changed planes and then had another 40 minute flight to Hannover. Was I excited? Dad said that everybody on the plane knew that I was excited. We were going to stay with our friends who lived near us in Brunswick when they were on a working holiday in Australia. They now live back in Germany and I had not seen Linus and Julika for 7 years. The three of us were great friends then when we were all under 4 years of age. I was excited about seeing them and I was also sort of nervous. Would they remember me, would they still like me and would they understand me? I only know a few words in German, Yes, No, numbers 1 to ten, Please, Thank You. Mum and Dad reminded me that when I was little I would say, “I’m so excited I can’t shut up.” It was happening again.

Linus met us at the airport with his mum Doris. It was fantastic. Linus can speak English and was able to help me with words I kept mixing up.

Our friends live out of the city and I loved that. There was lots of space and I was able to play soccer, ride bikes, unicycle, roller blade, skate board and ride horses. That was a pretty good start for me and we were all able to do it together. Linus invited a couple of friends around and we had a great game of soccer together. Linus is a great soccer player. We laughed so much at dinner time. Julika took me to a farm nearby where she has riding lessons. She showed me how to groom a horse and I also got to have a ride on the pony she learns on.

We visited their grandparents, uncle, aunty and cousins who live on a farm about 2 hours away. I played with the kids while mum and dad looked around the farm with pigs, cows and 40,000 chickens . The farm is a model for low energy use and produces electricity. I loved visiting the farm. We had a special afternoon tea with the cousins and yes we laughed and had a great time. They all speak little bits of English which is still a lot more than my German. We visited a sort of museum village and saw how the farm houses were built hundreds of years ago. The houses were big and were also a barn for all the animals. The animals also helped to heat the house in winter.

One day Georg took us all to Hannover on the train and we all had bikes. We rode around Hannover on Georg’s bicycle tour. Hannover is flat, it was nice weather and it was as easy as. We went to see the new Town Hall. It was built a 100 years ago. It has a big dome on top of it. We went in an elevator to the top and when it gets to the curved part, the elevator leans with the curve. That was a weird feeling and we all felt as though we were going to fall over. Next we went to a big park near Georg’s University. There was a festival on and people were dressed in medieval type clothes from around the times of the crusades. Christopher, Linus and Julika’s little brother, is only 4 and he rode his bike too. Amazing. Such a long ride for a little kid.

Hannover was a special part of our trip because we were able to be with our friends again. We still like a lot of the same things and I was sad to leave them because it might be another seven years before I see them again. I hope not. I enjoyed being with them.

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