Sausage obsession

---

Yet another crack of dawn flight meant I landed in a near tropical Hannover by mid-morning. Getting the train to the main station it was only 5 minutes’ walk to my hotel and I could check in despite it being so early. The room was a dump and with no air con and a window that opened about 1 centimetre, it was going to be a very unpleasant sleep. I got a map and set off to make the most of the day and see the city. However, despite Hannover having a humongous train station with approximately 70 places to eat (all selling sausages of some variety and bread) the rest of the city had nothing to offer. In fact Hannover is literally the most boring German city I have been to… and believe me that takes some beating when you have been to Cologne before! It was just street after street of shops, including a Primark would you believe? The opera building was lovely as was the new Rathaus and a nearby church. I finally found a street with some old houses and then did this long walk through a park to get to the only truly stunning building in the city, the old rathaus which was beautiful and set behind a small lake and in acres of greenery. The weather was oppressively hot and it perhaps wasn’t wise to go on this huge walk. I headed back into the town via what looked like a huge street market which lined the canal. However, this was not a market but a giant car boot sale without the cars. It was simply an exercise in anyone who felt like it bringing their old junk and setting up a stall and seeing if anyone wanted to buy it, and I do mean junk! You can tell how hot I was that I kept dipping into huge department stores just to get a blast of air con. I had just got back to the hotel later afternoon after stopping for ice cream before the heavens opened and a huge storm broke, thunder, lightning and torrential rain which looked like a monsoon. It cleared after about half an hour but the air was as thick and heavy so another storm overnight happened, along with the noisy bar outside the hotel and the heat I had one of the worst night’s sleep in ages. My lasting impression of the city will be the totally obsession with sausages of every kind …wurst overload methinks. Thanks Hannover, I won’t be back.

---