Day 13 & 14 - Ruhrgebiet und Hannover

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Day 13 - Dortmund: The Shopping City

Perhaps an unlucky day? The previous night, although I went to bed at 10, some of the others in the room (the two Irish gus) must have come in after midnight. As a result of that, the hot weather, and a snoring German, on Saturday I just wanted to sleep, so I stayed in bed 'til 9, missing breakfast, and then rushing to check out by 9.30. The train to Dortmund was packed, so I sat on the floor (probably still more comfortable than National Express!!) for the hour and a half journey.

In Dortmund I had a cheese and ham roll, and went to the Youth Hostel. It seemed a lot 'rougher than the other hostels I had stayed at, possibly because it's not run by DJH so isn't aimed so much at people under 26. I could see that the other three beds in my room were taken. I then walked back to the Westenhellweg - the main shopping street, selling tonnes of "Stuck" (Jewelery) and with all the major clothes and shoe chains - and to see some of the sights, of which there aren't very many!

I wandered east until I reached the ring road marking the edge of the city centre, then wandered all the way back to the western edge of the centre. I had a burger king, and then a few spots of rain began to fall, so I returned to the Youth Hostel to read. At 5pm, it started properly raining, but was still about 23° (YAY! A DEGREE SYMBOL!), and I met one of the German guys in my room. I spent an hour on the internet checking my emails and facebook, and then at around 8.30, with nothing else to do, I went to bed to read. Later, the two other men in the room came in, and I think they were both German, but a lack of dialogue leaves that unconfirmed. By 10.30 I was asleep.

Day 14 - Hannover (Hanover in English), famous for its trade fairs

On Sunday, or today, I got up at 8, had breakfast, put on my trousers and fleece and caught the speedy ICE train. It was noticeably colder today, and very overcast.

After initial confusion with Hannover's public transport system (the letter 'U' is used for the trams (straßenbahn in German), as they are underground in the city centre for a few stations), I caught the tram to Lindenhof/Fisherhof and walked over the river to find the Hostel, which is described in the Lonely Planet guide as a "huge, space-lab-looking structure". I can't say I've ever seen a space lab to compare it to, but the building is reasonably impressive.

I checked in and sat for a couple of hours planning my route through Hannover, waiting for the room to be ready after cleaning, and as I sat there, the weather began improving at the sum came out.

At about 2.30pm, I dropped my stuff in the room and walked back to the city centre. There wasn't much to see on a Sunday, but the Waterloo Memorial stuck out, as well as Die Nanas (three statues by the river Leine), and the New Town Hall (Neues Rathaus, built 1901-1913), which had models of Hannover in 1639, 1939, 1945 (after the descruction from WWII) and today.

My choice of food was a Döner (pronounced Derner, and we would call it a Doner Kebab) or McDonald's - easy choice for me - and then I headed back to the Hostel by Trammy, Undergroundy thing and met an English guy staying in my room. He was in Hamburg and Bremen the last few days and reckons Bremen is really lovely. He fell asleep after a couple of minutes, so I went to find internet, and am now sitting here finishing typing this up! He also mentioned that there is a festival sort of thing with stalls etc. down at the Machsee, so I might go and have a look at that in a little while.

I was about to type that it's started raining, as there is water coming down outside the window, but the sun is out and I think it's from a stairwell rather than the sky...


And with my Kontostand (accound balance, for the internet) at €0,52 (about 6 minutes) I'd better publish this entry and check my emails!

Linden

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