Blogs from Lower Saxony, Germany, Europe - page 18

We get back on our bikes after overdoing the fatty foods and contemporary art of Kassel. The ride is very pleasant as we are finally going downhill! as we follow first the Fulda out of Hessen where it joins the Weser through Lower Saxony en route to the North Sea. The weather is not always sunny but very attractive landscapes and lots of services in pleasant towns as well as moderate temperatures along the route make it quite enjoyable. ... read more

After a couple of days in Hannover we got in a nice tour (between showers) around the historic parts of the city. Especially dramatic was the set-up in the old town hall, of 4 models of the entire city of Hannover, dating from about 1600. The last two were in the first half of the 20th century, the 4th one being 1945. Shocking to see the contrast. The ancient churches that have been faithfully rebuilt in the style and materials they were originally made from were amazing.. Due to industrial action in railways, Jeff got half-way from Dusseldorf and missed the connection by one minute! - had to turn around and go back as it was going to be another hour and a half until the next one and it was already 6pm. (damn!) ... read more

Yesterday afternoon Sarah and I arrived in Braunschweig to meet and stay with Leahs ex boyfriend, Sean ...looking quite American in shorts and flipflops. He picked us up at the train station and gave us the tour of his city. Then wanted to give us a taste of a typical night in The Schweig, as he so fondly calls it. We bbqed on his balcony and even though the grill smoke went right into his upstairs neighbors window, the neighbor just popped his head out to see what we were cooking and gave his approval. Apparently everything starts and ends late in Braunschweig. Seans rowdy group of German friends turned up around 11 to hang out before going out for the evening. It was an eclectic group, with constant chatter in English, German, and Spanish. ... read more

So, Germany is the second country that I've ever visited in Europe. This post will be extremely short because I'm typing on a German keyboard and the z and y buttons are switched which is driving me crazy (especially when I have to write the word 'crazy') Anyway, I'm alive and so far Germany is nice - very different from Holland - the only cars on the road are BMWs, VWs, Audis, and MBenz. Everything is clean, manicured, polished and looks brand new. Nina told me Hannover is one of the cities that was rebuilt really fast after the war ended. This explains why it's pretty gray and the buildings are not as pretty and historical and the ones in Holland. Yesterday we went shopping in Hannover (Nina actually lives in a town called Hildesheim which ... read more

It's not even on the city listings here. Hannover is the closest city that is listed. However, it does remind me a bit of Columbia, MO, where I went to Stephens. So, that's nice. Tonight we met with all of the participants for the coming two weeks. There are MANY of us. Today was spent working on our own, those of us who had already come form Poland, and it was really very nice. We worked for about five hours, and took some time to do shopping and rest a bit. The days will be very full from here on out, but not terribly long. Our schedule for the next few days will be: 9-10 Warm-up 10- 4 Work session with a lunch break from 1-2 We'll also have some extra work time with Sigmar Schroeder, ... read more