Final days in Hannover

 I'm going to have to move along a little faster if I ever hope for this blog to catch up to realtime! Today is Tuesday July 11th, and we are in our final week, just the two of us now, in Paris, but let me tell you more about Germany!

So, just to finish up about our time in Hannover, in the morning after our special concert, Martina has to go to work, but we get to spend a little more time with Rosalie before she has to go, including some lively games of fußball (yes, foosball, the game with all the soccer players on rods you control with handles). They are both quite good at it, so the game goes best when Robert and are each paired with one of them. The fußball table is down in the basement next to the music room. It appears to be where Hartmut keeps his diverse collection of treasures - concert posters like Patty Smith, a rock collection from when he worked as an assistant to a geologist, an old tube radio from 1949 that belonged to his parents and still works. After Rosalie leaves, we spend the day with Hartmut - he gets many many texts and phone calls wishing him a happy birthday. Many people love this man.

We went bicycling again - I can't begin to tell you the joy of bicycling around this beautiful town that has made bicycling as much a priority as driving or walking - through the enormous forest again, but this time also along the rail tracks, through a vast network of gardens called Schrebergärten or Kleingarten or, as a group, kleingartenkolonie. At first I thought this was a unique treasure of Hannover, but Hartmut explained that these are all over Germany, and sure enough, we'd see them later on our various train rides. 

They were introduced in the 1860s, named after a German physician, Moritz Schreber, and also known as gardens of the poor. They were meant to give poor people living in urban, dense communities a green space to grow food and get respite from the city. They became quite a necessity after each of the World Wars for growing food. And now, they are very popular among all ages as a place to get away, relax, and reconnect to nature. Some we saw were designed mostly to grow food, but many - more, I'd say - looked to me like a weekend getaway, with a structure one could sleep over in, flower gardens, comfortable furniture, little barbecues, hedges, bird feeders. Tiny oases just outside the city. A great use of land along rail lines, and apparently quite affordable and popular. I wonder if we could adopt these in places like Eastside St. Paul.

We also biked to a Tiergarten, which I kept thinking Hartmut and Robert were calling a deer garden because it was full of deer. But tier means animal, so tiergarten usually means zoo. The one in Hannover was founded in 1679 by Duke Johan Friedric as hunting grounds for deer, but the Duke died a year later on a trip to Italy and never got to hunt the deer. Anyway, the deer are still there (or rather, their descendants), and a bunch of boar (kept in their own pen) and lots of birds. We had a lovely long walk, and then bicycled back through town. 

Hartmut insisted on a stop at a little shop where he went inside and came out with a surprise for us, he had purchased these cute little ice cubes we'd admired in the Aperol Spritz drinks Martina repeatedly made for us. What a fabulous souvenir. There were plenty of things in town to comment upon, a very old church with surprisingly modern architecture attached (something I'd continue to notice all over Germany and France too), all the funny old cars and different names for cars I know.

The days we spent with Hartmut and Martina blur together a little, as our stay extended longer than expected while we waited for our luggage that kept not arriving despite many phone calls by Robert and Martina to the Hannover airport. Eventually, we just drove back to the airport, and while Hartmut and I enjoyed yet another delicious cafe and kuchel, Robert and Martina navigated an understaffed bureaucracy to find our suitcase languishing amongst many more undelivered suitcases, and despite being told we must wait for it to be delivered, they simply took it. Phew, reunited with the rest of our clothes at last, we enjoyed one more dinner and evening together - eating delicious leftovers, discussing politics, sociology, writing, and whether we can be optimistic about the future or not, and finally watching a YouTube video of an old British movie called "Dinner for One" that is apparently a tradition to watch in Germany (or maybe just among their family, I'm not sure), but it was hilarious.

In the morning, they took us to the train station and we all had a tearful goodbye with lots of hugs and waves. They stayed and smiled at us through the window until we left, waving as our train pulled away. It is clear that Robert will miss them deeply, as will I. What an amazing family. I wish we lived in the same town. As our train speeds up, taking us to Berlin, we are already fantasizing about persuading them to meet up for a vacation somewhere in the future.

This time in Hannover has been such a brilliant and beautiful introduction to Germany, a place I'd never imagined visiting, and obviously had very little understanding of. I'm so surprised to find myself a little in love with it already. Who would have thought?

The kleingartens:

Old car, never rusts, because it's made mostly of plastic

Modern car, different name

An old church with a modern extension

I forgot to mention this.
Every town has these memorials acknowledging the crimes of World War II.
This is not a memorial nor a monument. It is called a "mahnmal."
Translated, it means "a monument that serves as a reminder of
a tragic event and a warning that the event should not be allowed to occur again."

I know the French and the British and others
have the reputation for delicious baked treats,
but I have to tell you, the Germans have their own
delicious things too. Yummmmm. 

Hanging out in a biergarten - these are everywhere,
shaded by tall trees, filled with people enjoying beer,a snack, time together.
I think this was already the second time I had curry wurst,
something Robert told me about but I never imagined
I'd love so much as I did. More yummmmm.

They stayed and waved goodbye until the train pulled out of the station.