Friday, July 31st - Amsterdam to Hanover

This morning Gillian left for the airport around 8:30.  Randy and I went over for breakfast later on and we sat outside because for once it wasn't raining and the temperature wasn't too bad if you were in the sun.  About 11 we checked out of our hotel and made our way by tram down to Central Station to catch our train to Hanover.

The  four hour ride was great and went by very quickly.  The countryside was very flat and when I checked my camera we were at a minus elevation.  There were small fields of crops as we started out and then larger fields as we went along.  Everything looked very green and lush as we were speeding along.  We were going so fast that I couldn't take any pictures and, since I'm writing this on August 20th, I really don't remember much more about it, which is a shame because I'm sure it was beautiful.  Sigh.

We arrived in Hanover and decided to buy our ticket to Leipzig before leaving the station.  The line-up was quite long so while Randy stood in line with his suitcase there, I wandered with my suitcase to find the tourist information place, which was supposed to be in the station, so I could figure out exactly how to get to our hotel which was supposed to be within walking distance.  Well, in my opinion, the tourist information place was barely within walking distance.  It was not in the station but rather outside across the square and the street and down a block or two.  However, I did find it.  Even had to carry my suitcase upstairs to get in the place!

The lady inside was very helpful.  She gave me a couple of maps and marked where we were and where our hotel was.  She also marked a few of the main sights and told me about a festival that was happening up on the lake (within walking distance) starting tonight.  There would be lots of food stalls and entertainment and definitely lots of people.  That sounded like a good place to go tonight for dinner.  She also gave me a brochure that included a walking tour of Hanover called The Red Thread.  The red thread is a red line painted on the sidewalk and you just follow it around from sight to sight and at each marked place you stop and read the description.  That sounded like a great way to see the city on our one full day tomorrow.

I went back to the train station and Randy was still waiting.  Once we got our tickets we were off on our trek to our hotel.  It really wasn't that far but when you have a backpack on your back and you're pushing or pulling a suitcase and you're already tired from all the touring you're doing, it seemed like a long way.  However, we made it and checked in and all was fine.

We did walk down to the lake to the festival shortly after we checked in.  We thought we had the route all sorted out but crowds of other people seemed to be taking a different route so we followed them.  We did end up where we were supposed to but I guess they just new some of the shortcuts along the way.  It was a couple of kilometres at least but it was also new territory so interesting with lots of big beautiful buildings, parks and statues along the way.

The Maschseefest is held every year over a two week period all around Lake Maschsee, which is an artificial lake built on top of a marshy area where two rivers often flooded, and was originally part of a conservation or water control system.  Built in the 1930's, it is 78 hectares in size has trees and walkways all around it.  There are boats on it and people swim in it and it's right in the middle of the city behind city hall.  During WWII it was covered with floating islands so the Allied troops would not be able to identify it and the city of Hanover.  The festival was started in 1986 to honour the 50th year of the lake and the festival is obviously still going strong.

The tourist office was right.  There were lots of people around.  Apparently over the two week festival they have over 2 million visitors.  We wandered around and through the many booths and displays at the end of the lake and down each of the sides.  We later found out thee was way more going on in other locations all around the lake but we weren't that eager to walk all around the lake.  It's 2.5 km long so going around it was a bit more than I was up to.  We stopped at a pizza place for dinner and ended up having calzones which were absolutely delicious - the best I've ever tasted.  We also stopped by one of the brewery booth and had a beer.  I had a lemon beer and it was pretty good.  We enjoyed those while sitting on the shore of the lake.

 

We wandered around for a couple of hours, watched the sun set over the other side of the lake, and then wandered back to our hotel to call it a night so we are ready for our walking tour of the city in the morning.