For some strange reason... Hannover?

Gonna try something a little different for this blog post. We've got a trip to a new place planned for this coming weekend, but I figured I'd write up a little about it beforehand, and we'll can all compare the "before" with the "after" (as a fun little group activity) once we're back.

First of all... is it "Hanover" or "Hannover"? Yes. Turns out, it's spelled both ways. The English spelling has one N, the German spelling has 2 Ns. I can't keep straight in my head which one is "correct," so basically you can pick whichever one you prefer (at that particular moment) and switch them out whenever you'd like - that's what everyone else seems to do.

Looking at what there is to do in Han(n)over... doesn't really seem like there's much there. The site that I check for Free Walking Tours, tours of Han(n)over aren't even a thing. If you check out Trip Advisor, the number one tourist attraction in the city is City Hall.

Evidently, there's something weird about the elevator in there - it goes up inside the dome of the building, and it's the only elevator ever made that tilts as it goes up. Every other elevator that climbs up a curved shaft (inside the Gateway Arch, for example) is mounted inside a "cage" of sorts which allows it to remain level as it climbs (and descends). This elevator evidently runs directly inside the curved rails, and the floor of the elevator noticeably tilts as it climbs. 

That's the number one tourist attraction in this city - the elevator inside City Hall.

So, the question at the forefront of everyone's mind... why are we going to Han(n)over anyway?

Well, the boss has a long weekend coming up, and we wanted to gȯ someplace we haven't been before, with the northern side of the country being our last quadrant that we haven't visited. Also, the travel agent was able to get a good deal on the hotel there, and it's got a lounge, so we get free breakfast, and don't have to eat at restaurants every night! So... we got pretty reasonably priced train and bus tickets (train there, bus back), and I'll write more once we're back!

So... it was everything we expected and oh so much less, all at the same time.

I've tried something (else) new with this post. I found a "travelogue" app that I used for this trip (and I'll be using my entry from that app to put this blog entry together). The app is called FindPenguins (and I have no idea why that's the name of it), and you don't have to register to see my posts there. If you do register and you follow me, you'll see my updates in there when they happen... but if you don't want to register you can just use it as an appendix to the blog entry.

Turns out, northern Europe is in the midst of Winter Storm Elli. Frankfurt is toward the southern half of the country, so none of the warnings I'd heard really registered in my 'lizard brain.'

Should have paid a little more attention, and we probably would have gone in a different direction if we'd put a little bit of thought into it.

Be that as it may... Han(n)over, here we come! We were taking a train this time, so we only had to get to the main train station downtown, but we had some fresh snow on the ground in our town, so we decided to drive to our local train station and drop off one of us (me) and our luggage, then the boss would drive the car back home and hike down... it's not too far, but would have been a pain in the butt to drag our suitcases through the snow to get there.

Once we'd reunited, we took the local subway and got off at the train station with plenty of time before our train. 

The train ride was uneventful. The family travel agent had decided (on purpose) to not book seats for the train ride... and now I must explain that a little bit. When you buy a ticket for an ICE train (long distance, high speed), that ticket gives you access to the train, but you're on your own for finding a seat.

The seats have little displays on them to denote whether that seat has been reserved or not, and for what legs of the trip it's been reserved. If the seat will be unoccupied for that leg, knock yourself out.

We found 2 seats that weren't reserved until after Han(n)over (for the Han(n)over-Hamburg leg, I believe), so we camped there. Deutsche Bahn offers something called "Komfort Check In" within their app, where you open the app and tell it what seats you're occupying, and check in - then the conductor doesn't bug you (and you don't have to try to fumble your way along in pidgin German).

We rolled into Han(n)over, and bought a pack of 6 transit tickets for me to use over the next few days. Why didn't we buy tickets for the boss? For her work commute, she has what's called a "Deutschland Ticket." Her fare on all 'local' transit is covered within the entire country - all trams, busses, subways, and local trains. The only trains that aren't covered are ICE (the high speed) trains. That's one of the reasons that we prefer taking transit once we're in our final city - it's cheaper for us, since we only have to buy one set of tickets for the two of us within Germany.

So, we took a tram to the hotel, with our stop being about a block and a half from the hotel. The main streets were okay, but the sidewalks hadn't been shoveled (surprisingly!), and it was a bit of a slog dragging our suitcases through the snow covered sidewalks and back streets.

The building our hotel was in (the Sheraton Pelikan, if you're wondering!) was generally U shaped, with a bar and restaurant inside the U. The space immediately between the buildings was covered, so out of the immediate weather. If you pay attention very closely, you'll notice a little bit more about this later in the blog.

I swear I saw a picture on their web site that they had a pool - I even showed the picture to the boss, pointing out the hot tub. So... we packed our swimsuits.

Once we arrived, it turns out that they don't. I wasn't able to find that picture again, but I at least have a witness that I saw a picture of a pool at some point!

The boss scored an upgrade (due to her status with Marriott), so we were upgraded to a Deluxe Suite. The room with the bed in it had its own TV, while there was a separate room with a couch and another TV. If you read really carefully later in the blog, you'll see how this becomes important.

A brief aside...

The way I write, I wait until I'm in the right frame of mind (usually with a bit of piss & vinegar, if you'll excuse the vernacular!), and type everything in, gently editing my work as I go. Once I've written a long enough piece (usually covering a day or so), I read what I've written to my Editor in Chief, and implement whatever changes she suggests, then read those to her before moving on.

After writing about the first day of our trip to Han(n)over, I held the boss down and forced her to listen, and she asked me if I was planning on mentioning that the hotel used to be an ink factory, and that's why it was called the Sheraton Pelikan. I told her that I probably wouldn't go into it, and she thought it'd be a good piece of information for me to include. So... lemme research Pelikan for a moment, and I'll be right back. Feel free to get yourself a cold (or hot) beverage while you wait.

Chemist Carl Hornemann founded the Pelikan Paint and Ink Company in Han(n)over, with the date of the first price list for the company (April 28, 1838) being considered the founding date of the company. The company is credited with inventing the differential-piston filling method for fountain pens - whatever that means. That's really beyond the scope of this entry.

At some point, the company went bankrupt, then restarted. I wasn't able to figure out when that actually happened.

In 1878, their trademark was registered. The pelican with four chicks (loosely based on the company president (at the time) Gunther Wagner's family coat of arms) is among the oldest German trademarks.

In 1931, Pelikan released the first opaque cased watercolor paint set. Evidently, the same set is still released to this day, and is widely used across the country. 

Students in Germany are required (for certain activities in school) to write with fountain pens. Pelikan is at least partially responsible for this, having lobbied the German government as far back as 1974 to require specific penmanship instruction in schools. 

The Industrielleneingabe (English: Industrialists' petition) was a petition signed by 19 representatives of industry, finance, and agriculture on 19 November 1932 that requested for German President Paul von Hindenburg to make Adolf Hitler the German Chancellor.

Fritz Beindorff, owner of Pelikan at the time, was one of the sixteen initial signatories.

The Sheraton Pelikan is located in Pelikan's original ink factory.

Thus endeth the ink/hotel history lesson.

In reading this to the boss, I got a HUGE eye roll from her, as this was evidently more history than she'd meant for me to include.... but you know me, I don't ever half-ass my research!

That night, we had dinner in the lounge. In most of the hotels we've stayed in, dinner in the lounge is simply a buffet, with an assortment of hot and cold munchies - think... the stuff to make salads, and a couple of choices of hot items - grilled chicken skewers, meatballs, etc. 

This lounge had table service, with a choice of a meat or vegetarian entree, with beer, wine, and soft drinks available. The menu for the next few nights was posted:

I'll just cover what we each had for dinner each night (to get it out of the way):

Thursday: She had the sausages, I had gnocchi.

Friday: She had the fish, I had more gnocchi.

Saturday: She had the chicken, I... well, we'll get to that in a moment... gotta hold something back to keep y'all reading!

The next morning we had breakfast, then took a tram to the train station. We walked across the street to the main tourist info booth. There, we found out that the elevator (the one thing we'd found out about when planning this trip) doesn't run during the winter.

So... we're batting a thousand thus far, and that's before we even start talking about Elli.

When word got around the boss' office about our trip (as it tends to do), one of the guys in the office told her about the Red Thread. Evidently, Han(n)over knows that their city is pretty boring, so they've put together a walking tour of their own. It's a 2 1/2 mile long walking tour that takes you all around the downtown area, showing you 36 sites of interest.

So, we walk out the front door of the Information Center and see this:

The start of the Red Thread

The Red Thread, after crossing the first street

So... now we're 0-2.

We went into the shopping mall across the street from the train station - y'all know (if you've been paying attention over the past few years of blog entries) how much I love shopping malls!

We were looking for other stuff to do, and found that their city market hall was open, so we took a tram over and poked around there a little bit. Pretty cool, almost like the Kleinmarkthall here in Frankfurt, but seemed more focused on restaurants, with not as many booths for selling fruits and veggies. Don't get me wrong, there were a handful, and their product selection was impressive, I was just expecting to see more of them. 

The boss had a beer, and I bought some cheese, olives, and a flatbread to have as snack supplies for the room.

While looking around the internet for other things to see and do in Han(n)over, we discovered that Han(n)over is a Sister City to Hiroshima, Japan, since 1983. In 1985, the city of Hiroshima donated a bonshō bell (Peace Bell) to the city of Han(n)over. They installed it in the Aegidienkirche, which has roots dating back to an early Romanesque chapel thought to be constructed in the first century. Another church was built on the site in 1156-1163, and then rebuilt around 1347.

The church was demolished by Allied bombs on the night of October 8th, 1943. In 1952, the wreckage of the church was dedicated as a memorial to victims of war and violence.

The outside of the church.
The boss pointed out to me a few moments later that the gate wasn't locked.

The Peace Bell - much smaller than I was anticipating.
Between 18 inches and 2 feet tall. A bit underwhelming. 
Welcome to Han(n)over, I guess.

A little picturesque, I guess.

The church was one of the sites on the Red Thread, as we happened to discover while walking on the snow-covered sidewalk:

I scraped the snow off specifically for this picture.
Lucky we weren't trying to follow this "thread" around town, huh?

Your intrepid narrator, freezing his ass off.
Yes, those are pants. Surprise!

A closeup of the bell...
you're on your own if you're wanting the text translated.

We took the tram back to the hotel and hung out in there, having a snack of cheese, olives, and flatbread in the afternoon. We ate in the lounge that evening (see our dinner selections above... don't you love it? I'm saving time with every keystroke!).

Overnight, the storm continued, and dropped a few more inches of snow on the city. The little alleyway in front of the hotel turned into a wind tunnel, and going outside , it was interesting to see up to four inches of snow inside a covered area.

Next morning, we took our time leaving the hotel, planning on heading to the zoo (since nothing else was open). I looked around on the internet and found a tapas restaurant that was open for lunch. I double-checked the zoo website, and they'd updated it that morning, telling people to come watch the animals play in the snow. 

We left the hotel and headed over to the tram stop - but there was a message on the screen at the stop that said (effectively) "No trams today."

I looked at the app we use to get around and saw that we could walk a couple of blocks and catch a bus instead.

SPOILER ALERT: We didn't catch a bus instead.

After trudging through the snow for a couple of blocks, the family travel agent had the idea that perhaps we should check with the actual transit company, rather than the general purpose app that we usually use. Good call. Turns out, neither the busses nor the trams would be running that day, and it was too far to walk to get to the tapas restaurant, let alone the zoo.

We walked back to the hotel, but stopped for "brunch" at a cafe that was open. We shared an order of avocado toast and some avocado tacos and each warmed up with a cup of hot chocolate.

We spent the rest of the day in the room. The boss finally won the "hotel room game"... when we visit a new city, she likes to play a game where she looks for shows on TV in English. She hit the jackpot at the Sheraton Pelikan, let me tell you.

I had downloaded a few seasons of a show to watch on the trip, so I spent the afternoon with my noise cancelling headphones on, letting her drive herself crazy picking from all of the English shows. At one point, she was watching a show about the history of Sumo Wrestling - I'm pretty sure she was only watching it because it was in English though. She's never been too interested in Sumo Wrestling before!

For dinner that night, I ran over to the pizza restaurant next door and picked up a focaccia, and brought it down to the lounge to keep her company while she ate her chicken cordon bleu. 

After dinner was more binging for me, more "Find the English TV Show" for her.

Next day, the trams and busses were still not running, so we called an Uber to get to the bus station. The bus trip back was uneventful... I was expecting for the trip to take quite a while (due to the weather), and was pleasantly surprised to find that the main roads were in great shape.

Once we got to the Frankfurt Bus Station, we crossed the street to the train station and took the subway directly back to our town.

In the future... probably gonna skip Han(n)over. Also, will probably check the weather a little more closely. If you're gonna be "snowed in" somewhere, make sure that you're in a hotel with a lounge (extra points if the pool isn't imaginary), and hope for an upgrade; the Deluxe Suite upgrade the boss scored let us camp in separate rooms for the better part of two days (so I didn't have to play her TV game).

So, that was Han(n)over. Please let me know in the comments if you like the FindPenguins thing - just figured I'd shake it up a bit!