A day in Hanover

We caught the train to Hanover. Buying the tickets, even with my crappy German skills, was pretty simple. The only thing I wasn't sure about was the class of ticket we'd bought. Naturally I'd gone for the cheapest option and I wasn't sure whether that entitled us to catch the posh-looking express train or not. According to the timetable, the one after it would take almost twice as long to get to Hanover.

We decided to just get on the first one we saw. Nobody came around to check our tickets.

Hanover was great. We explored and came across this church:

You can't help but notice it ruined. Trashed. Roof=ex-roof. We done that to it. Us. (Well, not TT and I of course!) but the British. I know it sounds ridiculous, but although I know all about the Germans bombing London during WWII (and my grandmothers shop in my home town) it had never occurred to me that we Brits were horrible bastards and doing the same to them.

I like the first photo, the one taken from behind a huge cross that marks where the alter used to be - it's very "arty" for me...

It was a strange place to visit but thought invoking. Are there really any "goodies" or "baddies" in any war?

Behind the church we found a swing park and TT and I acted completely childishly by seeing who could swing the highest. I think I won. The swings were possibly the biggest in the world and we got excellent views of Hanover at the apex of the swing. However, to make the most of it we had to synchronise ourselves and do it in tandem. Once we accomplished that the whole swing set started making ominous creaking sounds so we eased up.

We then went to the Ratskeller, our town hall. It's pretty cool - This is the inside:



Inside there are various 3D models of Hanover at various points in history. From when it was a small settlement a thousand years ago, to how it was in the 1800's, to pre- and post-war and today. Interesting stuff, and it's free. That makes it even better!



And this is it from the outside. I took that while lounging in a sunny grassy park and watching some lesbians make out. Some things never change eh?

We wandered further and had a traditional German lunch. Wursts. I showed myself up with my totally inadequate German speaking again.

We saw two buskers having a fight over what was obviously a lucrative busking spot. The guy with the accordion won and the bongo-drum man sulkily left while muttering abuse in German and gesturing at accordion man who was already merrily squeezing away.

Mid afternoon we caught the train back. We weren't so lucky this time. A guy came around checking tickets and I although he spoke no English I gather we had the wrong tickets and he wasn't happy with us. After much smiling at him and shrugging (this often makes foreigners decide that the English are too stupid to deal with and piss off) he just started shouting.

I got out some money, he snatched some Euro notes, scowled, stamped our tickets and marched away without checking another ticket in the whole carriage. Why us eh?

When we got back to Celle we began to stroll back to the hotel. On the way we saw a pool hall. ("Pool" as in the game with balls, tables and sticks, not the swimming kind) so we decided to go in. We had a beer each and played some pool on the biggest pool tables known to man. I love pool, because I'm too crap for snooker, but these pool tables were virtually the size of snooker tables so I was shit at that too.

We then looked at the drinks menu and noticed loads of spirits we'd never heard of. Unfortunately I can't remember what they were called because next to each on was the % alcohol they contained. As it was our last afternoon together and we were obviously both beginning to feel a little sad we done the obvious thing. We drowned our sorrows with a depressant drug called alcohol.

We done this by looking down the column of % alcohol and choosing the strongest ones. I think the best was 62%, so we had a shot each. Then 58% - glug, gone. Then 55%, followed by 48%. Then we played pool some more with another beer. The very happy barman (the strong spirits weren't cheap, and he'd probably had them gathering dust on his shelf for over a decade) kept bringing us salty snacks to eat. I'm not sure whether he was trying to give us something to absorb the alcohol or if he was just a sadistic bastard that wanted us to hurl.

Today is one of the best I've had with TT, I'm glad our last day together has been spent doing the things we love the most - exploring new places and getting pissy. I'm very lucky in that alcohol doesn't seem to affect my boy bits so we make love for hours - the last time for a while I guess.