Cruising Hanover

Today the hubby went to the convention without me so I could have a whole day to myself … which was, like, awesome!

I started my day creating this blog, then writing the blog … I wonder if the Lord orchestrated our chaos yesterday because that chaos has prompted me to write and I love writing more than anything.

I got out of our hotel by about 1pm today and went on a two-hour walk-about … I was amazed at how the streets are busy with people on a Monday. What I found interesting was that many amenities are very close to each other. You really don’t have to go very far to run into a little grocery shop with fresh produce and there are restaurants everywhere. The talk of ’15-minute cities’ back home is pretty much already a thing here.

I found some points of interest which I took photos of, like the remnants of an old church that has a square built around it and in the area are gravestones in the parks all adjacent to each other around this site. Many stone epitaphs were terribly eroded but I could make out a year on one of them – 1865! So, it gave me an idea of how old these are. This remnant of a chapel was named after St. Nikolai Friedhof – this chapel is the oldest building in Germany and was built between 1250 and 1284 and was severely damaged from aerial bombings in World War II. I find it very cool that they preserve history here in this way. The photo on the right below is the park across from our hotel – our hotel is just beyond the trees in this photo. The photo on the left is right beside these church ruins. Walking through this park is delightful in that there are daffodils growing and their scent travels in the breeze … even the flowers have a way of de-stressing a soul.

Another thing that makes Germany unique is that Hanover and Berlin have graffiti on their buildings that is displayed as art! I found a wall today that was kind of cool, but was hoping to find graffiti art that was more ‘wow’ but haven’t found any yet. In Berlin, they apparently have a tour you can take to see graffiti art around the city which I hope we can fit it when we get there.

I returned to our hotel around 3pm and happened to enter the room just as the maid finished cleaning – great timing. The two hour power walk was necessary for the intended German cuisine we hoped to have for supper.

The hubby arrived back at the hotel at about 5pm – he too had been walking about all day, but off we went doing more walking, determined to find some German food. The hubby is a huge fan of pork and sausage in particular, especially bratwurst. In our pursuit, we came across this one very wide street that is more like a huge square – with shops all up and down the streets – and it was the kind of busy that you would see in a mall at Christmastime back home. I was quite amazed. I wondered to myself if the German people are more about socializing – they seem to live in the moment more than we do and a social life is a big thing. No one seemed rushed as if they were trying to catch up to yesterday. As we walked down this square of what felt like an outside mall, a restaurant caught the hubby’s eye and this lovely lady was standing in the door and spoke something in Deutsch to us and we spoke English saying we didn’t understand and she motioned with her finger for us to come in and she sold us on eating there when showing us the menu … because they actually had German cuisine! So we took a seat on their patio – they open their patios way earlier in the spring than in Canada and our temperatures are the same as in Canada this time of year. I always thought Canadians, at least in Alberta, should have their patios open by now but they usually don’t open them until May.

I ordered a rib-eye steak that was served with some kind a french sauce with fries on the side and it was so good – the presentation was beautiful. The hubby ordered bratwurst in a beautiful creamy mustard sauce (which makes for great fry dipping by the way!) served with creamy sauerkraut with roasted potatoes. We shared our delicacies with each other – what a treat! Smokers would love this place too – you can smoke at the patio tables! Even though I am not a smoker and not a fan of the smell of cigarette smoke, I have to say I loved seeing this kind of freedom here. As we waited for our supper I enjoyed the fragrance of a burning cigar at the next table. I know, it’s weird – I don’t care for the aroma of cigarette smoke but love that of a burning cigar.

I have noticed that the German people look to really know how to relax and enjoy their lives day-to-day, and everywhere you go, you feel that they are relaxed which then relaxes me. They do not seem to live the hurried lives we do in Canada. In comparison, we Canadians are wound too tight. The hubby and I were talking about how we need to adopt this living more at home. Because I am an introvert and an empath, my body easily picks up on stress and in Canada it is high – and when I pick up stresses and anxieties from others, it affects mine to a debilitating degree sometimes – so it’s nice getting a vacation from that as well. My body’s tensions have relented by a lot.

Isn’t it amazing how taking a holiday can have the potential to change your life – changing your outlook on it and igniting passions that you ‘didn’t have time for’ before. I feel so relaxed here – my body needed this so much.

On the way back to the hotel, we tried entering an ice cream place and were told, ‘zu’ and then when we spoke in English, it was explained that ‘zu’ means ‘closed.’ They close up the shops at 8pm. So we decided to go back our hotel but as we walked further down the street we saw a pastry shop that was still open – there are so many bread and pastry shops here. The hubby decided to get a sweet treat – chocolate with strawberries and whipped topping – quite decadent and not overly sweet. For those who know me knows that wheat, at least in Canada, is my body’s enemy. I decided to test the flour here and had a few bites, even though it would only take one bite to do me in … two hours later and my body is not reacting. I think I will try their bread with breakfast tomorrow – this too is an adventure!