Author: risé brette

It was an early start to the day because I decided to attend the convention with the hubby today. We got up early and had breakfast in the hotel which we have enjoyed the last two mornings since arriving in Hanover. They have a lovely breakfast brunch. I really think they like their breads here as there is always a wonderful assortment – croissants, and a variety of rolls from white to what looks like rye and also what is referred to as ancient grains back home. They serve bacon and bratwurst breakfast sausages – man, I wish you could buy these in Canada where we only get the big fat ones. Their breakfast buffet serves scrambled eggs that look like they have more yolks than whites and are really good, roasted tomatoes with melted cheese blanketed over top; a variety of cheeses, deli meats and fruit that looks like a giant charcuterie board. They also serve round potato patties that resemble hash brown patties at home. Their coffee machine makes a variety of coffees – my favourite since being here are cappuccinos. Another thing I read about Germany is that they take pride in their water and you can certainly taste it. You can drink water out of the tap here and it tastes like water should – it’s really wonderful. … And yes, today I had half a croissant and … no bloating! I can eat wheat products here!

This morning I took a picture of something they also had in their buffet that I have never seen before in a restaurant and that is a section of honey from a honeycomb – you can’t get it fresher than this! A tablespoon or two make my plate every morning. A lovely sweet delight to start your day with.

Off to the convention we went as we started on our twenty-minute walk to Hanover Central Station – their train system is amazing. I’d live here just for that as it’s so efficient and you have the absence of the stress of driving in a vehicle! The train station is also laced with stores and restaurants on what looks like three different levels where you would catch trains. We got on the train that takes us to Messe Nort which is where the convention takes place. It was a half hour train ride. Apparently, each year that they do these conventions they choose a country to display, and this year, wouldn’t you know, is Indonesia – the very place I lived as a young girl for several years. What are the odds?! This photo below, taken at the convention, is an Indonesian instrument that I used to play in school – called the Angklung (you can view photos online to get more an idea of what they look like) – when I played these in school, each student held one and we’d make music ( like how kids in Canada do it with bells.) At the convention they were played using hydraulics: (In hindsight, wish I did a video of it.)

The amount of vendors here from all over the world has to be in the hundreds. This place is like Edmonton’s Expo Centre but way larger! I loved watching my hubby talk with many vendors about products. It is really proving to be a trip worth taking as we came to connect with so many more vendors. The growing technology is amazing as well. I meant to take a photo of the place from the train, when we got off the train, but completely forgot. I have to be more conscious of taking more pictures.

Another thing I thought was insanely cool was a bicycle that was made from recycled plastics harvested from oceans. The thing that is cool about these is that they won’t rust. You have to love seeing recycling do marvellous things like this! I have no idea the cost of them, but they will be ready for delivery to exclusive markets come September 2023 which gives me the impression that they will likely be expensive.

In every building we walked into there were coffee bars and snack bars everywhere. … which meant more cappuccinos!! I am getting spoiled drinking coffee this way. What is it with European coffee? – it’s so good and not bitter like it typically is at home. They also have Starbucks here and my curious brain wonders if Starbucks coffee is more tolerable here than back home. I wouldn’t know though as we never did walk into a Starbucks while here. In Canada I peronsally find Starbucks coffee to be vile and bitter and so never buy it there. The coffee made here is so smooth … its hot beverage heaven! I could drink a lot of these every day.

At one snack bar, I saw this and had to take a photo of it … Heinz products … and immediately I’m thinking, why doesn’t Costco and burger joints in general, have these at home – in Canada?? They’d be less mess and they don’t take up counter space. These are giant containers with ‘teats’ – you just squeeze to get your condiment out. I thought it to be quite clever. The hubby thought this was a good idea for our kitchen at home and I’m thinking …. ‘no.’

As we were walking to the Convention buildings that we wanted to wander through, I saw a batch of daffodils in bloom. These are even in the park across from our hotel in Hanover. They are quite beautiful and don’t typically see them in Alberta, Canada – at least I don’t.

We left the convention grounds around 3pm or so. When we got back to Hanover Central Station (also known as Hanover Hbf or Hanover Hauptbahnhof) – the hubby was thinking coffee at the station’s McDonald’s but after the walking I did, there was no way I was taking the stairs to get to it – I had no more energy to exert. (This McDonald’s was on the upper level and stairs were the only way to get to it.) The Convention wore me out. I can walk a great deal no problem but standing in one place too long wrecked me – stairs were out of the question at that point! We decided to see what else there was in the train station for coffee and a snack and we saw Asian food, Vietnamese food, Arabic food – all stuff we can experience at home, until … we came across one that was German food! Bratwurst in a bun and other delicacies. They had roasted pork knuckle that looked delicious! We opted for bratwurst that came in a bun – so I sat while the hubby went to order for us – no one at this place spoke English and so ended up with a potato dish with our bratwurst – I took one bite to taste and was not a fan – it had a sourness to it that I didn’t care for, but the bratwurst was amazing – so tasty! (Again, forgot to take a photo of that particular bliss.) We treated this as a late snack with a couple cappuccinos.

We then made the twenty-minute walk back to our hotel where we suddenly felt wiped – we both laid down and we fell asleep around 4-4:30pm and woke up around 7:30pm or so – we were feeling so tired that we opted to not go out for supper. The lives of a mature couple in their late 50s! We decided to get a good night’s sleep instead. We love the room we have. It is so quiet with the park across the street and virtually no traffic on this street. It’s a beautiful location and the windows in the suites open – so because hubby and I love the cooler temperatures, we were able to open the window at night so we could have a really good sleep. The mattresses are perfection and the pillows as well. I love how they sleep here – we are sleeping on a queen bed with just a bottom sheet and two single duvets – just like how we do it at home. Their duvets aren’t very thick but keep you at a warmth that is comfortable – I haven’t slept this well in a long time. I would highly recommend this place for anyone who wants to visit Hanover. … And, for the mature women out there – if I have had hot flashes, they were so minimal that I didn’t notice them – so far anyway. It helps that the air is cool this time of year but also wondering if feeling more relaxed doesn’t also play into that – either way, it’s been a blessing to have a break from that as well.

I wonder why I sleep better here and feel better here and it made me wonder what is so different?? Another thing I noticed is that for the size of the place, there are more bicycles and scooters than vehicles and so far less vehicle exhaust in the air – maybe that’s it? Cleaner air?? Buses and trains here are electric.

The days seem longer here and am not sure if that its because we are on a business/pleasure trip or it’s their way of life here as the days feel insanely short when we are at home. How does that work? It matters not I guess, but it is nice that I feel we are taking in a lot of each day and enjoying it moment to moment. I am soaking up what I can as it’s not often we take trips like this.

Risé Brette

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!

Sweet treats!!

Risé Brette

The hubby decided to come to the world’s largest industrial convention on the planet located in Hanover, Germany. He and I have never taken a real holiday together, just he and me, in all our thirty years of marriage. He asked me if I’d like to come. I was hesitant at first as I got thinking of all the travel restrictions of the last three years … masking, proof of vaccination and needing negative covid-tests … the thought of that was too stressful for me. To my delight, Germany is opened up like Canada in where even public masking is no longer required. Conclusion is I signed up to come with him. We decided to spend three or four days at the convention and the the last three to four days we planned to travel back to Berlin and spend time there – I even booked a tour in Berlin that I will share about later.

It was an anxious thing for me, planning for an overseas trip. The last time I ‘crossed the puddle’ was forty-two years ago where my parents used travel agents – now it’s pretty much all online. Travel back then was quite different to now. Passports are scanned now. You see QR codes for things everywhere. You can do self check-ins for your flights via online or electronic kiosk. Then there is the goo restriction for carry-ons – so different from travelling in the 80s. What a world we live in now.

We departed from Edmonton International Airport at noon on April 15, 2023 – got there three hours early which was awesome as we got through security quite quickly as there was few people there at the time. We got through security easily enough and with all the extra time the hubby and I had, we decided to charge ourselves up with caffeine from Tim’s.

We got on our flight which was about four hours and arrived in Montreal where we had about a two-three hour layover. We decided to get ourselves something to eat as we hadn’t eaten since the day before. We asked if there was a steak place in the airport and were directed to that – can’t recall the name of it. We ordered hangar steaks – expensive for the amount we got, but, I have to tell you, it was one of the most delicious steaks I have ever eaten. Some things are just worth experiencing. The hubby ordered us poutine (which I didn’t eat due to my aversion to wheat product – the gravy) – but it sure looked good! 

Our next flight was booked economy, we decided to see if we could get business class as you get more space for those seats – but they were sold out. Even boarding is different now – they assign you to zones and then announce when you can board. As we enter the aircraft for our long trip ‘over the puddle’ … I have to say I have never before seen such a cramped seating arrangement in all my life – even the aisles were ridiculously narrow – what a cramped flight. The flight was packed as well and once you got to your seat, you couldn’t ‘walk in’ to take your seat, you stumbled into it because there was no room to ‘walk’ into – our knees were up against the seat in front of us and there was no room for me to cross my legs which meant my tailbone was going to suffer. This became unbearable over this 7+ hour flight. Furthermore, no air to blow on you and the heat made it impossible to sleep, also meaning more frequent hot flashes making me a sticky hot mess. This flight offered a meal – but we decided to not eat and we drank little to avoid having to use bathrooms – our seats were in a row of three, we were the window and middle seats, with a fellow Canadian sitting in the aisle seat. For us to use washrooms, we would have to get him to exit his seat for all of us to get out and back in. So, when our fellow passenger got up about two thirds into the flight to use the facilities we opted to take the same opportunity at that time. Because we opted to not eat and refrain from drinking anything, this bathroom break was done only once during the entirety of the flight. The aisles were so narrow that you cannot avoid butt rubbing with other passengers. Honestly, who designs these aircrafts?! This design may be okay for short flights but for these long flights, the hubby and I thought them to be inhumane. My tailbone was screaming by the time we got off that flight. During this flight, the hubby and me agreed that if we ever travel overseas again – it’s business class/pod or nothing which I highly recommend for the mature traveller. Cramped seating is hard for everyone but especially the mature traveller and a person who is larger than a size 9! (I am not exaggerating here.)

During our travel – because I am inexperienced in the new way of travel – I told the hubby, that when we are traveling home, my purse will go in the suitcase and I will put everything I need in the backpack and will make sure to pack light. A word to the wise, don’t heavy up your backpack because carting that all over the airports wears on you. Try to put everything in your suitcase if you can.

We arrived in Munich, Germany and deplaned at 10:35am local time. Boarding time for our next flight to Berlin was for 11am – cut off to boarding was 10:45am – we had ten minutes to get to and through customs and get on our next flight. Customs was very fast and efficient on getting us through and we ran to our next gate and managed to catch our flight. Running is not fun for a mature person. Once we got on our flight I had this nagging suspicion that our baggage was not on this flight.

From Munich to Berlin was only an hour flight – we arrived just after noon sometime – we went to collect our baggage, and wouldn’t you know – I was right! Our baggage was not on that flight! To Baggage Claim we go – we were told that our baggage would arrive on the next flight ‘two hours later’. We sat down and had Cappucinos and then went to a place at the airport to change our seat reservation on the ICE train as we were not going to make our current one. We were told when the second flight was and where we could collect our baggage – it wasn’t there either – so back to Baggage Claim we go. Their computer indicated that they had our baggage in the basement but took them awhile to find it apparently – we didn’t get our baggage until 5:00pm! By this time – there was no way we were going to get our new seat assignment on the ICE train – so back to the office to change it yet again. Thankfully, to change the reservation was in the ballpark of about €10.00 for both of us.

We took the train from the airport to get to Berlin Central Station which was a half hour ride, arriving at about 5:55pm where we then went to see where we need to board for the next train. At Berlin Hbf or Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) we caught our ICE train to Hanover Central Station at 6:33pm – quite honestly, the train rides were the highlight of our trip so far. I had never been on a high speed train before – this train would travel up to and over 217kmh and what a smooth and quiet ride (we were also in the quiet car). By the time we boarded this train my angst slowly subsided. At this point we had been awake for about 24 hours with virtually no sleep. I was exhausted and when I get exhausted, I get emotional and weepy – it’s how my body releases it. I loved that we opted to take the train to Hanover – it was an experience I had not experienced before and it was relaxing and enjoyable. I loved seeing the countryside which we wouldn’t have seen if we’d have taken a plane. The ride was so quiet and scenic – what a great way to travel and de-stress at the same time. 

On the train ride, I was amazed at the amount of wind turbines and solar panel farms there are on the way to Hanover from Berlin – the wind turbines are extremely huge!

On the train the hubby decided to order what I will call weiner soup with a bun – when it came is smelled delicious and he said the bun that came with it was nothing short of awesome, which didn’t sit heavy in his stomach. (This was our first clue that the bread is different here.)

We got to Hannover at about 8:30pm and the sun was setting. Our hotel was quite near to the station so we opted to walk to it in the dark – good thing I had a google map to follow. We checked in around 8:50pm. We were exhausted even though the scenic train ride really eased our tensions so we could crash as soon as we hit the mattress.

Tomorrow is the first day of the Convention.

Risé Brette