Künzell to Hanover

After spending two days in Fulda, we drove two and a half hours to Hanover. The above picture was taken at a small pub in Fulda.

I had never been to Hanover before so this might actually be a treat. If it weren't for having to pack and unpack four suitcases every two days and lug them up and down stairs and pack them in the car it would have been a real treat.









My wife's best friend and her best friend's boyfriend live in Hanover. Their apartment was conveniently located on the 4th floor. I can only assume that this is a way for the travel gods to curse me for bringing four 50 pound suitcases.

Hanover is a cool place. It has lots of history. In German cities, the town hall is ironically called the Rathaus. For some reason, I find this particularly humorous. Like most German cities, it has bicycle lanes on most all the roads and people walking and riding more than they are driving.

We toured the Rathaus in Hanover. There was a tour that took you up to the top tower in the center and you could see out in all directions over the entire city. In the center of the main room in the Rathaus were four models of the various stages of Hanover construction and/or deconstruction. The first one shows Hanover as a castle or keep complete with a moat (of sorts). Then there is one of it as a developing city. There is a sad one of it after World War II. It was prime bombing target for allied bombing runs. Finally, there is a current model. It looks to be built up better than before. I wonder how much money the allies who bombed it invested in its rebuilding. I took pictures, but they aren't very good. I'll put them here anyway (in order).

We went to a cool bar in Hanover. Outside of the bar was a Bier Bike. It was just about the coolest thing I've ever not been able to do. Not for lack of wanting to mind you. It's basically a shack with a tap for tapping beer and a steering wheel for driving. I assume that you have a driver and a bartender. There are 5 seats on each side with bicycle pedals that seem to drive an axle underneath. The back has a bench for 3 or 4 lazy people. I assume that they had to make the bench for the Americans.

Anyway, on to the bar.

The bar had all you can eat wings and all you can eat ribs. But, the best things about it was the beer. They brewed all their own beer in house and it was some good stuff. I was especially fond of the dark beer that they had. As a surprise our hosts ordered a "drinking game". I don't know what it was called, but it looked scary. 11 little glasses of beer paired with 11 little glasses of some kind of corn alcohol. The idea is to pick up both glasses and drink the beer whilst emptying the little shot glass into the beer glass. It's a lot of fun. I'm still looking for a place in Dallas that has a similar setup.I also uploaded a video for a video example of the drinking process as shown by the expert.



But, the most entertaining part of the bar that night was the duck that drank too much. It's a story in pictures. You probably won't find it as funny as I did. But I've got a wicked keen sense of humor.
We also went to a lake in Hanover. I walked too long in sandals and made my feet sore. My feet don't like sandals. The kid with the chocolate ice cream was cool. The sunset on the lake was pretty.












At some point my wife tried valiantly to cause me bodily harm even though I was wearing the shirt she makes me wear.
From Hanover we were destined for Ronneburg. Another two to three hour drive.