A couple if days in Hanover...Germany

I wasn't sure what to expect but wow what a fantastic place - not your traditional "old" Europen city with much of it being new and modern. Why you might ask?. Well, a lot of it was destroyed towards the end of WWll and it's since been rebuilt. But, in the words of the great Basil Fawlty "don't mention the war". The people in general are really very nice, and whilst the hotel room is again small and cheap, it's clean, the staff are friendly and they even found some under cover parking at the back of the hotel for the bike. The hotel is on top of a Turkish restaurant/bar with lots of people of an evening eating drinking and talking...loudly - but all it does is really add to the atmosphere. I sat down on one of the sidewalk chairs and the owner gave me a couple of free teas.....really nice people (this time I didn't even have to do any work!!!).

Like Aussies the Germans like to do a couple of things.....drink and drive fast. Unlike some Aussies they don't seem to mix the two. The driving fast i saw as I rode an autobahn way here.. You often see a crossed out sign this means drive/ride as fast as you like but do it safely.....police look out for vehicles driving unsafely. I had the bike cruising at 160 kmh to see what it was like (not that comfortable to be honest) and I looked behind me to see clear road. Next thing I was passed by a Lamborgini as if I was standing still. If he/she wasn't doing 250kph, then he/she was going faster. The noise as it passed me was awsome. You really do have to take care when you pull out to pass a slower vehicle, cars and bikes come from nowhere..but they can all drive/ride and they really do stick to the lanes..no hogs in the passing lanes.

When I got here, at Hannover, there was a festival at huge lake walking distance (about 5 kms - I've been doing a lot of walking - the iPhone records it for you!!!) from my hotel (which is in the middle of town). This is the drinking part. There would have been 70,000 to 80,000 people there and not one person over 18 didn't have an alcoholic drink in their hand, or two.. Almost impossible to find a stand (see the pic) that had anything without alcohol and I ended up having a virgin sangria. There were bands playing and people eating and drinking but no one obnoxious or painful. Not as much overt security as you might expect given the situation over here.

A little earlier today I went for a walk to find lunch and found (accidently) the red light district......I stayed for an hour, there was a Turkish restaurant that had the best lamb pide..even better than Sofra in Toowoomba. Ate and got the hell out of there (no pics).

Am having a few technical issues...gps doesn't seem to want to recognise a few countries like Poland, Hungary, Czech Rep etc, which will make going there interesting, and cardo headset only has one speaker working...oh well.

I had only booked in for two nights but have extended to a third..the place is that good. Going to the museum and zoo tomorrow.Read more