Deister, Am Barsinghausen

So I can't really remember much about Hannover besides that there was nothing to see, nothing to do, the weather was bad and the campsite was overpriced! Dont get me wrong, I'm sure its a lovely place with nice weather and during the summer when the gardens are open which is where Hanovers charm is supposed to be. Wasn't our cup of tea so we moved on rather quickly. Byebye Hanover....maybe next time!

... some shops were set up next to the Marktkirche. We went into the church and it was very neat. The organ was being played and the church itself used to be very Gothic I think. Anyway it was free and fun to check out.

Then we found the old Rathaus (town hall), a fantastic, modern glass covered building and finally the new Rathaus. We also stumbled upon a church that was never rebuilt after the war and bombings. It's walls still stood but the roof ...

... watching out for lights, drifting to the left and the speed limit. The GPS is very clever, it can find the fastest route, the shortest route, fuel stops, fast food stops, ecoroute with the most fuel efficiency. We decided on the fastest route and after setting off at 1.45pm..the ETA was 7.45. We had to stop and get a bagette and a drink for lunch, losing some time..then we took the freeways, ended up going through a toll for 13 Euro in France, before long we had crossed ...

... since I had so little sleep and just trying to not fall over. We packed into a normal sized bus but had to load a lot of the luggage on the inside of the bus. Then we drove the 50 minutes on the Autobahn to Braunshweig!! We couldn't go too fast since the bus is not a Mercedes, Porsche, Volkswagon, BMW or any of the other nice German manufactured cars.

... What I find is extraordinary is that one car has pulled away from its' parking spot and driven all of 40 yards to public lavatories. Once relieved, the lad walked 5 paces back to his car, started it up and re-parked in his original position.

19th June 2009

Last night wasn't too bad. A lot of screeching around in their cars and a visit around 3.00am by one who tried to leave most of his tyre rubber on the asphalt.

24th June 2009
Nienburg, Lower Saxony, Germany pennipistle

... km after setting out

The hotel is fabulous (gotta love booking via the net!) and right on the town square reconstucted after the town centre was bombed flat in 1945. Pics will be great.

Hildesheim is the birthplace of my Great Grandfather ( dad's mum's dad) so it's a special place to visit for us.

Now grabbing pizza and trying to find WiFi we can hijack.

... bad English by the driver we got sorted. This is what traveling is about muddling through.

We were whisked outside to the plushest VW people carrier I've ever seen. Only 4 individual brown and black leather seats in the back with walnut fittings, TV, and bar equipment but no drinks, but then no trip is ever that perfect. I could have used a drink, the way we flew off onto the No. 2 Autobann to Wolfsburg and the Ritz Carlton Hotel at the AutoStadt.

... is poor, and we don't stay too long. We climbed up one of the pillars and I snapped a couple of shots, and we were off to beat the rain. From there we drove through Detmold and saw some of the architecture. Once through Detmold, we went up to the Hermann statue, which was so socked in with rain and clouds we didn't even walk up to it - someone walked past and said ...

... FA). After dinner, we stuck around for a bit longer, and then Claudia and I had to head back to Paderborn so she could get ready for her handball game. We got back to Paderborn around 3 or 4, and after doing some laundry we headed to Elsen for Claudia's handball game. Handball is not the handball American's think of - we think of something done in a squash court, but that is not it. European handball is a ...

... Very confident. Every time I was wrong. Shining moment in my life. We drove through Blomberg (another small town) and finally got to Claudia's sister's house. We met Andy, Claudia's brother-in-law, and then Melanie, and then the kids. Julian is the oldest and he is 4 years old, and Jasmine is 2 years old. They are simply bundles of energy as is to be expected from children that age! Andy and I went to the Roehr Braeu ...