Hannover

Church kept as a memento from WW11 damage
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26/07/08

Today is Friday and tomorrow the park is throwing a big party for all the park residents and the party ground is right where we are parked, there will a band, lots of people and noise. This park is huge stretching for almost a half a kilometre to our left and right so the number will be large and loud. They are bringing the party gear in by forklift and by 9am there were at least 6 pallets of 20 tables each and they were still coming in.

Anne’s newly punctured ear drum will not be able to tolerate the noise and commotion of the setup let alone th function itself. We have to move. The W’s arrived back at around 9:30 and we were gone by 10:00 on our way Bielefeld about 150km away arriving after an uneventful trip in time for lunch, again the clutch behaved itself but there are still 1200km to go

Hannover diarama 1689
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27/07/08

Hanover is another German city that was flattened in WWII, in the main hall of the Rathaus, Town Hall, they have four dioramas of Hanover, first is the city in 1689 clearly showing that the original city was completely enclosed by a protective wall and moat. The next shows the city in 1939 when the moat and the wall have been swallowed up by the expanding city. The third model shows the city in 1945 and you can see quite clearly that there was not one undamaged building in the entire city and for the most part only the shells of the buildings were left standing. The final diorama shows the city as it is today having risen phoenix like from its ashes as a modern city while still retaining many reminders of its past and mixing the styles of the past and the present very successfully.

Hannover pre WW11 1939
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The Rathaus was not the first stop on our visit, by happenstance we had parked very close to the shell of church that had been gutted in a bombing raid in 1943 leaving only the walls and the steeple standing. In 1951 it was decided to leave the church exactly as it was as a memorial to all of those who had died during the war. It was an extremely moving experience to sit inside these walls that had stood since 1350 and been used as a place of worship until 1943.

Still not replete with Hanover we headed for the Herrenhausen Gardens which according to the brochure rivalled Versailles. Well we all know about brochures don’t we and this was no different. The gardens were really beautiful but it wasn’t Versailles, for one thing you could walk from one end to the other without needing a packed lunch or dying of a heart attack. The gardens were created by the Electress Sophie back in the 17^th century and have been rebuilt after their destruction in WWII. One thing we have noticed throughout Europe is that the grounds of the palaces and these huge gardens are well utilised by their communities. These gardens ahd been the site of a very large function in the last couple of days, Sue and I counted more than twenty stages and two very large Marquees beig enough for Cirque De Soleil not yet dismantled. Despite the apparent size of whatever the event was the whole gardens were spotless, there was not one piece of rubbish to be seen anywhere.

World War 11 Damage
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If By chance you do visit these gardens you must visit the crystal grotto just inside the gates to the right it is really something to behold.