Hannover 2022

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A Weekend to relax in Lower Saxony

  After moving to Freiburg, I didn't have time to go back to Lower Saxony that often, so I was super happy to enjoy a long weekend with my best friend in Hanover. Since he had to work the Friday, I just started to explore the city - visiting the places, I haven't been for a while or haven't been at all - like the Buddhist pagoda. At first, I went to the Maschsee - an artificial lake situated in the South of the city centre of Hanover and a paradise for relaxing in the sun, having a coffee and a sandwich for breakfast. The name of the lake Maschsee stems from the so-called "Leinemarsch", which means a kind of swamp, because the area, where the lake was built, was a deep-lying floodplain of the Leine river.   

  I enjoyed quite a long time around the lake, before I decided to walk to the area of the amazing and beautiful New Town Hall, a magnificient castle-like building, built between 1901 an 1913 in an electic style. The height of the town hall dome with its viewing platform is almost 100 metres, from where the Harz mountains can be seen on a clear day. Unique in Europe is the dome elevator, which has a curved and parabola-shaped route, but unfortunately, it was closed due to some renovations. So I decided to walk on to the Döhrener Turm - a medieval watch tower on the Southeast end of the Maschsee area, from where I could take the tram into the direction of Hanover-Mittelfeld.  

  After a little walk in Hanover-Mittelfeld, I arrived at the Viên Giác Pagoda, a religious centre of Vietnamese Buddhists. It's one of eight Vietnamese Buddhist pagodas in Germany and one of the largest pagodas in the world outside of Vietnam. It was constructed between 1987 and 1993. The tower of the pagoda is 24 metres high and equipped with around 10,000 small Buddha figures. Since I still have Asia in my heart, it was a must to visit the pagoda, also because I didn't see it before while visiting Hanover. Unfortunately, I could only explore the area from outside, so I also couldn't see the large Taiwanese bell and the interesting prayer hall and memorial room, so I have to come back one day.


  Via a short stop at the Leibniz University, I arrived at the Herrenhausen Gardens. It's the second time, I went there, after visiting the exhibition "A beautiful blaze of colors in the Tropical Garden" in February of 2019. Unfortunately, the Tropical Garden House was still closed due to the Covid-19 restrictions. So I just walked around the Great Garden, one of the most distinguished Baroque gardens of Europe, and the Berggarten, a beauiful botanical garden with many attractions. Luckily, both gardens weren't full of people, so I could enjoy the sunshine in the gardens with calmness, before heading back to my friends home.  

  On Saturday, we both visited the Steinhuder Meer, the largest lake of northwestern Germany with an area of about 30 square kilometres. For me, it was also the first time, going there, so I was super excited and I wasn't disappointed at all. Since it was a sunny Saturday, it was crowded by people, but nevertheless, the whole area was amazing. I felt really relaxed around the lake and the cute village of Steinhude. I was also super happy about getting a great tasting fish sandwich there, before we took the car and drove back to Hanover, where we went to the Café K in the evening, joining the Table Quiz of Ralf Schnoor, a former winner of  a million euro at "Wer wird Millionär".

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