Thursday, October 1, 2009

Um Hanover.

I really liked Hanover. To start the story, I'll move past the travel and arrival. Given all the fears of terrorism around the world, I figure it's a bad idea to take pictures of any public transportation.

The first day in Hanover it was raining the whole time. The only picture I got in was of the University on the way to the conference.


It's a pretty building. Unfortunately, I didn't really have time to get a good angle on it. It was the next day that the sun came out and I got to really take some pictures. I took the following on the way to the conference building.


I had a drink here the night before. I thought the building was interesting. It's a German version of something like Chili's or TGI Friday's. The drinks were over priced and low quality.
I find that Germany has lots of nice things for children everywhere you look. It's really kind of nice. The country, as a whole, seems to have a great interest in making sure there are nice places for children to be and grow. This is actually one of the poorest examples.

Hanover has a lot of cool churches. This one is called Christchurch. It was huge.

I took this picture because what little artistic talent in me said, "I like lines!"

Germans love kebab. There are kebab joints everywhere.


Of course Germans also really like their beer.

I thought this was a good angle on a typical city road.

There was another cool church on the way to the conference building.

When I first saw this building, I thought, "now this looks like a physics building. This is the kind of ugly architecture they stick us in.

As it turns out, I was wrong. They stick physicists in a building only this ugly.

After the conference, I got to explore the city. The first thing I realized is that Germany will never forget WWII. You see, to remind themselves of the horrors they unleashed on the world, they leave some things they way they were after the war. Here is a chapel that was bombed out. It was in the middle of a cemetery.

Since the war, the Germans have been doing everything possible to reinvent themselves. Here is a picture of on of their modern city trams at a tram stop.

Another example of this reinvention was this building (the one on the right). I really liked it.

I thought this building was also pretty cool. I like to imagine that art brokers work there.

Of course, the Germans have preserved their history as well. It's amazing to me that a country which is today marked by such a recent horrific event, is rarely acknowledged for the rich history and culture that had grown and developed there for so many centuries.

Hanover was originally a walled city with a moat around it. Today, there are lots of bridges in the city like this one.

Of course, there is the obligatory German artwork everywhere.

I think this was a part of the old city wall. Today it's a historical museum.

From here, you could just make out the Rathaus which was built in 1901.

It's a really impressive building once you get closer.

It was really easy to take pictures of that place.

On the left, there was this guy. I think he had a sword.

On the right, there was this fellow.

The poor lion had gotten stuck.

Side entrances were made grand,

and spires rose above them.

Inside was just as impressive.

It had cool spiraling staircases.

I really liked this view.

Behind the Rathaus was this gorgeous park and lake.

The Rathaus looks just as impressive from behind as well.

I thought this tree was cool.

Turns out there were bunches of them. Imagine the effort. Each of those is twice as tall as I am.

Across the street from the park was the classic art museum.

It was right next door to the modern art museum.

This, of course, comes with the obligatory modern German art.

One good turn deserves another.

We then found this cool office building.

I think it would be cool to work in a science fiction setting,

with obligatory modern German art, of course.

Here was another bombed out church.

It's striking to me that these buildings have been left that way.

I think it's to remember the horrors of that time,

and perhaps seek repentance.

Hanover has it's fair share of interesting architecture, both old,

and new.

It's got it's nooks and crannies,

and as Stephen Colbert would say, it's got balls.

7 comments:

  1. Cool pics :) It looks like the architecture and other aspects of Germany really have quite a bit of character. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. The city wall picture looks an awful lot like the city wall picture from Jena... were the cities developed around the same time?

    I like the balls. ;)

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  3. @Megan, thanks. Really, the camera does all the work. I just stand there and point and click. Then it's super-intelligence takes over. I believe the next step in the evolution of cameras is for them to grow legs, tell the photographer to go away, and take the picture itself.

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  4. I like kebab. I like beer. I like old blown up churches.

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  5. @Brian, I drink beers in one liter quantities here.

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