Hannover

A word about suitcases. I had left my big red suitcase in Geneva with my winter clothes and other things I wouldn’t need over the summer, and I was quite glad to be reunited with it. Except, of course, that I had far too much in that suitcase and it was quite large. Waiting on the platform in Geneva, I consolidated my bookbag into the suitcase, making myself much less unwieldy but the suitcase even heavier. I nearly threw out a third of its contents on the platform, in fact, but the anti-spendthrift side of me refused to let go of the shampoo and the duct tape and certainly the French-English dictionary. It was just that I had put all the heavy things that I was not transporting about Europe over the summer in the suitcase and all the light things in my backpack, so my bags were extremely unbalanced. I had to switch trains twice in Germany and was dreading the process, but thankfully Teutonic chivalry lent me a hand in each case.

My very dear friend Alina Reibetanz met me at the train station in Hannover and enveloped me in a long-awaited hug. We met a year ago when she was spending a semester at Idaho and had sworn that we would manage a visit while I was in Europe. (And hopefully many more later in life.) She and I jointly lugged my suitcase upstairs to her apartment and swore that we would convince her boyfriend to carry it back down for us when I left.

Alina’s apartment was entirely charming and filled me with longing for one of my own. She played the role of hostess to perfection—she fed me constantly and refused to let me pay for anything! The soup I had eaten on the train the day before gave me an awful case of food poisoning, and Alina mothered me back into health. Certain family issues were occurring in her life, so we watched a lot of Gilmore Girls and Houseboat in the evenings and distracted ourselves during the day. We ate candlelit breakfasts every morning and dessert every evening; it was excellent. And without fail, every afternoon we had tea and cake in a teestübchen, the most German of all traditions!

Alina had told me about the Herrenhausen gardens, where everybody from Hannover hangs out during the summer, so we spent an afternoon poking around them looking at the flowers and talking. We went to the Hannover Zoo another day, something I haven’t done in years. It was quite funny to go to the Yukon Bay section; the bison and wolves made me feel as if I had been transported home and gone to Yellowstone!

We drove to Hamlin (Hameln in German) one day, which you may recognize as the town of the famed Pied Piper story. This was another case of my childhood coming to life…There is a statue of the piper in the main square, and all the tourist shops sell candied mice as souvenirs. The Pied Piper museum was closed, so we had tea and cake and window-shopped instead.

My last evening in Hannover, we went out for Indian food and drinks (not Indian; we went to a second place!) in Hannover and had a lovely time…Over this last year, I have often felt that I have been creating a trail of very good friends that I may never see again, and saying so many goodbyes is rather hard. It was therefore very, very good to see Alina and be in Hannover when she needed someone to watch Gilmore Girls with!

Photos.