**Hannover & Osnabrück**

So now that I have arrived in Hamburg (Thursday 15 May), via a nice, if small, station called 'Harburg' I have some time to tell you more about my stay with Hene in both Hannover and Osnabrück. But first, a little commentary of the last hour and a half.

Oh, look, its 10:12, that's what time I was meant to arrive at Hamburg, this station has to be it. No don't bother looking at the name of station, I can't see it anyway. Don't ask anyone around you if you are in the right place, just jump off the train like a lunatic without thinking twice...yes, there you go, you stupid twit.
Look, there's a sign that says 'Harburg', maybe that's German for 'Hamburg', ok now for the directions to the hostel. Well, these directions are obviously rubbish, I mean, there's no street here called Kirchenallee, they must have stuffed up!
OK, my mistake, so I'm at some place called Harburg, I hope I'm still in Germany, cos if I'm not I have no idea what I am going to do. Look, there's some people trying to avoid my gaze.

'Sprechen zie English?'
'You are at the wrong station you stupid Australian idiot [paraphrasing what I am sure she was thinking]'.
Anyway, the short version of the story is I fumbled my way here and found the hostel.

My time with the Lederer's in Hannover was fantastic. After semi-recovering from jetlag and a medium sized hangover, Hene and Florian took me to town to see stuff. We wandered around the local castle's gardens. I would have checked out the castle had it been there, but unfortunately it was completely wiped out during the war. Apparently, almost 90% of the city (of now 500 000 people) was destroyed in the Second World War by British bombers, with more than 11 000 civilians dying. I found that a little confronting seeing as my grandfather was a bomber pilot.

The reason it was a target for the bombers is because it was one of Germany's major manufacturing locations during the war. Making weapons and vehicles. Now I understand it is the major base of Volkswagen.

We climbed to the top of the town hall (although its a tourist attraction its also where the council have to work, I don't know why I found that surprising). From there we had a beautiful view of the city and the Marshze (sorry Hene, I have no idea how to spell it). The Marshze is a large artificial lake built by Hitler. Kind of like Lake Wendouree in Ballarat but with water and boats.

We visited a church whose walls are still standing, but whose roof has been missing since the war. Kind of a memorial and testament to those who died both in the fighting and on the run or because they no longer had a home.

Hene and I caught the train to Osnabrück where she is studying at uni. Left to my own devices while she was at uni, it was the first time I was really on my own and found it very diffcult. The tiny few phrases I have managed to pick up so far really don't get me very far if the first response to my question 'Sprechen zie English?' is 'Nein'. I mean, where do you go from there? I usually say sorry, mumble short words I hope they'll understand and make all sorts of weird hand gestures. I'd say that the most difficult part was buying 4 stamps for Australia and 1 for Japan. That lady was not impressed at something.

But in general the people are very friendly and more than willing to help out. The weather was fantastic as I explored the churches and town hall of Osnabrück. The city is apparently Germany's centre for Peace. It was the place where they signed the treaty to end the Thirty Year's war. Apparently, Post-WWII the Mayor was very concerned about what he called 'ongoing suspisciousness' and developed a twin city partnership thing with city's from around teh world, starting at first with the Netherlands. Young people from both sides do exchanges up to this day. I think Osnabrück now has about 7 sister cities.

So, now that I'm here and you are sort of up to date, I'm going to investigate Hamburg! Off to Rostock tomorrow to catch up wtih Nicole Hines (for those of you who know her) and then the following day to Berlin before I embark on the next adventure to meet Annabel in Italy!

Talk soon.