A Smattering of Northwest Germany
August 10-11

On our way to the Netherlands we saw the poor town of Magdeburg, the bustling town of Hanover, and the quaint town of Hamlin. There couldn't be a bigger difference between any three places only 50 miles apart from each other.

Magdeburg is near the western edge of the old East Germany. Today it has about 20% unemployment. Seemingly those 80% who are employed work at one of the 8 massive churches. There's a bunch of industry in the northeast section of town but it's aging.


The Dom is reportedly the oldest in Germany and
has the second highest towers (after Cologne).
It's being completely reconstructed on the inside and is not presently used for services.


A block away is the Monastery of Our Lady.
Inside, it's used only as a art gallery. Modern art at that.


This was Bob's favorite art in the monastery.
It's the only one that made any sense at all.


Outside, archeologists are having a field day (literally).
Those are indeed bones at the front of this pit.


Whoever built the churches had fun with their doorknobs.


On the main street, right downtown, a new business office is going up
that would make Gaudi proud.


We think it just gives these guys across the street headaches.

Hanover is the most American city we've seen since Ft. Lauderdale. The Allies bombed it early and bombed it often. Since the war it's been completely reconstructed and only a couple of buildings downtown look to be near 100 years old.

We can appreciate Mel's Diner but, egad, there's a Wal☺Mart. What have we done? What have we done?


Mels has eggs, bacon, cheeseburgers, fries, milkshakes, etc.
But no iced tea, no hash browns, and no whole wheat toast.

Hamlin (Hameln) on the other hand has more half-timber buildings per square block than anywhere we've seen even in England. The tourist trade on the Pied Piper tradition flourishes.


Munich has lions, Berlin has bears.

And a couple more brewpubs.

The Brauhaus Ernst August in Hanover could be an American brewpub in an American city except that it has only one beer on tap. It's a weekend DJ bar with a private room upstairs they claim will hold 1000 people.

Rinteln - Der Waldkater. Serving Hartinger brand beer. It's a fancy hotel with a big, clean rustic-charm restaurant hidden at the end of a dead-end road in a nature area. The floor around the coppers was dry when we walked in and the Hartinger brand made us think it wasn't brewing anymore but, lo and behold, the brewer started a batch while we were there. Must be nice to start a batch of beer at 1pm. But then the service was so slow it's obvious no one is rushed around this place.