Mawhorter Sabbatical 2013: The Pleasures of Sharing an Ordinary Sunday: Biking through the forest to church and along the canal

Last Sunday we had the pleasure of biking with Ross and Sarah to church. Generous friends had lent us bikes so the kids could experience Hannover the way we have: along the bike paths. First we biked along the Schiffsgraben, with this view of one of the modern skyscrapers at the Aegidientor. This skyscraper is all glass and steel, at funny angles, with a ground floor fountain and a glass tube walkway between one side and another. Very fun.

Modern Skyscraper on Aegidientorplatz

We go past my favorite kinetic sculpture. This is the one I would like to have in my front garden.

Free Flow Statue

Then past the Musikhochschule and the zoo on a nice cool foresty ride through the Eilenriede, the urban forest, the lungs of Hannover.

Bike path through the Eilenriede

After church, which ends with talking over coffee, tea, and cookies, we headed along a shady row of trees past the church where I play recorder, through a Kleingärten Kolonie (small garden plots in a community garden),

Kleingärten Kolonie

and along the canal. We wanted take the kids to lunch on this barge restaurant and we had a nice time eating Flammkuchen (German thin cracker bread with different toppings, e.g. cheese, onions, and ham) and watching the boats go past. My favorite boat of the day was this canal boat from England. There were two of these canal boats in a row. Rich yelled across to ask how they'd gotten them over the Channel, since they are not fit for ocean waves. They said on a truck. Anyway, maybe that's a good name for us, wandering snails, traveling slowly carting our home with us. Maybe we'll do a canal boat trip sometime. It looks like our cup of tea.

The "Wandering Snail"

We rode back through List, the Hannover equivalent of Silver Lake, a trendy part of town. We backtracked to show the kids the Lister Turm, where Rich went to an astronomy lecture and I went to a folk dance ball. It was originally a watchtower, but now it's a community center on the edge of the Eilenriede.

Lister Turm

Later in the afternoon, Rich and Sarah took the elevator that follows the curve of the dome to the top of the Neues Rathaus (new town hall, 100 years old this summer) with wonderful views at the top.