As I mentioned before, I accompanied Jim on a business trip to Hannover, Germany. He was there to attend the LIGNA Show. Never heard of LIGNA? Me neither. Until now. Their slogan is "Making more out of wood: innovative, efficient, trendsetting." Over 1,700 companies from 52 nations were represented at this, the largest international show of its kind and it attracted 90,000 visitors. The display space alone was 1.4 million square feet. I think that's nearly 30 football fields - which is the only reference I have for anything bigger than a bed.
Which reminds me of the game '20 Questions' which we sometimes play in the car. Jim always refers to questions of size as to whether it is "bigger than a bread box" or "bigger than Fluffy". Fluffy was the Fraziers family dog and he lived to be about 17 years old.
That's pretty much how it is for me - the size of all things are based on the bed, a football field, a bread box, or Fluffy.
On our first day in Hannover, I decided to do some shopping. Although I rarely come away with anything, I enjoy looking around. Much to our surprise when we went out for coffee before going our separate ways, it seemed that, for such a large city, all was eerily quiet.
No traffic. Businesses were shuttered. Very strange for a Thursday. We stopped at a restaurant that appeared to be opening for the day and were told they would be opening later because it was a holiday.
Turns out, Thursday, June 2, in Germany, is Father's Day. It's a national holiday and everything shuts down. Seriously? For Father's Day? Weeeeell, not exactly. The Germans combine Father's Day with Ascension Day (you know, ascension of Jesus into heaven) which is the actual national holiday. Not sure how those two got combined, but anyway . . .
So we asked the nice lady at the not-yet-opened restaurant where we might get a cup of coffee and she suggested the hotel around the corner. Oh, you mean the hotel we just came from? Our hotel? So that's what we did. Breakfast was also available for €17 each and we decided to pass on that.
Now this is probably going to sound like I'm stereotyping because I guess I am. And I'm justified because I've witnessed what you will only hear in the video that follows time after time after time. Really.
While drinking our coffee I recorded a group of what I assume to be Asians (not all men, mind you) eating breakfast right next to us. Group being the key word here. As I said, I've witnessed this event many times and they are all the same. I have no idea which country they come from, but I only wish I could video it so you can really see the unbelievable lack of manners. They cram as much food in their mouth as they can and then they talk loudly as if they're deaf or everyone around them is deaf. They guzzle a glass of juice in one gulp, throw their utensils around then spear things like whole apples with a fork and in my opinion, eat like a savage.
Obviously all 4 billion Asians don't eat like this and there are plenty of Americans and Europeans who could use a good dose of Emily Post, but as a group, the only one I've seen eat with manners like this appear to be Asian and speak what sounds like an Asian language. That's all I'm saying.
This video just doesn't do it justice. I plan to really video it next time. I'm warning you. If you see a large group (group being the key word here) of what appear to be Asians eating and speaking loudly in an Asian language - go to the other side of the restaurant. You will thank me.
But I digress.
Naturally I was disappointed (in the holiday closures), but I managed to entertain myself first at the train station, then doing a little sight-seeing, then eating ice cream, and then switching channels between France24 TV in English and Deluxe Music Videos from the '70's and '80's. I mean, what's not to like about anything sung by a Bee Gee, Whitney Houston's One Moment in Time and Culture Club's Do You Really Want to Hurt Me and the added bonus of headlines spoken in English by a French woman with a British accent?
Hannover Bahnhof (train station)
When I was able to pull myself away from the awesome TV opportunities, I walked around the nearly deserted city. Apparently it is traditional, on Father's Day (or Ascension Day - whichever you prefer), for men to take a hiking trip pulling a wagon (called a bollerwagen) filled with beer from the region and use this opportunity to get drunk. I saw quite a few of these bollerwagens and these guys were definitely using the opportunity to get drunk, but the only hiking they were doing was down the city sidewalks.
Fortunately on Friday I got to go shopping! I also did some more sightseeing and picture-taking so more to come on Hannover.
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