Hanover; Sunday, 20 September, 2020

I checked out of the hotel and headed over to the Hauptbahnhof to both drop off my luggage and to pick up a day ticket for the wider region transport. I then headed back towards the hotel and to the ZOB (Zentraler Omnibus Bahnhof) to pick up the bus out of town to the small town of Pattensen and from there onto the Schloß Marienburg.

Whilst looking like the perfect idea of a medieval castle with towers, turrets, crenelations and all of this perched on a hill overlooking an almost flat landscape it’s all just a show. The castle was built in the latter part of the 19th Century as a summer place for the House of Guelph that ruled over both Hannover and Britain from George I in 1714 through to the death of William IV and accession of Victoria to the British throne in 1837 (rules in place in Hannover meant that a Woman could never take the crown of Hannover, so the line split at that point).

As you would expect for a castle built by the people that brought you Mad King George III and Playboy King George IV the castle is a fine example of what can be achieved when money and power aren’t issues.

Normally you would have to go round the castle on a guided tour, but for Covid precautions the guided tours have been stopped and instead you follow a self-guided route through most of the main rooms, making sure you keep a distance from your fellow visitors.

The tour took a little over an hour, and by then you’ve seen most of the castle with not much else to see – which is a bit of a problem as the buses only run every 2 hours and the return bus back to Hannover was still over an hour away. So instead I walked down through the parkland following a hiking trail down to the river at the base of the hill, and then followed the road the 1.5Km or so back into Nordstemmen. Along the way there are stunning views back across the almost flat landscape to this single hill with it’s castle perched on it.

Back in Nordstemmen I made it to the station with about 10 minutes to spare before the train back into Hannover – which took all of 15 minutes to make a journey that took the bus nearly 70 (though the bus did all the hard work getting up the hill to the castle). During that time I was able to go onto the website of the Hannover Zoo and book an Authorisation to Visit slot, that gave you a time to visit the ticket booth to buy a ticket to visit the zoo – I think they may have taken their Covid-secure visit precautions a little too far.

From the Hauptbhanhof I caught the U-Bahn out to the Zoo on the edge of the city centre arriving about 20 minutes before the time on my authorisation. I was able to get a ticket, but then was shown towards a long and quite tightly packed queue of people waiting to be let in when the 16:30 slot came round. I decided it was probably best to hang back until most of the queue had been let through and then join the much more healthily spaced queue that was then available.

The zoo is arranged around a number of themed areas, with animals grouped by theme rather than by type – so you have the Lions in the Zambesi area, whilst the Tigers are over in the Indian Temple area. To begin with I though it was a bit gimmicky, but it does help show that animals are adapted for their environments which is why lions and tigers are such different animals.

I made it round most of the zoo, with the exception of the outback area where the keepers had already put the animals back in their houses overnight as the zoo was heading closing time, and with that they were also starting to herd the visitors out.

From the Zoo I caught the tram back into town and picked up my luggage from the station lockers before hopping on the S-Bahn and heading back out to the airport for my journey home.