Hannover

Overview

Hannover is a working trade-fair city that visitors skip — and it holds one of Europe's great baroque gardens plus the most sensible city-orientation device in Germany, a red line painted on the pavement.

Culture

Lower Saxon cooking is plain and filling rather than showy: Grünkohl mit Pinkel, the kale-and-sausage dish eaten through the cold months and often preceded by a long walk, is the regional institution. Asparagus season in late spring is taken seriously across the whole region. Bahlsen biscuits come from here, and the city's beer-garden culture around the Maschsee is where locals actually spend warm evenings. Linden holds the more interesting independent restaurants and bars, well away from the fair-week expense-account dining near the centre. Festivals: Maschsee Lake Festival, in late summer, Schützenfest, claimed as the world's largest marksmen's fair, Fireworks competition in the Herrenhausen gardens, in summer, Christmas market in the old-town quarter. Museums: Sprengel Museum, Lower Saxony State Museum, Herrenhausen Palace Museum, Wilhelm Busch Museum of caricature.

Practical Info

Safety: Hannover is a straightforward, low-crime city and ordinary care is sufficient, with the usual attention around the main station late at night. The practical considerations are duller: trade-fair weeks transform prices and availability rather than safety, and the Maschsee path and the Eilenriede are shared by cyclists and runners at speed, so walk on the correct side. In winter, the gardens' formal layout offers little shelter and the wind across the parterre is colder than the city temperature suggests. Language: German; the local speech is often said to be the closest to standard High German, which makes it an easy city for learners. English is widely spoken in hotels and around the fairgrounds. Currency: The euro. Cards are accepted in most places, but Germany remains cash-friendly — carry notes for market stalls, small bakeries and beer gardens.

Travel

Hannover is a working city rather than a postcard one, and it is usually encountered as a rail interchange or a trade-fair destination rather than chosen for itself. That does it a disservice on one count above all: the Herrenhausen Gardens are among the finest baroque gardens in Europe, a formal Great Garden of hedged compartments, fountains and a grand parterre that survived when the palace behind it did not, with a grotto reworked by Niki de Saint Phalle in glittering mosaic and a tropical glasshouse alongside. That alone justifies a stop. The city centre is a different proposition and honest about it: heavily rebuilt after the war, so what stands is a reconstructed old-town quarter of half-timbering around the Marktkirche next to a modern shopping city. Hannover's answer to this is the smartest orientation device in Germany — the Red Thread, a red line painted continuously on the pavement that loops past the main sights over roughly four kilometres, so you can navigate the entire centre without a map or a phone. Beyond that: the Neues Rathaus with a lift that rides up the curve of its dome to a viewing gallery, the Sprengel Museum's modern collection, and the Maschsee, a large artificial lake immediately south of the centre where the city swims, sails and walks. Trade-fair weeks distort hotel prices sharply and are worth checking before booking. Late spring to early autumn is the season; the gardens are the reason to come and they are at their best then.

Frequently asked questions

Diplomatic missions in Hannover

3 embassies based in this city, grouped by region.