Greetings from Hildesheim! We have begun our grand European tour and we are having a great time so far. And it sure is nice to have reliable internet again so I can tell you about it!
I'll get our only complaint out of the way first: the weather. Last night a hurricane blew through northern Europe, and particularly Germany. It even has a name: Emma. Incidentally that's the name of one of our cats back home, and she is far more mild-mannered. The wind speeds made it qualify as a hurricane, although I think it was a mild one as hurricanes go. It caused plenty of damage, though, and sadly one person died when a tree fell on his car.
Last night before the storm, Udo assured us that German houses are well-built but we should put our storm shutters down. I wasn't entirely sure we wouldn't blow away since our apartment is entirely made of IKEA, but all was well. But the winds really blew throughout the night and there was huge thunder and lightning and sheets of rain along with it.
That was kind of fun when we were all cozy inside, but the un-fun part is that it is still really windy and rainy today. It made for a cold and wet packing job this morning and some wild scenes out on the freeway. But our car and driver did very well and we are now safe, warm and happy in our Hildesheim hotel.
Speaking of the car, our new rental turned out not to be a French one (Peugeot or Renault) like we expected, but a Fiat Bravo. It's nothing fancy but we're quite happy with it so far. It's pretty on the outside, roomy for its size on the inside, and it's a diesel, which is essential for the budget. And it's brand-new! There were only 3km on the odometer when David picked it up in Strasbourg. It is ours until June 6. So now we are a couple of crazy Americans driving around Germany in an Italian car with French license plates.
Packing, shipping, cleaning, and moving was exhausting as always and took up most of Friday, so we are thrilled to have that behind us. Our landlord and his wife came up to see us off this morning and give us our deposit back in cash - that was quite a nice surprise! They were very kind and we had such a nice experience living in Germany for a little while. I finally got around to taking some more photos of the place while we were packing up, so here are a few views of our former home:
Kitchen/dining room/my office
Bedroom. Note that sloping ceiling, which meant I had to hunch over to get in and out of bed! But it was OK as a temporary arrangement.
Bathroom
David's office
Sunset behind the tram lines from the office window. We always liked the sound of the trams going by.
Living room, with Udo's antique family furniture
We arrived in Hildesheim around 2:30 this afternoon and we were pleasantly surprised with our hotel. We expected it to be nice and modern - it's a Novotel, a good business hotel chain - but it turned out to be in a renovated historic building, which is pretty cool. We haven't been able to find out what it was originally, but it's a nice stone building with three long corridors. And our room is spacious and comfy. And there are BUNNIES running around the grounds!
Our Fiat outside the hotel.
Tomorrow will be our main sightseeing day in Hildesheim, so we sure hope the weather improves at least a little. Tonight we took just a short walk into the center of town, but we liked what we saw. It's a small city and feels quite relaxed, especially on a stormy Saturday afternoon. Most of the streets are wide and pedestrianized, there are nice shops, and the historic center has beautiful half-timbered buildings and, of course, great old churches.
We warmed up with a really nice dinner at the Dorodo Steak House, which looked a lot like Sizzler but the food was good and hit the spot.
David had a steak and I had turkey with hollandaise sauce.
Our waitress barely spoke a word of English, which is a rare thing, but she was exceedingly nice and enjoyed our attempts at German. We have been really spoiled by the kindness of the Germans when it comes to language difficulties. If they do speak some English they are glad to use it and if they don't, they seem embarrassed and apologetic! All of my experiences of France thus far have been quite the opposite, so I think this is one of the things we will really miss about Germany!
More Hildesheim next time...