HA! I took an ICE train bound to Hannover on the last weekend of June, ofc it doesn’t cost 9 Euro but at least it didn’t take forever to get to Hannover as it would if I take die RE Bahn.
Why out of the sudden Hannover? Because I have a secret mission with one of my sister’s husband (Dominic) Aunt, Ingrit! In order to get to the bottom why I got in contact with her we have to go a bit back. I think somewhere in May, I was with Andrea in one of the castle near her village, my phone rang. It was an unbekannte Nummer….hmmm who would call me on Sunday afternoon? this won’t be work related isn’t it? nope it wasn’t. A lady voice called, I didn’t catch all as I was suspicious who the hell is calling me, however she mentioned the important keywords: Berger, Hannover, Schwester. AHA! I know who you are!
Since then we wrote each other via WA from time to time, then she called me again around beginning of June saying that she won’t come to my sister’s wedding in Jakarta but she has a gift for them. At first she asked me my home address so she can send it. I told her, I’ve never been to Hannover I can also come to pick it up. We decided the date will be on my sister’s birthday so we can call her and wish her a happy birthday.
Like a German, she need to plan for my arrival, the hell is that. She called me what do I want to eat, where do I want to go, mind you at that time I’m still working, as if she couldn’t sense I wanted to end the phone so badly, she continued talking blablabla in the end I said sth along the way “let’s see what will we do after I come btw I need to go back to work now” OMG relax! so much fuss about it, maybe I should rather ask her to post the present.
I’ve told my colleague Holger and Sven about it, they googled what to see in Hannover. Herrenhausen Gardens falls in first category followed by Maschsee. Holger said I need to say to Tante Ingrit “I want to visit Herrenhausen Gardens because I heard it already when I still in Shanghai” sie freut sich bestimmt! Dummerweise, I followed his tips, Ingrit was “You knew it oh yes then we need to visit it!”
Managed myself to find Ingrit in Hannover Hbf, went straight home, had breakfast. Although she is a vegetarish, she bought me Mett brötchen as I requested haha. She said it was her first time to go to Metzgerei after so long 🙂 Danke für die Mühe…. plus Proseco.
During the morning it was the time that me and my family have our regular WA call so I thought this time it will be a surprise because Ingrit will be there. However this time the call was a bit postponed because my mom was somewhere else and Ingrit again made a fuss about it “oh should I send Katrin the picture of you now? then she will calls you. Or maybe I can send it to Horst first” Lady please! I said just wait until we made our regular video call, then you can do whatever you want with the picture. Apparently it’s not a good enough answer, she asked again “when will it be?” no it’s gonna be later. I know she is very excited but at some point it got me to the nerve but Processo helps 😉
While waiting for the call, we went to a small city center kind of things, had ice cream, stopped by at Ingrit’s working shop. And then the moment we are waiting for is there or I force it to be there as I can’t handle her fuss anymore, I called my sister, not long after that my parents call in again during our way to Herrenhausen Gardens.
It was such a bright day, 39 degrees, I was a bit worried about my sunscreen as I haven’t re-apply it whoaaa on the other hand, Ingrit was full mode! We didn’t visit the whole garden as it separated into 2 part. But I’ve done enough imo. We saw flowers, bronze statue, taking pictures here and there. Ingrit has a talent as a photographer btw! She can see where is the better place, tell what you should do, including giving a pressure to other visitors to move out so we can get the spot too haha
Ingrit said wir müssen unbedingt die große Fontane sehen, tadammm! reached it! We were sitting on the bench for a long time before we decided to move our asses and asked someone to take our pictures. Then she told me I need to see the Grotte? forgot the name but it’s some kind of mosaic artistic indoor place. Then we stopped by to re-fuel with cake! the birthday cake for my sister. The service was too slow and the waiter took a very ugly picture, not even wanted to say 1 2 3, pffff we left no tips!
Left the Herrenhausen Gardens, went through a park that lead us to the Rathaus and Maschst See. Honestly, I’m done for that day. So want to just lay down and do nothing, the heat is killing me.
I slept in what was expected to be 30 minutes turns into 2.5 hours haha when I woke up it was still bright but already 21:40. Took shower, had Indonesian snack that she bought, at around 23:00 off to the forest to see fireflies. We saw it! many of them! but it flies! I can’t take a picture because the camera won’t catch it. One man on the bike passed by, Ingrit asked him if he also searching for fireflies, turns out that man hat Ahnung about it, he told us its not a fireflies rather than a Johanis Käfer and only in this 3 days it will appears! what a lovely encounter 🙂 so glad Ingrit has a free spirit soul to suddenly have a random ide, go to a forest in the hope of catching some “fireflies”
The next morning, I still haven’t finish my yesterday’s Mett and I had to finish it as she wont eat it. Then we went to a Kanal near her home then she send me back to Hbf.
Hannover checked, wedding present checked! Done my Job 🙂