Red Thread Tour

On my second day in Hannover I took the city's Red Thread Tour. The tour was a 5 km walk through the city following a red line painted on the sidewalk that showcased 35+ important sites in the city. While most of the sites would not have even made the guidebook of a larger city, I nevertheless decided to see what Hannover had to offer.

Some highlights of the tour:

A remnant of the old city wall - dating from 1337

A church destroyed in the 1943 air raid and currently a memorial to the victims of war and violence; a memorial service takes place here every August 6th to remember the victims of the bombing of Hiroshima.

New Town Hall - the archer's arrow points directly at the Lord Mayor's office

Buxom Girls - statues by Niki de Saint Phakke, an honorary citizen of Hannover

The oldest family house in Hannover - dating from 1566

And after the history tour, it was time to check out the shopping and the first mall we've seen since leave Gainesville...

Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh My!

Since our trip to Germany was centered around a conference where Matt was presenting a poster, we spent the middle part of the week in Hannover. Most guidebooks skip over this town as it is mostly a convention and shopping town. Since it was low on the typical tourist sites (churches, art museums, and memorials), I decided Hannover called for a visit to the zoo!

The brochures touted it as the number one zoo in Europe and it did not disappoint. The complex was as themed as Disney, as educational as a museum, and as clean as a hospital. I easily spent the day lost in their world of animals as there were animal feedings every half hour, hourly shows, plenty of playgrounds, many eateries, tons of animals and exhibits, and a boat ride.

The zoo showcases a major difference between play areas for kids in the US and in Europe. At home things are designed so no one can get sued, here things are designed for kids to explore. Between every exhibit there was the traditional paved pathway for adults and strollers, but the second pathway was where the fun was. It criss-crossed back and forth with the paved pathway so parents could keep an eye on their kids, but it was a "wobbly trail". A trail of bridges, rope courses, things to jump on and off, balance beams, and anything else you can imagine for a kid to climb on, over, around, and in while making their way from point A to point B via point M. In addition to these wonderful paths there was an awesome play area for kids to really run loose. It feature a river system controlled by the kids and had wonderful fixtures like a trampoline hut, a mini rock wall, and multiple kinds of swings.

Yes - I played on it all by myself and had a ball!

If you are ever in Hannover at the Zoo, make sure not to miss out on:

• The Monkey feedings - see how many carrots one monkey can hold!

• The baby Elephant and its mom, who will 'pet' you with her trunk

• The adorable Giraffes and their wobbly legs


• The larger than life Rosa Pelicans, who if you are patient will let you pet them

The only reason I headed home that day was because it started to rain...or else I might still be hanging out with the giraffes!

Hello Hannover

We left Munich on Tuesday evening so that I could attend the European COMSOL Conference in Hannover (Germany) over the next two days. COMSOL Multiphysics is a finite element software that is used by engineers for modeling of systems with interactions between multiple physical domains (ie fluid motion, heat transfer, mechanical motion, diffusion processes, etc.). At the conference, I attended several keynote speeches and minicourses on how to use the software. I also participated in the poster session. I hope to make use of some of what I learned both in my thesis research at UF and in my tangentially-related research at TU Delft.

While I was at the conference, Laura had two days free to see the city. Hannover isn't much of a tourist destination, but she made due. More on that to come.