Hannover in December

To continue our winter market series, the following weekend we visited Hannover, a town Jo knew well from his student days.  It is about an hour drive west of Wolfsburg.  Mike and I were very excited to go somewhere other than Wolfsburg and Braunschweig.

Jo remembered that the main church in the Hannover city center offered free concerts every evening, so the first thing we checked out was the musical offerings for the night.  Miraculously, we arrived with about forty minutes to spare before a service with a bassoonist and a vocalist (to avoid performance fees, Germans tend to combine concerts and recitals with church services).  It had been a while since either of us heard a talented musician play, much less a bassoonist, so we both enjoyed ourselves.  The church was also quite beautiful.

Set up around the church was a series of nativity displays from various time periods and in many different forms and interpretations.  They were very interesting to compare.

Some were more traditional.

 I like the color in this one, but there is something unsettling about the use of different materials.

The details can be pretty incredible.

Again, different...

This was the placard for one of my favorite versions.

I thought it was a very cool setting -- West Side Story-esque?

The line was moving quickly, so this is a very hurried close-up of Mary and baby Jesus.

My other favorite.  All of the figures are made of painted stone.

Yet another close-up (courtesy of Benjamin).

This last one is completely made of wood.  It was beautiful, but unfortunately, baby Jesus had not arrived yet...

After the concert we did the usual wintermarket deal... lots of food, shopping around the stalls, searching for good Gluhwine, and trying to stay warm.

This wintermarket also had a giant European candle mill.

Jo has a favorite bookstore in every city that is not Wolfsburg, so of course we had to visit the one in Hannover, which was open late.  We ended up spending a good amount of time there (Mike and I like bookstores, too!), especially because they had a massive music section in the basement.  In honor of pets, below is a picture of a book in the store that looks exactly like my family's cat Berlioz back in MN.