Germany Saxony region - Any tips, nice places to visit please?

[ChopsTheDuck]

Spending a week situated pretty much halfway between Hamburg and Hannover at Easter. Any ideas for what to do, see and eat would be very much appreciated please!

Are you going into the towns?

If so, Hamburg is fab. Definitely go for a harbour cruise (leaves from the Landungsbrücke). Speicherstadt is lovely, and the miniature museum is supposed to be great (was not finished when we lived there)

Hannover is not as scenic, a bit boring in comparison, but the Maschsee is nice and the zoo is the best in Germany. You can have a meal in the restaurant there, Meyers Hof, very typical German cooking.

There is also the Steinhuder Meer just north of Hannover which is nice.

Lüneberger Heide is good for nature friends, also north of Hannover.

And Bremen is a great wee town.

I have friends in that area, I can ask for tips for other things to do.

Food - try Vapiano in Hamburg, I think they have one in Bremen too. And Bagel Brothers are in both cities as well I think.

I can't add much although I live in Hannover. Haven't done much exploring yet!

One thing I found really cool was when dd visited the town of Hameln (south of Hannover) which is the town of Pied piper of Hamlyn fame. Not sure when they start again - probably at Easter though, they act out the story for tourists in the old cobbled part of town with the piper and dc dressed up as rats! Might be a nice day trip for dc.

Ooh some lovely ideas thanks

I had no idea hamlen was so close to where we're going.

Hameln is nice, if I remember correctly it is about an 1 1/2 hours south of Hannover. Lovely Xmas market. Not that it will be on at Easter, but still.

A lot of the villages decorate their fountains with Easter eggs in Germany, just trying to remember if they do that in Saxony.

I just found this website in English and it looks as if there are loads of things to see and visit, especially with dc. The dinosaur place looks great and it might be a good trip out to visit the Volkswagen town and have a tour - something to please everyone.

I'm getting all excited now!

We're had already foudn the vw thing, and I have two car mad boys so will have to do that, but I reckon the boys would like the dinos too. I like the look of the lake personally.

We were thinking of driving to Berlin one day, but it looks like there is so much to do around the area we are staying I think we may have to give it a miss.

any more tips on maybe places to go for traditional german cuisine?

Here is what a friend had to say

"The Speicherstadt (sightseeing tour by boat) is well worth doing in Hamburg; also the historic area around the Michel (a lovely church) and the Nikolaiviertel. If she wants greenery and stuff to do with kids, send her to "Planten un Blomen", a huge park. :-) And if she's an early riser and in town on the weekend, tell her to go to the Fischmarkt auctions on Sundays at 5am ... tell her to catch a banana for you! grins

Oh, and restaurants -- I loved going to the
Nikolaikeller for fish, but it's been a while -- no idea whether it's still around"

I have no idea why you should catch a banana for me, must be a strange German joke.

5am! that is pushing it a little bit. Does sound good though, might be tempted. Would be the last day there.

The banana thing had me truely perplexed! Googling found a legend called banana fred at the Fischmarkt auctions in Hmaburg..?!

The Fischmarkt, isn't that where they stand and shout their wares out and some of them throw stuff at the crowds (ie a banana) - they travel too and set up in small towns for a few days. You can get cheap salami, hams and cheese - they put them in bags and sell them by the kilo bags or something.