Once in a while, something unexpected happens that turns your plans completely upside down. Sometimes, these plans were meant to be for a long time, or sometimes just for about half a week. This last week, I was "stranded" in the small romantic city of Goettingen in central Germany due to a breakout of my 10 year old Golf IV.
On Wednesday, I was on the way back home from a client located half an hour from Goettingen by car, and was heading into Goettingen only because of the need to go to the gasoline station. After restarting the car, I could barely drive it due to a problem with the A/C compressor. Fortunately, I made it into the next car repair shop, where the car remained until Friday due to the heavy reparation needed.
Fortunately, this was not a problem for my work, as I am fortunate to be able to work from almost everywhere. However, it turned out that not only my A/C and the compressor unit were broken, the cooler to the engine was also affected, which made the repair costs a bit more than I initially expected.
On the bright side, I used the circumstance to visit Goettingen's old city center on Friday afternoon, right before I continued my journey back home. Goettingen is located in the southernmost part of German state Lower Saxony.
According to Wikitravel the city is an underrated travel destination that not many tourists come across in their guidebooks. A reason for this could be that there is no major airport near the city, one can only get there by train or by car. To be honest, I never really had any impression of the city and hence was never really keen on visiting. Goettingen is mostly famous for being a quiet University town and the birth place for the prestigious Max Planck Institute, a German research organization.
On Wednesday, I was on the way back home from a client located half an hour from Goettingen by car, and was heading into Goettingen only because of the need to go to the gasoline station. After restarting the car, I could barely drive it due to a problem with the A/C compressor. Fortunately, I made it into the next car repair shop, where the car remained until Friday due to the heavy reparation needed.
Fortunately, this was not a problem for my work, as I am fortunate to be able to work from almost everywhere. However, it turned out that not only my A/C and the compressor unit were broken, the cooler to the engine was also affected, which made the repair costs a bit more than I initially expected.
On the bright side, I used the circumstance to visit Goettingen's old city center on Friday afternoon, right before I continued my journey back home. Goettingen is located in the southernmost part of German state Lower Saxony.
(screenshot taken from Google Maps)
According to Wikitravel the city is an underrated travel destination that not many tourists come across in their guidebooks. A reason for this could be that there is no major airport near the city, one can only get there by train or by car. To be honest, I never really had any impression of the city and hence was never really keen on visiting. Goettingen is mostly famous for being a quiet University town and the birth place for the prestigious Max Planck Institute, a German research organization.
Straying through the old city center
Despite being dubbed "Wissenschaftsstadt" (science city) I found Goettingen to be a very charming small town that emits the impression of a Germany I often came across abroad. The center consists of almost only half-timber houses that give the city a very nostalgic look and a bit of a fairy-tail setting.
In addition, Goettingen is the home of a large number of students who are enrolled at the local university. Many things seen in the city reminds of the fact that there are about 30.000 students that do not only study hard, but also party hard. ;)
Local businesses also seem to exploit the opportunity and advertise in a way not possible in other, larger cities in Germany.
One of the most iconic statues in the university town of Goettingen is the "Gaenseliesl" (goose girl). According to Wikitravel:
She is known as the "most kissed girl in the world" since every local student who receives a Ph.D. gives her a kiss (after being dressed up with a silly graduation hat and wheeled to the statue in a handcart).
When I passed by the statue, I happened to witness the weird custom, as some recent Ph.D. graduate was pursued by his family and friends into kissing the young maiden.
I also happened to come across the "Planetenweg" (planet avenue) where many of our neighbouring celestial bodies were honoured by a rather large inscription.
In the end, I had to try out one of the famous local Kebap, due to Wikitravel's fabulous recommendation:
Ask anyone in Göttingen and they will recommend their personal favourite of the many Döner kebab shops in the city. Perfect after kissing the Gänseliesel and visiting the Johannis church...
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