Understand
Hanover is not a typical European city. Don't expect to see beautiful centuries-old buildings; the city was one of the hardest hit during World War II, leaving it with only a few historical landmarks. Even the Old City Altstadt area is "new"; all the old houses left standing after the war around 40 were taken from throughout the city and collected in one place. This area is surrounded by grey 1950's buildings that give a somewhat heavy atmosphere to the streets. However, there still are several residential neighborhoods consisting of late-19th-century housing stock with often elaborate historicist Victorian and Jugendstil Art Noveau decorations just outside the downtown area, such as Oststadt, List or Linden.
Hanover has large green areas, with forests and big parks. The landscape is mostly flat, with the river Leine going through the city. The lake Masch Maschsee is rather spectacular, considering its size as a man-made object.
The city had a special relationship to the late French artist Niki de Saint-Phalle. She had several of her works in public spots in Hanover i.e., "the Nanas", "the Cave" in the Great Garden and also in the Sprengel Museum. To honor her contribution to Hanover, she was granted an honorary citizenship from the city government. Moreover, the recently renovated "underground" shopping passageway from the central station to Kröpcke was named "The Niki de Saint-Phalle Promenade".Hanover's public services are excellent, due to major reconstruction for the World EXPO 2000. The shopping area under the train station was renovated in 2005-2006 in preparation for the World Cup.
Krã¶pcke
Kröpcke is a large pedestrian area in the heart of Hanover. It is Hanover's major shopping spot, home to the Opera house and has lots of places to eat. The main station in the Hanover Stadtbahn network, is also located here. All Stadtbahn lines except the 10 and 17, call at the station and it is the main interchange point for the network. It has six platforms in total on three lines that cross each other in independent tunnels. There is a big green clock in Kröpcke KröpckeUhr which makes an ideal meeting point.
Using english
Hanover became more of a tourist destination since it began hosting CeBIT, and especially following the EXPO in 2000. English translation was just recently introduced to some official tourist portals such as the train ticket machines. Germans are generally helpful, but you have to ask for help as they don't like to jump into other people's business without being invited. Most university students speak English. For general information, it's safest to go to the Tourist Office, Prinzenstr. 12 close to central station, +49-511-12345-111, M-F 9AM-6PM, Sa 9AM-2PM.