Monday May 28th 2018 - checking out Gottingen

This morning I unpacked and got ourselves organised. We had breakfast outside and then went to find Kaufland, the supermarket Anne recommended. She had recommended that we find it and its underground parking before going there by car. So that is what we did. Even though it is not the big Kaufland which is out of town it seemed good enough for us. We walked into the city and had a brief look round and a coffee. We checked what was on in the Tourist Information Office in the Old Town Hall. There was an Italian market with cheese and salamis etc. We bought a salami with walnuts in it. We walked home again and had lunch. Then we set off on our shopping expedition and it all worked fine. 

The first of many many photos of the beautiful half-timbered houses in this part of Germany.

This is Gottingen's landmark - Ganseliesel. It is a statue of a young girl bringing her geese to market. She is considered to be "the most kissed girl in the world" because of the students who climb up to kiss her. This was such a regular event that the council wanted to pass a law making it illegal. However, a compromise was reached and now there is an agreement that when students get their doctorate they can then kiss the Ganseliesel.

This statue is of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg locally called "little big man" because he may have been small in stature but he was big in ability. He was a German physicist, mathematician and satirical writer best know for his aphorisms. He is reputed to have said "My head lies at least a foot closer to my heart than is the case with other men: that is why I am so reasonable".The statue was made from the melted down statue of the dictator in Albania.

The big hall in the Rathaus.

This sculpture is called "Der Tanz". It is situated in an area of Gottingen called the naval.

Carl Friedrich Gauss is best known as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. He was also a pioneer in the study of  magnetism and electricity. He and his colleague Wilhem Weber built one of the first electromagnetic telegraphs

Later we went into town again and looked at St’ Michael’s Church and at St. Jacobi’s. 

It's serious when I take to the beer!g

Friedrich Wohler was a chemist and the first to isolate aluminium in its pure form in 1827. On the pavement at the foot of the statue is the formula for urea, with the synthetic production of which one year later Wohler made a decisive influence on modern chemistry.