Hannover

Hannover is the capital of the German Bundesland Lower Saxony. It's a good place for hitchhiking, because two major motorways are crossing each other here: In east-west-direction, there is the A2 going from the Ruhr Area to Berlin, and in north-south-direction, the A7 connecting Hamburg with the south of Germany. On both motorways, there is a big service area, that are easily reachable by tram.

It's also a nice place to stay, for a day or two, with a beautiful old town center, many parks, lakes and forests, and a lot of pubs and nightclubs.

Public transport is very good and tickets are checked very rarely. For the airport, check Hannover-Langenhagen Airport.

West towards Dortmund, Amsterdam
Take a tram to Königsworther Platz. There is a wide road called Bremer Damm, which leads to the motorway. There is only little space to pull over and most of the traffic is local, but at least during rush hours this works fine. At other times, it's probably faster to take the tram to Garbsen, see below. It helps a lot to use a sign saying "A2 - WEST". Try to get a ride at least to Garbsen, just outside of Hannover. There is a huge service area.

East towards Berlin or West towards Dortmund, Amsterdam
From the city center (Kröpke) take the tram #U4 to Garbsen (the last station). There switch over to bus #126 towards Altgarbsen/Am Blauen See. The last bus stop is located directly in front of the service station Garbsen Süd. From the central station, the ticket is EUR 2,90 and it will take about 30 to 40 minutes. There is a lot of traffic, you won't have to wait long. If you need to go westwards, just walk right, follow the road for 400m, walk down under the bridge and you'll see the service station Garbsen Nord on the other side.

North towards Hamburg, Bremen or South towards Göttingen, Kassel, Frankfurt
Take the tram #6 direction Messe/Ost and get off at Kronsberg. Turn left into Wülferoder Straße. After ~100 m, the road will head right, but there will be a little path straight on. Follow this path for ca. 1 km, about 30 minutes, it leads directly to the service area Wülferode on the A7. The tram ticket is EUR 2,30.

Coming via A2
Trams in both options cost EUR 2,70 (2 zones), but if you don't mind buying a ticket for only 1 zone, it's EUR 2,30.
 * Option 1: Get off at Hannover-Herrenhausen. There is a tram station close to the motorway, where you can get into the town center in 15 minutes
 * Option 2: Get off at Hannover/Langenhagen. Here you can find a tram station directly next to the ramp towards the motorway. Drivers can drop you out directly in front of the tram station, where they also find traffic lights, a small petrol station and the possibility to turn around towards the motorway. Detour for the driver: Maybe 500m. Here tram #1 brings you all the way to the Hauptbahnhof in ~ 10 minutes.

Coming via A7
You can ask the driver, if he wants to take little detour over the A37. This will be 12 km more and he will lose about 10 minutes. If he doesn't want that, tell him to drop you at the service area Wülferode. There is a little street leading to a tram station, but you will have to walk for 30 minutes.

Sleep
There are two hostels in Hannover: An independent one for EUR 15/night and one of hostelling international for EUR 25/night.

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