Germany Guide
Lower Saxony
The Maschsee
Directly behind the Neues Rathaus, the leafy Maschpark and its Maschteich lake are a prelude to the 2.4km long Maschsee lake, flanked to the east with a boulevard of trees and to the west by the meandering Leine. Hannover's nineteenth-century council had envied the Binnenalster lake in Hamburg and finally got its own artificial lake through a Nazi work-creation scheme. Today Maschsee is a focus for summer days, whether taking a cruise from quays on all banks (mid-May to Oct 11am–5/6pm; €3 up to three stops, €6 round trip; www.uestra-reisen.de) or messing about in a sailing or rowing boat rented from a quay opposite the Sprengel-Museum, dining in a couple of superb restaurants or spending lazy days on the Strandbad beach at the southeast corner. It takes around thirty minutes to walk north to south along a foot-, cycle- and rollerblade path on the east bank – bus #267 plies a route down the east bank, or U-Bahn Altenbekener Damn lies one block across, midway down.