Hannover, verdict by verdict

Hannover is the German city travelers skip and then quietly rate. The Herrenhausen Gardens are Europe's finest surviving baroque garden, Great Fountain and all; the Eilenriede city forest is larger than Central Park; the zoo wins European awards on the strength of a Zambezi boat safari past African animals; and the New Town Hall's dome hides a curved glass lift that rides seventeen degrees off vertical. The Red Thread, a painted 4.2 kilometre line on the pavement, strings 36 sights into one walk so navigation never interrupts the looking.

The fair trade-offs: the bombed-then-rebuilt centre is functional rather than pretty, the old town is a small surviving pocket rather than a Rothenburg, and outside trade-fair season the evening scene is subdued. Fair weeks inflate hotel prices several times over, so book around the Messe calendar or pay for it. The curved lift runs mid-March to October only and can stop without warning, scheduled food tours are German-only, the zoo is mid-rebuild with construction fences up, and bags need watching around the Hauptbahnhof after dark.

One to two days covers Herrenhausen, the Red Thread walk, the town hall dome and a Maschsee loop; add Hamelin's half-timbered Pied Piper old town for a third. Sleep between the Hauptbahnhof, Kropcke and the old town for the full walkable core, and Hannover reveals itself as a city of parks, gardens and solid museums rather than a pretty face.