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February 28th & March 1st, 1990: Hanover & Würzburg [32-Day Solo Backpacking Trip Through Europe as a Female College Student]

2026年4月6日 22:26

*This article is an episode from my 32-day backpacking trip through Europe from February 21st to March 24th, 1990, when I was a college student (Episode 18).
The original travel diary I wrote during the trip is missing as of 2026, but I found a manuscript in my closet that I had compiled based on photos, so I am editing it for note and posting it loosely, while adding my 2026 self's ~~commentary~~annotations[*] here and there.
From here on, there will be more photos and less text.
Also, please consider that some of the text may be fictionalized.

The 1990 trip, which was full of confusion for the first week, has finally reached a point where I can do some proper sightseeing.
Today covers two days: February 28th and March 1st.

The stories of my 1990 trip are compiled in the magazine "1990 Europe Solo Female College Student Backpacking Trip," so if you'd like, please laugh at how lost I was at the beginning of my trip in episodes ① through ⑰. *

Hanover (February 28th) Impressions of Germany

I left Berlin, visited Hanover, and looked for a hotel.
German people seem stubborn at first glance, but they are very kind.
The hotel room also felt neat and clean.

In Hanover, despite the bad weather, I walked around the Herrenhausen Gardens and the Erich Kästner Museum.
(*I have no photos of these two places and don't remember them at all...)

Little by little, I was gaining the leeway to do things that felt like sightseeing.

I also entered a supermarket for the first time.

They didn't give me a bag even after I paid at the register, so when I asked for one, they charged me 10 pfennigs. It's rational.
(*Since 1 mark was about 88 yen at the time, that's about 8 yen. Plastic bags have been charged for in Japan since 2020, but it seems Germany was already charging for them 30 years before that. I remember being surprised that waste sorting was also more detailed than in Japan at the time.)

I felt the food was a bit rough in flavor.
(*Be grateful you have enough to eat...)

I asked someone at the hotel and went into a nearby restaurant, but I still felt uneasy being alone.
The waiter was kind and told me about the recommended dishes.
When the food was brought out, it came with sauerkraut.
"Oh! This is the real deal!" I was a bit moved.
But for a "side dish," the portion was large. By the second half, I was a bit fed up with it.

As I was writing in my travel diary in my room, I heard the sound of church bells from somewhere.

I truly realized that I am in Europe now.

Würzburg (March 1st)

The city I visited after Hanover was Würzburg.

It wasn't that there was something I wanted to see here, but rather my goal was Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which is a little over an hour away by train.

Since I would be taking local trains to get to Rothenburg, I decided to book a hotel in Würzburg for the time being.

However, I failed again.

I wasted 6 hours by taking the wrong train, going around in circles, and waiting for a train for an hour at an unmanned station where snow was fluttering.

According to Google, it was "Ritterhude Station." However, looking at Google Maps, it is quite far from Würzburg and in the opposite direction of Rothenburg. This photo might be from when I tried to go from Hanover to Würzburg and accidentally took a train in the opposite direction.

When I realized I had taken the wrong train, a crew member nearby looked at me with a "poor thing" expression.

In Würzburg, I climbed up to the Marienberg Fortress.

The bridge over the Main River and the city of Würzburg

When I visited 35 years later, it was still a beautiful city lined with brick-colored roofs

You can see the Neumünster Church, Würzburg Cathedral, and more (on the left, near the spires)

Tomorrow, I will go to Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

Revisiting Würzburg in 2025

On my 1990 trip, it seems I went to Würzburg simply because it was a convenient place to travel to.
However, I had such a good impression of the beautiful cityscape that I visited it again on my 2025 trip.
It is also famous for being the starting point of the Romantic Road.

Würzburg after 35 years was just as beautiful as ever, and I made some wonderful new memories.

I stayed inside Würzburg Cathedral; it was a unique hotel where a historic building, offices, and accommodations were all in one place. The kind staff, the clean and cozy room, and the cathedral cloister visible from my window—everything warms my heart when I look back on it.
If I visit Würzburg again, I would love to stay there once more (even though it takes about 20 minutes to walk from the station).

The cathedral cloister as seen from my room

As usual, it was a whirlwind stay, so I couldn't take enough time to tour the Residenz, but I'm glad I went.

The Marienberg Fortress was a bit tough to climb in my late 50s. But with a single-minded desire to see the same view I saw in 1990, I climbed up step by step.

It wasn't exactly the same, but there didn't seem to be any major changes

There weren't many people at the Marienberg Fortress at the end of February.

The view from the fortress doesn't look much different between 1990 and 2025, but the road from Würzburg station to the cathedral, like many other European cities, was lined with many shops and was full of life.
It seems like a comfortable place to live, too.

It is one of the cities I would like to visit again and take my time exploring.