Hanover sits in the middle of the German rail network and most of Lower Saxony is within a 90-minute train ride.
Hildesheim, 30 minutes south, has two UNESCO-listed Romanesque churches (St. Michael's and the cathedral) and the surviving 1,000-year-old rose bush in the cathedral cloister.
Celle, 40 minutes north, is a postcard-perfect Renaissance town that was not bombed in the war — a tight grid of half-timbered houses around a working ducal castle.
Goslar, an hour south at the edge of the Harz mountains, is another preserved medieval town with the Imperial Palace and a UNESCO-listed silver mine just outside.
Wolfsburg, 30 minutes east, is the company town built in 1938 around the VW factory — the Autostadt theme park and the Phaeno science centre by Zaha Hadid are both worth a visit.
Bremen, an hour west by ICE, is the medieval Hanseatic port for a longer day out.