Though Göttingen is small, it doesn't shut down after dark; the 30,000 students are no doubt responsible for the lively night life. Jazz and blues clubs, such as Blue Note at Wilhelmsplatz 3, provide a variety of live music; a handful of student taverns, including Zum Altdeutschen (Prinzenstr. 16) and Zum Szültenbürger (Prinzenstr. 7), serve inexpensive food and, of course, plenty of beer; and cultural venues such as the Deutsches Theater and Stadthalle offer top-flight theater, symphony, opera, and concerts almost daily.
On a chilly November night in Göttingen, we obtained tickets at the tourist office for a performance of the Don Cosack singers, a small a cappella Russian choir. The tickets cost approximately €13 and the group's mesmerizing concert took place in one of the town's secondary music venues, St. Albani Church.
The accessibility of Göttingen's rail station makes excursions to nearby towns a simple matter. Kassel, with its Brothers Grimm Museum and the Wilhelmshöhe Castle with its great Old Masters Gallery, is just 30 miles distant; Hannover, site of Expo 2000 and the glorious Herrenhausen Gardens, is about an hour by train; and such villages as Duderstadt, with more than 500 half-timbered houses and once known as the "Nürnberg of the Eichsfeld," are just minutes away.
