We at GTspirit travel routinely to known places all over the world. This time we travelled to a rather unknown Town in Germany called Einbeck. Einbeck is a small city in Lower Saxony with around 30.000 inhabitants. It is located near the west side of the Harz Mountains and pretty much in the center of Germany. The city of Einbeck is characterized by its historic district with around 150 medieval half-timber houses. Einbeck is also home of the famous Bock beer, which is a stout with more original gravity.
Location
The hotel belongs to the FREIgeist GmbH & Co with its executive partners Georg Rosentreter and Carl Graf von Hardenberg. German business men Karl-Heinz Rehkopf is the prime investor, and has recently rebuilt an old granary into an automotive museum and named it PS Speicher. After that he invested into a hotel next to the PS Speicher, FREIeist Einbeck. The hotel’s outside appearance is quite plain and very modern. It is not obtrusive, rather decent and reluctant. But by entering the hotel FREIgeist, you are met by all its little details.
The interior appearance is different to known hotels and that’s exactly what the FREIgeist wants to be – different. During our first walk in, we noticed the exposed concrete walls in combination with huge windows. But right on your second glance, you notice lovely details everywhere. The furniture consists of well selected pieces, where everyone can tell its own story and history. For example, the Russian movie lamp from the 1940s at the bar or the impressive desk on the opposite of the reception – a radial engine from a plane!
To match the PS Speicher theme, old motorcycles are placed on the wall over the entrance area, which goes up to the ceiling of the hotel giving you an impressive view from the 4th floor. The bikes even have skid marks. The automotive touch is visible in too many details, a few more include the Bar menu which is called “Fahrtenbuch”, which means “drivers logbook”, over the entrance to the restaurant is a rusty old French car and the wall drawing on the gents toilet is a picture of a manufacturing legend – Ettore Bugatti.
Rooms
The FREIgeist Einbeck has a total of 63 rooms. Our room was on the 2nd floor. The room numbers are made by a graffiti artist, whose unique handwriting can be found everywhere in the building, supporting the hotels creative and unique design aspects. The room had a hardwood floor and a vintage wooden wall behind the bed. The ceiling shows concrete and the walls are painted in light brown. The furniture is made out of dark wood. Even though the rooms were quite small, the interior design gives them some sort of loft feeling. The bathroom is covered in exposed concrete and a large walk-in shower. Most appealing part is the Russian mining lamp.
Restaurant
The Restaurant is called “GENUSSWERKSTATT”, which could be translated into “relish garage”. The menu offers selected meals, which are made from a highly motivated team and served by a very friendly crew, giving every guest the attention they need to have a pleasant stay in the restaurant. You can have a look at how your food is made, as the kitchen is visible for everyone. Needless say, that the interior design totally fits to the overall design theme.
The FREIgeist Bar in the hotel serves drinks in a cozy atmosphere. You can book a separate area, closed by a garage door and order ice cold beer in a wheelbarrow!
Activities
Next to the hotel is the “PS Speicher”, the automotive experience exhibition built into an old granary. The exhibition consists of around 350 permanent automobiles and motorcycles, where most vehicles are from one of the largest collections in the world. Particular variations to other automotive museums are definitely the ways of experiencing the exhibits. With the use of modern technology, lots of interactive surroundings were made. For example, a simulator using a 1950s car from the brand Hanomag, which lets you drive through the former inner city of Hannover. Or curved mirrors around an iconic VW Beetle, which display videos with information.
The exhibition rooms reflect the very first steps in the world of automotive movement going up to the first decades of the 20th century and even futuristic concepts. The PS Speicher also holds several special exhibitions, like ‘small cars’ and ‘motorsport’. The latter contains very interesting cars in the history of motorsport, such as past formula one race cars, rally cars and le mans racers. Another attraction is the Porsche simulator. Take a seat in a real Porsche 911 Carrera 4 Convertible and drive on the world’s finest racetracks. Your experience will be supported by the “six degrees of freedom” system, meaning a lot of realistic movement and up to 1G! Of course we did the fastest laps during our stay. The PS Speicher is definitely worth a visit.
Conclusion
As the name FREIgeist means freethinker, we were curious how the name will affect the hotel experience. Overall we had a very nice experience and pleasant stay. The love for details is visible everywhere and rounds up as a nice symbiosis for visitors. The hotel FREIgeist with the PS Speicher are definitely worth a visit!
