Because we stayed in old hotels, but with very modern appointed rooms and facilities, and toured old castles and churches, we were largely disconnected from the homes people actually live in. Here are some pictures of the apartments behind our hotel in Bern. In spite an environment of rock and concrete there are valiant efforts to grow things.
Note the gardens on tops of office buildings
Solid doors for these old apartments in Bern
I wondered how people get up and down to those apartments in these old buildings. Except where they may have put in some elevators for the more expensive sites, I suspect it is a long trudge up and down tight circular stairs such as these (which seem the tradition here now as well as in the old castles and churches).
These are some pictures of Einstein’s apartment in Bern (where he thought up theory of special relativity among other ideas) and provides a glimpse on how a middle class apartment for a young couple would have been furnished in the 1903.
Where there are “stand alone” homes and space, backyard gardens are common (not unlike homes where I grew up in the US) and some with sports courts with basketball hoops in place of gardens (not unlike some suburban homes where I live now).
Outside of the major cities there are “subdivisions” of usually two story boxy homes that, while perhaps smaller that their US counterparts, with a few architectural tweaks would fit nicely in most US suburbs. I suspect that many of the quaint “villages” surrounding the major cities, such as Bern and Munich, are not really self sufficient towns, but as in the US bedroom communities serving the larger city, connected by commuter trains, rather than freeways.
EVIE'S COMMENT: During the Murder Mystery Dinner in Heidelberg, I sat next to a German lawyer who works in the Heidelberg office. He and his wife have four children -- two girls, ages 11 and 9, and twin 4-year-old boys. Apparently, he used to work in Stuttgart, over an hour away from Heidelberg, but when he took the job in Heidelberg, he and his wife decided not to move. They live in a "village" (his word) about 20 minutes from Stuttgart -- and from talking to him, it seems that their village is more self-sufficient and has a much more community feel to it that many US "bedroom" cities and towns.
EVIE'S COMMENT: During the Murder Mystery Dinner in Heidelberg, I sat next to a German lawyer who works in the Heidelberg office. He and his wife have four children -- two girls, ages 11 and 9, and twin 4-year-old boys. Apparently, he used to work in Stuttgart, over an hour away from Heidelberg, but when he took the job in Heidelberg, he and his wife decided not to move. They live in a "village" (his word) about 20 minutes from Stuttgart -- and from talking to him, it seems that their village is more self-sufficient and has a much more community feel to it that many US "bedroom" cities and towns.
Likely fewer live in single family homes than in the US and, despite the grace and beauty of their old churches, castles and buildings, many are probably stuck in uninspiring buildings such as these. Nonetheless, from the train I would sometime see some large areas of what appear to common or shared garden plots. So, unlike in the US, maybe those in the ugly apartments can still have a nice vegetable garden.
