Heidelberg day 2 (morning): We are not suburbanites

[aryanhwy]

The two places we saw this morning were in Handschuhsheim, a suburb of Heidelberg north of the river.

They were decent, large, well-laid out, reasonably priced, nice places in quiet neighborhoods filled with families and both with lots of other families in the same apartment building and large yards/parks surrounding them. All very nice...for people other than us.

Something we've suspected for awhile but which we've only really confirmed recently is that we're not suburbanites. Not having a car, of course we want to live close to where we work/etc., or at least have public transportation, but even though the places we saw today are only 3km from where my office will be (so, closer than we currently live to the university), we were pretty much in agreement that we would just not be happy living in a place like that -- not when our two alternatives so far are just as nice (if not nicer) and way better located. I'd rather have an old medieval market square outside my house than a yard.

So the two we saw this morning -- while perfectly nice and adequate -- are definitely strictly dominated by the ones we saw yesterday. Of the two yesterday, there isn't a clear front-runner yet. The first apartment is definitely the nicer one, but the location of the second is way better, and the apartment there is by no means bad, and thus the combination of good apartment + awesome location might beat out great apartment.

Comments

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Your post made me laugh, because we aren't suburbanites either, but totally the opposite way; we want our neighbours as far away as we can possibly get them, and at least enough land to host a small camping event.

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Every once in awhile I'll see a little house tucked away on a forested plot miles from anything and I get a bit wistful and think how wonderful it would be to live there.

Then I remember how much I enjoy not having a car, and how irritating I found it when the nearest grocery store went from 80m away to 800m.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

At some point when you're settled in, I may importune you for assistance in locating "local color" information on ca. 1820 Heidelberg, especially the university district. (The first chapter of my current novel is set there and eventually I'll need to fill in some more concrete scene-setting details. I know this sounds awfully backward, but there were various reasons for picking that particular setting that didn't require specific knowledge.)

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

I'll be happy to do some scouting around for you!