Dill's Adventures in Deutschland: Gardens and Spatzieren Gehen.

America has me spoiled. In Germany, its common for the older buildings not to have dryers or dish washers. My hosts are currently renovating a new apartment down the street. In the meantime, we're staying in a slightly smaller place. It's actually cozy.

Instead of dryers, people hang their wet wash in the attic. It was warm in there and smelled of fabric softener and wood. I loved it!

Each apartment has their own section of the attic to use.

You can see the community gardens down here. People not only garden for pleasure, they grown vegetables and make preserves with fruit.

It's popular to go for an afternoon walk after meal times or just for fun. While my host was at an appointment, I decided to take a stroll around the building.

Here we have a Spielplatz, a playground. I was surprised to see a sign saying no dogs allowed. People carry their dogs with them constantly.

Basic playground.

Here's a nice path running behind where we live.

The little creek was flooded due to the massive amounts of rain.

I can't begin to describe how big these leaves were.

Granted this guy might have thought I was following him, I had to get a picture of this scenery.

Flowers, pants, and trees were lining the walkway.

The waters rushed towards me! Okay, so I could have jumped the creek easily. Still. :-)

Some of the houses nearby.

Trees draping the road.

There was something curious behind these bars. I could hear this massive chirping coming from behind. It turns out this is a pond that's used for breeding frogs.

Here's an inside look.

Typical German houses. They tend to be smaller and closer together than American houses. Everything here in Germany is smaller than in America, cars included. Also, I think that if you don't drive a VW or a BMW then they kick you out of the country.

I've seen these trees everywhere! They can grow amazingly fast and are used along highways and the autobahn.

We live near an Apotheke, which is the equivalent of a chemist. The funny thing about Apothekes is that they don't sell anything other than medicines. Maybe a cough drop. Maybe. I went into one looking for a bottle of water. The people thought I was nuts. They did have a water cooler for people to take medication.

They brag about being open until 6pm. Whatever happened to my 24/hr CVS? This was always the problem in England, too. You have to plan your outings around whenever things close! At 7, the town suddenly goes dead!

Interesting tidbit, every Apotheke has to have a sign like this and it needs to be red.

The recycling and trash areas. As an incentive to recycle, glass bottles and plastic can be returned for money. Paper products, general rubbish, and biodegradable (bio) go separately into these bins.
I've also learned that manufacturers are charged based on how much packaging their product has. This is an incentive to cut down on trash.

Lovely pink tree. It made me smile.

The gardens were divided into sections.

There were pathways. Don't dare to step on the grass!

Here's an example of diy veggies and herbs.

German flowers are even different!

People were serious about their gardens. As I walked around, I noticed many if not all of the sections were locked. A few lol's (little old ladies) even poked their heads out to see what I was doing. I'm quick to learn this isn't strange.