I drove back to Lübeck yesterday. There are a couple of reasons why I drove back. I have to manage some things for myself, mainly bureaucracy related. Then there is the problem that my aunt got the flu, and I really don't want to get the flu too. I am usually pretty resistant against flu viruses, especially because I am often outside no matter the weather. Anyway, if someone else has it around you, there is the risk you will get it too. Yep, I am pretty paranoid about flu viruses and try to keep any risk out of my way (laugh). Talking about my uncle, the person I helped in another town, his health is as previously mentioned much better. However, it can not be ruled out that I need to help again, but I wouldn't mind, because I miss Reindfeld already a little bit, not the town, but the nature there.
I like the city where I live, but a small town is not that bad either, that's something I probably wouldn't have said before. The small town was pretty boring, but the small size makes it easy to get into the nature faster, you don't have to walk through several districts to find yourself in a forest or near a pond. Of course, we have parks and rivers in the city where I live, but that is still a difference, if you want to see more, you have to get out of the city. So, a small town is perfect for people who like to hike, that's why I am missing it already a little bit. It's funny that I wrote this now, because now I see how big the difference actually is, it's funny because three days ago I complained in one of my posts, that not everything around the small town is nature, because I found country roads, railway lines and small villages behind forests.
I think both has its advantages and disadvantages. The surroundings of my uncles town are more rural, you get into the nature fast, even by foot, it's perfect for nature photography. The city where I live, you have culture and architecture, not too bad for photography either. One plus about my city is that I could go shopping until 10 pm, and there are a lot of stores that have opened for so long. In the small town it's much more difficult if you forgot something, they have two stores opened that long, but they might not be the stores where you get what you need. Generally, we usually drove to Lübeck to go shopping, because you find more stores there, and you have a bigger choice of products compared to Reinfeld. So, as said, I can see advantages and disadvantages at both places.
If you would ask me today if I would prefer to live in a small town or in a bigger city, my answer would be "Can I choose both?". I don't have the money to have a home at two places, but I could imagine to have two places for living if money wouldn't be a problem. Bigger cities, smaller towns, I think I did now learn to like both. For now I am just back where I do live, to manage some things, and then let's see if I need to go back to the town for another month, I wouldn't mind.
Hi Dennis, not long ago I looked on google maps to see where Reinfeld was in relation to Lubeck and was surprised to see (if I 'm looking at the right town) that it is only about 20 kilometres. From the way you wrote I expected it would be much further away from the city. I guess that in Australia we are more used to travelling long distances. In most Australian capital cities if you travelled 20km from the centre of the city you would still be in the suburbs. Hobart is different; 20km would put you in the countryside going south to where I live. I can see advantages in both city and country living. In the city you can easily go to the theatre and concerts, there are more shops and restaurants open longer hours. On the other hand if you like nature you are closer to it in the country and can see the stars better at night. David and I decided to try the country after living in the suburbs all our lives because while we loved a drive to the countryside we were often too busy or too tired or did not have enough petrol money to do it very often. Living in the country as I do every time I go to Hobart to visit the shops I see the beautiful scenery and if I were able to drive myself I would easily be able to visit places where I could walk, take photographs and enjoy peace. Many people would think that commuting 20km to the city to work was worth it to have the country lifestyle and if you can work from home or are retired it is even better. Geeveston where I live is 60km from Hobart, takes a bit over an hour on the bus or 45 minutes driving which is quite good really.
Yes, you are right, 20 km would be the route over the Autobahn, alternatively there is the B75 country road route with 17km. About the capital cities, that's very similar for German metropoles at least… Hamburg is that big for example, from the middle it will take you around 15km or maybe even 20km to get outside of the city, but then there are a lots of suburbs too. There are several other examples and big cities, like Berlin of course. Lübeck is rather small compared to it. The district where I live in Lübeck is basically close to the west border of the city, so, it takes a few minutes to get out of the town from there with the car, and just around 20 or 30 minutes to get to Reinfeld depending on the traffic on your choosen route. However, it can take you longer if you live in the East of Lübeck, because our inner-city traffic is sometimes annoying and they work on a lot of streets. Talking about hiking, Lübeck can be still big, it's an area of 214 km2. You might remember my Schellbruch nature posts, the place is in the east of Lübeck, I remember it usually took me one hour and a half of walking to get there, and that's not even where Lübeck ends, and that is the difference to hiking in Reindfeld where you need 5 minutes by foot to be in the nature. A little more north east from Lübeck there is Travemünde, the baltic coast, it's basically still a district of Lübeck, althought we would call it already suburb and not inner-district. From my western district to the district of Travemünde it's 25km via Autobahn and can take you a little longer with the car than driving to Reindfeld from my district in Lübeck.
Reinfeld is just so small with 7500 citizen that it and other towns just belongs to a district called Stormarn. But Storman has 766 km2 and a population of 232,911 citizens.
Lübeck is it's own district as a city in the Metropolitan region of Hamburg, the region Lübeck has 214 km2 and 211,713 citizens. So, the numbers show how different citizens are distributed in both regions.
Yep, city is totally better for cultural events, I agree. I do also agree with the stars in countryside, it is much darker in Reindfeld for example, that was my impression, they do actually have a dark heaven but in Lübeck you see a blue heaven at night due to all the lights. Since Australia is much bigger, I can image you have places in the middle between cities where the heaven is actually not only darker but black at night, that is something you see rarely in Germany because so many towns and cities or suburbs are close to each other. We have a lot of light pollution I think. When you talk about working, I have a lot of friends who live in Lübeck but work in Hamburg, and the other way around… from the middle of both cities it's 70km distance. Some of my friends are that flexible. I wouldn't like that, because you never know when you arrive in Hamburg, it should take an hour, but it can be faster, or it can take a lot longer than an hour if there is traffic jam. Not only this, it depends where you work in Hamburg, to get through Hamburg alone, it can take you quite a while. I have respect for the people who are that flexible, but in this case I am not that flexible. I worked several times in Hamburg, I always disliked it a lot, not because of Hamburg, but because you have to be up much earlier. Anyway, I can see why some people would drive such distances to the work, living a country lifestyle would be one of cases where it might be worth the two extra hours, I agree.
Thank you for the links Dennis. I will look them up. I enjoy looking at maps and I love Google Earth. It is fun to see where people live or where they are going on a trip as well as being useful for planning journeys. I worked in Hobart for several years at a part time job and commuted by bus, I always enjoyed the ride home but not the early start on cold winter mornings so much :); but being at the mercy of bus timetables meant that I was away from home a lot longer than I really liked and I was not sorry to stop doing it. Also the fares took up a big slice of my wages. I imagine that Hamburg would be more like Sydney and Melbourne where traffic is very heavy and it makes more sense to use public transport to get about the city. Friends of mine live in an outer suburb of Melbourne, about 40km away but both are now retired so they don't have to drive so much and can avoid peak times on the trains more easily. They told me that the train service they use to go to the city is also used by people commuting from as far away as Bendigo, a regional city about 150kms by road from Melbourne. People would also commute from Ballarat (114kms west) and Geelong 75km south.
Wow, I can't understand how people could communite such long distances like 150km, that sounds like they would sacrifice a lot of time for their jobs. Much repsect to people who do that, but I couldn't and wouldn't want to do that.
City versus country. Ah. I spent most of my life in the city and I loved it. Now I live in the country. I love the country too. I think the city is great when you are young. Lots of places to go, museums, theaters, restaurants, events of all kinds. You don't mind the traffic, noise, parking as much when you're young. You get older and you've had enough. You want to be able to get around without fighting your way through traffic. There's a time and a place for everything. Sometimes I miss the city, especially theaters and good restaurants. Mostly, though, I'm glad I can park without a struggle and don't live in the middle of a permanent traffic jam.
Frankly, it's the traffic that finally got me out of the city. Traffic and parking. It just killed me.
Perfect comparison Marilyn. I do agree, you have more events in the city, that can be good, unless you just want to relax, then the country and the nature is a much better place. Sometimes I like the busy city, but sometimes I get enough of it too. Now that I could live in a much smaller town for over a month, I see many advantages there too. I think you are right, the city is good for young people, and I could imagine to live in a smaller town when I get older, but now I am somewhere inbetween (laugh), I just can say I like both and I hate some things about both. 😀 I get your point about the traffic… in our city they drive like lunatics, as pedestrian you must be very careful… the noise in the city can be annoying too, very true!