There is a park near our apartment, maybe 10 minutes by foot. Gunthersburg Park. It is beautiful. Big and green, with different sections cordoned off for this and that, and surrounded by the beautiful houses of the neighborhood of Bornheim. Nils, Liv and I visit the playground once or twice a week, and today we also stopped for a greek yogurt and a coffee at the park's outdoor cafe.
There's a lot of this here in Frankfurt, we are finding. Lots of parks, lots of beautiful houses, and lots of brilliant things like outdoor cafes near playgrounds. You can really live a good life here.
We were guardedly optimistic about this possibility when we moved here. "Germany is great for families!"we heard. "You can live a good life in Frankfurt." Really? We had been here once before and weren't all that impressed. My 2010 visit to Frankfurt stands out in my memory first and foremost as the way I finally understood the energy of New York - after the dullness of Frankfurt it stood out like a fluorescent graffiti mural. For this reason and that though, we ended up here with our cautious optimism. We didn't expect too much, but we also figured we didn't need too much. How much do you need when you're stuck at home every night?
Did our needs change? Did our perspective change? Did we not get the full picture after visiting for a mere weekend? Who cares. It is wonderful here. Wonderful.
You can get anywhere in 20-30 minutes with minimal hassle.
You can bike anywhere you want to, even driving the wrong way in the middle of a one-way street.
You can stumble upon park after park after park.
You can have a car... but who needs one? Bike lanes everywhere, public transit.
It's manageable, it's international, it's full of stuff to do. It somehow seems deliciously finite but full of possibilities at the same time.
We went to Lohrberg over the weekend, a park up on a high hill overlooking the rest of the city. Green sloping hills full of milkweed and sunbathers. When a table opened up at the biergarten we sat and ate red cabbage, schnitzel, and potato dumplings. The food was delicious, and Oliver's beer was just as it should be. "Ah!" we kept exclaiming to each other. "This is so nice!" "Don't you think it's so nice here?" "What a beautiful spot!" "So glad we came here!" "Perfect afternoon!"
From my vantage point, it looks like Frankfurt does simple things really well. Is it lacking in other areas? I don't know. I don't know when I'll figure that out. I don't care. The simple stuff... I'm thrilled.
