Life in the Hellgrüner Hood

Satellite view, with a marker on our street

So what is daily life in the Hellgrüner Gang like? 

Blissfully free of car traffic, for one thing. The nearest busy street with cars is called An der Untertrave, which runs along the Trave River. It's about 50 paces from our door, accessible on foot through a narrow passageway, but not one you have to bend over to walk through!

To An der Untertrave

Unlike this one!

We've had a very pleasant summer weather-wise, so we keep our windows open most of the time. There are no screens, but neither are there stinging insects (this place is surrounded by water, but somehow free of mosquitos. I'm tellin' ya, Lübeck is a magic place!)

So, we get a lot of neighborhood ambience through the windows. Like kids playing in the playground behind our terrace.

Sometimes a soccer ball comes sailing over the hedge, and then an emissary (or an entire scouting party) comes to retrieve it. They can't climb the hedge, so they have to come knocking at the front door. Last evening, three solemn little boys (I'd say age 5-8 or so) came looking for their ball, which was stuck in our hedge. Jim found it for them, and all three of them very politely said 'Danke' before racing back to the playground.

Other ambient sounds: a man who lives somewhere in our little warren, who sometimes goes around calling for his dog. I have not been able to discern what the dog is called. It sounds something like “Oh-Vay”, which, if true, would mean that the dog is named “Woe is me”. I hope that is not the case, for both of their sakes!

The bells of nearest church (the Jakobikirche) chime every quarter hour: one bell at 15 minutes past, two bells at 30 minutes past, and so on. You have to keep track of the hour on your own!

Jakobikirche in the evening light

Sometimes we can hear boat horns from the Trave or the harbor.

During the World Cup semi-final game between Germany and Brazil (you know, the one where Germany won 7-1!), I could clearly hear cheers from all over the neighborhood when Germany scored, even though I was watching a movie on my computer and wearing headphones! Ha!

Germans seem to live out of doors when the weather is nice. So we've heard our next-door neighbors having coffee on their terrace several times, reading the paper or chatting quietly to each other.

We've nodded to the lady who lives on the end of our row as we're both hanging up or taking down our respective loads of wash. One day, she loaned some garden shears to Jim when she saw him trimming some over-ambitious hedge inhabitants with scissors. :-)

And then there are the tour groups who visit regularly, as mentioned here. 

All in all, the Hellgrüner Gang is a quiet, friendly place to live, and we feel like we're part of the neighborhood!