**Today is the very last guest post before I am officially back to writing every day for you all...I've missed you! But today you get to hear a very special story from San about growing up in Germany, her blog is called
The In Between is Mine...go check it out!**
People sometimes ask me where I am from. When I answer "Germany", they inquire further, "What part?".
I usually have a hard time answering this, because my answer really directly depends on how well you know Germany, so I usually hum and haw in order to figure out how to respond. Most people make do with my very generic response "two hours hours north of Frankfurt", because most people know Frankfurt for it's big international hub airport.
I'd prefer to answer the question with "outside of Cologne (Köln) or
"the Rhineland", but that's usually almost too specific already. If I want to be absolutely precise, my answer would be that I grew up in
Grevenbroich [pronounced
[ɡʁeːvənˈbʁoːx]), a small city in the (very!) Western part of Germany. As you can see on the map, it's very close - about 55 km/35 miles - to the Dutch and Belgian border.
The city has its own "coat of arms", like all or most cities in Germany.
What I liked most about growing up in my hometown was that it is relatively small and urban (population 65,000), but was only 30 minutes outside of two big cities, Köln (
Cologne) and Düsseldorf.
I liked growing up having that small-town feel, and yet being able to hop on a train and go to a big city in no time.
My schools, both elementary school and
Gymnasium (middle and high school), were within walking distance of my parents' house and the city center was a 10 minute bike ride away. Most of my friends lived practically 'around the corner'.
As kids, my sister and I were able to do everything by bike. There was no need for a car (or even public transportation) until much, much later. I loved being independent like that at a very early age.
Grevenbroich was small enough to make you feel like everything was
really close, and at the same time it was big enough to provide everything for your daily needs: supermarkets, bakeries, shops, department stores, schools, etc.
I didn't even have to go far away for college, because I attended university in Düsseldorf, which was 30 minutes away (by train that ran twice an hour).
I think Grevenbroich is a very typical small German city, tucked away between endless corn, potato and sugar beet fields and close to a giant
strip mine and a power plant, which made Grevenbroich known as the "capital of energy". The big bucket-wheel excavators are a especially impressive - and kind of pretty - at night!
(source unknown - please let me know if you know who deserves credit for this).
Here are some more impressions from my town:
This used to be a manor house, but it's a museum these days.
This building belongs to a castle that was situated right in middle of town.
We have a beautiful monastery that runs a beer garden in the summer.
There is art in all kinds of places.
We have many open fields where I grew up (and wind farms, can you see it?)...
... and there are beautiful sunsets behind these fields.
In the fall, there are harvest festivals with little parades.
These days, I live about 6000 miles away from home in California, far away from my family and the people and places that I love. I am happy where I am, but I always get very excited to go back home and I can't wait for the holidays to get here!
