Gießen: not the most awesome place in Germany

Post date: Feb 03, 2017 3:31:22 PM

This week I went to Giessen to work with some collaborators. Before I went I was excited! A new town in Germany! That I haven’t seen before, this is going to be great! I thought about the international friends I made during my PhD, and how every place must have been an adventure for them. Simple things, like going to Idaho Falls must have been an adventure too!

This week, I found the Idaho Falls of Germany. Giessen is not cool…

My trip started the way most trips start, via a wonderful train ride with a delightful cup of tea!

One of the few really cool and German looking buildings. Unfortunately, Giessen was bombed all to hell during World War II, so this was one of the few old buildings in town. However, Giessen is in West Germany, so unlike similar places in East Germany (that were bombed to hell during the the War), it was rebuilt quickly! However, it turns out that does not make it any prettier (a long discussion of communist buildings is coming later), but more functional for longer.

I think most small German towns are similar to Iowa City (Giessen has 30,000 people, about the size of Iowa City). They are thriving, with a ton of shops, and lots of artwork, and a huge pedestrian only zone in the city center and an amazing number of shops and restaurants. Given I spent the last 6 years living in a very small town, I’m amazed at how different small towns in Germany are, they are much more lively!

All three nights I went out for dinner (solo). This was by far the coolest place. The pizza was acceptable (so far I have only found one GREAT pizza place in all of Germany), the decor was awesome.

They brought out lemonade in homemade, refillable capri sun like pouches. It was a mint lemonade too, which made it more awesome.

When I arrived there were two middle eastern guys sitting in the window, and other than that the place was empty. An older (>70) lady came and asked me if the other seats at my table were free (And I understood her! Even though it was in German!). I responded that I don’t speak German, but the seats were free. She sat down across from me, and we had a wonderful dinner. We talked about her church group, politics, life after World War II, and generally life things. It was fun! (Full disclosure, the reason she came to sit with me was because she was worried that the middle eastern guys were dangerous and I was in trouble)

Despite the size and general nothing-ness of the town, there were a few interesting buildings.

And in a longer post I’m going to talk about German playgrounds, all of which look like ropes courses and are super intense and cool.

But you can see from the buildings that although it was an interesting place, it lacked character. It seems the War left scars on both the east and the west.