Tief ( -Garagen) in Bayern

We visited in Holland, Germany, Italy and Switzerland this winter for the first time in eight very long years. We got to return to visit old friends. Babies born but never met are now in elementary school, new buildings everywhere. 

We took a pile of pictures we will be publishing in a short series this week. Thank you again to the beloved friends whose houses are in our pictures. 

Today it's all about the tief (deep) garage!

Here are pictures from two of our friends' neighborhoods. Though both friends live in small cities - one a small university city in Germany, the other a small town about 10 minutes from Zurich on the above ground street tram. Both neighborhoods are created with an underground garage for cars for each neighborhood instead of personal driveways, parking pads or garages.

Personal garages are replaced with small yards and front sheds for bicycles. Removing car parking spaces from the front of the houses created beautiful walking and play spaces for residents. Both neighborhoods had bike pathways and generous sidewalks, well separated from traffic, that gave comfortable access to the city centers and shopping on foot or bike.

These first pictures are from Northern Bavaria

Picked up at the train with the brother of our box bike. Here in
the city shopping pedestrian zone with a Christmas tree
carried from Munich catching a ride on the back.

Out of focus but shows
separated bike lane well

Here is a view of the road, curb separated lane and sidewalk in the city center. The deeper grey center path is the bikeway. The grate indicates the area of the walking way.




A hairsbreadth from the center of Zurich each townhouse has its own bike garage outside the front door protected from mountain snow and rain. Car free paths lead to a network of off street foot paths throughout the village to schools and shopping with street crossings mixed in.

Here are more views of the same front gardens and walkway. Below the houses and gardens are the buried garage- "tief garage". Residents' cars are parked down here under the small private backyard gardens adjoining the houses.

Footpaths are marked with signs noting they are for walking only. Below is the path off of the Blumenstrasse. The building just visible on the right is an elementary school. The path can be used by walkers or those on bikes and allows children to travel to school  on foot or bike well separated from car traffic.

We love the small girl and her dapper companion.