The area

The square

Market days are Monday and Thursday. Half the quarter turns up, stands between the stalls with a coffee and watches the children on the playground. On the other days Blücherplatz is simply a square with a baker, a café, a supermarket and a few benches.

The buildings around it are home to young academic households, older couples, students. A residential street with no through traffic. Nobody is waiting at a traffic light here in the evening.

Green and water

Five minutes, and you are in the Forstbaumschule park. From there the parkland runs down to the water. A quarter of an hour on foot brings you to the Förde — in summer you can swim at the Badeanstalt Düsternbrook, the open-air baths right on the water.

Düsternbrook begins next door.

Evenings and weekends

Anyone staying half a year needs more than a route to work. Four minutes from the front door there is an outdoor fitness trail, and right beside it the Forstbaumschule — a Kiel institution, a restaurant with a beer garden, set in the park.

From there you have a choice. Either straight down through the park to the water, or through the Forstbaumschule and down Schlieffenallee into the Düsternbrooker Gehölz woodland. Water one way, woods the other. If you want a run in the evening, you decide at the front door.

At the bottom the Kiellinie promenade follows the Förde. There are three places to swim: the bathing spot on the Kiellinie is free; the Bellevue jetty is open from 1 June to the end of August; and the Seebadeanstalt Düsternbrook, the sea baths, run from Easter to mid-October. Club members reach the jetty regardless of opening hours — at sunrise, or at three degrees in January. Currently €145 a year, with yoga and qigong classes included.

The Metro cinema is a ten-minute walk. And at the weekend: handball with THW Kiel, football with Holstein Kiel, American football with the Baltic Hurricanes — all three easy to get to from here.

Shops and evenings out

Weekend shopping happens up on Holtenauer Straße, where people from Kiel shop themselves. Small shops, bookshops, cafés, restaurants. Not a mall — a street.

And if you would rather not go out: every delivery service covers this address.

Doctors and pharmacies

Both within walking distance, several of them private practices. Over a stay of six months or more that matters — people fall ill away from home too.

Parking

Free on the street, no permit needed. There is no private parking space.