"Where I Live -- Artifi ..." a Sankt Augustin Travel Page by RhineRoll

Sankt Augustin is a vivid example that Suburbia doesn't just exist in the United States. A city of some 60,000 people, Sankt Augustin has been created rather artificially by merging about 10 villages together under a common administrative structure. Some of these villages still have a rural feel to them, at least in their central parts. Others have been transformed and urbanized into genuine suburbs for Bonn (5 miles) and Cologne (15 miles)
This picture was taken from the window of my bedroom and gives a pretty good example of how things look like here. The terraced houses in the picture's middle are typical for middle/lower middle class dwellings.

In the late 70s, town planners went berserk and deciced to create a modern city centre for Sankt Augustin. They built a large shopping centre and a couple of huge business/office buildings around it. Did they do a good job? I don't think so! They did succeed, however, in emphasizing the facelessness of Sankt Augustin. For me, who lives in a large apartment block close to the shopping centre, it's a trade-off between convenience (very convenient) and atmosphere (nonexistent). Communications into Bonn and Cologne are excellent, even though the main roads are quite congested during rush hour .

Also, within a 100 km perimeter, there's an incredible wealth of great places to visit. -- the Cities of Bonn, Cologne -- the nice market town of Siegburg -- dozens of other beautiful towns and villages -- the river valleys of the Rhine, Sieg, Ahr, the Eifel hills.... I could go on an on and on... and I'll add stuff on a regular basis. Germany isn't such a bad place after all!

This is a really incredible shot I managed to take right from my apartment. First of all, auroras are hardly ever visible in our southerly latitudes. Only every 11 years, when the sun's eruptions reach peak levels does it become possible to make such observations. The second astonishing thing about this picture is the fact that the aurora is visible despite the huge amount of light polution from the Rhine Valley conurbation -- the light area to the left of the picture is caused by Cologne International Airport!!!