Walking Frannie - Green Spaces

As anyone with a dog knows your dog's need for "waste elimination" becomes a concern in scheduling your day. Some folks are able to get away with letting the dog out in the back yard. Frannie has always required a more high maintenance approach. Typically this means a walk that include green spaces where she can "do her duty". Concrete or blacktop would not be considered acceptable.

Living in Magda's 4th floor apartment Wallersheim presents additional challenges. First is the challenge of 4th floor living. It doesn't sound like a good idea to hurry down 3 flights of steps with a dog that needs to go right away. It is necessary to time things so that Frannie has the need, but it's not an urgent need.

The second is the challenge of living in Wallershiem. Wallershiem is a community of Koblenz along the Rhine just north of the Deutsche Eck at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle rivers. Prior to 1970, this community was mostly orchards. As the "Wirkshaft Wonder" attracted people to leave the country side for jobs in the city, the framers in communities adjacent to large cities figured out that they could set themselves for life by building apartments and houses on their land. And that is what happened here. Four and five story apartment building and row house sprung up faster that the growth could be controlled. The result is a complex maze of streets with little green spaces available.

So, one of our first missions was to locate the nearest green spaces for our walks with Frannie. We do have two small parks about 2 blocks away. These happen to be on the way to a passage to the banks of the Rhine where there is additional green for Frannie's use. Another somewhat larger park is about 3 blocks away. And there are some spaces in front of some Schreber gardens (gardens belonging to a club and rented by members to tend, named after the name that described the healthful effects of gardening) about 4 blocks in yet a different direction.

The good news is that we do have places for Frannie to claim, and we are able to have some variety in our walks.