Last week Chris gave one of his invited talks at an institute in the city of Mannheim, which is just a couple of hours by train from Tübingen. My impression of the city was colored by the fact that it was raining on and off — and also very, very cold — most of the time we were there. It wasn’t a horrible place, mind you, but the big touristy thing that is on every single postcard and chatchka I saw is the Water Tower, originally built in the late 1800s.

Their other big claim to fame overall is actually that their city is built on a grid-system layout, that was done hundreds of years ago.  They are actually called the “block” city (by their own tourist bureau), since it’s so odd compared to all the other towns around, I guess. The blocks are lettered and numbered. There are no street names on any of the streets.  So, for example, if you’re looking for a store that is at “R3, 132” you’d be looking for something in the R3 block, and you’ll need to find which side of the square block the 100s happen to run along. It would be easier to have street names, rather than have to circumnavigate the block trying to find a house number, IMHO. But, that’s just me, apparently, as Mannheim has been like this for hundreds of years: you get the block number, and then a house number which could be along any of the 4 sides of the block..

Anyway, aside from the grid system, the other odd thing (for me) was that the downtown area is like one huge shopping mall, with store after store after store, from big to small, inexpensive to high-end. Just like the stores in every shopping mall all over Europe.

Except it’s all outdoors.

Did I mention it was cold and it was raining?

Combined with my normal disinterest in shopping these days, it wasn’t my ideal location.  As I said, there was nothing wrong with the city, really, , but then there wasn’t anything much exciting about it either. Since the annual Christmas markets hadn’t opened yet, there wasn’t much beyond the tower and the shopping mall/streets  to see, at least where we were. It’s telling that the only photos I took were of that water tower, that puddle reflection (which I do like) that I posted the other day, and also of a big display of animatronic stuffed animals set up in a big store window display. It was very cute – but standing outside looking at it only goes so far.

I mean, did I mention that it was cold and raining? 😉

Oh well, I guess unfortunately that was my overall impression of Mannheim. Maybe we’ll get to go back sometime on a warm sunny day. In the meantime, hope you enjoy this brief look below at Mannheim.