Monday, August 3, 2009

Petition for a name change

Sometimes the name of a location fails to provide an accurate description of it's surroundings. I once lived in a city in Brazil called Campo Limpo, meaning clean field, -- it was anything but. However, even with that in mind, I was still a bit concerned with what I would encounter in Bad Homburg, a village just northwest of Frankfurt. Granted, Bad actually means Bath, but for the non-Germanic speaker (such as myself) Bad just means... Bad. I had gone for the weekend to meet up with a friend from Vienna and to go to the temple. But, after the 4 hour high speed train ride into Frankfurt, missing the first S-Bahn to Bad Homburg which only runs every 30 minutes, walking to the hostel to drop off my luggage once arriving in the village, stopping for a nice sit-down lunch, then walking an hour from the restaurant in Bad Homburg to the temple in Friedrichsdorf, we managed to arrive right as the temple had closed... for the weekend. Not feeling defeated, though, we sat on the grounds under the statue of Moroni and chatted for a few hours while enjoying the weather and the sweet spirit.

The remainder of our stay was spent in what I hereby deem "Nice" Homburg. It just so happens that every time I go to Germany I always end up in a quaint little village that I fall in love with and proclaim as my favorite. This time was no exception. With it's whimsical statues, picturesque hills, and beautiful Germanic houses, "Nice" Homburg would be the perfect place to move to after an early retirement in order to open a Bed and Breakfast in one of the greatest locations with a previously misleading name.

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