Here's a photo of our small yard/garden from the balcony. You can also see the bottom of our towering spruce tree, Tristan on the bike, and the garage behind Tristan. The yard might look small to you, but it's a huge yard for this part of town. We're very close to the city center and can walk to everything - the bank, post office, grocery store, school and most important by far the boulangerie/patisserie (for baguettes and croissants of which we consume mass quantities). Our building is about 100 years old. A lot of newer apartment buildings surround ours and we have some great neighbors (more about them later). I think a lot of college students also live near us. We don't see them much but we hear them very very late on Saturday nights.