We have seen two snowstorms in the last week. Very unusual for Germany in November (much like in DC). Pretty cold too. Didn't time the shipping of our winter coats too well and had to buy some stuff to tie us over.
Pretty eventful week but then again every week since mid-August has been eventful..
Hope you all liked my picture blog last week. I'm embedding a link to some more (and better) pictures of our new house, which we move into on Dec. 15th. We originally planned to move Dec. 1st but that is tomorrow and we don't even have our car yet.
http://picasaweb.google.com/mossless/HomeInGermany
I forgot to mention last week that I attended a weeklong orientation here at the hotel for Army and DoD spouses and dependants (for free!) by the Army Community Service. It was conducted by a German lady named Irmgard who is considered the local expert on German culture and customs.
We spent the first day getting maps and general info about Wiesbaden. Tuesday we heard from vendors like the USO, PX, Commissary and then a quick course in survival German. Wednesday we had to take our driver's tests (we passed!) so I had to miss Irmgard's walking tour of Wiesbaden. Thursday we all met at the train station to learn about the train system and then she took us on a tour of a German version of Whole Foods. Friday's event was cancelled due to the threat of snow (which didn't happen till Sunday). We had planned to meet at a bus station so Irmgard could show us the bus system and then travel to and from Mainz. I could have really used that lesson, but the orientation was free so I guess beggars can't be choosers.
OK, so back to this past week. Lots more stuff to report. Monday went to the Post Office and checked our mail. Dropped off / picked up some DvDs from the library to watch at the hotel. Getting pretty tired of watching the AFN (Armed Forces Network). Basically all the commercials are military-related and extremely repetitive. My saving grace is that they are broadcasting all my favorite shows - Daily Show, Colbert Report and Boston Legal!
Tuesday the Wiesbaden Christmas mart opened! Christmas Marts are street festivals held in most German cities from the end of Nov. through Christmas. The streets are closed so food and craft vendors can set up shop while everyone browses through, sipping mulled wine (gluhwein) and munching on local favorites such as bratwurst, pommes frites, potato pancakes, soup, flat breads, etc.
Wednesday I spent most of the day finding Lew a 9th Wedding Anniversary card in German. Most of them seemed to be wedding cards. It's too bad my dictionary didn't translate wedding anniversary but Lew's did. In case anyone's interested, the Germany word for wedding is Hochzeit and wedding anniversary is Hochzeitstag, which I thought to mean wedding day. Oh well... Lew did get me a card and in English!
Thursday was Thanksgiving and our Anniversary. Thanksgiving is just an average day here in Germany. We had an invite to join a family for dinner who works with Lew but got a tip on a great restaurant near our new house so made that our plan instead. The big adventure that day was taking the bus to the restaurant! Also a chance to practice taking the bus from Wiesbaden to our new house and back. The commute was fine except we almost caught a cab home when we discovered the return route had been switched to another stop causing us to miss the first three buses back into Wiesbaden.
Friday was a workday for Lew. I spent the morning at the train station firming up our itinerary to Cologne the next day. Turns out that round trip fare for up to five people from Wiesbaden to ANYWHERE in Germany only costs about $45 total on weekends. We invited another coworker of Lew's, so that made our train fare pretty cheap.
We had a fabulous trip to Cologne! They have about 7 different Christmas marts, including a floating one and one that sits right in front of the Cologne Cathedral. Weather was terrific, not to mention the company! But we got a little Christmas-mart'ed out toward the end of the afternoon and made our way home.
The ride up from Wiesbaden was quite scenic. The train bordered the Rhine River most of the way, passing many castles and quaint Germany villages. By far the best deal for our money yet. We are looking forward to more train travel on weekends whenever possible.
Today is Sunday and we splurged on a brunch at a five star restaurant at Kafers, located in the Kurhaus (casino). YUM! Got our second snowfall today but it didn't stick.
Hoping to start my German class this week but won't know for sure till tomorrow. Tomorrow going on tour to Rudesheim w/Irmgard. Wonderful medieval town with fabulous Christmas Mart.
As of today (Monday), our main shipment and car have arrived so we are 100% in Germany now. Just may not see our car till next week's post.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday!
Love,
Jaime, Lew, Howard and Rocky
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Week Ending Sunday 11/23/08
Trying something new this week - my first "all pictures" blog!
Finally made it to the FH3 (Frankfurt Hash House Harriers)!
A few shots of #16a, Stegerwald Str. in Dotzheim. Hoping to sign the rental agreement this week. Private gate and driveway. Entrance to house on left.
Courtyard looking back to separate office / guest quarters.
Now this is a cool looking bathroom!
Inspecting one of the upstairs bedrooms with private balcony.
Spacious eat-in kitchen next to front entrance and foyer.
House from the courtyard.
I've never seen leaves this large!
Rocky pretty much lives under the bed.
And Howard likes to be under end tables.
Lew sipping his first Gluhwein at a neighborhood church bazaar.
So here is our current home - The American Arms Hotel!
Auf wiedersehen and Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!
Jaime, Lew, Howard and Rocky
Finally made it to the FH3 (Frankfurt Hash House Harriers)!
A few shots of #16a, Stegerwald Str. in Dotzheim. Hoping to sign the rental agreement this week. Private gate and driveway. Entrance to house on left.
Courtyard looking back to separate office / guest quarters.
Now this is a cool looking bathroom!
Inspecting one of the upstairs bedrooms with private balcony.
Spacious eat-in kitchen next to front entrance and foyer.
House from the courtyard.
I've never seen leaves this large!
Rocky pretty much lives under the bed.
And Howard likes to be under end tables.
Lew sipping his first Gluhwein at a neighborhood church bazaar.
So here is our current home - The American Arms Hotel!
Auf wiedersehen and Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!
Jaime, Lew, Howard and Rocky
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Week Ending Sunday 11/16/08
Whirlwind 2nd week here, not unlike the first week. We can probably not count on settling down until mid-2009 sometime.
Today is Sunday and Lew is again watching football in the other room with me here in the bedroom on the laptop.
So picking up from last week, I'll start where we left off last Monday, 11/10:
Remember I said we were carless? Well today took the cake with relying on the base shuttle to get Lew and his colleages to and from work. They were at the stop awaiting the 6:45am pickup only to find out that the shuttle was on a weekend/holiday schedule (basically a drastically reduced schedule with the first pickup not occurring till 9:20am!). Apparently this is a common practice over here. Tuesday was Veterans Day and when a holiday occurs at the end (or close to) a weekend, businesses tend to take the other day off to give their employees an extra long holiday weekend.
So instead of my shuttling over to base to meet Lew later that morning (we had errands), I just boarded the 9:20 shuttle with him. So then came the hassle of him getting a ride home from work because the last shuttle back to the hotel left at 3:15pm! He got a ride home from his boss. Indian Dinner at the Taj Mahal was wonderful!
Tuesday, 11/11. Lew has the day off! Spent the day hoofing around town. Visited the PX in the morning and downtown Wiesbaden in the afternoon. Had to get lunch at the train station there because it's such a cool place. Then split up so he could check out the electronics store and I spent an hour obsessing over cheap jewelry at the mall. Back to the hotel for dinner.
Wednesday, 11/12. Lew works noon-9pm schedule on Wednesdays so we hit the Housing Office in the morning to check out listings. Several leads and referrals obtained so we scheduled appointments to check them out Friday afternoon.
A quick side note, seem to have a serious lack of decent coffee here in the morning. We get a free continental breakfast but the coffee is pretty bad and I have developed a strong dislike for their liquid "creamers" so keep buying cartons of whole milk, except those are a pain to carry around. This is a letdown because I always expected European coffee (anywhere in Europe) to be far better than in the US.
I spent the rest of the day walking my butt off to the different neighborhoods we planned to visit on Friday. Wasn't really thinking clearly cause 1) I didn't carry an umbrella (big mistake... rains here a lot) and 2) got temporarily lost just before dark. But made it back home via the train station for a warm bowl of soup and pretzel. I think walking is OK for an hour or so but a 3-4 hr stint is a bit much.
Thursday, 11/13: Spent the morning contacting some job leads and talking to a landlord about a house in Bierstadt. Dinner was at Italian Bolognese (or something like that) with Carol and Daniel. We headed to City Bowling first (they have GREAT food) but we arrived as this massive crowd was flooding in so opted for the other less crowded place. I dined on wonderful spaghetti marinara and Lew had a mixed seafood plate. The waiter served us (except for 16 yr old Daniel) Italian liquor for dessert called "Grappa (sp?)" The waiter brought his own glass to join us in our toast which Carol and I thought was a nice touch.
Friday, 11/14: Long chapter here. Lew works the morning and has the afternoon off to look at housing with me. He got a good deal on a rental car for the next week or two. Yahoo! We are pretty sick of the shuttle by now.
We had appointments to see 4 properties. The first one was a super posh 4 bdrm apt overlooking the Kurpark (Wiesbaden equiv of Central Park) and on Mozartstrasse! I was ready to move in based on the street name alone. This place had one major drawback - WHITE carpet throughout. We were made to put on little booties to tour the place. I'll never understand the logic of installing wall-to-wall pure white carpet in one's home.
Second place right next to train station but a huge letdown to find the inside pretty drab and dismal with extremely high ceilings and poorly furnished kitchen. Furnished kitchens in Germany, by the way, are not a given. If we weren't going through the Base Housing Office we would probably be negotiating for one.
Third property was the worst but also the most hysterical. Very modern two-level apartment right on a major highway! Very curious little guest apt OUTSIDE of the main apt with it's own entrance and laundry facility. I guess this would make a good crash pad for someone you weren't necessarily comfortable with inviting into your home or perhaps a place to send the spouse for the night after a bad argument.
Fourth property was better. A little further out and lots of nice features, including private courtyard, gated driveway, and separate office. We'd definitely need a second car if we went with this one, but decided to sleep on it.
Very disappointed when we got back to the hotel that we were just too tired to go to the Full Moon Hash in Frankfurt. Strolled over to the another part of town for Thai dinner instead.
Saturday, 11/15. Quick breakfast at the hotel and then headed off on foot to check out a huge apartment back in the Thai restaurant part of town we visited last night. We were joined by another family to check out the same place. Turned out there were 2 of these huge apartments available in a very old, historic and gothic style building. We all agreed they were beautifully appointed but difficult to feel "at home" in a huge space that resembles some sort of 19th century gallery or drawing room. And the kitchen? Well.. basically rooms the size of walk-in closets had IKEA floor plans taped to the wall with drawings for kitchen furnishings to be added later. That coupled with extremely old electric wiring meant we were outta there.
After that disappointment we cheered ourselves up by wandering back through the pedestrian malls and farmers market. Picked up two curry sausage platters with fries. We are starting to suffer the effects of "fries" with EVERY meal. In addition, most folks here enjoy them with ketchup or mayo or both. Isn't frying them in oil enough? Oh, and I can't forget the cup of dressing that automatically gets tossed on every salad unless you adamantly specify otherwise but that doesn't work too well either cause I think a lot of these salads are premade. We don't have a prayer for our waistlines here if this keeps up!
OK so Saturday ended on an upnote. We toured the house in Bierstadt I had called about on Thursday. Just the name of the town was enough spark our interest, don't you think? Anyway, I think we have found our home sweet home but a lot more details to iron out before I can say for sure. It's a pretty cool little place with rose garden, terrace, garage, sauna, balcony and lots of closet and shelf space! The American owner lives next door and knows how much closets mean to Americans. Closets pretty much don't exist here in Germany.
Potential downside of this place is that a small portion of the basement with it's own entrance is rented out to an elderly. There are compromises to made no matter where we look.
Ran into Carol and Daniel back at the hotel. Gave them a lift to do some shopping and then City Bowling for dinner.
Sunday 11/16. Downstairs in time for breakfast. Chatted with some other guests who were also out looking at places this weekend (some saw the same ones we saw). It was cool comparing notes and reactions.
Seriously planned to go hashing but it started to rain. RATS! I must say that I have only seen the sun a couple of times in the two weeks we have been here. Lew says the climate is equiv to the Pacific Northwest where it is gray and foggy most of the time there too.
Spent the rest of the day studying for our driver's test on Wednesday. This also means constantly converting miles to km's, meters, etc. and vice versa. Their right-of-way rules are a lot different from ours. Told Lewis he probably won't see me behind the wheel while we are over here.
It's about 11:15pm here so I'll close out this week's installment.
Hugs to everyone!
Jaime, Lew, Rocky and Howard
Today is Sunday and Lew is again watching football in the other room with me here in the bedroom on the laptop.
So picking up from last week, I'll start where we left off last Monday, 11/10:
Remember I said we were carless? Well today took the cake with relying on the base shuttle to get Lew and his colleages to and from work. They were at the stop awaiting the 6:45am pickup only to find out that the shuttle was on a weekend/holiday schedule (basically a drastically reduced schedule with the first pickup not occurring till 9:20am!). Apparently this is a common practice over here. Tuesday was Veterans Day and when a holiday occurs at the end (or close to) a weekend, businesses tend to take the other day off to give their employees an extra long holiday weekend.
So instead of my shuttling over to base to meet Lew later that morning (we had errands), I just boarded the 9:20 shuttle with him. So then came the hassle of him getting a ride home from work because the last shuttle back to the hotel left at 3:15pm! He got a ride home from his boss. Indian Dinner at the Taj Mahal was wonderful!
Tuesday, 11/11. Lew has the day off! Spent the day hoofing around town. Visited the PX in the morning and downtown Wiesbaden in the afternoon. Had to get lunch at the train station there because it's such a cool place. Then split up so he could check out the electronics store and I spent an hour obsessing over cheap jewelry at the mall. Back to the hotel for dinner.
Wednesday, 11/12. Lew works noon-9pm schedule on Wednesdays so we hit the Housing Office in the morning to check out listings. Several leads and referrals obtained so we scheduled appointments to check them out Friday afternoon.
A quick side note, seem to have a serious lack of decent coffee here in the morning. We get a free continental breakfast but the coffee is pretty bad and I have developed a strong dislike for their liquid "creamers" so keep buying cartons of whole milk, except those are a pain to carry around. This is a letdown because I always expected European coffee (anywhere in Europe) to be far better than in the US.
I spent the rest of the day walking my butt off to the different neighborhoods we planned to visit on Friday. Wasn't really thinking clearly cause 1) I didn't carry an umbrella (big mistake... rains here a lot) and 2) got temporarily lost just before dark. But made it back home via the train station for a warm bowl of soup and pretzel. I think walking is OK for an hour or so but a 3-4 hr stint is a bit much.
Thursday, 11/13: Spent the morning contacting some job leads and talking to a landlord about a house in Bierstadt. Dinner was at Italian Bolognese (or something like that) with Carol and Daniel. We headed to City Bowling first (they have GREAT food) but we arrived as this massive crowd was flooding in so opted for the other less crowded place. I dined on wonderful spaghetti marinara and Lew had a mixed seafood plate. The waiter served us (except for 16 yr old Daniel) Italian liquor for dessert called "Grappa (sp?)" The waiter brought his own glass to join us in our toast which Carol and I thought was a nice touch.
Friday, 11/14: Long chapter here. Lew works the morning and has the afternoon off to look at housing with me. He got a good deal on a rental car for the next week or two. Yahoo! We are pretty sick of the shuttle by now.
We had appointments to see 4 properties. The first one was a super posh 4 bdrm apt overlooking the Kurpark (Wiesbaden equiv of Central Park) and on Mozartstrasse! I was ready to move in based on the street name alone. This place had one major drawback - WHITE carpet throughout. We were made to put on little booties to tour the place. I'll never understand the logic of installing wall-to-wall pure white carpet in one's home.
Second place right next to train station but a huge letdown to find the inside pretty drab and dismal with extremely high ceilings and poorly furnished kitchen. Furnished kitchens in Germany, by the way, are not a given. If we weren't going through the Base Housing Office we would probably be negotiating for one.
Third property was the worst but also the most hysterical. Very modern two-level apartment right on a major highway! Very curious little guest apt OUTSIDE of the main apt with it's own entrance and laundry facility. I guess this would make a good crash pad for someone you weren't necessarily comfortable with inviting into your home or perhaps a place to send the spouse for the night after a bad argument.
Fourth property was better. A little further out and lots of nice features, including private courtyard, gated driveway, and separate office. We'd definitely need a second car if we went with this one, but decided to sleep on it.
Very disappointed when we got back to the hotel that we were just too tired to go to the Full Moon Hash in Frankfurt. Strolled over to the another part of town for Thai dinner instead.
Saturday, 11/15. Quick breakfast at the hotel and then headed off on foot to check out a huge apartment back in the Thai restaurant part of town we visited last night. We were joined by another family to check out the same place. Turned out there were 2 of these huge apartments available in a very old, historic and gothic style building. We all agreed they were beautifully appointed but difficult to feel "at home" in a huge space that resembles some sort of 19th century gallery or drawing room. And the kitchen? Well.. basically rooms the size of walk-in closets had IKEA floor plans taped to the wall with drawings for kitchen furnishings to be added later. That coupled with extremely old electric wiring meant we were outta there.
After that disappointment we cheered ourselves up by wandering back through the pedestrian malls and farmers market. Picked up two curry sausage platters with fries. We are starting to suffer the effects of "fries" with EVERY meal. In addition, most folks here enjoy them with ketchup or mayo or both. Isn't frying them in oil enough? Oh, and I can't forget the cup of dressing that automatically gets tossed on every salad unless you adamantly specify otherwise but that doesn't work too well either cause I think a lot of these salads are premade. We don't have a prayer for our waistlines here if this keeps up!
OK so Saturday ended on an upnote. We toured the house in Bierstadt I had called about on Thursday. Just the name of the town was enough spark our interest, don't you think? Anyway, I think we have found our home sweet home but a lot more details to iron out before I can say for sure. It's a pretty cool little place with rose garden, terrace, garage, sauna, balcony and lots of closet and shelf space! The American owner lives next door and knows how much closets mean to Americans. Closets pretty much don't exist here in Germany.
Potential downside of this place is that a small portion of the basement with it's own entrance is rented out to an elderly. There are compromises to made no matter where we look.
Ran into Carol and Daniel back at the hotel. Gave them a lift to do some shopping and then City Bowling for dinner.
Sunday 11/16. Downstairs in time for breakfast. Chatted with some other guests who were also out looking at places this weekend (some saw the same ones we saw). It was cool comparing notes and reactions.
Seriously planned to go hashing but it started to rain. RATS! I must say that I have only seen the sun a couple of times in the two weeks we have been here. Lew says the climate is equiv to the Pacific Northwest where it is gray and foggy most of the time there too.
Spent the rest of the day studying for our driver's test on Wednesday. This also means constantly converting miles to km's, meters, etc. and vice versa. Their right-of-way rules are a lot different from ours. Told Lewis he probably won't see me behind the wheel while we are over here.
It's about 11:15pm here so I'll close out this week's installment.
Hugs to everyone!
Jaime, Lew, Rocky and Howard
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Week Ending Sunday 11/9/08
My very first blog here, so bear with me...
I was hoping to get some pictures up of our first week here but too busy to take any! We keep saying we are here for at least 3 years and will find the time. Of course, we won't have any pictures of our arrival, now will we?
It's 7am Monday and Lew has boarded his shuttle to work. He works for the IT Division of DoDDS-Europe (Dept of Defense Dependant's School System).
Here's a brief summary of Week 1, here:
Departed Sunday 5pm out of Dulles to Frankfurt. Cats survived the trip extremely well. Not a single peep out of either through the security check (had to hand carry them through the gate) and then being stuffed under plane seats for 7.5 hours. It seems that all our preparations to get them through German immigration were all for naught as they didn't ask for any of the paperwork nor care to see that we had cats at all!
Our sponsor and Lew's new boss, Stephen, met us with a litterbox at the Frankfurt airport. He then got us to the hotel so we could get the cats settled and then start our tour of the area. Much of the rest of last Monday is a blur. We were encouraged to stay awake until at least 8:30 and they were right. I took an afternoon nap and didn't get any sleep at all that night.
Tuesday: Lew's first day on the job. Oh btw, we are carless right now and have to take public transp. everywhere. Along those lines we need to study for the German driving test which I am NOT looking forward to. Our hotel (American Arms) is right in the heart of downtown Wiesbaden with many local attractions, restaurants and stores within walking distance.
Wednesday: I took the shuttle to join Lewis for lunch where he works at Mainz Kastel Station. Then we all shuttled back to the hotel for meetings with HR. Had a wonderful dinner with Lew's coworker from the States, Carol and her son, Daniel who attends high school on base.
Thursday: Cats need to be in their kennels in order to have maid service. Scheduled this for early afternoon while I ran errands.
Friday: Long day going to base Job Fair, etc. Many good job leads for ME at the Job Fair and all in education.
Saturday: Went to PX to set up bank account. Shuttled back to hotel and walked down to Wiesbaden. Great fish restaurant for lunch. Shopped in the afternoon with the plan of dinner at Sushi World. They have a Japanese-Chinese buffet which is a little overpriced and under-quality on the Chinese side. The sushi was marvelous.
Sunday: Visited the Commissary and then hotel restaurant for lunch. Laundry all afternoon. Would have gone out to dinner but Lew discovered a Vikings game on TV! Ordered a pizza instead while I finished laundry.
That just about wraps it up for this week. Till next time..
Tchuss!
Jaime
I was hoping to get some pictures up of our first week here but too busy to take any! We keep saying we are here for at least 3 years and will find the time. Of course, we won't have any pictures of our arrival, now will we?
It's 7am Monday and Lew has boarded his shuttle to work. He works for the IT Division of DoDDS-Europe (Dept of Defense Dependant's School System).
Here's a brief summary of Week 1, here:
Departed Sunday 5pm out of Dulles to Frankfurt. Cats survived the trip extremely well. Not a single peep out of either through the security check (had to hand carry them through the gate) and then being stuffed under plane seats for 7.5 hours. It seems that all our preparations to get them through German immigration were all for naught as they didn't ask for any of the paperwork nor care to see that we had cats at all!
Our sponsor and Lew's new boss, Stephen, met us with a litterbox at the Frankfurt airport. He then got us to the hotel so we could get the cats settled and then start our tour of the area. Much of the rest of last Monday is a blur. We were encouraged to stay awake until at least 8:30 and they were right. I took an afternoon nap and didn't get any sleep at all that night.
Tuesday: Lew's first day on the job. Oh btw, we are carless right now and have to take public transp. everywhere. Along those lines we need to study for the German driving test which I am NOT looking forward to. Our hotel (American Arms) is right in the heart of downtown Wiesbaden with many local attractions, restaurants and stores within walking distance.
Wednesday: I took the shuttle to join Lewis for lunch where he works at Mainz Kastel Station. Then we all shuttled back to the hotel for meetings with HR. Had a wonderful dinner with Lew's coworker from the States, Carol and her son, Daniel who attends high school on base.
Thursday: Cats need to be in their kennels in order to have maid service. Scheduled this for early afternoon while I ran errands.
Friday: Long day going to base Job Fair, etc. Many good job leads for ME at the Job Fair and all in education.
Saturday: Went to PX to set up bank account. Shuttled back to hotel and walked down to Wiesbaden. Great fish restaurant for lunch. Shopped in the afternoon with the plan of dinner at Sushi World. They have a Japanese-Chinese buffet which is a little overpriced and under-quality on the Chinese side. The sushi was marvelous.
Sunday: Visited the Commissary and then hotel restaurant for lunch. Laundry all afternoon. Would have gone out to dinner but Lew discovered a Vikings game on TV! Ordered a pizza instead while I finished laundry.
That just about wraps it up for this week. Till next time..
Tchuss!
Jaime
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