New Year, New Digs

We've been at our new location in Bavaria for just over a month now.  Despite the usual hiccups that come with moving to another country, things have been going very well for us.  This time we have a lot of support, not only from the relocation agents, but from my husband's co-workers and our new neighbors.  We have been overwhelmed and moved by the expressions of hospitality from the people in our town.  I can't begin to express how it feels to be told by someone you meet on the street that you are welcome when you're new, don't know a soul, or speak the language.  It means the world to us to be greeted with smiles and friendly handshakes when we step into the local pub or bakery.

Miltenberg, Bavaria

For most of the month, we were spared winter weather which provided a wonderful opportunity for long exploratory bike rides along the Main and into the countryside.  So far, cycling in this area has been a sheer joy and the only thing stopping me from heading out everyday is a never ending pile of laundry that won't wash itself and the knowledge that every bike ride this time of year means an hour of bike washing afterwards.  There just isn't enough daylight hours in the day.  But, the days I can get out on the bike in the sunshine are the best days.  About two weeks ago, I headed out on my first solo ride.  The weather was so perfect and the route was so beautiful, I ended up riding 50km.  If it hadn't been for the encroaching sunset, I would have kept on going.  I stopped in the city of Miltenberg for a snack, and as I strolled the cobbled old town, I couldn't believe how beautiful it was to be there and what an extraordinary experience we were having.  As I headed back home, I was the happiest I can ever remember being.  I'm pretty certain that was the best bike ride I've ever had.  It wasn't an epic ride; the route was mostly flat.  I didn't suffer; the weather was warm and the sun came out frequently.  Will I look back on that ride and remember it as a supreme challenge that I overcame?  No.  I will remember it as a perfect, beautiful, liberating experience on the bike.  It was a blessing of a ride, plain and simple.  It was the way bike riding should be.

Johannesburg Castle as seen from the cycle path in Aschaffenburg 

While we still have some loose ends to tie up around the new house and pictures still need to be hung, we're looking forward and planning for another exciting year of exploring Europe.  We hope for some Alpine hiking, some Danish cycling, and a whole lot of sightseeing in this beautiful continent.  I hope all of you have a great year ahead too.  Here's to a fantastic 2014!

Crossing the Border

The relocation to Germany is nearing its final stages.  Next week the moving company will roll up with a truck and all our possessions will be cleared out of our house in Ettelbruck.  Then, they'll hustle to get everything into the new place just before Christmas Day.  It has taken a lot of prodding and pushing to get the ball rolling on this process after The Company made its last minute decision at the end of November to move us.  Being that we're the first ones to take this assignment, several kinks needed to be worked out in the system and it seems the policy of the HR departments is to settle these things if they feel like it.  Thankfully, we have been hooked up with a relocation agency this time around.  Those guys have been absolutely marvelous through all of this.  The folks with the moving company have also been incredibly helpful and willing to go above and beyond to get us settled before the holiday.  While The Company itself hasn't been cooperative since launching this operation, we're very thankful that we have a bunch of other people in our corner who are doing everything they can to make this as painless as possible.

Of course, the most important thing to work out is finding a new place to live.  Last week, my husband and I drove over to the Frankfurt area to meet with our relocation agent.  Then, the three of us spent a good portion of the week visiting just about every rental property within our budget that was in a 30km radius of my husband's new office.  Whew.  What a wild few days that was!  Apparently, we are moving at a weird time of year (or at least that's what we kept telling ourselves).  Nearly every single property we looked at was in a terrible state of disrepair.  They were downright nasty.  We looked at a place that was designed as an office building.  It was a fabulous office building.  It would not make a great house.  I mean, you'd wake up every morning wondering if the dentist was about to walk in.  The kitchen was a sink and microwave.  Another house had a pool in the basement.  And, not only a pool, but a sauna and a tanning bed too.  Sounds pretty sweet, huh?  No.  This stuff was probably awesome in 1980, but apparently nothing had been cleaned since then.  It looked like a set from Cormac McCarthy's The Road.  Another house we looked at could have housed three families it was so huge and labyrinthine.  It also had a pool, in which a majority of the garden furniture had ended up.  The whole place was decorated with clowns, Jesus, and life-sized portraits spanning the entire life of some guy named Willy in all his afroed glory.  Another house's entire interior was painted black and burgundy.  It seems the former tenant fancied themselves living in a vampire coven?  My nightmares have plenty of material for the next several months, that is for sure.  Dear Frankfurt area real estate agents, please Google "staging" and "vacuuming."  Dear readers, I'm so sorry I have not provided pictures of these stellar properties for your entertainment.  I think I was in a state of shock and completely forgot to pull out my camera.

When all looked hopeless, we ended up in a little village in Bavaria along the banks of the River Main.  Swans bobbed around in the water and an occasional boat or barge drifted by.  It was a quiet place.  Someone pedaled by on the bicycle path in front of the house.  As we waited for the owner to meet us, the idea began to creep in that perhaps this area would be a nice place to live for the next couple of years.  I crossed my fingers as the owner opened the door and whispered, "Please don't be filthy."  It wasn't.  Oddly enough, this was the only property not being shown by a realty service and it was the only one that was spotless and freshly painted, in white.  We took it on the spot, hoping that it wasn't a hallucination.

The new place has a small garden area this time, large enough to enjoy, but not so large I'll be enslaved to it for the next two years.  We have a balcony once again, but this time when we step out we're not looking at garbage cans, walls, cigarettes, and pigeons.  We get to enjoy this view:

Even on a dreary day it's a beautiful thing to look out onto.

There isn't a bar around the corner.  Our only attached neighbor is a single, older woman.  The nearest construction site was four blocks over.  We're not on a main, high traffic road.  In fact, the only real traffic it gets are pedestrians and cyclists enjoying the green space along the river.  The house is the largest place we've lived in yet.  It has five floors!  We're still working out what to do with all the rooms, but there's no concern that we won't have space for the bikes.

The village is much smaller than any place we've lived, however.  The population is just over 4,000.  There are a couple butchers and bakeries, a few other shops, and a handful of restaurants.  There are, strangely, a lot of wineries.  A lot of people sell goods like eggs and honey from their homes.  The closest grocery store is 10 minutes away by bike.  The biggest city, Aschaffenburg, is an easy 45min by bike following the river.  It's a beautiful city with everything one needs for entertainment, cultural activities, and shopping.  The only drawback is that the house is too far from his office for my husband to cycle to work regularly.  But, thanks to the beautiful German highway network, the drive will usually be under 30 mins.  There's always going to be a trade off when you're moving under time constraints as expats.  But, he was willing to have a longer commute in order for us to be in a nicer town this time.  Being a little further out in the country will provide the opportunity for me to get around by bike again instead of on foot.  We're still going to be a single car house.  So, we'll be getting quite the well rounded experience in Europe with time living in a city and now time living in a village.  We're pretty excited to begin the new chapter.

Well,  more than likely this will be the last post for a bit.  We need need our new German residency before we'll be able to set up things like internet and cell phones.  That process usually takes about a month.  So, I'll be seeing you sometime in 2014.  Until then, Frohe Weihnachten und ein glückliches neues Jahr!