2010 ended with some exciting news for us: we found a great apartment within our village to move into. Why were we looking for a new apartment? Well, our first apartment was intended to be a stepping stone that would allow us to get settled in and see some sights. The plan was to take our time finding the right place to live....perhaps a few months. We didn't plan on the process taking 10 months but this new place was certainly worth the wait. Not only is it over 35 square meters larger, it comes with a garage (rare to find here in Germany) and a his and hers bathroom ("his" being the smaller of the two, of course).
With limited furniture our move was a breeze. Well, except for the larger than life Shrank (portable closet) that refused to leave the former apartment quietly. Should have known that assembling a massive piece of furniture in a small room would result in trouble down the road. I'm happy to report that thanks to the ingenious window designs here in Germany, the Shrank came with us. The windows open either with a tilt from the top, or swing all the way out....which is quite convenient when moving furniture.
After a marathon day of back and forth between the two places (the distance between the two is about 1 block), we quickly cleaned up, grabbed something to eat, and prepared to bring in the New Year Germany style.
New Year's Eve, or Silvester as it is called throughout many countries in Europe including Germany, is not all that different from the states. Well, there is one key difference: the fireworks. Now, when I say fireworks, I mean the kind you find at typical 4th of July celebrations in the States. During the week leading up to Silvester the local stores here will sell these massive fireworks to anyone that wants to bring in the New Year with a bang....a very large bang. As the magical hour approached, everyone at our party headed outside to watch the shows. It was incredible to see so many people throughout our village celebrate the bringing in of the new year by taking almost the entire HOUR to put on an impressive firework show.
So it is the beginning of February....why did it take this long to post events that took place over a month ago? Well the internet connection to the new place was a bit of a process to establish. Far from what you would find in the good ol' US of A, some things such as internet connection move at a slower pace here. We were happy to finally receive internet connection in mid-January only to have it disrupted a few days later. So after some interesting phone calls to the internet company, I am proud to say that we are now officially back up and on-line.
We will leave you with a few views from the deck on the new place. It's not that we minded the view of the cow pasture at the old place, but I think we moved up in the scenery category with this move. I think it is safe to say that when the warm weather arrives you will certainly find us out on the deck working on some serious tan lines.
With limited furniture our move was a breeze. Well, except for the larger than life Shrank (portable closet) that refused to leave the former apartment quietly. Should have known that assembling a massive piece of furniture in a small room would result in trouble down the road. I'm happy to report that thanks to the ingenious window designs here in Germany, the Shrank came with us. The windows open either with a tilt from the top, or swing all the way out....which is quite convenient when moving furniture.
After a marathon day of back and forth between the two places (the distance between the two is about 1 block), we quickly cleaned up, grabbed something to eat, and prepared to bring in the New Year Germany style.
New Year's Eve, or Silvester as it is called throughout many countries in Europe including Germany, is not all that different from the states. Well, there is one key difference: the fireworks. Now, when I say fireworks, I mean the kind you find at typical 4th of July celebrations in the States. During the week leading up to Silvester the local stores here will sell these massive fireworks to anyone that wants to bring in the New Year with a bang....a very large bang. As the magical hour approached, everyone at our party headed outside to watch the shows. It was incredible to see so many people throughout our village celebrate the bringing in of the new year by taking almost the entire HOUR to put on an impressive firework show.
So it is the beginning of February....why did it take this long to post events that took place over a month ago? Well the internet connection to the new place was a bit of a process to establish. Far from what you would find in the good ol' US of A, some things such as internet connection move at a slower pace here. We were happy to finally receive internet connection in mid-January only to have it disrupted a few days later. So after some interesting phone calls to the internet company, I am proud to say that we are now officially back up and on-line.
We will leave you with a few views from the deck on the new place. It's not that we minded the view of the cow pasture at the old place, but I think we moved up in the scenery category with this move. I think it is safe to say that when the warm weather arrives you will certainly find us out on the deck working on some serious tan lines.
The view from our living room.
