Zehn

I can't believe it's been zehn (10) days already! With all this walking, my Converse and Roxy sneakers aren't really cutting it. So, last night, I was all over the Internet looking for cute but comfortable walking shoes. In fact, I spent so much time at that, I didn't get to post neun until this morning. I got very familiar with several European brands of shoes and imagine my surprise when I walked in to the PX today and found an entire store dedicated to European walking shoes! I picked up a pair of Josef Seibel green mary janes, but I can't decide if I'm going to keep them or not. They are really not me, but, they are very Germany.

What do you guys think?  Can I pull them off? I don't know...

Whether or not I keep them, I think I'll also pick up a pair of sneakers like these:

With the weather as beautiful as it's been the last few days, I'm almost thinking I should skip right past shoes and go for sandals.  But, I think the cold and wet is coming back in at the end of the week.

Today, we had to go on post to take care of a few more administrative things. I really should have checked the bus schedule before heading out, but I thought the public transportation system was so good, at worst we'd just have to hang out for a half hour or so until our bus showed up. Unfortunately, it would have been a 5 1/2 hour wait. !! The public transportation really is great, but the problem is that the post is way out at the end of town and I imagine there aren't a lot of people that catch the bus out there.

Having walked a mile to the bus stop, it only would have been about another mile and a half to just walk to our destination, but Cheeseball travels on tiny little four year old legs and I thought that was a little too much for her. Not to mention, it would take forever. Of course, we had to walk a mile back to the hotel, but it was all downhill from the stop and, of course, that's much easier.

We ended up taking a taxi, and I think what we really need to do is pick up a bike. I'm being indecisive, though, about what to get for Cheeseball. She's too old for a trailer, by local standards, but she's never ridden a bike before. And, straight up the hill from the hotel would be difficult for any teeny tiny. What to do, what to do... I guess I'll keep waffling for a while and in the meantime I'll start working out the best place to buy that bike around here.

Technorati tags: Germany, bicycle, bus

Neun

We looked at some houses today! The first one was very modern and updated and nice, although the layout was very different than what I'm used to. It was four stories! Each of the stories was tiny and the staircases were perilous, but there were 5 bedrooms (!), a cellar with washer/dryer hookups and a nice terrace as well as a small enclosed yard-ish area that would mean we wouldn't have to put Bug on a leash every time the little guy had to pee. The living room was teeny tiny, but the 5th "bedroom" was really the entire top floor and would serve as a great, open living room.

I think the kitchen was my favorite part.



The only problem with the house was it's location. It's in a small village, a few km outside of the larger cities that we prefer. Like every village in Germany, there is a city center with groceries, bakeries, a cafe and a few other things. The house itself is very close to the city center, across the street from a kindergarten and within walking distance from two parks and playgrounds. There is a bus stop very close to the house and a train station somewhere in the village. I'd be able to walk to all the daily things we would need, and public transportation is excellent here. I just would really like to be able to walk to more things...more restaurants, more stores, more everything... So, it's not the perfect place for us, but we're keeping it on the back burner.

The second place we saw was just no. It was waaaaaaay out in the country, way too rural, had a weird layout (a bathtub in the master bedroom!?) and was just no.

The last place was an apartment. We've realized - after the last week and a half in the hotel - that an apartment just isn't ideal with two kids. It's always shhhhh! and no running! and oh my god were you two raised in a barn!?!?. But, we looked at it anyway. It was nice and pretty close to Stuttgart, but probably too far for The Man to comfortably commute every day. And, also with the shhhh etc...

It was nice, though.



We'll keep looking. There is a place we found online that we are very interested in and will keep pursuing. We've been speaking with a realtor from the company who is listing it since before we arrived here. But, she's on holiday this week and has passed us off to a colleague for the time being. The colleague is veeeery hard to get a response from. But, we'll keep trying!

Wish us luck!

Technorati tags: Germany, house hunting, apartments

Acht

Day Acht was essentially a repeat of Day Seiben, except that it was a regular weekday for us but the final day of the looooong holiday weekend for the rest of Germany. El Niño headed off to school on the bus this morning and Cheeseball and I spent most of the day wandering back and forth from the park to the hotel. Since most everything was closed again, I gave in and took Cheeseball to Burger King for lunch. I also spent some time searching for housing online. Of course, when another lady in the hotel asked her what she did while her brother was at school, she said "we go to Burger King and my mommy sits on the computer while I watch tv." ???!?!? We spent hours at the park and walking the dog around this morning and this is the first time we've been to Burger King since arriving in Germany, I don't know what she's talking about. Thanks, Cheeseball.

After we picked El niño up at the bus stop, we walked back over to the. coolest. park. EVER. and ate doner kebab again, for dinner. El niño invited other kids from the hotel to the park with us, but their mom told him that a mile was too far to walk for her kids. I'm glad the kiddos are embracing this whole powered by foot thing as well as they are, because I only have to scroll back through the blog to see what we would be missing out on otherwise.

As promised, pictures of the. coolest. park. EVER:


the. coolest. entrance. EVER.

Tree house!




Cheeseball filling up the bucket with sand for El niño to hoist up by pulley.


El niño dumping out said bucket through the "sand chute".


All parks should have hammocks.


Cheeseball petting the nice, three-headed dragon. She would probably name it and drag it home with us to snuggle up with at nap time, if only it were real.

I also managed to take my own pictures of doner kebab and donerteller tonight, but really they don't look any different than the lifted picture I used yesterday.





And, the yarn shop was still teasing me with beautiful fibers in the windows but locks on the doors.





Tomorrow, I go look at houses for the first time. I'm excited, but a little nervous about the timing. I just hope we don't find the perfect place and lose it while waiting for resolution in our big battle with the Housing Office.

Technorati tags: Germany, Sindelfingen, park