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

Sieben

Today was a day that I really should have been carting my camera around on. It being Easter Sunday meant, of course, that almost everything was closed. But, we thought that maybe since Turks don't celebrate Easter, we could find a doner kebab stand open somewhere. There seems to be pretty large population of Turks living in Germany, and the doner kebab is very popular here.

Image from CheapoAir since I forgot my camera.

We did find one open, operated by a sweet, older Turkish couple and it was - as has been everything here - totally delicious. We also had one of those hilarious conversations that seem to happen to us all the time here. I don't know how many languages were flying, but at the end of it everyone caught the gist of it. I find that when I get flustered and don't have the right German words on my tongue, I start throwing in whatever I can think of. I end up saying things to maids like "peut-être, zwei minutes por favor" and things to lovely older Turkish women like "si, sprechen sie english. oh, me is japonais". ??!? I don't know. Hopefully, my brain will get it all straight one day.

We left there, and happened across the. coolest. park. EVER. I wish I had taken my camera! We'll go back another day and we'll take pictures next time. We had been wandering around Sindelfingen stadt-mitte (All villages and cities here have a stadt-mitte, which I think is roughly the same as a city center. They usually have a ton of shops, cute cobblestone type ground covering and a pretty fountain.), when we saw the playground. At first, we weren't sure if we were allowed to play on it since it was wedged in between shops, apartments and what may or may not have been some sort of school. But, the playground had a happy trash can like you see all over the city, so we figured it must be public.

There was also a little gelato/coffee shop right behind it, so I wandered in to get The Man and I a couple of milchkaffees. I'm not sure exactly what they actually are, but I believe they're pretty much lattes and they are very tasty. I was very proud of myself for having the entire (very basic) conversation in German, including asking her about her incredibly delicious looking cake and where the bathroom was when El niño came flying in, looking anxious.

We were surprised but happy to find a bakery open on the way home, and picked up some bread for dinner. Oh! And!! I found a yarn shop with beautiful fibers displayed in the window and I can't wait to head back to stadt-mitte when the shops are open.

After spending the morning at the park, walking about a mile each way for lunch, a while at the cutest park EVER and then hours in the pool this afternoon, I anticipate the kiddos knocking off in 3...2...1...

Technorati tags: Germany, doner kebab, parks