Sommer, Strand und Sonne - life in Germany and Austria

[LinzerTorte]

A thread for all those living in Germany or Austria, and for anyone else who would like to chat.

Thanks westvan, I am always last minute with realising there will be a holiday!

I have found a mystery on our bank statement, once a month something goes out as a Lastschrift but we don't know what it is! It varies from 82 to 73 euro...can you tell I'm having a morning doing papers. Just found that the electric company Stadtwerke haven't taken and money since September so now we get to pay double from now on to catch up...because of their technical problem, OK mine too as I didn't notice until now but still it's going to be almost 200? a month for electicity now.

Oh well, back to it.

On a coffee break so finally have the chance to catch up properly with the thread.

Later Hope you had a good time in the Mosel ? we went there for our first wedding anniversary and it was lovely. A shame you won't have been able to enjoy the wine, though.

westvan Well done on the exercise; a cheesy German soap opera sounds like a good distraction! I find that listening to music while I'm running really keeps me going.

admylin That sounds like a lot of hassle to get a new licence: the first aid course would definitely put me off. There was a code on my UK licence and neither I nor the woman at the Bezirkshauptmannschaft knew what it meant, so she decided to put down that I need to wear glasses or contact lenses for driving (which I do) in the end - it was all surprisingly unbureaucratic.

Bellagio No problem. You can get Weetabix at our local Gourmet Spar, which is tiny, so I'm sure you'd be able to get it a normal Spar too (unless Weetabix is classed as gourmet food!) but I'll have a look next time I go and PM you. I do most of my shopping at Billa and Lidl, and you can't get Weetabix at either.
We also had a few holidays in the Salzkammergut pre-DC; we wanted to take the DC to the salt mines a couple of years ago as we thought they'd have great fun going on the slide etc., but DS was only three at a time and the minimum age was four.

We had a good weekend here; it poured with rain all day Saturday, but was lovely on Sunday ? we went over to Cinders' for a barbecue and the weather was perfect. She's had problems getting onto Living Overseas but I've sent her a link to the thread and have told her she should come back!

It's a long weekend here as well, so we're off to Playmobil land on Thursday. Unfortunately we miss out on the long Fronleichnam weekend at the end of June, as the schools have decided it's too close to the summer holidays to stay closed on the Friday.

Well I´m back from my brother´s wedding and we had a great time. It did unfortunately rain the whole day, but it didn´t manage to spoil the fun.

admylin - sorry no idea what the Lastschrift could be for - does it not give any more info on the statement?
I changed my driving licence last year and just needed my British licence and 2 photos - I´d have given up aswell if I´d needed to do a first aid course.

Later - The mosel is a really lovely area. One of dh´s aunts lives nearby and we´ve always had good weather when we´ve visited.

Linzer- hope your translations are going well.
We´re lucky here in Hessen that Fronleichnam is at the start of the school holidays so the dc actually get 6 and a half weeks holiday this year.

I´ve promised the dc I´ll take them to the Freibad tomorrow, but I´ve since heard that the water is still freezing, so I definitely won´t be joining them in the water.

Oh shame it rained hupa but sounds as if you enjoyed it all! When do you break up for summer? I've just checked and we're starting on 7th of July to 17th of August this year. Going back to school at the very beginning of August is tough when it's so hot.

What a heat today, saw lots of dc coming back from the open air pool round the corner. Must encourage my dc to try it out. Luckily they are old enough to go without me!

There must be a Stadtteilfest over the weekend as we've just seen all the trailers and stands parked up behind the sport club. Dd frantically trying to find some friends who will join her otherwise she's doomed to a quick wander round it with her brother!

Found out what the mystery Lastschrift was - petrol!! Looks as if we sort of fill the tank without knowing it on a regular monthly basis so it looked as if it was some place taking regular bookings but it was just the petrol station (independant) name that we didn't recognise!

morning all!! not been on in a while - got some problems with the keyboard on the laptop (where i normally MN) - the "i" key doesnt work so need to use some on screen keyboard and its just a PITA to type out anything! So i'm on the PC just now. But i've been lurking.

Hupa - are you going to the Freibad? I bet the water is still freezing! Glad you had a good time in Munich. Makes me amazed at how huge Bayern is - we're in the north and there wasnt a hint of rain the whole weekend. I didnt realise the Hessen holidays started so early - thats still Pfingstferien in Bayern.

admylin - glad you found out where your missing money was going. Cost me 70 euros to fill up yesterday - and i thought it was cheaper per liter at the mo. Wrong! Not sure why its such a hassle for you to change your drivers licence - i thought about changing mine but decided against it since i'd only got a new photocard before we moved - but i spoke to the amt and they said i'd just need to fill in some forms, give 2 photos and pay ? 35 euros. would maybe speak to someone about it in person.

linzer - glad you had a good weekend despite the rain. I dont really "know" cinders - she's like a mysterious woman who appears on the thread and types 3 words once every 6 months! Have fun at playmobil land. think the weather will be good for you so pack the suncream.

westvan - good on you for getting the exercise bug. But if german soap operas are as bad as british ones then i'll give them a miss.

you bananas both changing your names got me right confused but i hope i've got this right

lateralligator - how are you & baby getting on? how many weeks are you now? I think its a stressful time waiting for the baby to kick but there is a countthekicks campaign that i've seen on here and they have some charts for you to print out and keep if you are worried at all. With my dc1, we were on holiday and i didnt feel her moving for 6 out the 7 days (was about 26 weeks at the time) and was beyond stressed. But on the last day i was standing up and suddenly was doubled over with what felt like she had done a somersault inside. I always wonder if she had just been in a funny position and was kicking my bowels instead. But if you ever feel worried i would go and get you and baby checked out - it really give syou that peace of mind.

platanos - long time no hear from! glad you're job is going good even if you have to put up with crazy Austrian accents.

Sorry if I've missed anyone - will try not to leave it so long next time.

Must get on and sort out dh's washing - he got back from Berlin on sun eve and is flying out to chicago on thurs morning!! lucky beggar! but there is a big fest in the village on thurs and then i'm going to spend the weekend at my IL's so i wont be bored without him. Its just nice for a few days to do your own thing in the eve but i'll be wanting him back by next week.

But to whoever aske way up the thread - the kitchen isnt sorted mostly cause dh hasn't had time to go to the shop to try to negotiate a price. But he's off the day after he gets back from chicago so i'll be dragging him kicking and screaming to the kitchen studio to nail this deal. I'm going to start sorting out the kitchen cupboards this week going to do a ruthless clear out! very satisfying!

Morning all!

Glad to hear everyone enjoyed their weekend, even if the weather wasn't great everywhere.

The Mosel was lovely - beautiful scenery, fantastic weather, definitely one to recommend.

Westvan I do love a cheesy German soap - I find the ones I have dipped in and out of have been absolutely terrible, but that seems to keep me hooked! I'll have to give Sturm der Liebe a go.

Admylin DH only has Thursday off this week, I'm not sure whether the schools are closed on Friday as well. I think (weather depending) we will end up spending the day clearing out the spare room and starting little bits of DIY. Obviously if the sun is shining all good intentions will be immediately boycotted and we will hit the park :)

Hupa I'm glad your brother's wedding went well :) Hope the Freibad isn't too cold! I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to chance it just yet, but I am a wimp!

Linzer Enjoy Playmobil Land! Do let us know what it is like, it sounds great!

Canella All well here - still confused as to whether I am actually feeling movement or not, but my next Dr's appointment is a week today, so not long to go. Good luck with the kitchen planning! It sounds like quite a stressful business.

So the driving license saga continues! I finally got all of the paperwork sorted, dug out some recent-ish passport photos, got in the car and drove down to the Führerscheinstelle. No queue, was seen immediately, so far so good...
Except the Anmeldebestätigung from the town we lived in for a few months when we first moved over last year doesn't have a previous address on it. Apparently it needs to have my British address on it as my previous address so they have proof of when I moved to Germany. So I need to get in touch with the town today to see if they can send me some sort of confirmation. Grr!!
It seems like a strange system, as the man I saw yesterday said that as I have an EU license, I technically don't need to change it, so it's not a massive problem. The only thing is, the photo expires this month so I either have to try and get hold of this document, or try and get a new British license, using a friend's address. Apparently the photo doesn't expire on the German licenses like it does on the British ones, so that seems like the better option in the long term.

German bureaucracy really is in a league of its own! Fingers crossed it will actually turn out to be easier than I think :)

What a pain about the driving licence, Later. At least once you've finally got it, you won't need to worry about renewing it like you'd have to in the UK. Mine is valid until I'm 70, but I'd need to renew the tractor and HGV bits of it in 2024 - the woman said if I don't want to continue being entitled to drive tractors and the like (ha!), then I can just leave it and the rest of my licence will still be valid.

Canella Lucky DH, going to Chicago. DH never goes to the USA for work any more, which is a shame as it's one of the few countries that he can bring decent stuff back from. He's off to Belgium next week so I'm expecting chocolates! Cinders is lovely in RL btw.

admylin Glad to hear you solved the Lastschrift mystery. I have a pile of receipts that I keep meaning to go through; I bought myself a Lakeland receipt book to try and get organised, but it's not working so far.

hupa The water is never warm enough for me so I just limit myself to a supervisory role when we go swimming! (Actually, the two Schwefelbecken at the Strandbad are just about OK as.they're 34 or 35°, but I won't do any more than dip my toes in the other pools.)
We still have a week of school after Fronleichnam (some schools are having the Friday after Fronleichnam as a schulautonomer Tag, i.e. closing, but not ours). Still, I can't complain too much as the summer holidays here are nine weeks long. Actually, I can complain - nine weeks is too long!

Am trying to finish work, get tomorrow's English lesson prepared and pack for Playmobil land (haven't even started to think about what to take yet) and am starting to feel slightly stressed! I should possibly have cancelled English, but it's a bit late now.

linzer - the dc need their swim stuff. On a warm day there the dc just stay in their Badehose etc. And some towels. There are so many opportunities for the dc to be in water that it just makes life easier.

Hello all - would you mind answering a couple of questions? We are off to the Black Forest for a week at the weekend. We will have a hire car - is there anything we should know about German petrol pumps? We have had a few problems in France from time to time with the machine not accepting the credit card...

Also - how will we get on not speaking a word of German? Feel a bit bad about this as I can get by in French, but nothing else!

That's useful to know; thanks, Canella. I think they were planning to take it anyway, but I'll definitely add it to my list now.

Katisha - just be aware that you cant always use a credit card in Germany. Not all pumps accept one but some do if its over a certain amount.
Have a great time

Thanks Canella!

Katisha, recently they have introduced a new petrol called E10 which caused a big fuss because some cars can't run on it so alot of people didn't bother using it as they weren't sure. Anyway, that's something you might find new.

Paying with cards should be OK if you have EC on your card. Lovely area to visit!

Hope everyone else is OK and looking forward to the Feiertag tomorrow. They are putting up a Stadtteilfest here.

I'm having a quick clean up today as dh is bringing an old school friend tonight for a couple of days. Think I'm going to hide the ironing and just concentrate on dusting and such like! His friend visiting will do him good as he's very fed up of work, they all fly out to Canada to a conference tomorrow and as they won't pay he isn't going. He just found out that one of the other surgeons who didn't want to go for that reason has had his ticket and hotel booked for him by the boss.

god admylin - your dh's work seem like a nightmare. I hate that kind of inconsistency in a workplace but I can so easily see it happening because a doctor asked for the money rather than the scientist. But so infuriating for your boss. I'll keep my fingers crossed that one of these other jobs works out for him.

We're also having a fest tomorrow - love when they're in the village cause the dc can just play happily with their friends while i soak up the sun with mine. The dc love making slides with the left over tables and benches - keeps them happy for hours.

I'm stuck to the house this morning - sorry Linzer - not managed to run this morning - its absolutely pouring with rain (whoo hoo finally) and i need to wait for the tiler to turn up. Our outside water pipe was broken so the plumber came on Monday to fix it but it meant he had to dig up a little bit of the Terrasse. So the tiler needs to come to fix it. But while he's here i want to ask him for a quote to do all the work in the kitchen - shockingly ugly old tiles off, wall plastered and new floor tiles down. Think it'll be expensive!

Well off to hunt for my paper driving licence - think i need it for my hire car in the UK in a couple of weeks and I really cant find it.

found it!! in a random place. no idea why it was there.

I'm not running this morning either Canella, although it would be perfect weather for a run here at the moment as it's much cooler (looks like it might rain, though). I did wonder about trying to sneak in another run tonight but my legs are still aching from yesterday's, so it's probably not a good idea. I'll see if I have time to fit another one in before we leave tomorrow.

That situation sounds so unfair, admylin; I'm not surprised your DH is fed up.

DH took his car into the garage yesterday to find out how much the Pickerl (MOT) will cost and was quite shocked to be told we'll need to pay around ?2500 to get it through! He's thinking of selling the car anyway as he really doesn't need one just to drive to and from the station every day (he's cycling at the moment). The garage owner said he would buy it off us, which is probably the easiest option, even if we might be able to make a few hundred euros more if we sold it privately.

admylin - no wonder your dh is looking for new jobs if that´s the way he is being treated.

Canella - the tiler probably will be expensive, but at least he will hopefully do a good job. I´ve found it´s one of the positives in Germany that people are actually qualified for the jobs they do (Handwerker), not like in the UK where people claim to be all sorts with no proper training at all.

Well I had a lucky escape yesterday - it clouded over and started raining by the afternoon, so I managed to avoid a trip to the Freibad.

Linzer - sorry to hear about the car. I´d probably sell it to the garage unless you you can be bothered with the hassle of selling it privately. Is it worth taking it to another garage to get a second opinion?

Hello! Argh sorry I can't keep up with the thread at all at the moment!

Hupa what's wrong with the Freibad? It's one of my favourite ways to spend an afternoon with the kids - have already started taking my 3 now the littlest is 5 weeks! :) Maybe my kids are a perfect age for that atm as the big 2 are big enough to play in the kids pool without me getting in with them but small enough to be happy with the kids pool if that makes sense! Baby and I just watch them from the shade mostly. It's less stressful than staying at home and gives me a break from their ever present local friends encroaching into my space/ garden/ being overly interested in touching the baby etc. at home!

Linzer that is annoying about the car, good job you can manage without it!

admylin that is very unfair about some of your husbands colleagues getting their trip paid for by the boss but not all of them/ him!

I have some friends coming over from the UK, arriving this afternoon, and the house is a tip - just sat down to feed baby and check whether they'd read an email about arrangements I sent last night and haven't moved since, oops, better get on with the never ending tidying and cleaning and get beds sorted etc. before baby wakes up again!

That was a lucky escape, hupa. The DC are always asking if we can go to the Strandbad and I'm always finding excuses (plus we'd only have time to go for an hour or so in the afternoon, and I really don't want to fork out ?13 if we're not going to be there all that long).

I don't think it's really worth getting a second opinion on the car; the garage is pretty reputable, we've always been happy with them in the past and we knew the car would need a lot of work doing to it. If we wanted to sell privately, we'd need to fork out ?2,500 and then still have to find a buyer ? whereas we could just sell it to the garage owner for around ?1,000-?1,500 (he told us it would be about ?4,000 once it's been repaired, which was more than we thought).

5more I'm sure a tidy home is the last thing your visitors are expecting if you have a five-week old baby ? they've come to see you, not visit a show home! I know how you feel, though; I always feel much better if the place is (relatively) tidy when we have friends over, even if I know they're not bothered about it in the slightest.

Morning all!! Hope your all having a great (long) weekend! Hope linzer is enjoying playmobil land!

Just wanted to quickly say - despite all my doubts, I passed my B2!!! Am beyond happy this morning! Not intending to work in the immediate future but now I know i've got the qualifications i need to if i want to look into it in the future!

Off to tennis lessons with the boys then driving to my IL's. Looking forward to some help with the dc.

Congratulations Canella, that's great news! It must be good to know that you can work if you want to, even if you don't have any plans to do so atm. How's the running going? I didn't manage to fit in a run before we left on Thursday, or this evening either, so really must go tomorrow morning (it will be W5R1 IIRC).

We had a fab time at the Playmobil FunPark and got back this afternoon. The weather was perfect - well, it could have a been a little cooler at times - and the DC thoroughly enjoyed it. There was so much for them to do; we could probably have spent another day there. We now have Playmobil all over the dining table as the DDs bought themselves the school (they'd been saving up for months, ever since we first decided to go to Playmobil land). I was also quite tempted to buy myself the 2 Rinder mit Kälbchen as a memento of the translation I'd just finished, but resisted the temptation in the end.

Well done, Canella. That must be a relief after all your hard work.

Playmobil land sounds like it was worthwhile, Linzer. i will have to remember it in a couple of years and take DD. What age would you say it is value-for-money from?

We had a relaxed weekend at home and nearby. We went to Mini-a-Thür on Saturday, which had a good slide, making DD very happy (and tired). It was also quite fun for me and DH trying to guess all the landmarks.

I've been very thankful the last few nights that DD is talking so well. Last night I put her to bed and five minutes later she was wailing away. I went in and she sobbed and said "blanket over you" (I had left it off as it was so hot). The night before I left the door wide open after she'd fallen out of bed, was told angrily "close the door". A couple of nights before she got upset about her new Gro-clock which was glowing dimly (it was still light in her room . Anyway, if she couldn't ^tell^ me all this stuff, I would probably be in her room for hours trying to console her. Now just need to get her use of pronouns sorted out!

Canella - Congratulations! You must be so relieved.

Linzer - It sounds like you had a great time. I´ve never been able to get my two interested in playmobil which is a shame because it would make buying presents for birthdays and Christmas much easier.

Silken - I´ve forgotten how old your dd is, but as you say it´s brilliant that she can tell you what´s bothering her.

5more - hope you´ve had a lovely time with your visitors.

We were in München again this weekend for a confirmation. We had a lovely time, but the 2 hour confirmation service itself was beyond boring. Luckily there was a room at the back of the church where the dc could run around when they´d had enough.