Lieber Frühling, komm doch bald. A new Kaffeeklatsch thread for Spring - living in Austria and Germany

[Ploom]

All welcome - whether you're living in Germany or Austria, have questions about life in those countries or just want to chat.

Previous thread here

DS hasn't said much about going into the 1. Klasse but I think that, as long as he's with his best friend, he'll be happy. One of the teachers has a really good reputation, the other not so much, and then there'll be a new teacher replacing one who's retiring at the end of this month. His best friend's little sister will be in the same class as them too; she seems tiny in comparison (and won't be 6 until the end of August), although I suspect she may find school easier than DS - her drawing is certainly far neater!

Exciting news about your niece's visit; a trip to Hameln sounds good too, as does the wish list! I miss DH's business trips to the US, as I always used to send him over with long lists; now, apart from the occasional trip to the UK, he never goes anywhere "useful".

Linzer would you have an idea of what I could get to send back to Texas with them? Is there a sort of chocolate that they would like that isn't available in the US (that you can remember from your time over there)? I need something for the other niece as she has 2 small dc so I would get them something too.

Planatos I hope you´ve made your decision about ds - it can´t of been easy. Is your dd looking forward to changing schools? Our dd hates change and has been a bit tearful because she´d like to stay in the Grundschule forever with her current class teacher. We also found out the new class last week and 8 of the girls from her current class have been kept together and just dd and 2 others put in a different class. She then spoke to some older girls who said her new class teacher is horrible, so all in all she´s not very happy at the moment.
Ds´s teacher is teamed up with the dragon for the whole 4 years.

admylin I´m glad your ds enjoyed the trip. I´m very impressed he managed to do the 11m Hochseil. I never used to have a fear of heights, but seem to be getting worse as I get older.
Hameln is a lovely little town, with some beautiful old houses. We´ve been there a few times because one of dh´s uncles lives close by.

Linzer Did you buy much in Bratislava? I´m always of your ability to pop over the border to M&S.

I´ve forgotten who asked about braces, but I´m not sure what they need because dh has taken them to the appointments because he would also like a brace to straighten out his bottom teeth. I just know that dd´s treatment is quite complicated and will take years (and lots of money) to sort out.

Lovely weather here today, so I might brave a visit to the Freibad this afternoon.

Should we start a new thread as going by the temperatures we could say we're in Summer endlich!

admylin Chocolate always seemed to go down well, especially if it was with marzipan. But any kind of European chocolate seems to be appreciated; I don't remember much being available there (they had Cadbury's, but made by Hershey and it was vile). I wonder if Jenny's around; maybe she'd have a better idea?

hupa DH bought quite a bit from M&S, which was the main reason for our trip - he gets almost all his clothes there. OTOH I rarely find anything I like (apart from underwear), but did buy some food and we got swimming costumes/trunks for DD2 and DS plus a raincoat for DD1 from Next.
Hope you have a nice time at the Freibad; DH took DD2 and DS yesterday, but I'm not a huge fan as a) it's too big to read and supervise the DC simultaneously, and b) our town's entire population descends there in the summer, and I'm not keen on being sociable while wearing a bikini (think we may have had this discussion before!).

Had a phone call from DS's teacher this morning asking whether I'd forgotten to pick him and his friend up. I'd completely forgotten that his RE class was cancelled today, so he finished at 10.55 am. The DC are finishing at all different hours at the moment - an hour earlier here, an hour later there - and I have to admit I've been relying on my memory (which is fine when it comes to the DDs, as they walk home on their own and also have phones in case of emergency). But this is a reminder that everything needs to go in the calendar straight away, at least as far as DS is concerned.

I was also thinking this morning that it's time for a summer thread. Do you want to start one, admylin? I was trying to think of a title, but couldn't get any further than our usual variations on Sonne/Strand/Sommer, etc.!

Linzer and admylin do you not feel that starting a new thread would be tempting the gods/fate/rain lords?

Hupa depending on where you are heading on your hols I thoroughly recommend - St Jean de Luz (like Biarritz but nicer), Biarritz, Sauvterre du bearn, Salies de Bearn (they have a salt museum - closed on Thursdays I think) there was a chateau near Sauvterre that we didn't get in because it was closed on Tuesdays - chateau du Laas.
St Jean pied de port is also lovely and has some lovely old town walls/ ramparts that you can walk around.
If you tell me where you're headed I can give you some more tips or i'll happily ask my mum if you need some extra tips.

admylin my mum lived in Biarritz when she first decided to live in France and that's where she met her man. Where she lives now is the middle of nowhere but the view in the morning is stunning! could only be improved if it wasn't accompanied by the smell of sheep yes I'd gladly live in France! If our bed wasn't here in our flat I probably would have told DP I wasn't coming back. Honestly I think my bed was the only thing I missed!

Poor DS was his usual smiley self but he did have a few problems with his cough and had to have some more Kinesiotherapie and we are currently giving him an inhaler. I'll give him a day or two to settle and then talk to DP about taking him to the Dr
Right, better get on and do some tidying before bed time.

I've gone ahead and tempted fate and started a new thread here.