Wind, Obst, Wein und Spaß - living in Germany and Austria: the autumn edition

[LinzerTorte]

A thread for all those living in Germany or Austria or anyone who just wants to chat/ask a question about living in or visiting this part of the world - all welcome (particularly as the previous thread has been so quiet recently).

The thread title comes from this song btw - they're not the first four autumnal German words that popped into my head. (It could have been worse; I did briefly consider "Nüsse auf den Teller, Birnen in den Keller".)

Dark chocolate digestives and malt loaf (Doreen) are my current desires if it helps

Speaking of English stuff, I organised a delivery for a few friends and I. So I'm fully stocked for Christmas. DH ordered a lot of crisps. I decided to go super fancy and also ordered cold stuff. I have clotted cream. Real Roddas clotted cream!

I'd be getting marmite, Extra mature cheddar cheese and PG tips I think! But we're heading back to the Land of Marmite anyway, so I can stock up (will take 10 empty suitcases ). Clotted cream delivery is genius MrsNutella!

Hope you enjoyed it Linzer! We were at (yet another) market last night, drinking (yet more) Glühwein. It was super busy, but I really enjoy it anyway, great atmosphere.

Yeah you hear things being called Geil all over the place (spell check made that neil before I capitalised it, that would be odder!), it seems to have become mainstream, and particularly among school children. And Dieter Bohlen - but then it's creepy!

Last week here before heading back for Christmas. Panic panic! But I have become so Germanised I think - I went and bought myself a Schnellheft to put all the various tickets and hotel booking print outs in. I didn't even know what a Schnellheft was before (and still don't know quite what I'd call it in English!). I will be demanding to watch "Dinner for One" before I know it .

I misread your post as Dieter Bohlen becoming mainstream among school children, Heinous - now that really would be creepy! I was trying to find out what we'd call a Schnellhefter in English a few months ago (can't remember why, possibly for a translation) and did find some on UK stationery websites; they were called something with file in the name IIRC, but I don't think most British people would have known what was meant without a picture. You just don't see them in the UK much, let alone as a school stationery staple.

You can never have too much Glühwein IMO, particularly if you're only here for a limited time. Mine was very nice, but it made me feel quite sleepy afterwards. Then again, that may just have been related to the fact that I was out until gone 11pm, way past my normal bedtime.

Nutella I'm quite partial to dark chocolate digestives too; they were my biscuit of choice until I discovered dark chocolate hobnobs. I think I may actually have to go back to them if I can find some vegan ones (chocolate chip hobnobs just aren't chocolatey enough for me).

Clotted cream! How did you get that delivered here?

We are soon heading off to the land of marmite, mature cheddar, clotted cream and proper strong tea too, but I don't think I'll manage to stock up much for our return because we will have to be carrying Christmas presents back. I will just have to eat as much as I can while we are over there. I am looking forward to the extra thick double cream with brandy or cointreau in that always appear in UK supermarkets at Christmas time - planning warm mince pies with big dollops of boozy cream.

I managed to get some chocolate digestives in Edeka before, but they seem to have disappeared again. They were in a cardboard box rather than a packet, but otherwise authentic.

Clotted cream! I don't even have that here - in the uk (Land of marmite )! Black - I've jsut 'done' tesco, and they have a whole shelf full of flavoured cream and butters ; extra thick cream with strawberries and white chocolate in it already (!) and others with mincemeat in... we obvs don't get enough calories at this time of year! (I prefer my cream unadulterated)
I'm quite surprised at the 'biscuits' - tesco have lots of packets of Bahlsen choc biscuits, (aren't they german?) and lidls is full of speculatius... but then I don't really eat them.

Who's Dieter Bohlen?

I imagine a schnellhefter is some sort of envelope-file, or binder of some sort? I need one for my christmas organising, anyway

These are Schnellhefter, ptumbi (have never uploaded photos to a post before, so am hoping it works!). The DC use them in vast quantities at school, whereas I prefer popper wallets for storing documents, useful information etc. - another thing I import from the UK as I've never seen them here.

Yes, there are plenty of biscuits available here - just none that I get very excited about. Even DH (who's Austrian) would rarely buy biscuits at the supermarket here but always stocks up whenever we go to M&S in Bratislava.

there are good biscuits here, but none that are really good for dunking i think. But then if you don't have proper tea, then what's the point?

I've just looked through pages and pages of folders on the Staples website while waiting for the DC to put their pyjamas on, and found nothing remotely resembling a Schnellhefter. Conclusion: we'll just have to continue calling them by their German name and not discuss them with anyone who doesn't speak German.

Modern Talking were quite big in Germany when I went on our school exchange in the mid-80s - actually, didn't they even have a hit in the UK charts? (Should I admit to remembering it was called Brother Louie? )

I also have to confess that my morning coffee isn't complete without a chocolate hobnob. Unfortunately I've just finished my last packet... Must make some more chocolate fridge cake instead.

There is websites/store that I've used a couple of times. Postage is about 15€ a box. Between 5 of us it's not so bad .
Britishcornershop is the name of it. It's deadly, way too much choice!

Isn't a Schnellheft a "loose leaf binder"?

you have unparalleled dedication to stationery vocabulary Linzer, I am impressed . We will keep the Schnellhefter our little secret…

And no you definitely shouldn't admit to that. This will also remain our little secret! Though there's a lot that went on in the 80s that should go into Room 101. Lime green leg warmers anybody??

MrsNutella that sounds like a website I shouldn't know about . Re loose leaf binder, I'm not sure - I looked on google images and all sorts of folders came up. But I'm no stationery expert.

It was DP's bday today, so more going to Christmas markets, more Glühwein. I'm going to be devastated coming back in January and no more markets

Cannot WAIT til the end of term though, the DDs are completely shattered.

I've just been desperately googling images of Schnellhefter but am stuck in hospital with poorly DD & my mobile signal isn't good enough to load pictures, grr! I'll have to wait until we're home to have a look as for some reason I really need to know what they are!

Tea bags, Cadburys chocolate and marmite are always top of my shopping list for visitors. I've asked my brother to bring a tin of Roses when he comes this Christmas too.

I did want to reply to Aaron few posts but have completely forgotten what I wanted to write & DH will be here any minute (hopefully!) so I'll come back later when I've had time to read through the last few posts again

• a few posts. I should proofread before I post.

at Aaron, Woolly - I did wonder whether we had a new poster that I'd somehow missed! Can you see the Schnellhefter image (taken from my own collection ) I posted a bit higher up?

Nutella It does comes close but I think that if you said "loose leaf binder" to an English speaker, it could cover a variety of similar things (like Heinous, I googled and it mainly came up with ring binders) but if you mentioned a Schnellhefter to a German/Austrian, they would know exactly what you meant.

Heinous I am either dedicated or nerdily (if that isn't a word, it should be) obsessed. Happy birthday to your DP - if that's not an excuse to have a Glühwein, I don't know what is!

I don't remember wearing anything lime green in the 80s (the less said about leg warmers, the better), but do remember wearing a long shocking pink shirt, shocking pink leggings and shocking pink shoes to the disco when we were on the German exchange (at which we may well have heard Modern Talking) and thinking I was the bee's knees.

Woolly - hope your dd gets better soon.

Heinous - when I came over to Hamburg for the xmas markets, I didn't bring my boots and the wind was so sharp, my ankles were cold! I did notice lots and lots of the stalls had legwarmers for sale - woolly, tartan, silky - and was seriously tempted....

It's funny, linzer, I looked at the pic you posted about the schnellhefter and thought 'I know those' but I think you are right; I don't think I've seen them here. I must be remembering them from my childhood in germany! We use envelopes, or ring binders, or concertina-files (V useful!) but not the things with the hole-punched-clasp-thingy

Sorry Woolly, vor lauter Schnellhefter obsession I completely missed the bit about your DD being in hospital; what a worry for you. How's she doing?

ptumbi I don't think we used anything other than exercise books up until the 6th form, and we had ring binders. But I can see that Schnellhefter make sense as they're far lighter; the DDs have up to seven subjects in a morning so have a huge amount to lug about some days.

"and then we had ring binders" (in the 6th form), that should say.

Hi Aimlessly, I bet you've already sorted it but the only two things I import now to Austria are PG Tips/ Yorkshire tea bags and bourbon creams! I was in Innsbruck just a weekend ago too (seeing MIL/ FIL) and they definitely have ferrero rocher in even a tiny SPAR in a small village there.

Austria- land of great coffee and crap tea! MIL has cupboards full of awful twiggery crap that all tastes of nothing at all.

I had to go back to Amsterdam last week for a sad reason- making a colleague redundant and I get to take over his projects- DH took the opportunity to ignore our agreement of no-tree this year and got a Christmas tree. He did ask/ tell me by SMS but it was clearly for the fish as it was going to happen whatever my answer. We are going to the UK tomorrow so the tree will have been enjoyed for a full 7 days and will no doubt be twigs and a heap of needles when we get back 2 weeks later.

Linzer we're huge netflix lovers here. DH is watching all the UK Sherlocks, I like the Green Arrow series and Orange is the new black is next up for me. DD loves all the kiddie stuff as well. Particularly nice not to have to time when you watch something and no adverts whatsoever. I love it. You're on my list to send a better list of the DVD we have/ do swaps, we are on a plane first thing tomorrow so will likely be back in touch in Jan after all the festives are done.

Pietrap- I can get really nice Cathedral City Cheddar in Mercur? I think you might be a Deutser though not an Ostricher in which case that isn't much help to you.

Wooly- in hospital? I hope that it's something minor/ fixed. My friends in Brum and Chicago both have kids with really nasty flu/ viral infections that required hospital stays. One a 5 year old, one a 2 week old. Both thankfully turned out OK.

I used those Schnellhefte in Uni too to make my thin essays/ projects look a bit more substantive! That was in the UK and Science not Arts. Also, cutting out and glueing the graphs to another piece of paper (back when you had to draw them yourself) helped thicken up that light-weight offering! Nowadays it's all about making your punctuation marks 14 point to help extend the apparent length...

Linzer - I was in a stationery shop today (In reigate, lots of money in reigate) and they had Schnellhefter! I specifically looked for them, and they were even called schnellhelfter, or clip-binders. Pack of 6 for £5.99 reduced to £1.99....
C4ro - Gute Reise!

I'm impressed at your dedication to the Schnellhefter cause, ptumbi! at them normally costing £5.99, though; I think we normally pay about €2.50 for 10 and even less when they're on offer at Hofer. Am not convinced by the "clip-binder" though; there's not really any clipping involved, is there? (And the hypen makes me think it's a translation from German.)

C4ro Am envious of you not being limited to school holidays for travelling. In theory, we could take the DC out of school for the last couple of days so that we could get back to the UK in time for Christmas, but they protested so much about missing a day of school when we flew to England for a wedding earlier this year that we promised we wouldn't take them out of school again unless it was an absolute emergency (an extra day in London to make it worthwhile flying over for the weekend doesn't count as worth missing school for, apparently).

They've had nice Cheddar in Lidl recently too (mature and farmhouse IIRC) but it's part of their deluxe range so am not sure whether it will be in stock permanently - I couldn't see any last time I looked, so I suspect not.

Woolly hope your DD is OK, gute besserung!

Linzer I thought missing the last day of school to get a cheaper flight was absolutely absolutely not allowed? My friend told me they even have people checking at the airports for school-aged children in the run up to Christmas.
We break up on Friday, but know people in Bayern don't break up until the 23rd, which seems horribly late for people wanting to travel for Christmas.

I had to ask what Schnellhefter were when I went to buy all DD's stationery for starting school. I will hold my hands up and say I have never used one - I used to use cardboard folders with those little green strings with metal toggles at each end to thread through the holes. Is there a German word for those too ?

Probably Black, but I'm not too sure what it is! I only know the words of stationery items on the DC's school lists. (Actually, I remember learning Schnellhefter when I was an au pair as I had to buy one for my VHS course.)

They're a little more relaxed here in Austria about DC taking time off school. The teacher at our primary school can give permission for a day off; any longer and it has to go to the head, but I've never known her to refuse permission (one of DD2's friends had a week off to go to Mauritius!). We've taken the DC out of school for the last day or two before Christmas and the teachers have been fine about it - it's not even about getting a cheaper flight, it's actually being able to get back in time as the DC almost always break up on the 23rd and as the Ryanair flight lands really late, we have to stay overnight at the airport and can't get back to my parents' until the following day. But apart from the fact that the DC now object to missing school, DD1 wants to be at home for her birthday (just after Christmas) this year so we've decided to stay here for once.

How is DD woolly? I hope you're both back home now.

I've been stocking up on that Lidl Cheddar Linzer - it's not great, but it'll do in this time of crisis Yiss in Deutschland C4ro, I know nothing of Mercur. I feel about a million miles away from Austria tbh - I yearn for the mountains. Or even a slight rise in the ground! It's very very flat round here.

We break up at the end of the week. 23rd is really late! We did get a stern letter about taking days out of term, but still it's not as bad as it was in the UK.

Heinous where are you? I've totally lost the "Überblick " of who is who. I have total baby brain! It's pretty flat here so we get a decent amount of rain..... Or "English" weather apparently. I am going to hit the next person that says anything like that ever again

Berlin MrsNutella Lots going for it, but hilly it ain't!

I haven't tried the Lidl Cheddar Heinous, but DH really likes it and has been stocking up. I think Merkur is only in Austria - it's fairly expensive but sells a lot of things you can't get at other supermarkets (it had Cadbury's a few years ago) - but it's part of the Rewe group.

The teacher told me this morning that she doesn't know how many children will be in school next week and that two have already been entschuldigt. I suppose that's the problem with having school right up until Christmas but not being particularly strict about DC taking days off in term time.