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".)

Hello and welcome Kirdle (and don't worry, this is a very gentle and friendly thread!). I hope the move goes well - that's a long way - is all your stuff being containered over?

That's a great time for your sons to be moving over - you will be able to learn German from them and I found it so much easier to make friends once I was here with small kiddies. I hope it's a smooth transition for you.

My only word of wisdom would be to be very gentle with yourselves - a move is exhausting in itself, but I find each time I move to a different country, after about 3 weeks everyone is completely done in! Something about hearing a foreign language all the time, I dunno... but much early to bed and sleeping in (plus afternoon power naps!) seemed very necessary at that stage. Then it's all much easier. And have lots of fun exploring! Are you used to moving around a lot?

Wow kirdle - that is a long way! Have you been to Cologne before? It is beautiful - and it's one of my choices of city for living in germany!

Good luck with the move

Hi Heinous and ptumbi, thanks for the warm welcome. I'm glad I've found a "safe place" on here!

Yup. It's a bloody long way!! My DH did it last month and it was 30h travel time...yeah, not looking forward to that We get a 40ft and 20ft shipping container plus 400kg air freight. I was worried we would be without furniture for 2-3 months but the moving company said the shipping container could take up to 14 weeks! Eep! We have organised a short-term furnished apartment until our things arrive but it's really only 2BR. Thank goodness we will be coming into good weather again!

Thank you so much for the advice Heinous, if I come back in tears in approx 4 weeks can you remind me of this again please? You say "each time" you move to a different country, so you've moved around a bit then? Where are you from and where have you lived? DH and I lived in East London (Limehouse) for 3 years before coming back to Melbourne and having our eldest. We're basically doing the same thing again, but this time to Germany and with kids!

We actually lived in Köln for a few months towards the end of that trip, and I agree ptumbi, it is beautiful! What do you like about it? We particularly felt at home with the outdoor beer culture... Though I'm not too sure how much of that we'll experience this time around!

So... Any advice for a newcomer to Germany? Oooh, actually, does anyone know about car seats regs? Can we bring our car seats or do we have to buy them there?

Lovely sunny day here today - finally! - I'm thinking it may be time for a new thread, as the autumnal theme is getting a bit out of date.

Welcome Kirdle - like Heinous says, this is a nice friendly thread so you really don't need to worry. I'm quite far away from where you'll be moving to (Austria) so am not much help on the practical aspects of moving to Germany with children as I lived there pre-DC but I'm sure you'd be fine bringing your car seats. We moved here from the USA (we've also moved around a bit!) when DD1 was 15 months and brought her car seat over with us to use here without any problems.

The DC have been back at school three days now but at least it's been a short week to ease them and me back into it. Work was manic right up until we went back to the UK, but thankfully has calmed down a bit now - although I do have a deadline tomorrow, so should probably get back to to while the DC are outside in the garden, making the most of the sunshine.

What happened there? ^^ Were we trolled?

I suppose Kirdle must be settling in by now, 24 hour fllight from Aus behind her....

It's been so sunny here Linzer; warm, breezy, just right for sitting in the garden. I am making the most of it as I seem to have found myself a full-time job! I didn't want one (F/T), but they asked me and it seemed rude to turn them down . The good side is that it's in a school, so I will get at least a week off every 6-7 weeks or so Don't think I'll be able to MN in the day tho. MN, housework, garden, cooking and shopping will have to fit into evenings !!

you really didn't think that through ptumbi Congratulations! That's great news I've been in school this morning, but just helping out. It's so exhausting, I wouldn't be up to teaching I don't think! Though the time off is good - seems there's loads of days off in May.

Hope Kirdle and family are doing OK...

It's gone really cold here! Though when I say really cold, not like the reports I'm hearing from people at home talking about scraping ice off cars and snow days... I just mean I'm not wearing a Tshirt any more

The garden looks wonderful, good weather followed by a change always makes me love my garden.

Awful weather here too Heinous - it's been cold and windy all day, and has been pouring with rain since about midday.

Well done on the job ptumbi! The time off sounds ideal for MNing too.

We've had a bit of an eventful time lately as DD1 was diagnosed with diabetes a couple of weeks ago and was in hospital until earlier today. It came as quite a shock - especially the length of time that she'd have to stay in hospital - but has really made me appreciate the health care system here; the hospital and all the staff were excellent and we've been given lots of training. I must admit I'm slightly nervous about her going back to school next week and how she'll get on, but she's coping really well with all the insulin injections and finger prick tests (I did one earlier to test her device and it really hurt, but I think I may have a low pain threshold!).

Linzer I saw the news about DD, that's not easy for anyone! I remember a girl at school being diabetic and it never seemed an issue really. I think kids adjust well to a new "normal" (they're not going to be ok with it every day of course). I hope she and all of you are well.

We are suffering through cold/cough no.368 of this year I think. Fx that better weather I must be dreaming will come and we will all feel a bit healthier....

Linzer that is tough - injections are so stressful, esp on your child... i think I have a low pain threshold when it comes to needles. Is she managing ok?

It's turned cold again here - blizzards in scotland. I'm away next week - in Greece! Looking forward to warm weather, but not the economic problems - taking cash everywhere.

that must be a shock Linzer, it must be hard for all of you to take in. I'm glad to hear you had such good support from the hospital, that is very encouraging. Do you know if there are other children at school who are diabetic?

I'm excited that I'm now officially entered into my first race (running) in Germany . Only a couple of weeks away, because it's a last minute transfer from someone who couldn't participate any more, so I've not exactly trained for it. But I'm still excited to do my first race "internationally", it'll be interesting to see if it feels different from running in England. Probably a lot warmer - I fear I might cause a heat wave, knowing my luck

Hi kirdle, I've not been around much so I've only just seen your message. I have no idea yet where in Koeln we are going to be. I'm going to be doing a weekly commute for the rest of the school year and then we are going to be looking at moving the whole family. At the moment the customer has only signed an initial 3 month contract so which runs until the end of July. We can't make any longer term commitments until the permanent contract is signed which should be by mid June.

I'd love to share any research that you have done on schools. I've been too busy to really look into it, and if we aren't moving till Aug I've got a little while to get settled and start to find my way around until I have to worry about it.

Thanks all. DD1 is adjusting well and has settled back in at school (although she really didn't want to go in on her first day back), but isn't keen on carting all her paraphernalia about with her whenever she goes out (not heavy, but lots of bits and pieces to remember) and is worried about standing out/people finding out she has diabetes. Heinous AFAIK there aren't any other children at her school who are diabetic - the only other child (person, in fact) we know here with diabetes is a boy from the hospital who was diagnosed at the same time and is the same age as her, but as the hospital is half an hour away I doubt he lives very close by. I have his mother's phone number though, so must get in touch.

Nutella Hope the coughs and colds are all better now that the weather gradually seems to be improving.

ptumbi How was Greece? It must be a nice time of year to go; I've been twice in the summer and found it unbearably hot, but autumn was nice.

Heinous How long is the race? I've done the town race here a few times, which is at the end of June so even at 9am it's often been too hot, but I've always done the shortest route (3.3k, which was enough for me!).

Did everyone vote? There seem to have been a lot of problems with ballot papers not arriving, but mine came several weeks ago - much to my surprise, as I left the UK in 1999 so was sure I'd no longer be entitled to vote. Not that my vote made a huge difference anyway, as the constituency where I was last registered has always been a Conservative stronghold.

Wow Linzer that must have been a shock for you both! Glad dd is settling back in.

Was anyone else woken at 6am by over excited children wanting to have hand made gifts admired and to recite poems in German Very sweet I'm sure, but mothers day seems to be just another day on which to be woken too early and put the kids wants first, just in a different style! DH pretended to stay asleep, and DC3, who had joined us in our bed at 3 am and taken a good hour to fall properly asleep there, threw a huge tantrum because he was upset nobody had helped him / told him to make me anything...

Afternoon all! Regular poster (years ago), now occasional lurker but just saw Kirdle's message. I'm just outside of Köln and have two young children, so may be able to help with school, city, bureaucracy questions. PM me, as messages show up in my email inbox and I check that more regularly than I lurk. Köln is a lovely place to live. Alaaf!

Poor MrTumbles! No, that wasn't an issue for me having gone off to do my race long before they woke up. It was a HM Linzer so 21km. And it was freezing!! Well not literally, but much colder than it's been recently. It was great running past the sights of Berlin

No voting papers ever turned up - but like you Linzer it wouldn't have made a difference, our constituency is a very safe Labour seat (even now!).

Is everyone looking forward to the heatwave tomorrow? We only have a 3 day school week this week, so hoping some of it lingers till the end of the week for lots of outdoors fun!

My voting papers also were MIA.
Anyone worried that the UK may vote in the next 12 months to leave the EU.
I am not sure what it will mean for all of us.

it's not good GFplux is it? I have a not especially water tight back up plan based on claiming Irish citizenship. I have a few non-EU friends here, and it is such a PITA for them. Even with the right to stay in Germany, travelling on holiday to other states (the non Schengen ones) is tricky. I hope to the vote goes the right way. I won't be blasé about my voting papers, for sure.

Though what the actual ramifications would be if the UK did leave I don't know - it's not like it's happened before. I have read doomsday scenarios about the whole of the EU collapsing, because it would be a change in the treaty to allow one state to leave, and a treaty change would trigger referenda in many other states, and then anti-EU factions in those states could start insisting on their right to leave too etc etc. At best I imagine long, bad tempered negotiations.

Aaaargh! Hope it doesn't ever get that far and

I briefly looked into what it would involve to become an Austrian citizen (and took the test online - 82%, but I guessed a good half of the answers), but it would mean giving up my British citizenship. And that's something I really don't want to do, particularly if the UK leaves the EU. I think that Germany allows dual citizenship for EU citizens, though? (Although I suppose that means you'd have to make sure you become a German citizen before Britain leaves! And would you then no longer be allowed to be a German citizen if the UK did leave?) Lots of questions... I'm also hoping it doesn't get that far.

Hope your Mother's Day improved, MrTumbles - luckily the DC weren't excited enough about it to wake up any earlier than normal and I was up before them, as usual. I like my peace and quiet in the mornings! (Admittedly, this isn't feasible if you have DC who get up at 5/5.30 or earlier.)

Heinous It was lovely and warm here yesterday, but the weather is set to get quite cold and rainy over the long weekend. Grr. 13° and rain forecast for Friday - not what suenan and I had ordered for our meet-up. Am very impressed at you doing a HM, btw; our neighbour has just done one and I saw the amount of training she did. I'm still trying to get back up to 5k...

Just had a wasted trip to the bank... thought I would go in to get a statement to save the €€€ they charge to post it to us (ok, only about €2 but I still object), only for the machine to give me one measly piece of paper saying our statement is too long to print and we will receive it by post in the new few days! So I could have saved myself a bike ride into town. Oh well, good exercise, I suppose.

Hi everyone

I hope I can just join in. Me (German) and DH (British) live in Germany with our two kids (3 and 4).

They were born here and have a German birth certificate and passport. I'm just wondering whether we should be doing something about them being British citizens? What has everyone else done?

We have no plans to move away but should Britain do the "brexit" I would like the kids to have options in the future rather than just be German.

Just wondering if we are missing something here. Admittedly, I haven't done much research into it yet. (scared of all authorities)

Thanks all.

Hi Trudyla and welcome! Your DC are automatically British citizens through your DH so you don't actually need to do anything - you can apply for a British passport for them at any time. You can register their birth with the UK authorities and receive a birth registration certificate (we did for DD1), but it doesn't really mean anything, it's expensive and the woman at the British embassy advised me against it for DD2 as there would be no real advantage for her.

The only issue is that, because they were born outside the UK, your DC are British citizens by descent and so won't automatically be able to pass their British citizenship onto their DC - unless, say, they later move to the UK and their DC are born there. If their children are born outside the UK, they won't be entitled to British citizenship.

Germany does apparently allow dual citizenship for members of other EU states - apparently only/ easiest if you've been here 8 years plus and are married to a German. We looked into it last week and I think I will do it. Would also allow me to vote in general elections here, which is far more relevant than the UK to me atm. I wouldn't want not to be able to return to live in the UK in theory though, esp if something happened to DH... so wouldn't do it without the dual option.

• forgot to say "It is I...MrTumble" ... name changed on the basis none of my kuds watch Mt Tumble any more... am now named after a steak temperature. .. (not wanting to be called CloneWarsBavarianFanbase... or ProjectrunwayBavarianFan base .. ..