Is there still a German Thread?

[BeatrixBurgund]

We've moved back to Germany after 8 years in Switzerland and Scotland, and with the kids in school, I just know I'm going to have lots of questions about the Bavarian education system.

And I'd love to catch up with all the folk I used to chat with (even if I can't remember their usernames!). I'm on a namechange - it's MmeLindor here!

[BertieBotts]

I always find it's the same price with Ryanair too but different airlines have different rules.

What about border hopping and flying from an Austrian airport, is that an option if it's cheap? We got incredibly cheap flights before by flying from Strasbourg. Paid more for parking for the week!

[LinzerTorte]

True trotzdem - but as we've always been seated together up to now, I don't feel like giving any more money to Ryanair than I need to. I suppose the advantage is that you can choose the seats/configuration you want (3-1 or 2-2 - we're almost always given 3-1 and sometimes I sit across the aisle, sometimes DD1 does), but I don't really mind either way. I did wonder when they first introduced allocated seating whether they would dot us all over the plane if we didn't pay for seats just to force us to cough up, but it hasn't happened yet!

Not sure about Easyjet though; the last time we flew with them was years ago, when it was still a free for all, but as DS was under 5 we were able to do speedy boarding or something similar that meant we weren't competing with the hordes.

Bertie You should find that children under 11 pay less on Ryanair on flights departing from the UK (same goes for any airline I assume, as APD - or lack of it for children - applies to everyone), although it's only about €10-15 less I think, possibly more for long-haul.

Ah, have just googled and 12-15 year olds haven't had to pay APD since March of this year either (must check whether we're due a refund as I'm sure we only got the discount for DS when we booked our flights for Christmas and next summer). More info here.

[BertieBotts]

OK - difficult to find exact prices without dates, but try: (all complete, return prices)

Ryanair Nuremburg - Stansted. Under €300 if you get the dates right. Horrible sunrise flight times, though, but that's not always a bad thing.

Lufthansa Munich - Heathrow. Just over €500.

British Airways Munich - Heathrow just over €500 only if you book through certain vendors - try travelstart.de or seat24.de
Under €500 possible from Stuttgart to Heathrow with BA, again probably only through vendors.

Eurowings Stuttgart - Stansted around €300

Could you do Memmingen? Ryanair do Memmingen - Stansted for about €3-400 (the dates are patchier).

The Austrian airports don't save you any money so not worth looking at this time.

That's all I got :)

[BertieBotts]

That's all basic package, no extras or anything, but should give you a starting point at least.

[LinzerTorte]

It looks like we should be entitled to APD refunds for the DDs for our flights this summer, but Ryanair's form will only let you apply for refunds for 2-11 year olds. Will have to wait for live chat to open tomorrow and hope they're a bit more helpful than last time. The customer services person wanted to know exact details and quantities of all DD1's medical supplies, which I spent ages typing out - answers like 4 batteries weren't detailed enough, apparently; I had to tell her which type - only for her to tell me she couldn't forward what I'd sent "in that form" and cut me off! The annoying thing is that it only ever says "medical supplies" on the document they send you to present at the airport, so goodness knows why they have to have such exact details.

[BoffinMum]

I get the impression UK/German dual nationality is here to stay actually. I don't think they are in any particular hurry to change things back. Otherwise I would have a real dilemma on my hands!

I am so excited about the possibility of a Stuttgart meet. I would definitely come across for something like that as I have a family connection to Stuttgart as well and I am keen to get myself reacquainted with the city a bit more. And it would be so nice to put some names to faces from here. Please make sure I know about it if you are planning something!

[BertieBotts]

Kimmy I just saw your questions about teaching.

I can't help with most I'm afraid - I am lucky enough to have found a school which does a contract with health insurance and even a car (if I can pass this damn test, grrrr!) but I know from others that the freelance game can be quite tough (however, apparently you can make much more from it, if you play it right.)

What I do know about freelancing is that you absolutely MUST work for at least two companies otherwise you'll be faced with a very big bill. My employers insisted that I would be better off doing this and I just got into a huge mess about it, so don't, unless you're going to navigate it properly. I believe that the social insurance is mandatory.

Doing it as a minijob seems doable as long as you can get insurance some other way, maybe through your husband?

[trotzdem]

Kimmy

1. Those of you applying for German citizenship now are you going to end up with dual citizenship as in pre Brexit or are you being asked to relinquish Brit citizenship?
   

Duel citizenship is available for now, though I think not for everyone - certainly if you are British married to a German (or a child with a British and a German parent) it seems standard.

1. Those of you who teach, are you freelance and how many hours do you have to work for it to make sense if have to pay your own health insurance? Do you all pay 19% into the pension system? (What will you get back for that?)
   

I teach through VHS which is a bit different as you are neither free lance nor employed, you get a Dozent Pauschal plus quite generous travel expenses. Regardless of income from any other job, mini or otherwise, this is totally tax and deduction free up to a fairly low annual limit (€2400 maybe, roughly - applies to the Pauschal without travel expenses). I used to work out how many courses and lessons per course to offer make sure I stayed just under the limit but now we just put my earnings from VHS onto our tax return.

When I only did VHS teaching I was insured with DH, but I now have a midi job, which is a part time job over the mini job threshold basically (non teaching). My health insurance is paid through that, as are my pension contributions, unemployment insurance etc - and my employer pays to of course. One of my reasons for wanting an "employed" job rather than trying to build up the teaching as freelance was the pension etc. contributions.

Being self employed is quite a faff as I understand it - I have heard you can be publicly insured as a creative professional, which is certainly a better bet than private health insurance for many people especially if you aim to stay long term/ permanently, but still once you have paid health insurance and pension contributions and liability insurance and tax out of your freelance income you'd have to be charging quite a high hurly rate and working quite a lot of hours to be better off than in a minimum wage job!

1. Are any of you minijobbers and if so, do you have a Riesterrente?
   

Have had a mini job teaching in an Eltern Initiative school in the past - didn't have a Riesterrente and had never heard of it! The Eltern Initiative took the pee to be honest and seemed to think everyone should he so very enthusiastic about their concept and so madly in love with the kids that they would effectively work for less than minimum wage (they were willing to pay €450 initially for 1 day 8-2, but kept stretching the hours, eventually asking for what amounted to 3 days for the same money - plus endless parents evenings and weekend and evening events unpaid of course - they did the same to everyone but school teaching doesn't work well as a mini job because you are expected to be so committed IMO)

1. Are any of you paying voluntarily nat insurance into the UK pension scheme?
   

No - with the pound falling against the Euro that wouldn't seem a great plan unless you were only here a year or two.

Good luck

[trotzdem]

Bertie I can't get those prices to come up at all - for the Ryan Air for example I get €688.03 at the cheapest for 2 adults and 3 children, flying on a Friday in August, or €799 flying on Saturday morning.

Where are you going to get under €300 when I am getting almost €700 without any extras and for the cheapest flight options? I am using the Ryan air website.

I am somewhat upset if I am doing something very wrong when I book flights and paying twice what I need to!

Linzer so are the airlines all charging us APD when we don't need to pay it, and just keeping quiet about it unless you know from some other source that you are entitled to claim it back?

[LinzerTorte]

trotzdem No, they shouldn't be charging you any APD (for DC on flights from the UK) now that the new legislation has come in - the only issue is if you booked and paid for flights before 27th March 2015 but flew afterwards (for 2-11 year olds) or before 1st March 2016 (for 12-15 year olds). Some airlines automatically refund the excess APD you paid if you booked before these dates but flew later, but Ryanair is one of the airlines that you need to contact directly to ask for the refund. We booked last December for this summer's flights so Ryanair automatically deducted the APD for DS, but we shouldn't (I found out yesterday, thanks to googling for this thread!) have paid for the DDs either. Currently number 11 in the queue at Ryanair live chat...

[LinzerTorte]

More information about it all here.

Ryanair claims that we didn't pay APD for any of the DC (I have no way of checking now, although I was sure we only got the discount for DS) and that they don't refund tax under 20 GBP/EUR in any case , so I'll have to leave it.

[LinzerTorte]

Btw trotzdem those are the kinds of prices I pay with Ryanair (have just realised the price I gave yesterday was only for our outbound flight ). We booked within a day or two of the flights being released and paid €293 for the flights going out (DC and me, without DH) and €333 coming back (with DH). Those prices don't include luggage and have now gone up by about €100.

[frosch]

Trotzdem, are you clearing your cookies in between searches? If you are searching for a 'regular' route, airlines get cheeky and assume that you are willing to pay a bit more...

[LinzerTorte]

I clear my cookies regularly and it doesn't seem to make much difference to Ryanair's prices. I've just looked on my netbook (I don't think I've ever used it to visit Ryanair's site but cleared all the cookies just in case) and it gives me exactly the same price as on my laptop. Unless it can somehow tell I'm at the same address...

[BertieBotts]

Try incognito browsing. Do you need to fly end of week or is midweek possible? What dates do you need to cover? I didn't know of course which exact week in August.

[LinzerTorte]

I can get €353 for midweek/non-weekend flights from Nuremberg to Stansted, out Wed 16th August, back Mon 21st August. It looks so much cheaper to fly to Stansted - and there are flights every day. And now I really must get back to work.

[trotzdem]

The problem with flying mid week is that cheaper flights are balanced out by more nights' accommodation and hire car to pay for.

The wedding is in the afternoon of 5th August so if we end up using hotels we'd only want to do 2 nights and fly in Friday and out Sunday. If we get a cottage then usually August rentals have to be Saturday to Saturday so we'd want to arrive and leave on Saturdays to avoid additionally paying for a hotel.

Airbnb may solve the Saturday to Saturday issue though.

I'll try clearing cookies, didn't know about that!

My mum is also making noises about paying for some accommodation but has so far suggested very financially generous yet wildly unsuitable options (romantic stand alone suites in the grounds of a 5* hotel which sleep 2 and she thinks the hotel would happily put extra beds in for example, and having pre teen cousins who don't get on well share a room unconnected to any adults and opening directly onto outdoor areas) but won't be drawn on commuting to dates nor hurried about deciding what to book so we can opt out if it's wildly inappropriate

[BertieBotts]

Ah, yes, Friday to Sunday is expensive. Thursday to Monday? Is that far too much more?

[trotzdem]

2 additional nights of hotel accommodation in August for 5 people, none of whom are cot sized... Plus 2 extra days of car hire and eating out. It's swings and roundabouts whether cheaper flights on Thursday and Monday offset that - the saving would have to be over €250 to break even on a longer stay.

DH has found a BA flight for 580€ if we stay Friday to Monday... Also depends a bit whether my mum's accommodation offer comes to anything... Think we are almost decided on booking independently of extended family plans though to avoid frustration!

[trotzdem]

I apologise for ´killing the thread I promise not to go on about the cost of flying a family to the UK for a weekend in August any more!

Had my Deutschtest für Zuwanderer today... got to wait 3 weeks for the results... Am hopefully because I am pretty sure I had 100% in the listening and didn't lose more than a possible 2 marks on the reading (cure you grammar section) ...

I know I passed the spoken section as she marked it in front of us (I was partnered with an English woman I have never met before who has been here 32 years including decades working in an all German environment!). Just worried about the writing as although I filled the paper I'm completely sure it was packed to the brim with Rechtschreibung errors (it said in the instructions to write as much as possible!)

Einbürgerungstest booked for beginning of December...

How's everyone else getting on?

[frosch]

Well done trotzdem! Sounds like you've done well today!

I did my Einbürgerungstest back in September and was told that it would take six weeks to mark, so was surprised when the certificate pitched up two weeks later. I used the iPhone app to study and it worked out OK. We all had an hour to complete the paper (each paper had different questions) but most of the people upped and left after 10-15 minutes, so it's all very straightforward.

Got to show a paper certificate for language now, so am doing a six-month course starting Monday. Crossing my fingers that I can complete this all in time and that no 'retrospective' laws are applied to dual nationality; maybe I'm paranoid but really don't trust the UK government with all this.

[trotzdem]

Thanks frosch :o

Assuming you already speak good German you probably don't need to do a course - I have never actually got around to studying beyond a few lessons... There were 30 people taking the test today and 12 were "independent" - taking the test without having been enrolled via a course.

Is the Einbürgerungstest on paper then? For no good reason I imagined doing it on a computer in a little booth (no idea why as that doesn't tie in with my general experience of Germany whatsoever!).

I think I'll just practice on line as often as possible over the next 6 weeks - the pass mark is ridiculously low isn't it ... without understanding all the questions fully, and being somewhat ignorant of party politics here I have still passed the couple of practice tests I've done online! Mind you A level history and being old enough to remember the wall coming down do help!

[doradoo]

Just home from my Einburgerung test - not my best score I'm sure - been practicing on the app but am sure I've got the 17 needed to pass. Just got to wait for my big envelope to come through the he door - if it's a small one I'll know I've failed!

Yes it's on paper - you're very own one with name etc printed on the front - and the questions are different for everyone, DH and I both did it today and had diff qus.

Now just got to knuckle down and write some German for the B1 which I'm doing on 24/5 nov. I've not been taking any lessons, but have some books and online resources, and DH to correct my writing which is the bit I'm most worried about.

[doradoo]

Oh and since my last smug pst about Herbstferien and weather it's done nothing but rain........

[BertieBotts]

We have Herbstferien next week, the rain and mist is lovely here though, looks so beautiful around the hills and mountains and against the colours of the trees.

I've got to go and return some books to the American library. The annoying thing about this is that it's joined to the main library system enough to use the same library card, but you can't drop off books at any other branch of the library, it has to be that specific one and it's all the way on the other side of town for me.