Day Two in Europe

Ww woke up at 6am to drag our sorry selves out of bed to meet with our relocation gal, Klaudia at 8:30am. Had breakfast in hotel as it's included.  The meat salad was to die forl! And those amazing Euro crispy buns!!!! Mm mm!

Anyway, spent the whole morning in interviews registering at city hall as German citizens, then deciding which tax zone we fall into and getting a number for that, then getting Steven a residency permit not contingent on me being here. Two departments for that and we had appointments. Everything is by appointment. You can't just walze in there with a question. 

Then we had a bit of time and went for a coffee on the Konigsallee, but the Greek waiter tried to rip us off 5 Euro and Klaudia told him off. Steven said it's a great scam as he did it himself back in the day with coffees and no one checks their bill. Karma will bite you in the ass every time! $50 for 3 coffees, 1 chocolate milk and a bottle of water to share.  Yeah!

After that interchange we went to the Deutsche Bank to get three new bank accounts, and apply for a MasterCard. Then we had to pay our landlord over 5000 Euros and also our gas, TV and radio license, parking etc for three months. It was initially a huge financial hit. Steven needs all this to get his company car and then will need a German licence. 

We also will make an appt to see our apartment and measure windows for curtains. Then a trip to Ikea will be in order. 

I was totally exhausted and feverish with flu or cold and literally came back to hotel and collapsed into bed and slept like a log for 4 hours until Steven woke me to say he's taking E out for dinner. Love, love , love the German down pillows and duvets! I asked the staff to indulge me with for two more pillows; heaven!

They're gone now for dinner and I still feel very weak. The weather here was a lovely 21C, but for me I kept feeling hot then cold. Can't find my iPad and too weak to search for it. Maybe tonight.

We have to go to the main train station tomorrow and get train passes for all of us.

Hoping I recover soon from this illness. All that packing and purging and stress from my classroom and house took more of a physical toll on me than I realized. I ache all over. 

There is a big summer festival happening on the Rhine near us starting on the 15th which is the weekend. They're starting to set things up now, so that'll be something fun to do.

I brought along a cross that Ruthanne gave me and we didn't lose any luggage, nor was it damaged in any way. God's on our side!  Have Rosary beads too for good measure. Forgot all of my vitamins though. Oh well. 

Elowyn has her German interview in August, so she has to prepare. She was watching a German telenovela and she knew exactly what was happening. Now she has to learn to speak it in conversation.

That's it in a nutshell. Will make myself a Neocitron...if I can find it. 

A Day of Museums

Kat Hille <kathille@gmail.com>	Mon, Jul 25, 2016, 6:35 AM		Reply
to Krista, Natasha, Karl, Bryan, Irene, Catherine, Olga, Alexandra, Bernie, David, Markus, Mark, bcc: me, bcc: Steven, bcc: Elowyn

What to do on a Sunday in Germany when all the stores are closed? Visit churches and museums of course!

We finally saw the inside of the beautiful catholic church beside us that is being renovated on the outside.  It's called St. Peter and dates from the the 15th and 16th centuries. You wouldn't know it today, but the church was heavily damaged in WWII from fire bombs. It has been restored, and luckily, many of the valuable paintings and art were stored in the crypts for safekeeping.

It's a lovely red sandstone just like our Legislative Assembly building at Queen's Park. Took a bunch of photos then we walked to our local palace (now a museum) to see some art. Well, the price would be €30 in total and not worth the price to see 15 pieces of modern art in my opinion, but we took the free tram to the north of the city to see some modern art for free since I had coupons. 

It was a huge building with only 10 works of students who had won scholarships for their art. Interesting. The one that stood out was a pitch black room save for a 6 ft circle of light on the floor in the middle of the room and a voice saying intermitteding, 'No thing'  repetitively. Then, after 5 min. The circle of light faded away and we were in complete darkness and the voice said, 'Nothing!' Instead of No thing. ART!

Since we were in museum central so to speak, we walked through one of many gardens to the Museum Kuntspalace. They were having a special exhibit on an artist called, Jean Tinguely (1925-1991). He did a lot of sculptural art with found materials, just like Tante Magda, except his were mostly metal, and also mechanical because they moved. Really cool actually. Some were the size of 4 chalkboards! Very crowded there. In the other galleries, not so much. Thank goodness, most, but not all of the place was air conditioned...that's why I prefer to see the old masters because at least you have some air to take the humidity away.  

I especially liked a whole exhibit of statues and paintings and icons all based on the Madonna with Jesus as a baby. It was really interesting to see such a varied and wide collection of the same genre in stone, wood, metal and paint from different centuries all in one area.

I also liked the Glass Museum, although by this time, Steven and Elowyn were showing serious signs of fading. Everytime we went into a different area, they looked for the nearest seat! I was intent on seeing it all though. There was great collection of glass from the Roman times, through medieval, renaissance, and beyond, up to modern artists. Some things were so delicate, you had to wonder how they survived, while others were so exquisitively lovely with their design and colour. Luckily, this museum let you take as many photos as you pleased...so I did! 

Afterwards, I left to go outside to see Steven in a sling chair resting his feet on the round stone pool with a vigorous fountain shooting water in the middle. Many of those chairs were spread out along the fountain, filled with other tired people, who like us, who were all museumed out, so when two more chairs became available, Elowyn and I grabbed them and sunk down with gratitude. It was so comfortable and pleasant with the breeze and sound and slight mist of water that I started to doze, only to be woken by Elowyn complaining of being hungry and wanting to eat lunch, or I guess dinner at this point because we were close to 5 pm. I didn't want to leave though, that's how comfy I was, and begged for five more minutes.

Finally, I gave in and off we tread in the heat to Steven and Elowyn's favourite, 'the Schweiner Janus Restaurant' for the schnitzel and roasted pork hocks with crackling pork. It was in the Altstadt, (old city),so we walked for 20 min, only to find the patio completely filled, so we had to eat in the stuffy inside. I felt sorry for the guys tending to the spits of roasting pork. It smelled sooooo good, but it was really hot from the heat. We had beer and water and E and I had schnitzel while Steven had his usual pork hock. All delicious! They charged us a euro each for ketchup and mayo, and also the water. Nothing free here!

Of course, with a full stomach, I didn't feel like moving, but move we did, albeit slowly to an ice-cream parlour to share a dish. Popular flavours are hazelnut, walnut ( no visible nuts!), vanilla, chocolate and erdbeeren (strawberry). My fave is strawberry because it has bits of strawberry in it.

Then came the long walk back. E got tired of us and walked back faster alone. Steven walked to another street to check something out, and I walked to my favourite area near the palace with the ponds and Japanese bridges to feed the ducks, geese, and occasional pigeon. They came right up to me. One of my fave ducks caught each morsel in his mouth and waited patiently, so I gave him more. Lots of baby ducks and goslings too. The Canadian geese were bold and surrounded me. (How unCanadian of them!) one kept nipping at another one trying to get all the bread. I had a flash of thought that they'd soon be nipping me too with their sharp beaks! 

I was the last to return to the hotel and a cool shower was in order. Elowyn has been going to the hotel gym for the last 4 days doing weights on the many machines and also jogging and running on the treadmill. She went again for 45 min. I had to send Steven up to get her as it was getting late. She says she LOVES it! She had me there too one evening. The only thing on TV while we were exercising was old Much Music type videos from the 80s from artists I've never heard of with questionable taste in esthetics. Yeah, they were so badly done, but like a car wreck, we could not turn away! 

On average, we've been clocking over 8km a day in walking! We sleep well I must say, mostly from exhaustion!

Today, we get the key to the apartment and can start getting it ready to live in. I will measure the windows for curtains too and Steven already has E's bike in his car and will keep it there. I thought it more important to bring the fans first, but that's just me being practical.

Overcast today. E and I are taking it easy and I'll start to pack, so Steven can bring over one suitcase a day, so that on our last morning, Aug. 2nd, we won't have much to bring. That's the plan, anyway. Then, it's goodbye Dusseldorf, hello Ratingen. I think I will really miss this hotel life of having a gym, a maid, AC, and breakfast included, plus we're right in the city and close to it all. 

One good thing is that I have an unlimited train pass, so I could be in the centre in 20 min which is great. The trains still do run on time here and their transportation system is A+.

Time to start packing! 

Feeling Hot,Hot,Hot!

Ah yes, the lovely pea soup humidity that you've been experiencing in Toronto has descended on Dusseldorf.

Elowyn and I escaped by walking to the Stadt Museum. Not the icy coldness of a Toronto AC, but it did take the edge off. Poor Steven had to work in an unairconditioned office. His boss keeps saying he'll get AC installed, but nothing has shown up yet. Maybe that's why he comes home grumpy. Now he knows what E and I had to deal with in school!

At the Stadt Museum, they made me check my purse...Germans! But we walked around hands free. There were Roman ruins in the basement. The city was a whole lot lower than it is now! 

No one was around including guards, so I took a bunch of photos without a flash. It was interesting because basically we started in the basement and it went from Roman times to modern Dusseldorf showing models of the city from various centuries and clothing, tools, art, toys, dishes, pottery, jewellery, weapons, documents of the time etc. It was very well presented. Seems like Dusseldorf was invaded many times, twice by Napoleon and there was a prominent room just for him. What we learned was that his second wife never wanted to marry him and was forced to. Poor woman!

E started to fade near the end, but I made her go to the special exhibition on the St. Lamberts cathedral which is 700 years old this year. Highlights were dry old documents and tres boring. Best part was the icy AC to preserve the documents. It was heavenly for that, and only that reason. Toronto should have a city museum too. Casa Loma would be a great start because everyone visits there.

We left and walked a few steps to the Rhein and scored a prime bench in the shade of the Sycamore trees watching the river traffic, then the outrageous German fashions. Elowyn has quite the knack for taking discreet photos pretending to take selfies. We saw, are you ready? Fannypacks! Yes! Big ones with emerald or peach straps that look leftover from the 90s! Elowyn snapped men wearing sequinned scarves. We also saw Prinz reincarnate walk by. Of course, footware matched mint green dresses or the ubiquitous salmon pants, but then we saw the kicker of it all...a man sporting what we have dubbed a bro-ssiere. It was hot and he had taken his black t-shirt and put up the hem through the neckline creating a bra effect (much as we used to do as kids), well, on a grown man over 60, it didn't look so good. It didn't help that E and I couldn't contain ourselves and burst out laughing, but she still managed to nab an incrimnating pix. She is resourceful if nothing else!

Sorting Things Out

We ate a late breakfast on Sunday and then got ready to go and took a tram ride to Ratingen to check out our new town. We saw our apartment from the outside; looks like we have quite a few windows and a tree. Not much to look at from the outside, it's the inside that counts. But some nice red hanging geraniums would look great against the white stucco. Would stay alive too. There are palm trees growing here!!!! Maybe we brought too many warm things! 

The town itself is lovely...and I found a Thai massage place that I am dying to try out. There are many shops, restaurants and the town square is very quaint complete with a couple of men playing accordion near the 700 year old church. It's Catholic too. Took a lot of photos only to have error show up on that dumb Sony camera and then it reformatted my camera... Which means that it erased ALL photos. Yeah. Sigh........

I wanted to go to Kaiserswerth to see how E would get to school. A bus goes there directly and drops her off right in front of her school and takes 15 min. However, if she misses that bus, it's a 30 to 40 min wait til the next one. She could take the tram too, but it goes south back into Dusseldorf, then north to her school and takes triple the time. 

Kaiserswerth is a sleepy little backwater in the country with the Rhein on one side and pastoral farmer fields on the other. Everyone goes there to cycle along the Rhein and in fact there are many walking and bicycle paths along the way. I finally got my wish to sit on a bench and watch the Rhein traffic go by. Fast for the barges going north since the Rhein runs northwards. The slower traffic was going south and had to pull harder against the flow of the fast moving river. Tour boats stop in Kaiserswerth from Dusseldorf to let people off and on, then on to Cologne.

We stayed for awhile. There is something idyllic and relaxing about watching river traffic flow by. The barges are owned by families who live right on it. The river is their home. Watching river traffic seemed to be very popular since many people had the same idea as I did and every bench was taken.

Elowyn used her new Schokocard (chocolate card) which is the transit card for kids in school. Very economical at 34 euro per month for unlimited rides and she can go to many regions outside Dusseldorf too.

Her highness is now making a late lunch of spaghetti for us. Lots of clattering and crashes coming from the kitchen nook. I'm afraid to see the mess! I think I heard her say scheisse! Ah, yes, the smoothie is now on the floor....

We walk a lot every day; kilometres and kilometres. Really getting to know this city on foot! At first, my feet and back were sore by the end of the day, but now I'm getting used to being on my feet for hours at a time. Wish it was cooler though; I melt in the heat!  Thus, every day I come home drenched in sweat as it is quite humid here. On Wed. it is going up to 32C which means E and I are going to an air conditioned museum that day!

We picked up a new resident book for museum and other discounts for 5 euros. Many museums are free with the coupon or discounted, like a free Dusseldorf magnet, and Victorinox is even giving us a free tomato knife. Now how's that for a German welcome?!?

As for fashion, E and I noticed a lot of men wearing salmon coloured pants. All shades of salmon from light to deep. They usually wear a navy blue shirt with it, or blazer. It actually looks really good.Tattoos not really popular here unless people sporting them are covering them up. People very fashionable here and match their running shoes to their outfits. No shorts unless you're a kid, or a tourist! They certainly like their trousers! On Wed. fashion be damned because in the heat, I'll be wearing my Bermudas come hell or high water!

No hat culture though, at least not in Dusseldorf. I guess I'm going to have to start a new trend. I already found a fabulous hat store in Ratingen.

Laundry Day

Today was a nothing kind of day for me. Felt a little out of sorts; tired and achy with a booming headache. Probably dehydrated as I'm the only sensible person in this family to lug water in my purse only to have Elowyn and Steven drink it on me, even though I tell them to bring their own! 

E would not get out of bed and come down for breaky, so I ate alone, then carried up a tray for her highness. She was grateful at least, so that's something.

As Steven worked from the hotel, I was the good German frau and learned to do laundry at a laundromat. Elowyn was not much help with the translation and she laughed as I flubbed the instructions. Ended up buying two cups of detergent when what I really wanted was to start the darn machine! Apparently, you don't put money directly into the machine. You go to a wall full of buttons, pay lord knows what as I just kept putting change in there and it would spit most of it back. Then you have to go back to the machine and select your water temp and push a start button. I figured out the dial later after furtively watching other more confident laundry masters. In frustration and a few under breath curses, I finally asked a German looking woman who helped sort us out. Whew!  Later, I knew I had conquered the laundry when I proudly showed some older German woman who looked puzzled how to do it too! 

We did two loads, one dark and one colour with a few whites as that's all the change I had. They don't take 20s and I had exchanged 4 of my fivers for a 20 from the woman who had helped me. Didn't realize till later that I needed those fives! Unfortunately, some of the whites of Steven now have a pink hue. He'll be sporting pink tube socks for the gym. Haha! Elowyn had a good laugh over that one. Then I didn't know whether the machine also dried the stuff. No button on machine stating it did, so I followed the herd and found dryers. Done in 15 min at 75 degrees. They go by exact degrees here.

Elowyn helped fold dry stuff in one side of luggage and we put the stuff that doesn't go into drier wet in a plastic bag on the other. Later, back at hotel I hung it up in closet as cleaning lady still there. She was from Italy and luckily I knew a few Italian words like aqua for water. Yes, we had a flood in bathroom from Elowyn taking a shower. Used up all six hand and bath towels to mop it up, maybe even the face cloths too. Don't know what the issue was, clogged drain or the fact that the shower door doesn't close properly, but there it is. Somehow, Steven says it's all fixed now.

With Steven we went to a convenience store and waited to have a SIM card put in our phone, but the Turks don't know English and our German is pathetic, and it was taking forever so I left to go get my tumeric pills at the Apoteka in the mall down the street and waited 20 min after in the mall on a bench, but they didn't show up and they had my phone, so I left for the hotel and ate the sandwich I had prepared at breakfast. They later came in and I asked E what happened and she said they went out for lunch. Sigh....

I've been napping and hopefully shedding the rest of this virus. No one seems really sympathetic, but I know what my body needs to get better and if I want to rest, then I'm resting. It's different if I was on vacation and had a limited time to see the city. I have a whole year, so I won't feel rushed.

E and S are out now for dinner. I'm not hungry and don't want to walk a lot any more. Maybe I'll catch some fireworks from the window later as the festival starts today on the Rhine.

That's all in a nutshell. Now, I'll watch the Midwife on Netflix and enjoy the silence... oh and the church bells since the church is right in front of our hotel window.

Why Move to Europe?

Why indeed?!? Well, it's an adventure isn't it? 

The idea become more of a plan way back in 2002 when Steven and I got married on the Greek Island of Santorini, then proceeded to go on a weddingmoon in Germany and Austria to do the meet and greet thing with our relatives and to wander around exploring castles, drinking wine, indulging in local cuisine and soaking up the art, culture and history.

We had a great time and of course, these happy memories make you say things like, "I wish we could live here one day for a year." And of course, your hubby agrees wholeheartedly and makes you a promise that we will indeed to that very thing.

But...then you go back home to the reality of working and buying a house and making mortgage payments and having a baby and raising your daughter, and slowly your dream of living abroad starts slipping away a little each day. Still, the thought is always there at the back of your mind when it's quiet, or you're lying in bed before you have to get up; whispering and beckoning to you.

You start inquiries at work and find out about a 4 over 5 plan and approach your husband in excitement, but he is not as enthusiastic as you are. He says you have only been a teacher for five years and will not reach top salary for 10 years and times are tight. You give in and wait and wait until another six years go by in a blink of an eye and the whispers of travel are starting to get fainter and fainter and you decide that it's time to listen to that voice and finally put your plan into motion to make the dream a reality.

You start by planning that sabbatical which means applying in writing to your employer and asking for a sabbatical year off. This entails a 20% salary reduction for four years. The fifth year is when that money is given back to you with interest so that you have some money coming in the year you are off. 

You do this all and then sit down with your husband and tell him that it's done; the plan is in motion. He is not happy at the reduced income, but you stand your ground. It gets dicier two years in when your husband loses his job and he asks you to give up the sabbatical, but again, you stand your ground and say you are willing to give up your car, or TV cable or a winter vacation, but you will not give up your sabbatical.

Husband sees you are firm in your stance, so he starts looking for a new job with an international company and after many many interviews, finds one! Now it's more real and you start preparing for that year. 

It's a very difficult year with hubby traveling to Europe off and on, sometimes for weeks while you parent your daughter, begin teaching a new grade; eight, and start to organize packing.

You become very stressed and have to give up on beginning your masters of education program at the University of Toronto that you got accepted to and defer it for a year while struggling with the enormous workload of teaching grade 8, learning the curriculum and preparing the students for Confirmation, a wilderness trip away for a week, and grade 8 graduation, all while trying to pack up your class and your home and thinking of how to rent it out and who to give your rabbits away to all the while your daughter is giving you constant grief on moving and your family is questioning your sanity and not being very supportive about your move.

Your health suffers and you start getting headaches and feel exhausted and your stomach starts hurting and you begin to question whether you're doing the right thing. You see less and less of your friends and family as you stay at work very late, then collapse into bed at night.

The month of June comes, and somehow you get through all the work preparations and packing, but cannot finish your home. Luckily, your brother had a new baby and is looking for a bigger space, so he agrees to rent your home furnished and to take care of it and your two rabbits which were a big issue with your daughter.

Saying goodbye for a year isn't easy, but your friends and colleagues are happy for you and excited for you, so that's a good feeling and you stop second guessing yourself.

You pack in a flurry and forget some things and the ocean container people come to pack your goods on an extremely hot and humid day, and that's another headache.

Then you finally leave for the airport with your stomach in knots, but knowing that there's no turning back. This is it, the adventure you've been dreaming about.

Onward to Europa!