This weekend consisted of some exploring, a little shopping, deciding what we need, and meeting a few people. We live in a row of townhouses that consists of three units. One unit is of course, ours, another is the landlord's and the other is a couple with no children. The landlord has two girls, ages 2 and 4, their names are Anaise (Anna-ees) and Anuk. Henry insists on calling Anuk "knock knock". The other couple are Anva and Fabian. Fabian just happens to be a golf pro at the local golf club - darn the bad luck!!
Grocery shopping was a learning experience. The milk and eggs are not refrigerated, don't ask me why, and the stores do not have grocery bags (not even to buy). The good news is there is a small market about two blocks from our home so we can walk there often, which is great since our refrigerator is about 1/3 of size of most American refrigerators. The same rule applies to our oven. I can fit a 9 X 13 pan in the oven, but it is tight. I have no idea what the knobs mean, and it is a convection oven, so cooking has been by trial and error.
John and I are learning to be more environmentally friendly. We now have three trash cans in our kitchen and I think we need one more for "rubbish" (food that is thrown out - no, there is not garbage disposal). I have no idea what they do with the "rubbish" and don't think I will ask. Bikes are very big here. There are bike trails everywhere and bikes are also on the streets, which I feel is extremely dangerous considering how fast people drive here, although everyone seems to know what they are doing. Even the mail man rides a bike - and this morning it was pouring down rain!!
In addition to biking, walking is very big here. Again, this morning, I saw a woman pushing a stroller in the pouring down rain. The stroller was fully equipped with rain gear and it seems to be the norm. I don't think we will be venturing out in the rain anytime soon. I know I am not up for that and I think Henry might object to a cold October rain as well.
When John gets home from work today, we are going to pick up a car for me. My VW van is not in at the dealership yet (because I wanted an automatic), so they have a loaner car for me. It is hard for me to imagine a manual transmission minivan!!
I had they opportunity to meet many of the JD families this weekend. Everyone was very nice and eager to help out with whatever we needed. JD pairs us up with a "buddy family" to assist with getting settled (what a Godsend!). I think someone is going to take me to IKEA this week. I am not really comfortable taking a new vehicle on the A5 yet (the auto ban) with Henry along, so a couple of people volunteered to drive. John did not like IKEA in the states, so I am sure he will not be up for it in Germany.
This coming weekend we are going to take the tram (the station is one block from our house) to the castle in Heidelberg. We drove down there last night, what a breathtaking area. The houses are spectacular, the river (the Neckar) is amazing, the shopping is awesome, and the castle speaks for itself. The trees are at their peak color now, so everything looks like a postcard. I will post many pictures after we go. In the meantime, here are a few pictures of Henry on the swing set at our new house and some pictures of my parent's house the night before we left.
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