Arrival to Deutschland

Laura and I had a busy couple of weeks getting ready for our big trip to Europe, between work, trips out of town, getting the house ready to put on the market, packing, and all the other little things that have to be done to prepare for being gone for 3 months. Boarding the plane was the most relaxing time in weeks. I was flying standby, so that made Laura nervous, but we did end up on the same flight. Unfortunately for Laura, we didn't get to sit together. Although sometimes stressful, flying standby also has it's advantages - like when there are open seats in first class. After we took off, I thought I had the flight attendant convinced that she should let Laura come up front and sit in one of the empty first class seats. But she then decided against it, for fear that the wrong eyes might be watching. Oh well, the important thing was that we were on the same flight and arrived together in Germany.

Once we arrived at around 8:00am local time, we cleared immigration, grabbed our bags, and walked right outside - pretty relaxed here, we didn't even have to pass by a customs agent. Then we walked down the terminal to the Avis rental car station, where we picked up the keys to our black Mercedes E200 (with navigation system, which will be key for our trips). I think it's a pretty middle-of-the road car for Germany, but we'll enjoy the opportunity to drive a Mercedes for a few months.

After we loaded up the car, we hit the road for the 1:45 drive to our new home in Kempten, Germany. Our first Autobahn experience was interesting. With about 30 minutes to go, we got stopped for about a half hour, because of an accident ahead that required someone to be airlifted - we literally were 5 or 6 cars from getting through, so we were right up front and saw the helicopter land just ahead of us, load the person up, and then take off before they'd let us pass. I was a little tired to push it too hard for speed, but we probably went about 100 mph a good portion of the way - the Germans don't mess around on the Autobahn, even going 100 mph, they fly right past you.

When we arrived to Kempten, (after a minor detour trying to find it) we went directly to the Hotel Fürstenhof to check in. We're actually staying in an apartment at the building next door, which is run by the hotel. They brought us up to show us the room, and both of us were less than happy with it at first - mainly because it was much smaller than we were led to believe before we arrived, and it didn't have a couple of things we were promised. The Germans typically aren't the most responsive and urgent people when it comes to requesting things, so I've been requesting a couple things at a time until we get what we need to make it feel like home. The apartment is more like a studio, with a little kitchenette - really, that just means a small stove top, refrigerator, sink, and some cabinets (I'm not so sure how we'll do with the German food or the exchange rate, so I'm sure we'll be cooking our own dinner a lot), kitchen table, bathroom, closet, TV (British version of CNN is the only English channel), and two twin beds pushed together. It will be pretty tight when we have visitors, but we'll make the best of it. They brought us some extra cooking utensils this week, and are supposed to be looking into a couch and internet for us. There is no phone or internet in the room, so that makes working remotely a little tougher for me. There are a couple of networks we can find from the room, but they are password protected, so I think the hotel is trying to find who owns them and make a deal with them to give us the password - we'll see! In the meantime, I've been working from the hotel lobby, where there is a nice little sitting area with wireless internet. It's just not quite as comfortable as having it right in the room, but it works for now while we sort things out.

The best part of the apartment is the location. It's on the main square of Kempten, but on a quiet cobblestone street. We have views of the main historic town building (called the Rathaus) and church from our room. On the cobblestone streets next to these buildings are plenty of shops, outdoor cafes, and Biergarten's. The weather has been great - mid-60s/sunny during the day - but a little chilly at night. When we got in on Sunday, we passed out for a couple hours and then walked around the town a bit. It's a small European town, but very nice and walkable. Because it was Sunday, almost everything except for a couple of restaurants and several Biergarten's were closed. After walking for a bit and not knowing what else to do, we figured we'd participate in the local culture and have a couple of local Weizen Biers (Allgäuer Brauhaus is the local brewery that is served everywhere here) at the outdoor Biergarten by our apartment, then found a restaurant that had not yet closed, had some pizza, and called it a night.

Another great thing about Kempten is that we're so close to the mountains, and there are also walking/running and biking trails throughout the city. I went for a run yesterday on a trail that follows the river which cuts through the center of town. Having running trails like this, with views of the snowcapped Alps in the background, will definitely get me back into running this summer. Since I'm working later days to more closely align with the Eastern time zone, I've got time to do those types of activities in the morning before work.

Here are a few pictures of the plaza on our block. From left to right: Hotel Fürstenhof; Rathaus; view of the Rathausplatz from the other side.

A couple more photos from another main square in Kempten, about a half mile away: Residenz and Church

That's all for now. We're off to Bitburg, Germany (about 4.5 hours northeast of Kempten) this weekend to visit Laura's dad. He moved there about 15 years ago and she hasn't seen him in years. On the way back Sunday I think we are going to make a slow drive back along the Deutsche Weinstraße (German Wine Route), stopping in a couple of the little towns along the way and maybe checking out a couple of the vineyards. Monday is a German holiday, so Laura won't have to go into the office - I think we're going to check out the Neushwanstein Castle that is about 30 minutes away in the morning, but then we'll have to work in the afternoon when the US time zone is back to work.

Auf Wiedersehen,

Gary & Laura

In case you're wondering where Kempten is on a map of Germany, it's the red star: