Hey all,
It's been another week here in Germany, been keeping busy. As I write, I turned on the TV and there happens to be an Asterix and Obelix movie on, it's in German, but still visually entertaining. (For those who don't know Asterix and Obelix, you will have to google them, it is a series of comic books, etc, originally French, but very popular here in Europe. We had them to look at in Latin and French classes.)
The week started with a bunch more briefs about how things work here in Stuttgart and with the Army (which provides the infrastructure). I cut out early Tuesday to register the cats with the base veterinarian and then go to another base for a different brief. (Keep in mind there are three small bases with all the business, and then a fourth base with housing, so there is a lot of shuttling back and forth,)
When I arrived for the brief Wed morning, it had been cancelled, so I wandered over to the Redcross where a guy had been advertising an apartment for rent, on behalf of a German friend of his. We ended up going to look at the apartment that morning, as we were flying along on the highway, he was saying, "see how easy it is to get to and from on the highway..." Good thing I bought a TomTom on sale at the Exchange.
After thinking about it all day, I ran back over to the neighborhood that afternoon to walk around the streets and get a feel for the neighborhood. I wrote him an E-Mail late that night saying that I would take the apartment, it was even easier since he was willing to come down in price to meet my housing allowance. It even has underground parking, a real plus since the street parking is terrible, like a lot of underground parking, it has two cars parking between concrete posts, but in addition to that, there is a metal rack that rides up and down, is perpendicular to the other two cars, and holds a third car. When I get a chance, I'll take a picture and post it; in the mean time, the picture at the top is of the outside of the building, the little "bump-out" is the living room, with a smaller bedroom to the left, and the larger bedroom to it's left and at the corner. It's a real nice place, lots of sun, high ceilings, nicely updated, it had a kitchen and washing machine.
Thursday morning I went to a dealership to look at cars, right now I am seriously considering ordering a new Mini Cooper Clubman, I've like the cars ever since they came out. They are pretty inexpensive, even new from the factory. That afternoon I had to take my driver's training and the license test. I passed, I was worried, there are a lot of little things, right-of-way is different here, and then the parking distance from stops varies a great deal depending on the type of road. It would be nice and small to get around in town, and to fit in the parking spot at the apartment.
A final note about the cats. I'm starting to think they are going stir crazy here in the hotel room. Spooky has gone out the door three times now, not far, not like she can push the call button for the elevator (I'm on the 10th floor). The other morning I was awoken by a crashing sound. It was Spooky, she had jumped up on top of the cabinet with the minibar in it, on top there is a tray with coffee service stuff, and another tray with two glasses and two wine glasses, and somehow or another, Spooky had knocked the tray with glasses onto the floor, after I picked up the pieces, I took the picture below, the very bottom picture is after housekeeping replaced them.
Cheers, Evan
