Catching Up

I can't believe it has been 8 months since I wrote. Alot has happened in that time - nothing big but just fun moments while living in Germany. To catch you up before I complain about the cost of living here..

February - a fantastic 12 day cruise preceded by 3 days in Barcelona. Cruise went from Barcelona to Rome to Athens to Turkey to Egypt to Malta and back to Barcelona. This was cruise number 30 for me but the first for the kids and was fantastic. It was tough to get them out of the Kids' Club.

April - Made our extension to stay in Germany through June 2011 official. Who knows where we will end up thereafter but I will be pushing hard for Cleveland...unless they have some other wonderful place for us to spend some time.

May - Rebecca and I went on our first trip alone to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. We flew our babysitter (and essentially one of the family since she has been with us since Kate was little) from the US. She came a week early to "learn the ropes" - driving, taking the kids to school, meals, etc. The trip was fantastic. We drove first to Venice, then Florence, Pisa and then to the Cinque Terre, 5 gorgeous cities on the Italian Riviera. The first 5 days were full of museums and we were quite tired of museums by then. The last 4 days were relaxing - some hiking along the coast and sitting on the beach for the day. We even decided to come home a say early as we missed the girls. All was wonderful, Natalie did a fantastic job. Aside from my leaving $1,500 in cash in a safe in Florence...got it back but a few panicy hours.

May - My sister Becca, her husband Bryan and 2 year old son Ben (the B's) came over for 10 days. We had so much fun sharing with them where we lived, exploring the local area (castles, Frankfurt, etc) and they had a few day jaunt to Munich to check it out. Glad they could make it over before baby number 2 joins us in the next week or so!

June - Went to Berlin for a 4-day weekend. My firs trip back since January 1990, just after the wall came down and so much has changed. Construction everywhere and really a big city, cosmopolitan feel. Such fun to show Rebecca (a European history major) the wall, museum of the SS, Brandenburg Gate and many other very historical sites. We stayed in an apartment hotel that worked out well.

July - The family few home to Cleveland on the 2nd, originally staying for 5 weeks, though we extended it to 6 before we even left. Ended up changing it to 7 near the end of the trip. We had a great time seeing family in Cleveland, staying with Mimi, a week at the cottage swimming, jet skiing, etc. and just visiting with everyone. I flew home the 17th and the family stayed through August 16th. However, I was able to work on a project in Toronto, Canada so was in North America for the next month and got to visit every weekend. Not ideal but better than spending the summer in Germany alone! Kate and Lauren spent 4 hours a day in the pool at Rebecca's parents house and are swimming so well. Kate dove to the bottom of the 10 foot pool to fetch rings and Lauren is swimming all alone with no flotation devices. Really proud of them!

August/September - Back to school! Kate came home and discovered she had "two wobbly teeth" and the first fell out yesterday! She was sooooo excited. Kids enjoy their classes and it is nice to get back into the swing of things.

We are now gearing up for a trip to the Canary Islands in about 3 weeks for a week. We have rented a villa with a pool near the beach and expect a Florida-like atmosphere and weather. It is hard to find warmth in Europe after September but the Canary Islands are quite far south, off the Atlantic coast of Morocco. They are owned by Spain...though are about as far from Spain as Puerto Rico is from the US.

On to cost of living. We get a decent cost of living allowance to account for the difference between living in Cleveland and Frankfurt. And frankly, I believe it covers us pretty well as Rebecca and I are relatively frugal except for our wonderful travels. However it is times like yesterday that just blow my mind...

I took my car to the car dealer for the 65,000 mile check up and the cost was...$1,900. And that was without anything broken....just to change oils, lubricants, filters, general check up. The oil is about $40 a liter...so changing my oil was $200. With all other lubricants and filters, just the oil change was about $400. Compared with $20 in the US? Good fricking god. And every two years, cars must be inspected to allow them to remain driving. The findings on mine?

1. A small nick in the windshield, causing the ENTIRE windshield to have to be replaced.

2. A fog light was out

3. The light in the glove box was not working and needed to be replaced

4. The first aid kit that is mandatory in every car in Germany was missing.

5. A small piece that is part of the windshield wiper was missing and had to be replaced. But they don't have that piece separately so I needed entirely new wipers. Which, I had just replaced in May prior to our anniversary trip. Only $80. What a bargain.

And, of course, they couldn't fix any of these things as they don't carry the inventory of ANY of them so I had to make another appointment. Oh...and then ANOTHER appointment for a reinspection.

No wonder Germany has such a high GDP and strong economy. Their processes and laws ensure that so much money is spent on maintaining one's vehicle (and property - get this, you MUST pull your weeds in the sidewalk every 7 days or face a ticket, you MUST have all snow shoveled each morning by 7 am or be cited), therefore boosting the economy.

So for all the times I think we are saving some money on the cost of living increase, I have to be reminded of times like these. Car maintenance and housing....so expensive.