Day 1: Arrival

Venice watching Frankfurt during landing.

The flight to SFO was uneventful, but a bit choppy. Not your rolling turbulence, but slightly jarring, enough for Xander and me to get a little nervous. The flight to FRA (not France, but Frankfurt!) was much smoother. Even so, the beginning of this trip was a little nerve wracking for some, as it's hard to imagine a large 747 getting off the ground, gliding through the air without issues, and landing softly.

But, this flight, too, was uneventful. Just a crazy 10 hours-11 minutes long. This translates to 3 movies, several 30-minute sitcoms, and a few documentary shorts. We all skipped Tomorrowland (although Venice watched the beginning and then guessed/narrated the rest) and Insurgent (want to see it without skipping and good sound throughout), but we all watched Home (pretty cute, even with all the skipping video.) Most of us tried to use the in-flight free wi-fi to watch a show of our choice, but the wi-fi was sketchy. I tried to watch Into the Woods and only got about half way through (that one hour of watching too about two hours of stop-n-go with the spotty wi-fi.)

And, by the way, it's faster to go over the "top" (over Canada and Greenland) than to go "around" (over the U.S.A. and western Europe.) Only having flat maps to look at, I am curious to see a globe to visualize better. Is it a shorter route or better winds?

We may have left the smokey air of Oregon, but we have landed in 95 F here in Germany.

P.S. Chris and Diana maybe napped a total of 30-60 min. Neither Venice nor Xander slept at all.

Leaving the SFO-FRA flight. Stepping on German ground for the first time.

Here, in the Frankfurt airport, we made a bit of a mistake. After going through customs (we later think we went through the "wrong" customs), we followed the airport signs to gates A, Z. I can see how we made the mistake now, but at the time, we really were just following the signs. There were lots and lots of arrows pointing to gate A, and NO signs saying, "YOU ARE LEAVING A SECURE AREA"... but that's what we did. We basically made a U-Turn, after leaving the secure area, and had to go through another security check. This wasted about 45 minutes. Not too bad in terms of time (I thought we might miss our connecting flight, but Chris said we would be ok), however, it was definitely an ordeal. We seemed to get stuck in the line that took forever. Murphey's Law at this point. And then poor Xander was very nervous to go through the giant scanner (where you stand like a jumping-jack and are scanned). THEN, before it's my turn to go, I see Venice getting a full pat-down (thank goodness by a female agent.) THEN, we forgot there was a Kindle in Venice's backpack, so we hadn't taken that out. Thus, her backpack was taken to the side to get completely emptied and repacked. 

After doing all of this, we followed more signs to gates A, Z and this time we found the right path one level down. It was a looooong walk in the heat. We finally made it to our gates. Got sodas and pretzels (I asked the kids to not judge all German pretzels by the airport pretzel. Xander gobbled his up. Venice's is hardening in her backpack.) As soon as we finished our snack, we boarded our flight to Berlin. 

Xander on the flight to Berlin. He took the photo of the engine and windmills. Then, a photo of our landing and the airport.

This was our last flight of the trip. Also uneventful. Venice might have caught 15 minutes of sleep, although she doesn't remember falling asleep. Other than that, no one else slept. We arrived at around 9:45am, local time, having left our Oregon home around 9:15am the day before!

We had to wait about 45 minutes for luggage. We're not sure of why it took so long, as our plane was just one gate away from the baggage claim. Once they started to put luggage out, ours were among the first, as Chris has priority with the airline. All five-checked bags made it! And, we found a taxi that could fit all our bags and all of us. Not a surprise, out taxi driver spoke English and pointed out a few things on the way to our apartment.

As we piled out of the taxi, our contact for our apartment came out to the street (he was watching for us!) A wave to our taxi driver, and we were heading up to our apartment. We had brief hope of relief as the hallway was super cool, seemingly air conditioned. But none is available in our apartment, so we're baking for a while.




After a tour of our home and a hand off of keys, our first task was to switch from pants to shorts and from socks and shoes to sandals. Our second task was to head to the market to be sure we had a few things so we wouldn't starve in the next few days. The market is only two blocks away. It's small, but has almost everything we need. We look forward to exploring other markets and farmer's markets, but I can see using this market every week as it's so close and we won't have to carry items too far. One of the first things we bought were paper towels (we'll have to get cloth napkins later, but for now, we needed something.) And, how nice, they are super cute. We bought one more reusable bag, filled up two bags and took our groceries home.

Side note: We used a rolling-hand basket to shop (we have these at our Rite Aid at home) as we couldn't figure out how to get one of the regular carts. They were all daisy-chained-locked together and we couldn't figure out how to unlock them. But after we checked out, Venice saw another shopper unlock one and figured out how to do it, so for the next time, we're set to shop with a cart if we want to!

Ok, second side note, we did stop by a beverage market on the way home from the regular market. We had one empty bag left, so Chris could only buy a few beers and sodas. But he mentioned, with a grin, how cheap it all was!

After the market, we came back to the apartment and rested. Did a little more unpacking, but mostly rested. We also decided to put off the conversation of "who gets which bedroom" until later. The kids plugged in and rested. Chris napped on the living room couch. I laid on the floor with my legs against the wall (trying to un-swell my feet and cool down) and I actually fell asleep for 20 minutes. We are all tired!

Spring Rolls and Schweppes Bitter Lemon (I may drink this every day!)

We decided on a nearby restaurant, Lemongrass Scent, for dinner. Asian fusion. I really liked the food, and since it's only 3 blocks away and economical (about 30 Euros), I can imagine going there a lot. The kids may be thinking otherwise. No air conditioning, so we melted. Open air, so bees wanted to share our meal. And Venice practically fell asleep at the table while Xander couldn't sit upright. Did I mention we are all tired?

Back to the apartment with our leftovers (more commonly called Take Away here) for cool showers and baths, opening the windows to cool the house down (it's currently 87 F outside and 9pm), and rest up for some exploring tomorrow!

Day 0: Departure

We were ready to go on time! A pretty big feat and we're proud of it! The house is cleaned and packed up for the renters. All our To-Do lists are completed. And we ate most of the food in our refrigerator, leaving it nice for the renters.









One big bag per person. Three rolling-carry-ons. Four backpacks. Just a wee bit of luggage. Thanks to Granny and Jiichan for driving us to the airport and returning our car to our garage where it will live for a while. Of course, Jiichan documented the drive and drop-off with photos. Even Granny helped with this one (to the left)!









Hurry up and wait (always the vacation motto.) In this case, we were told our flight would be an hour delayed, due to weather. So we hunkered down for what we thought was going to create a tight layover in SFO. During this time, Xander realized he forgot to save something from his computer into the cloue, thus rendering all his work unavailable for the next three months. This prospect did not make a happy camper. Jiichan to the rescue! He had already dropped our car off and was relaxing at home when he got our S.O.S. call. After driving over to our house and logging into Xander's computer, he saved the important files, as Xander instructed via Diana over the phone. As we finished up, we were called to board (which ended up leaving on time, by the way.) Phew!

T-Minus Two Days

I woke up this morning, a bit panicked. We've been keeping up on our to-do lists and making good progress. All the big items are done:

Finding renters, check!
Forwarding mail, check!
Plane tickets to Berlin, check!
Housing in Berlin, check!

Mostly what's left is that one last library book to return. One more load of laundry. One last straightening-up of the house. Oh, and packing. We have made lists, thought a lot about it, bought all the luggage we needed to have "enough", and talked about what to buy over there (hair dryer) and what to leave here (the million of stuffed animals on the kids' beds.)

But, this morning, our calendar says we'll be leaving the house in two days. And we haven't packed yet.

Every time I do two or three items on my to-do list, I think of one or two more things to do. So, as the list shrinks, it does so slowly. I'm, personally, down to 20 things to do. Considering my big list was over 150, I think this is pretty good. And again, most of them are small things, they are just tasks we can't do until the last minute (like packing underwear!)

T-Minus Two days...

Critter Care

Who will take care of our pets?

Fish and Frog: Grandparents will care for the fish. We cleaned the tank, gave instructions, and carefully drove the 10 gallon tank over to their house. The tank is now set up in their living room with lovely light shining through the glass.

Plants: Ok, not pets, but still "something to keep alive". Grandparents-inlaw will take care of these. All we have are an orchid, table-size cactus, lucky bamboo, and a fern. Three out of four just need water once a week, the other is on its death bed anyway. So low pressure to keep these guys alive.

Hedgehog: This one is harder, with higher stakes. A friend has agreed to watch over Blizzard. Venice packed him up with a clean cage and delivered him to his new-temporary home. We'll visit one more time before we leave. But, this one pulls at the heart strings a bit more, for sure. He's in good hands and that helps keep our worries at bay.


Birds, Squirrel, and Hummingbirds: We keep a bird feeder and a hummingbird feeder. I have gone back and forth on this one. Sometimes I think we'll just take down the hummingbird feeder and let the bird food become empty. Then I think about leaving the renters a note, asking them if they wouldn't mind adding bird food as needed (this is pretty simple) and changing out the hummingbird food (you have to rinse the feeder and put in the sugar water, which they'd have to make at some point, so more involved.) Is it too much to ask? I'm leaning towards asking and then if they decide to not keep it up, I won't know and I'll be gone, so I won't be able to worry about the critters going hungry... right?

Goodbyes

Saying goodbye isn't easy. But knowing it's going to go by faster than we all think is what keeps us from being too sad.

I am reminded of when we moved from California to Oregon and of saying goodbye to all our friends and neighbors there. That was tougher, as we knew we weren't coming back. So, we'll hold onto the fact that we are coming back and that our friends will be here when we get back!

Thank you to everyone who has made an effort to come out and see us off. At picnics, dinners out, and swinging by the house. I appreciate everyone, also, making an effort to hang out with us this summer, so that our connections will be strong and carry us through until the next time we see you again.

Gute Reise!

We Decided to Rent Our House

We went back and forth on this decision. If we didn't rent out our house, we wouldn't have to "prepare" it in any way, but we'd be paying mortgage and utilities for three months while not living here. Is that something to just say is ok as part of a "vacation" cost? Or is that too much? Do you ask friends and family to check in on your home (we got a lot of nice offers for help) for three months! That's a long time. But do we have the energy to prepare the house for renters? How much do you pack away? What do you leave out?  Do you have to rent a storage unit or put a lock on one room to store important items? Ugh.

Photo by Simplifyem

We finally decided to take a chance and ask for a "one degree of separation" renter. A friend, or a friend of a friend. We're hoping this will keep all parties more accountable than if it were just a random stranger. We also decided to not ask for full compensation for our mortgage and utilities, thinking this would allow us to leave the house in a "certain" state, as well as compensate for the short notice and not sure who we'd even find for such random housing needs.

Five minutes after I send out my email to friends, a friend-neighbor replied that she had some friends looking for a place! They are in the medical field (responsible!), with one child, and are looking for short term rentals. Perfect! We contacted them and we're all excited to sign contracts (modified off of boiler-plate documents from the internet) asap. The timing is crazy perfect for both of us and we all seem to be happy with one another, so the rental should go well.

This just leaves the question of what do you leave, what do you pack, or what do you trash when readying your house for a renter? I'm often confusing a guest and a renter. For both, we're allowing them usage of bed and bath linens. For my guests, I'd like to make sure they don't run out of toilet paper. Yet, for my renters, they can buy their own? And yet, I don't want to leave them with one roll and have them get "into trouble" on their first day. So what is the balance? I don't mind leaving them a half-bottle of ketchup, but what about a half-full expired box of cereal? What is gross, what is considerate, what is "not needed", and what is going to reflect on me in a negative way? This is what we've been dealing with for the past few weeks.

Packing half our closet up
Packing up table-top frames of family photos/mementos
Giving a tutorial on the espresso machine
Introducing the renters to our housecleaner
Planning to leave our two cars parked in the garage
Eating through the pantry, refrigerator, and freezer
Packing up the closet in the master bathroom
Alerting family and neighbors of the renters

It's been more work than I anticipated. However, I do feel a piece of mind knowing that our house will be lived in. Someone is there to know right away if there are any problems (plumbing, electrical, or otherwise). And the house will not look abandoned to anyone casing the neighborhood.

It's all good.

It's Official

It's official, we're going to Germany. Here are some facts:

• It is cheaper to buy a round trip ticket (knowing you'll pay penalty fees to change the return flight) than to purchase one way tickets. So, we purchased our round trip tickets, guessing at a return date and departure city.

• Europeans use credit cards much less than we do. We're planning on reacquainting ourselves with ATMs while we're there. Funny side note, we just sold a bicycle and have a lot of cash. We don't know how we'll spend it all in such a short amount of time. We typically use credit cards for EVERYTHING, so handling cash is "weird". 

• It is not easy to wire money. Cash is definitely used more frequently there, however, how does one pay rent? Is it ridiculous to pay several thousand a month in cash? Seems like it. But the rental agency doesn't take credit cards or Paypal at the moment. So, wire transfer it is. But, we don't have a local bank. We do all of our banking online. So, we had to go to the notary (Twice, as the first time we got the wrong documents notarized. Thanks to the nice notary who didn't charge us for the second go.) to notarize official requests to our bank to release the money to the overseas bank. Here's the thing, our bank will only send Dollars. Their bank wants Euros. There is no way for the bank to figure out how many exact Dollars to send so that their bank gets the correct amount of Euros. And the exchange rate changes so frequently, that there was no guarantee that what our bank sent, their bank would receive. We had to "guess" as to how much to send and hope it was good. We erred on the side of caution and ended up sending about $5 too much. Better that than being short on our first month's rent.
  
  Now, all of this happens electronically. However, it does not happen immediately. You can send an email to your buddy overseas and it'll probably get there within minutes? But we were told to expect the money to arrive in 5-7 business days. What? The biggest concern we had was losing the rental property. We had already tried to rent a few other places and lost out to other bidders. So, we were worried that if our money didn't come in time, someone else would be able to pay faster and take the apartment away from us. We called the rental agent. They spoke English. They assured us that the apartment was ours, that they'd wait for the money. I just hope no one goes to jail and needs money immediately for bail. It takes a lot longer and lot of red-tape to get an electronic-wire transfer!