Roses & Thorns

A few unexpected roses from our first couple of days in Munich:

~That free wine on international flights.

~There are actual roses and a yard.

~The toilet paper here is so thick.  It's like wiping with a paper towel.

~An entire extra toilet in our rental that was not advertised!

~Someone left a decent bike with a lock here.  We were planning on buying a used one for Jay to ride to work so we saved a few bucks.

Jay's sweet freebie bike.

~A weekly visit from a cleaning person is included in our rental...also not advertised.  Holy. Crap.

~No screens on the windows and also no mosquitos.

~There's a balcony off of each bedroom.

~This kids chair that I've always wanted back home.

~Many people are wearing joggers out of the house here.

Some minor thorns:

~There is a church directly across the street that dings and dongs like the city is on fire right into our open windows at noon and 3 just in time for naps.  There is minor dinging and donging at all other hours.  Closing the windows and baking alive with no a/c is not an option.

~They are shutting down the main train stops from our house to downtown every weekend in August for maintenance.  This means a wierd bus route and no chance for me to practice using the train with Jay on the weekends for my solo trips with the girls on the week days.

~Our train stop and all of our destinations so far have not exactly been ADA accesible as we anticipated.  Lifting the stroller in has been a two person job...another thing I'm not looking forward to doing solo.

~Our tablet does not lend itself to formatting blog posts well.

~I was inches away from bringing my Adidas classic tennis shoes and one people watching trip on the train made it clear that I most definitely should have.

Sorry if that Poison song is stuck in your head for the rest of the day.  - Aber & Out

Landed

We are on German soil.  The flight went remarkably well compared to previous flights.  No major melt downs, only a little crying.  The girls slept a grand total of one stinking hour so there was lots of uncomfortable rocking and singing to keep everyone happy but it worked and we survived the international flight.  The most yelling might have come from Jay when they informed us that they had split up our seats for the flight to munich and we would have to sit separately for 8 hours.  Glad all that is behind us now.

I had forgotten about the free wine on international flights.

As I sit here on night two reflecting on the past 36 hours I am happy with what we've accomplished so far.  Despite some wicked exhaustion and a little anxiety induced IBS I think things are going to be just fine.  Our first order of business after landing, getting to our place, and taking a nap was to have our first meal...doner kebab.  Wierd to come all the way to Germany for Turkish food, but it's what we have been looking forward to the most.  We plan on eating doners for dinner at least once a week.  We took the train downtown to a higher rated kebab shop and Jay went in to order.  I found a table outside and was immediately approached by a nice German lady whom I did not understand but gathered she wanted to sit at our table so I obliged.

Our new friend Sabina who used to work at Andres!

First of many gellato stops.

Waiting for the train.

First German meal.

Some familiar snacks.

Wouldn't you know she was thrilled to find we were americans and went on tell us that she lived in Overland Park and worked at Andres in the eighties!  She knows the whole Swiss crew and how to make all those delicious treats!  We remenisced about the Plaza and downtown and then she gave us the DL on some inside spots in Munich.  Such a happy chance meeting on night one that left us feeling welcome and at home.  

Night one was a doozey and the four of us were up partying at 2 am.  The girls have been unruly little monsters as they adjust.  We're trying to take things slow and decided to limit our day two outings to Aldi and the Hofbrau Keller.  The food here is so cheap compared to our usual so I'll be living off of the two dollar blocks of brie and fifty cent balls of fresh mozzerella.  Good thing we're doing a lot of walking.  My feet already hurt as they are getting broken in to a new standard of use.  There was a playground at the beer garden where we got our first chance to take a breath and soak in our new reality over beer, pretzel, and dumplings.  I'm excited to go to sleep tonight and hopefully wake up a little bit fresher every day.  Sunday will be spent at home unpacking and organizing our half of the "Double House Rose". - Aber & Out

Operation Deutschland

It's been seven years since our first sabbatical and you know what that means!  It's time to embark on another adventure.  This time with two toddlers in tow.  We swore we'd never take our kids on a European vacation until they were old enough to understand some history and wipe their own butts.  Well, we got the itch and found a way to make a long haul trip to Europe work.  We'll be living in Germany for three months while Jay works remotely from his company's office in Munich.  We'll have plenty of time to get over the jet lag and explore at a toddlers pace so it will all be worth it right?  We've got big plans and we're optimistic.

Jay's company has graciously allowed him to work remotely for this time period.  He's working hard to make it a smooth transition and continue to be a rock star engineer so they might let us do it again in the future.  I'm thinking the Aukland, NZ office could be stellar!  

We've been planning and researching our butts off and the number of spreadsheets created for "Operation Deutschland" is a little obscene but not surprising for us.  As we prepare for the trip we've been saving our pennies and churning all the flight mile credit cards we can so we can all fly free.  We were shocked at the monthly Airbnb rental prices in Munich but were able to secure a duplex (with a yard!) in Boggenhausen.  We desperately wanted to get the girls into a German speaking preschool or daycare but have had no lucking finding one with spaces open for us.  There are still a few things to check off our to do list but with passports in hand and flights booked we are feeling good.

We'll have several rounds of friends and family coming to visit.  We plan to travel regionally in Bavaria and to a few major European cities while there.  I have no idea how I'm going to manage the subways with two kids and a stroller but copious amounts of beer and bretzel should help.  I'll be spending the next few months brushing up on my non existent German language skills so that I can navigate the bakery and beer garden at the very least!  Stay tuned.

Aber & Out

Aber & In

I've been thinking lately that a more appropriate blog title for the current phase of our life would be "Aber & In".  We've settled in to the 8-5 routine, bought a house, and baby number one is on the way.  While life as we know it will change forever as we enter parenthood, we're still looking forward to getting out and experiencing the world with our kiddo in new and different ways than our previous globe trekking, off the grid, late night techno music fueled adventures.  We've decided to share our thoughts and family updates with the world through this blog in an effort to veer away from Facebook as a platform to share all our news.  Not to say there won't be a flood of pictures and Facebook baby bragging going on at first, but I think ultimately blogging will provide a classier, more therapeutic, and concise online presence for our family.

With baby Rose due in December I will be taking a break from engineering and trying out motherhood as a career for the time being.   It's quite possible we'll initially have a big pause in blog updates while I try to figure that role out.  Our life is going to change in so many unforeseen ways we just want to step back, soak it all in, and tackle the challenges as they come.  Luckily the baby wave is ebbing all around us and we've got lots of friends and family with little ones ready to see our ship off with full sails of experience, help, and advice.  This is going to be one exciting voyage.  Yikes the sailing references!...we are currently reading Treasure Island aloud at night and it is clearly on my brain.

The pregnancy has been surprisingly pleasant so far despite all of the worries and fears that come along with growing a human inside your stomach.  What I can gather from my birth club forum on TheBump.com is that I am one of the lucky ones that the other moms love to hate for having such an easy pregnancy.  No complaints here!  I also stopped reading said pregnancy forums about half way through my pregnancy.  No need for the naysayers and constant paranoia wondering if you are doing everything right.

We're trying to enjoy these last six weeks and get everything in order as much as possible.  Hopefully this means lots of dates, taking advantage of as much free sleep and shower time as possible, and getting some freezer meals made.  I got a slight curve ball being diagnosed with gestational diabetes so we'll be adjusting to that whole rigmarole too.  Nothing like being on a diet for your last month of pregnancy and Thanksgiving.  All that aside, we are looking forward to what will be the BEST Christmas ever.  I've really been on the fence about putting up our Christmas decorations this year knowing that I'd be taking them down in a sleep deprived stupor with a one month old on my tit.  However, I think we'll just do it so we can enjoy the full splendor of the season in our home since we may not be getting out all that much.  Just don't be shocked if you find the tree still up when you visit in July.

Google Camino View

We're famous! At least, as much as being on Google Street View makes you famous. As luck would have it, as we were walking on the Camino last year, the Google Street View car cruised by us a couple of times. I knew what it was right away since I had seen pictures of it online before. So we made sure to get on the pictures and note the exact location that we saw it. We have been checking that spot from time to time on Google Maps and had just about given up hope that they were going to use those pictures. But then a couple of weeks ago they actually updated the imagery. It's pretty awesome that the only place we're on Street View is on some random rural road and hanging out with some cafe con leche at a local bar in Spain.


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