Grüß Gott!

Tuesday 3 Apr 2012 by ankanpoikanen 3 Comments

(Grüß Gott is the standard greeting around here.)

Three days of living in Germany! It does not feel real at all, more like I’m on some slightly strange holiday.

Friday, our last day in Edinburgh, was a complete nightmare. We ended up sending three big boxes by mail at the very last minute – how did we ever think we could fit all that into our suitcases?? And Harry’s cage… Originally Lufthansa told us we don’t need a cage for him, they would supply one at the airport. When I rang to double-check that everything was ok, they said ‘Oh no! We never do that!’ Frantic research and internet shopping ensued, and finally the cage was delivered, six hours before the flight’s departure. But once we made it to the taxi – only an hour later than planned – with all our stuff and the bloody big cage, all was well. Harry travelled like a pro, and arriving at our temporary flat at 2am we found flowers and chocolates left by our landlord and -lady.

And of course, the most wondrous thing: Hot water! Endless, pouring streams of hot water! Whenever you want!

After seven and a half years in Britain, it feels like a perfectly sensible idea to take a picture of a shower. I love the shower.

Now follows a special report for the doggie people. Feel free to skip to the pictures below…

On Saturday, poor Harry took back all of his good behaviour when travelling, and decided to deal with all the stress of the previous weeks by going completely insane. But we did find out we’ve struck gold with this flat: it’s a canine heaven/madhouse! There’s three flats in the building. Above us live our extremely friendly and helpful landlord and -lady, who have two dogs of their own, both international rescues. And! I can’t believe it! On the top floor lives a professional dog walker and agility trainer, who has five dogs. Of whom three are border collies, and one rescue! I’m going to stop with the exclamation marks now. It’s just so incredibly lucky – everyone here understands difficult dogs, no-one cares that there’s one more dog making a bit of noise, and Harry’s walking and possible boarding are sorted.

So, on Sunday morning I left Markku to sleep and went on a long walk with the dog walker and her dogs. Harry couldn’t quite believe his luck with all the pretty collie girls (They are very, very pretty and very, very posh – one of them is going to the world championships in agility. Thankfully one of them is wonderfully stubborn and deaf to all commands). They had a good run and play, and I returned home with a de-stressed, as-normal-as-he-ever-gets Harry.

After coaxing Markku up and somewhat awake we went exploring. Markku knew a great viewpoint, where you can see the whole area:

Germans are, obviously, engineering people, and one aspect of that is their love of cool toys. On the viewpoint there were several men with massive, expensive-looking radio-controlled planes:

Note the gorgeous sky. The weather was made all the sweeter when we found out about the snowstorm in Finland… It’s a bit chilly, but plenty warm enough to sit outside in the sun for lunch and the obligatory beer.

Harry approved of the sunshine – a contentment roll, one of many:

Evening walk yesterday. This picture, taken just a couple of hundred meters behind our house, sums up what it’s like here: industry, suburb, hills, orchards, and green fields:

 It is most definitely spring, trees are just about to burst to green:

There are these curious fenced gardens dotted around the fields and orchards, I guess they are allotments of some sort? They come in all shapes and sizes, this one is particularly large:

Harry’s made himself comfortable. ‘What, why should I not chew my disgusting bone on the sofa and drool all over the pillows? You said this was my home now?’

 So, everything is in Ordnung. Poor Markku went straight to work on Monday, and is very grateful Easter weekend is a four-day holiday here. We have already filled in a stack of forms, and I’m sure more will follow.

P.S. – update from Markku:

BMW’s! Beamers everywhere! Must have a Beamer. Beeaauutiful Beamers.