On Returning to What We Thought was Past

It was exactly 4 weeks ago that we returned to Bavaria. In some ways, it seems like several months ago.  In so many ways we feel we were never back in Tennessee for those 10 months. Everything here feels so normal. We never missed a beat in falling back into our German life.
 

 The weekly outdoor market in Burghausen--rain or shine.

Cooking by weighing ingredients instead of measuring in cups and spoonfuls.

The charming look of the old houses along with the crispness of the new ones.

Traveling by train to watch the beautiful landscape pass by.

The sounds of the church bells tolling the hours and the regional train passing by with a shrill whistle... doesn't seem strange. The smell of the spicy wood smoke in the air and people standing WAY too close to me in the stores feels totally normal.
So many of the little things: The cobblestones, working to stay out of the bicycle lane when walking, hearing nearby conversations and only understanding 1/2 of what's being said, and spending 2 hours and more at a restaurant during a meal... not odd at all.

It's a mixed bag of gratefulness and a tugging sense of longing that fills our days.

 



Piracher Strasse in the Snow

 Here's our little street in the height of the snow time this year

The road seemed to get more narrow as the days went by and we ended up taking turns with other cars more and more as the snow piled up on the roadsides. That's one major difference between driving here and the USA...There's not always enough room for everybody at the same time and you HAVE to cooperate with one another

The bottom letterbox belongs to us.  There's a yellow sticker on ours...I dont' have ANY idea what it says. Maybe I should figure it out, but I'm not too worried.
We don't get much mail anyway

 Here's my little viewing window on the second floor. It's my own personal catbird seat...

 I got a picture of the Deutsche Post truck delivering the mail one day.
Most of the time, it is done with a bicycle. My grandfather was a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service in Chattanooga in the 1940's through the late 1960's. He would have enjoyed seeing the bicycles with the large baskets and mailbags. He himself had to hoof his way through

the East Lake area all those years!

 The Volvo, with its snow tires, handles wonderfully in this weather

I'm gonna miss this vista when I'm back in Chattanooga.  I'll have these pictures to look back on though.  I plan to collect all the ones I have to create a multi-seasonal montage of this

straight-out view from our livingroom



Energy Options in German Homes

 Yesterday, a truck stopped by and took out a long hose.  They were delivering wood pellets to the basement of our apartment building! It kind of reminded me of how coal was delivered to American homes during the first half of this past century.

These wood pellets that are about the size of a large vitamin C tablet and they were pumping them in by air into storage compartments.

This is our landlord's son chatting with the delivery guy as he works.

Our Wohnung (apartment) has 4 units (3 occupied) and they are heated by a wood-fired boiler and radiator system.  The radiators in our place remind me of a pared-down version of the old heavy radiators they had in my elementary school when I was a kid.

If you need to get warm in a hurry...there' not a problem. Also, you can lay your wet mittens on them and they are dry in no time! There is something SO nostalgic about that, but the system seem VERY efficient.

In the top picture, you can also see the solar panels on the house across the street. That is another popular energy option that's available here.

Riding Around in the Freezing Temps!

 Just as it was in the middle of summer, it is surprising me just how much the Burghausers are living their life outdoors. Here's the bicycle traffic at the kindergarten down the street on a typical weekday morning about 7:30-8:00. There are teenagers cycling past on their way to the school in the center of town and there are parents with their small ones behind them (in child seats) as they drop them off here on their way to work. Sometimes the little bitty ones are in  pull-along trailors on the back of cycles. There are more baby "buggies" here than strollers, it seems, and there are all kinds of special adaptors to handle the weather... raincoverings, buntings, unbrellas and sunshades.  No matter what the weather, it seems that getting out the automobile is the LAST resort!

 The young and the older... everyone is biking and walking.

 Yep, Billy and I are right out there with them!  It began snowing when I was shopping downtown the other day (Here's my cute little cycle.) Riding along with the snow hitting you in the face is definitely a new experience.  I tend to go fairly slow, because I don't know the whens and wheres of icing and how it reacts on my bike tires.

The kindergarten (shown in the first 2 pictures) is straight ahead in these shots from a side road.  These were taken as I was just about home and with a pretty good snowfall going on. There was about a 1/4" of snow stuck to my wool coat. I've gotten pretty adept at wrapping my scarf a certain way to keep my face from freezing! I'm not sure what the white haze is in the bottom picture...I guess its my breath! ...but I thought it actually improved the picture.

Sunday Family Gathering

Sunday the chuch bells rang again at around 9:45AM calling the people of the neighborhood to church as they usually do.  The bells usually chime the hour and quarter hours (So I never have to wonder what time it is!) but at special times they begin ringing and chiming with all the different bells available without stopping for  several minutes. It is a very romantic and charming sound and makes me want to run out into the street to attend services with these people as they pour out of their houses and begin walking toward the church.

At about 11:15 I noticed something a bit different than what is usual and ran to get my camera. There was a family dressed in their finery (mostly black) standing on the sidewalk across from the church waiting for a photographer to take their picture. At the center was a baby carriage. I can only imagine that the 14 or so people were gathered for a christening of a child.  After their picture was snapped, they all began walking down the sidewalk in a group. I lost sight of them after a while, but I guess they were going to someone's home to share a special meal to celebrate the day.  I wonder what delicious German treats they served!

The whole group was so happy and smiling.  There were older people, younger people, kids and grandkids...a very warm and wonderful sight...all from my little apartment window.

Day 20 in Germany

This is a blog about an American couple coming to Germany to live and work for about a year. Billy is here working for Wacker Chemie AG that is starting a new plant in Cleveland, TN near Chattanooga.  I (his wife) am here with him to help make a home during our short stay and to enjoy the sites, sounds and everyday life in a small Bavarian town.

 IT IS DAY 20 OF OUR STAY IN BURGHAUSEN!

After arriving in Munich on Luftansia airlines on July 28, 2011, we were shuttled by taxi eastward through several small villages of southern Germany. It took about about an hour and a half to reach our new home.  The overnight flight From Charlotte, NC was incredible and we had been able to rest a bit before dealing with the 6 hour time advance. We were greeted curbside by a local woman named Claudia as we came into town. Claudia is our lifesaver! She was born and grew up in Burghausen and knows the town...& Germany like the back of her hand. We'd be lost without her.

This is our home in Germany on Piracher Strasse (Street)! In the picture you see three houses? Ours apartment is where you see the 2nd floor windows of the middle house.  The window facing the street is our living room window. I'm sitting at that window as I write this entry....There is a beautiful view of the neighborhood from that window as well as the Burghausen countyside.

This is what I see as I look out my open window each morning. I took this picture a few days ago when it was cloudy, but this morning it is bright, sunny and about 68 degrees or so.  Notice the pedestrian and bike lane on our street? Wow, this is wonderful.  We can bike everywhere here without getting mowed down!

Almost all of the houses here have the red tile roofs and are white stucco.  Gardens with beautiful flowers and shrubs are the norm. Window boxes thrive and look very lush in this cooler climate.

Since I had to wait so long to start this blog, I'm really not sure where to start. There's been SO many new and amazing things that have happened in the last 3+ weeks.  I guess I'll just start off and go...I'll try not to ramble too much, but the main things I want to talk about are the everyday occurences here that feel unique to my American sensibilities. 

  Feel free to email me with questions about our experience here...

Deede