Life in Germany – October 2024 (Month 127)

Another England trip

The beginning of October was a trip to the UK – just a few days, and we would bring my niece Gwen and her husband Harley back with us to Germany for a few days’ holiday.

Klaus and I took a day off work and were making the most of the public holiday “Tag der Deutschen Einheit” (day of German unity) which fell on the Friday, so on Wednesday afternoon we set off to Hoek van Holland for our normal Stena Ferry overnight crossing.

Klaus had worked on the Wednesday so we arrived at 6:30pm and were able to check in. We just had to queue for half an hour or so before boarding. As we are seasoned Stena Line travellers we went straight to the Stena Lounge for our evening meal of snacks…

Klaus had also been really looking forward to his glass of wine after a fairly busy day!

I of course enjoyed my cake slices – which this time they had cut smaller. I had to go back for more later!

We had a number of jobs to do on this three night visit. We were expecting a heating oil delivery which we wanted to be there for (although Maureen the neighbour would sort it out if we weren’t there); Klaus was to have another conversation with the head of his company in the UK about work possibilities; and we wanted to view a couple of properties in Bury St Edmunds which looked suitable to rent. On the Saturday we would go to visit my sister near Southend and then collect Gwen and Harley after they finished work and drive them to Harwich for the ferry. So quite a lot to pack in!

The fuel delivery had been scheduled for the Friday as they could come from 08:00 in the morning and we would not be at Mum’s house that early on the Thursday morning. But of course they sent me a message saying they would deliver a day earlier. We hoped we would get there in time – and we did. The oil delivery came at about 10am and it was interesting talking to the chap about it. I also learned about Mum’s oil tank, most importantly how large it is (1300 litres) so I know how much to order in future. I also learned about the locking system which is useful!

For the rest of the day we had nothing planned except to go out to the nice posh burger restaurant in Ipswich as they have a special offer for two burgers on Thursdays. We decided to go to Ipswich to pick up something for lunch and ended up in Pickwick’s Tea Room again where I had a scone.

Ipswich seemed rather more run down than usual and we didn’t walk around for too long before deciding it was time to visit Marks & Spencer for a couple of bits we needed for the house – which included a muffin each!

It is rather sad to see Ipswich so run down and a big contrast with Bury St Edmunds.

We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling, had a visit from Maureen and a nice chat with her, and then it was time to go out for our burger.

Klaus enjoyed a Guinness but as it was dark and rainy he would have to drive home (I don’t see so well in the dark when it is raining) so he had an alcohol-free Guinness, which he said was fine.

We enjoyed our desserts too.

I had this giant Sundae which ended up too much for me to eat so Klaus finished it off!

The next morning was our trip to Bury St Edmunds to visit two potential bungalows to let and for Klaus to have his meeting with the boss of his company in the UK.

The first property was really nice – we both said that if it had been the right time to rent we would have gone for it, but as Klaus wouldn’t be coming to the UK until early June it seemed to soon to rent somewhere in September. Also there were two things that were not quite perfect – no space for a dishwasher in the kitchen and no chance to have one plumbed in (there was a washing machine but that is of course absolutely necessary) and the shower was an electric one. I am not a fan of electric showers. If these two things had been as we wanted then we probably would have gone ahead.

Note, the place was let a week later.

After this we decided to walk into Bury centre from this location as the road this bungalow was on is in the general area to the south of Bury where most of the rental bungalows are. We could walk along a path in a park (which would be too muddy in winter) or along a road which was mediumly busy and had some rather slow traffic lights (we walked the two routes, there and back). There was a Tesco Local about 200 metres from the house which was big enough to have pretty much everything you would normally need. The area where the bungalows are was quiet and the houses were widely spaced with trees and grass verges – all very nice.

The walk into the centre of Bury took about 15 minutes in total. Klaus was feeling a bit coldy so we went to Boots and bought some tissues and also some more cold remedies. We were served by a really excellent staff member – I had meant to write to Boots in praise of her but I realise now I forgot.

We then went back to the car to drive to the Bury Golf Club where Klaus had arranged to meet Tony, the head of the UK subsidiary of his company. We ate lunch together and then I got out of the way so they could talk more work. Klaus had prepared some ideas which he showed Tony and they talked more about the role, but with nothing completely finalised at that point.

After this we went back to Bury Centre and stopped at the café No. 5 Angel Hill where we had eaten once before. This time I had a Victoria sandwich cake which was actually not as tasty as some. But the ambiance is nice.

We sat around and chatted. We also visited the cathedral gardens again, and the cathedral, where Klaus did some more photography.

Dogs are allowed in the cathedral which I think is lovely!

We then visited our second bungalow which was about 250 metres from the one we had seen earlier in the day. In this one the tenants had apparently forgotten we were visiting – and the Letting Agent said to us that the tenants had left the place in a bad state and that the landlord would need to do some repairs before re-letting it. He was not wrong – the kitchen looked like a bomb had gone off, the floor of the bathroom had obviously been left really wet and the wooden flooring was swollen and discoloured and there was stuff everywhere. The current tenant was in bed in the dark in the main bedroom on the phone to someone – we were able to peek in and she spent the whole time on the phone.

We also realised that the road this property was on was quite loud, and it didn’t have a garage (we had hoped to use the shed for the bikes but it wasn’t clear if that was possible) and the kitchen had almost no work surfaces. So this was a bit “no” for us. At the time of writing this, four weeks later, the property is still available to let. And I am not surprised.

We had originally thought we would stay in Bury for the evening meal but we were both pretty tired after all the travelling so decided to go back to Mum’s for our evening meal. We picked up some soup from the Tesco Express round the corner, some bread to go with it, and ate those when we got back.

The next morning we did some cleaning before heading off to Anna’s. I did a MAJOR FRIDGE CLEANING and emptied it out and switched it off. I spent almost 45 minutes in total on the fridge, so it is now MUCH better.

It will of course be switched back on when we visit.

Klaus had been relaxing in the Garden Room in the morning and I noticed, with the low sun, that there were loads of cobwebs and the windows needed cleaning so I did my best with the outside (couldn’t reach everything due to flower beds) and Klaus did a little cleaning inside too.

After this we packed up all our stuff as we would go straight from Anna’s to the ferry later that evening.

We arrived at Anna’s and headed straight off for lunch in Chalkwell where there is a café run by a German lady, Anke’s. We wanted Klaus to see that there was a little oasis of Germanness not too far away!

As we were arriving Anna’s friend and my old school colleague Suzy was there (I think she spends half her life there!) so we said hi and then settled down for lunch,

We had a hot meal (Klaus had Bratkartoffeln!) and then a second course of cake. I had this lemon drizzle cake.

Klaus had proper German cheesecake which he said was very nice!

We then made our way back to Anna’s and relaxed at her house for a while until Gwen had finished work. We went to collect Gwen and Harley – Anna and Val would be looking after Chip the dog for the week so they stayed at Gwen and Harley’s house a bit longer so the dog didn’t feel too abandoned.

We drove up to Harwich and arrived fairly early so did a bit of a shop in Morrisons (using Harley’s staff discount card! Hurrah!) so I topped up the Custard stocks which was of course extremely necessary.

We had originally planned just to eat the snacks on the ferry but as we wouldn’t board till at least 21:00 we decided to stop off and have a McDonalds at Harwich. Which we did.

Harley had been rather coldy for the week before and was just getting over it, Klaus had also been feeling a bit under the weather so we were hoping that Gwen and I avoided it. Spoiler alert, Gwen didn’t!

Anyway, after our McDs we got onto the ferry, went into the Stena Lounge and as Gwen and I were both really pooped we went to our cabins early. Klaus and Harley had a bit more stamina.

We met in the Stena Lounge the next morning and enjoyed sunrise over the Netherlands.

We were all pretty tired as had not slept well on the crossing (the overnight back to NL always has less sleeping time). Klaus drove us back to our home and we offloaded the luggage and then went out for lunch cake at Hofcafé Beyen which is just around the corner in Stenden. Gwen and Harley were in their first ever visit to Germany and eating their first ever proper German cakes.

Interestingly, Gwen thought her cake was rather sweet. Which is not something we normally find.

We came back to our flat and chilled out in the afternoon as we were all tired from the travelling. We had a takeaway kebab in the evening (Klaus had Kräuterquark) and an early night.

The next day Klaus had free but I had to work. I did my three hours at work and then came home. We headed out to Düsseldorf with Gwen and Harley for a bit of culture.

First of all we had a little wander around the Mediahafen and then went to the TV tower where we went up in the lift and had a look around.

Of course it was time to stop for cake whilst up there.

We had a good view over Düsseldorf and then returned to the car and went to Classic Remise, which is the car storage and sales area and is really interesting. We all enjoyed looking at the cars again, although each of us had a very different choice as to which car we would most like to take home.

We had our evening meal there at the Italian restaurant. I somehow managed to eat this enormous pizza all by myself!

The next day Klaus had to work so I took Gwen and Harley to Kempen for breakfast at Café Peerbooms.

We had a wander around Kempen, then went to Globus the giant supermarket so they could experience the best in German grocery shopping.

Neither Gwen nor Harley were feeling 100% so we came back to our flat to relax. Klaus was feeling a bit overtired when he got home from work so I took Gwen and Harley out to Ela in Kempen for a Turkish evening meal and Klaus fended for himself.

Harley and I seem to have some kind of tradition of sharing starters (we often do it in Indian restaurants) so he shared the Vorspeise Teller with me. It was very tasty as always!

After our meal the other two had an Ouzo.

The next morning when Gwen woke up she was feeling rather rough. We had originally planned to visit Centro the giant shopping centre and then call in on Klaus at work on the way back but she wasn’t up to it, especially as we were going out that evening for a meal at Küppersmühle and she wanted to be well enough for that, so she stayed at home and Harley and I just took Poppy out for a walkies.

Apart from that we relaxed around the flat.

We had a lovely meal in the evening, having all dressed up for it. It was rather rainy so we got a bit wet walking to the car, but we had a lovely evening and Gwen rallied enough to enjoy the food.

The next morning they were going to Amsterdam by train so I dropped them off at Venlo station at 8:00am and they got the train from there. I was at work by 8:30 so only half an hour later than normal.

Gwen and Harley had two days in Amsterdam and were actually rather disappointed by it. Gwen was feeling slightly better on those two days but then felt really rough again once they got home and had to have a couple of days off work to recover. Klaus also managed to catch the cold and he was off work for two days, and was still unable to shake it fully four weeks later, with a lingering cough. Somehow I avoided it – a miracle!

Anyway, it was lovely to have Gwen and Harley visiting for the first time. It was their last chance as we will be leaving Germany soon.

More on the move to England

Things unexpectedly accelerated this month.

We had originally planned for Klaus to start working in the UK in June 2025. This was our default idea of what would happen and so we were arranging our plans accordingly. However, following the meeting with Tony in the UK there were more discussions and Tony then said that he would like Klaus to start in March 2025.

This was good news for us as we are keen to make the change, but this also meant we could not apply for a Spouse Visa to meet this date target as the financial requirements had to be in place for 6 months and would only first be fulfilled in April 2025 – after which we would need at least 1 month for the Spouse Visa application time. However, with a Skilled Worker visa this should all be much faster so Klaus informed Tony that we would need to go down the Skilled Worker Visa route and Tony has started the process of the company registering as a Visa sponsor.

This also meant that we would probably be out of Germany by April 2025, which is when Zuzy the Z3’s seasonal number plate would allow us to drive her again. Her numberplate allows her to be driven between April and October. We were now approaching the end of October after which point she would need to hibernate and it would be next to impossible to sell her. So Klaus contacted “wirkaufendeinauto.de” and arranged for them to check her over. They offered am acceptable price (much lower than we could have got privately, but we could not sell. her privately in time) and so we said goodbye to Zuzy. We have had three wonderful summer holidays touring in this car, she was always completely reliable, and overall she was a great car to own. We hope the next owner really appreciates her too.

Now Zuzy was gone the next thing on the schedule was Klaus’s B1 English Exam. For the Spouse Visa he only needed A1 but as I knew for Citizenship in the future he would need B1 he registered for that exam – as you can always offer a higher level score. It turned out this was a good thing as he would need B1 for the Skilled Worker Visa.

The test was available once per month at a language school in Düsseldorf called IIK. Klaus spent a lot of time preparing for this, doing online tests. I had no doubt at all he would pass with flying colours but he found himself getting a little nervous as the exam approached – it had been decades since his last exam.

So on a Saturday at the end of October we headed to Düsseldorf. I had discovered there was a Zeit für Brot café just 200m from the exam centre so I would sit there whilst he did the exam. Initially I thought the exam was just under two hours, but it turned out it would be almost three hours. I reserved the right to drive home if I got bored and then come back later to pick him up, but it was a 45 minute journey each way.

We set off and found that traffic problems meant that we would arrive only 8 minutes before he should be there, so he drove directly to the language centre and then he went in and I took the car and parked it. I then walked to Zeit für Brot and bought myself an Apfel-Mandel-Schnecke. Which was very nice!

Whilst I was sitting in the café enjoying my Schnecke I got a text message from Klaus – the internet was down at the language centre so they couldn’t do the test! It turns out that the security settings are so strong that the language centre couldn’t use a hotspot or other internet connection, it had to be the official one. And this was definitely out!

This notice from Vodafone said that they didn’t know when it would be fixed. The language centre suggested everyone wait an hour to see if it comes back – but it didn’t. So I went to collect Klaus and everyone was chatting about their Visa applications. I was a bit concerned to find, when discussing with a nice young lady about her visa planning for the UK, she had completely misunderstood the financial requirements… I hope she took what I said earnestly as she won’t be able to get in with just £16,000 savings on the application date!

Klaus had phoned the exam company and they had opened a ticket but he heard nothing back from them until the next morning, when they just said “we suggest you rebook.” There was no information about a refund of the 200€ Klaus had paid. We were luckier than some of the others – one guy had spent 300€ travelling 300km to Düsseldorf and getting a hotel room the night before so he didn’t miss the exam due to train problems. The exam was eventually rescheduled to the end of November (the next planned exam date, they didn’t put on an extra one for these unlucky people).

And of course Klaus had been psyching himself up for this exam so the fact that it didn’t take place was really deflating. We stopped for coffee and cake before driving home.

I have subsequently googled and these exams are available on a daily basis in London or in Cambridge so he could do one in the UK on one of our future visits, if there is another problem with the Düsseldorf one. The UK ones give you the results in 2-3 days which is also good. Fortunately he only needs this exam result when we apply for the Visa which will probably be January or February, so he has lots more opportunities. Perhaps that is not the case for some of the other candidates.

A really last-minute England trip

As I mentioned above, we looked earlier this month at two properties in Bury, one of which would have suited but at the time we didn’t realise we would be moving by the end of February.

Bungalows to Let don’t come up very often and once our schedule changed and we started really looking, there was only really one suitable one (apart from the one we had rejected at the viewing in early October due to useless kitchen and no garage). This one had been on the market since the beginning of August and was very expensive but they had reduced the price, now to a price that we could manage although it was right at the top of our budget. So we arranged to go and visit over the one weekend available in November (as Gudula and Frank were away on holiday for several weekends).

However, we both started getting nervous that someone else might snap up this property, so I phoned the letting agents to ask what the situation was and they said someone was coming the next day for a second viewing.

Oh no!

I asked if we could view within the next few days and make an offer if the other people also offered, and if both would be considered, and she said yes.

Klaus and I discussed it and we both thought it wise to go ahead and view it. So we arranged to travel the next afternoon (on the overnight ferry) and Klaus sorted out that he would work from home in England for the next two days. We would be going Tuesday night, staying one night and then returning Thursday night. Friday was a Public Holiday in the UK but we did have to be home that day as Gudula and Frank were going away for the weekend so we had to look after Poppy.

So the viewing at the bungalow was booked for 10:00am on the Wednesday morning, and now it was time to book the ferries.

Dynamic pricing is a thing on the Stena Ferry, which I knew, but I hadn’t realised quite how much the prices increase. Our there and back ferry journey with cabins was £800!!! It is normally between £300 and £400! But we had no choice, so we went ahead and booked.

The next day was the Tuesday and I phoned the letting agent to find out how the viewing with the other people had gone. She said she thought they were likely to make an offer and did we still want to come? Yes we did,

Klaus finished work at 5pm on the Tuesday so we had to travel to Hoek van Holland in the rush hour. Fortunately the queues around Rotterdam weren’t too bad so we arrived with more than an hour to spare, phew!

We boarded, and of course did our usual Stena Lounge eating.

I of course had cakes too.

We both slept badly as we were really keyed up about the house.

We drove to Mum’s house first to drop off our luggage as we had 45 minutes in hand. I also had a quick shower, we set up our work laptops.

I started on my major project of the day which was defrosting the freezer and chucking out all the food. The fuse had tripped for the downstairs main electricity circuit and Anna had reset it when she arrived to visit four days before we came but had not immediately thought about the freezer and we didn’t know how long the electricity had been off. When Klaus and I walked into the utility room things seemed OK but once we opened the freezer door there was a horrible smell which instantly flooded the downstairs of the house. Nice.

So we chucked all the contents of the freezer in the bin, then left the drawers outside to defrost a bit more – there were melted and refrozen fruits of the forest and also a plastic milk carton had split. It was very yucky.

We left the freezer door open (after switching it off to defrost) and then it was time to head off to Bury St Edmunds.

We arrived 15 minutes early, parked outside the house and had a look at the exterior – which is quite impressive,

This is a very large bungalow with three garages (one of which is available for the new tenants), a large front garden and back garden (which the landlord will maintain), and what turned out to be parking space for about 10 cars.

The letting agent arrived and showed us round the inside. The structure of the property is great with spacious rooms nicely laid out. The downsides were the kitchen units are a bit old and not ideal, the oven is an electric one with a hob, the washing machine hookup is in an outbuilding that is a bit spidery and the property has several fluorescent tube lights which are not very nice. Also the bathroom was old-fashioned. However, we thought it was overall a great place and agreed with each other that we would make an offer, which we duly did. We told the letting agent that we were looking for a long let – many, many years, maybe even decades, which she thought would be appealing to the landlord. She said the other people had not yet made an offer.

We went straight back to Mum’s house after this as Klaus had to work.

I then spent more than half an hour cleaning out the freezer with disinfectant and cream cleaner. This needed a lot of elbow grease and also necessitated the back door being open (and the door to the kitchen shut) in the hope that the bad smell would dissipate a bit.

After this the individual drawers which had been defrosting outside had their major clean, which was more elbow grease (ideally with a peg on the nose). Fortunately the utility room has its own sink. This took near enough another hour, by which time I was ready for lunch of soup (after having washed my hands VERY thoroughly).

In the afternoon I did three hours’ work (my normal working day) and Klaus continued working too. The phone signal wasn’t always brilliant (we were just using our phones as hotspots) so that was a bit frustrating at times, but we both managed to achieve something. We went for fish & chips for our evening meal. This is a large cod and chips shared between two – loads of food! How can one person eat all this???

We both went to bed really early as we were both so exhausted. But not before we had made rather dramatic plans for the next day – to go and look at a car for Klaus to potentially buy, which happened to be in Birmingham!

He would need a UK-registered car for when we move over and we needed to get this first so I could then sell my SLK in Germany (and still have a car to use). I would then buy a UK-registered SLK as my car. Klaus’s company car would disappear when he stops working for the German side of his company in February and his new job comes with a car allowance rather than a car.

Klaus knew he wanted an E-Class and he had a lot of specific things he was looking for, including a reversing camera, very good lights (to help me with driving in the dark) and more. And there were just two suitable cars within 200 miles, and the frontrunner of these two was the further away one (in Birmingham).

But it is worth travelling for the right car, and we were in England on a very expensive ferry trip so it would be good to make more out of the trip, so we set off at 8am in order to allow us enough time in Birmingham to have a good look at the car, and get back to Harwich for the night ferry. We had phoned the car company the day before to say we would come, and that we would let them know when we were on the way so they held the car for us.

We stopped at a services on the A14 for a coffee and Klaus’s first Greggs Sausage Roll (free with our Monzo Perks bank account). He was slightly underwhelmed by the Greggs – but he can choose a weekly doughnut or muffin instead if that appeals more!

We had what turned out to be a very smooth journey to Birmingham with no hold-ups at all. I was doing the driving as Klaus was working (on his iPad) the whole journey. I knew if we bought the car then I would also be driving back so it was a lot of driving for me, but it was the easiest option. For Klaus it was interesting to learn that you can drive away on the same day in a car that you buy in the UK, as that is not possible in Germany. We had already checked that the car was ready for sale and it was (services etc completed). I had to give Klaus an overview of car buying – V5 certificate, tax, insurance etc. We had already prepared the insurance quote, we just didn’t have the registration number of this car so I would have to finalise the insurance when we were there, if we chose to buy the car. So my iPad came along too.

We arrived at the garage which was squeezed into a residential area of Birmingham with a parade of shops next door. Lots of the local cars were pimped, lowered, driven too fast, with blacked-out windows – this is all weird for a German to see as these things are generally not allowed in Germany and you don’t see them in Kempen anyway!

The Mercedes E-Class was waiting for us outside and Klaus had a really good look around it. It had two very minor dings (one each side) which were almost impossible to notice, the sliding panorama roof seals were a bit green, the fixing of the boot side panel cover seemed a bit loose, and the tyres were old (they were summer tyres anyway which is no use for Germany). There was also a minor stone chip in the driver’s side windscreen – but it had just passed an MOT so that presumably was within tolerance. This can be repaired in the UK, in Germany it is not allowed to repair a stone chip in this part of the windscreen, you have to get a complete new windscreen fitted.

We had a test drive – and Klaus realised this was the first time that he had ever driven a right hand drive car! He did very well, the car was good and so we entered into some negotiation on price but didn’t get very far there. The garage had to do some fairly expensive work on the rear air suspension (cost them £1000) so they maintained they had no wiggle room. We were happy to agree to almost the asking price, though, as it is a lot of car for the money. In fact, Klaus has checked the price of this car in Germany and they generally cost 50% more than what he paid (he paid £10,000/12.000€, a direct equivalent in Germany starts at 18,500€). So it is a bargain!

The car was christened Carl (for Carl Benz), we transferred the money to the garage (UK bank transfers are instant), we set up the insurance (took me 5 minutes as I had prepared everything) and the deal was done. The garage registered it to Klaus online, we paid road tax online, everything sorted. We drove away with the car two hours after we had first arrived.

This is not possible in Germany as the car changes its number plates. We had been able to look up the MOT history of this car online so could see the mileage each year and its general health. This is also something that is not possible in Germany, which I think is a shame as it is useful to see if you have a Friday Afternoon Car (Germany version is Monday Morning car) in your sights.

We set off back towards Suffolk, with Klaus following behind me as the car didn’t have CarPlay installed and we didn’t yet have a holder for his phone. The car’s own SatNav Maps were rather out of date. It was useful that he was following me as I was able to phone him and say he was driving a bit too far to the left hand side of the lane, and once I said this he was able to recalibrate for driving with the steering wheel on the other side. This is something you have to learn.

We stopped for a KFC/Burger King at Corley Services on the M6 Southbound.

He is smiling as he enjoys driving the car, even if the steering wheel is on the wrong side!

We had a smooth journey back, but the final 10km to Mum’s house are along country lanes and there were a few pinch points. Klaus was able to gauge the width well, he had one occasion where he felt some grasses brushing the passenger side so he knew the car’s size limits a bit better.

Here is Carl parked outside Mum’s house – in the difficult parking space that requires a reversing camera (which Carl has),

And this is my key. I went out for a quick drive just to try it out before it got dark.

We had returned to Suffolk with four hours before we needed to get to Harwich so we went back to Mum’s and chilled out.

We had heard back from the Letting Agent whilst in price discussions to buy Carl. She said that the landlord had said he was now thinking of selling the bungalow in about three years’ time and as we wanted a long let perhaps we were no longer interested. We decided very quickly that we were indeed still interested and passed that on to the Letting Agent. She had trouble getting hold of the landlord for a couple of days and reported back to us eventually that he was still considering everything and that we would hear the following week. So after I have published this blog, so you will have to be on tenterhooks as we are!

On the way to Harwich I had to top up a bit of diesel in Murphy (we get free diesel in Germany but unfortunately not abroad so I just put 10 litres in). As I was paying I was given a free packed of jam tarts as they were two days out of date. I ate a couple in the queue for the ferry.

We had had to add an additional car to our ferry crossing and this (as a last-minute addition) increased the price by another £200, so the entire two day visit ferry costs were more than £1000. However, we got a lovely car and will hopefully also be accepted as tenants for a really lovely bungalow. Watch this space!

Oh, and a quick screenshot from the Bury St Edmunds Facebook page which tells you all you need to know about the Jewel in Suffolk’s Crown: