A couple of emotions

This week, I had to visit the UK on very short notice. The reasons for the travel is not important to this story except that it put me in a couple of situations that evoked some strong emotions.

I was at Dusseldorf Airport, and was in the queue at the checkin desk. In front of me was a group of elderly Germans. They must be visiting the UK as a group. They were look quite happy and genuinely please to see each other. It looks they have seen each other for quite a long time. As I waited, another elderly couple joined them. They greeted with open arms and hugs, and immediately started to talk. I thought this is OK as they seem to be travelling in a group. However, when the last of the group has finished with the airline officer, the newly arrived couple walked the counter and proceed with the check in procedure. That action caused me to feel angry as I felt the order of things being upset. The fellow that is waiting behind me also voiced his opinion about the situation, which the elderly couple ignored. I can feel my emotion rising, and even proceed to give the elderly couple a nasty stare. None of their friends mentioned anything. These group of elderly Germans seem to have an air of superiority about them, a kind of "we have lived this life, and it is our turn to be respected and be privileged".  

After a few minutes, I calmed down after realising that there is nothing I can do to change the situation. In reality, the short delay will not make any difference in terms of the overall process of checking in and walking onto the airplane. In fact, they were held up in security check as I walked past them, and onto the nearest coffee house for some breakfast. Maybe karma got its back, in a small way.

The other emotion was when I returned from the UK. As I was waiting inline at the customs, waiting to be questioned by the customs officer. I noticed a couple on the booth on the right. They were going through their papers and pleading with the custom officer that they need a visa for 8 months for medical therapy. The customs officer said that with the evidence provided so far, they are only allow 3 months in Germany. For 8 months, the couple will need to provide further documentation. I didn't think too much about it, until the customs officer told them to proceed to an area where they can continue searching for the necessary documentation. As they turn around, I saw the lady carrying a child in her hands. The child looks to be sleeping, but I am unsure. It sounds like that the therapy could be for the child. The customs officer was kind enough to allow the couple as much time as they need to find the necessary paperwork. At this point, I feel quite upset. This family is so desperate to get help for their child that they are willing to come as far as the border of Germany without ensuring that the proper papers are at hand. They have travelled from Montenegro. I immediately thought about the boat people and asylum seekers that are such big news in Australia. It is so blatantly clear such enforcement at country's borders is so wrong. This situation could be decided if the child receive life saving medical care or be damaged for the rest of his life. For the sake of this family, lets just hope that my speculation is just that, speculation. 

Children at the Kindertroedlemarkt

The weekend just past, we had the Stadtfest in the town my family and I lived in. It is an annual event that occurs in the September and it is a big event for the town. It is an event that brings out the locals, a chance for local town folks to catch up and say hello when they run into each other at the festival.

The other part of the Stadtfest is the Kindertroedelmarkt. This is a fantastic idea that I have not seen in Australia or anywhere else in the world. In Australia, a troedelmarkt would be known as a trash n treasure market. In the US, it might be called a flea market.

Anyhow in Germany, a kindertroedelmarkt is a special troedelmarkt for children only. I don't exactly know the reason for running such a market but there are many positives to it.

A stall at the kindertroedelmarket is for the child to have a stall for selling their items. It may be their toys from years past, their clothes that don't fit them anymore, or books that they have out grown. It can be seen as a personal milestone for the child as he cleans his personal space out and make room for the new items that will be in his life in the next few years.

During the running of the stall, the children will get an experience of commerce. They have to come up with a price for their items, handle the negotiations when someone asks how much it is, and close the sale. At least that would be how it should be. Typically, the buyer just pays for the items and takes it away.

The children visiting the kindertroedelmarkt also gets a lesson in life the value of money. When we visited the market every year, the children would get some money to spent. This year, they got 10EUR each, which would buy quite a few items. As we enter the market, they immediately saw something that they want but we advised them that they should hold off and go deeper into the market. This is basically to avoid being impulsive and to size up all your opportunities before making a decision.

Towards the end of the market, the kids were down to their last few Euros. They bought some great items along the way. One of them got a magician kit. They also purchased a wooden set of Ludo, or in German "Mensch ärgere dich nicht " which literal translates to "Man, don't get irritated." 

As we walked out, one of my sons wanted to buy an Ambulance toy van. He asked for its price, "3 Euros" was the answer, but he only have 1.50 Euro. He told them that he only had 1.50 Euro, but the seller did not accept his offer. My son left the stall a little disappointed, but he realised that is the way life is. You can't always get what you want, nor it is possible to always to "just buy it". There also many take aways from that experience.

The day ended and the kids got many great items from the market, we also met a few friends and asked how they are going. Looking for the next year's market. 

Finally, we did the German thing at the market and purchased a Bratwurst mit Brotchen for an afternoon snack!

So we had a car accident...

One of my biggest fear while living in Germany is having a car accident. Apart from the risk of physical injury to the drivers and passengers, there is also the hassel of dealing with the bureaucracy that is the German car insurance system.

I won't go into the details of the actual accident as it is not relevant to what I want to write about.

Coming from Australia, I am accustomed to the way it worked there. When an accident occurs, the drivers would exchange their details (including the details of insurance providers), and then we proceed to the mechanics to get the quotes for the repair work. After submitting the quotes to the insurance company, they would sort the details between themselves. If it is your fault, you pay the access and the insurance company pay the rest.

In Germany, things are a little bit different. It all comes down to the person who is at fault. When the police attended our accident, they advise us that all we have to do for repairing our car is to take our car the mechanic and tell the mechanic the insurance company of the at fault driver, that is it.

Having said that, there are a few things that we did that made it a little easier to deal with.

• Always call the police and get a police report. For an accident with no injury, the police will tell you that they don't need to be present. However, having a police report provides concrete proof who is the at fault driver and a clear description of what happened during the accident.
• Exchange the details with the other driver. Make sure that you get as much verifiable details as you can, including their driver's license details, their phone number and their address.
• Go to see a mechanic as soon as you can to start the paper work.
• Take photos of the accident scene. Use the camera on your mobile phone.

However, drive safely and avoid accident as best as you can. The disruption to your daily life is just not worth it.

Back on the wagon

Wow, it has been almost 12 months since my last entry into this blog. I must say that I miss the art of writing something. It has been a really long 12 months, with other items with higher priorities taking my attention.

Well, I will try to keep a schedule of one post per week, to be published each Sunday. I think have theme worked out for each week, that would help me focus on what to write.

In a rotating basis, I will write on four themes

1. Family living in Germany
2. Side income
3. Children and kinder
4. Living under the influence of Asperger's syndrome

The first article will be family living in Germany.

Our trip to Berlin and its technical musuem

It has become a bit of an Easter tradition for our family. It started during our first Easter in Germany at 2010 when we visited the Schwarzwald in the south. This year, we visited Berlin. 

As usual, we have left the hotel booking rather late, we booked it about 4 days in advance. (A mental note to myself, book it further in advance!) At one point, it was not looking very good that we may not be able get some hotel room. As mentioned during the "hop-on, hop off" bus tour, some 1 million tourist visits Berlin the Easter period. If that is to be believe, then I had some competition for those last remaining beds.

My family and I had an amazing time in Berlin. The late wintery conditions also provide some chilly mornings. It snowed quite heavily on the second day we arrived. 

While in Berlin, we visited a number of the attractions. For the children, we visited the German Technical Museum and the Natural Museum. The German Technical Museum is is a hit for the children. It had a big selection of trains engines and carriages on show. 

We took the train to the Technical Museum. Upon approaching the museum, we saw an amazing site of a plane on top of it.

This is a little bit like the Speyer Technical museum. However, this technical museum is full of everything technical. 

There were several items in the technical museum that was directly related to the world wars. The first one was an enigma machine, and the other was a carriage used in the holocaust.

The enigma machine is the real deal. The holocaust carriage, I am not so sure about. Let me know if you know one otherwise. As  step into the carriage and looked around, I can sense the sadness and futility of it all during the war years.  The holocaust carriage gave me plenty of things in life to appreciate. 

There were many trains in the museum. The children were able to climb into most of the cabin. They were having a really excited time.

It took us about 2 hours to go through the whole museum, however most of that 2 hours were visiting the train section.

One of the best part of the visiting Berlin was a chance to soak into its dramatic history in the last 20 years. I shall do a post about this.

All in all, it was a great trip, and we want to visit it again in the next few years.

Another observation about my lack of German language

When I shifted to Germany in the middle of 2009, one of the fears was how my lack of German was going to shape my life. During my research of the German cultural, the lack of folks speaking English was a surprise as I understood that English was taught to the majority of students, and that was from the start of their schooling.


As I approach my fourth anniversary of shifting to Germany, I have just one of the most disappointing experience that is a result of my lack of German. My son's started his primary schooling this year. Every four to five months, the parents of students of the class and the teachers have a get-together to discuss the situation class in the class, major activities coming up and discussion of other potential activities.

Firstly, I was really surprise that this meeting was mostly attended by mums. My son's class has 26 students in it, and only two dads attended the meeting. There was me and another dad. The rest were mums.

Secondly, I was also amazed on the topics being discussed. It ranged from the classroom events, topics being taught, new topics being introduced, sports etc. It was almost setting the curriculum via the parenting community.

Back to my lack of German. The moment that really emphasis that I am lacking is when the group of parents and the teachers laugh together about some discussion point, whereas we just sat there without any laughing expression on our faces. I guess that the only expression was bewilderment and, perhaps, a little bit of confusion.

The other moment was I had difficulty is articulating any questions that I had in such a way that would make sense in German, and also to understand the answer. I just was not able to do it.

I starting to get an insight to how my parents (especially my mum) felt when my family moved to Australia with little command of the English language.

Scratching our itch

We started our project a few weeks ago that we hope will have some success. The project is really to scratch our own itch, and since we felt that it could be a useful service, others may want to use it as well.

The itch is the language barrier that we face when starting out in Germany. I think that it would be the same if the country was in France or Sweden. We just haven't got a good enough grasp of the language, and at my age, picking up the language is going to be difficult.

The further itch is to not just speak it, but also to read it. In particular, a document of some sort. The Germans love their document and everything have to be in order.

My initial scratcher began with my colleagues, then our neighbours when we were more familiar with them, but mostly it fell into Google Translate. As bad as it is, it did provide me with some information that act upon. Sometimes, getting Google Translate to make sense is a real battle. It is also tiresome having to type the document into it.

So my idea is to provide a service for a quick, off the cuff translation to be given. It will need to be returned within 48 hours, and it needs to be cheap. 

The technicality of it is for the document to photographed with the camera of a smart phone. The photo is then emailed to a specific address. Within 48hours, the translated document is returned.

I have just launched the beta program. check it out at launch.48translate.com and sign up to get a life time discount. 

Schuletüte and all that kind of great stuff, part 1

23rd of August is a special in our family. Our eldest son Albert begins the next phase of his life. Today is the first day for his primary school. Well, it is officially the first day, but his first full day is tomorrow. However, lets see about today.

Albert was extremely excited to start his next phase. I think he is also very nervous and eager to venture out into the unknown.

The day started at 6am. That is the usual time for the family, but the kids just sprang out of bed. Usually, we had to coax them out of bed and to start getting ready for the day. Today, we did not have to do much coaxing.

Today, Albert received a schuletüte, or a school bag. This contain special treats for him so that he remembers the day.

After breakfast, we visited the town where the school is located, Witzhelden. It is a nice quaint town about 9 km from our town. We were in a bit of rush as we had to drop Albert's younger brother to Kindergarten. 

The day starts at 8.10am at the local Church. As we arrived at about 8am, any car parks close to church were taken. So we parked close to the school and walk back to the church. Our first thought was that we are going to be late as everything is punctual in Germany. There were about three other families walking towards the church as well, so we just followed them to church and hope that know the time better than us.

The church service was fantastic. Although, it was conducted in German, I was able to get the gist of the service. Basically, the father blessed the children for their schooling career.

After the service, everyone walked back to the school for an assembly in the school hall. The second year students also arrived to do some performances to celebrate this special event. This is nice as it sets the scene for the interaction between the various years of the school.

The principal also made some announcements about the upcoming school year and help explained the performances. All the parents, including us, were very proud of their children starting their schooling as their names were announced.

Albert got a taste of class later in the morning. He had a one hour class session with his teacher. 

While Albert was in the class, the school served out a selection of pretzels, champagne and juice, brotchen and ham and salami. It gave a chance for the parents to mingle. Unfortunately, we kept to ourselves. Our dreaded language and the German social barrier popped up.

This morning, Albert and his classmates were made to feel very special. It is surely a day for him and his classmates to remember.

Heart felt

In my small village of Leichlingen, a walk around town  brings us in contact with many interesting people. These are folks with an interesting background and history. My German is not good, and I am disappointed that I won't be able to talk with them,  and to enjoy hearing their stories.

My wife had a serendipitous encounter today. He is a gentleman, always well dressed with a tie and cap. To our children, he is known as "the funny man."  He laughs loudly and waves to all the children as he sees them. Other children are a little bit afraid of him as his laughs are quite loud and he seems to talk in a non-engaging manner. Some would even describe his condition as a little bit insane.

My wife regularly sees him catch the same bus as she does to Leverkusen. He is always by himself. One of our neighbours told us that he was quite normal, but it all changed after his wife passed away about two years ago. When I heard the story, it was just  story and did not make too much of it.

In today's serendipitous encounter, it goes something like this.

my wife: "are you catching to bus today?"

the funny man: "yes, I am."

my wife: "Great, are you going to Leverkusen today?"

the funny man: "yes."

and he starts to walk towards to the bus stop. He stops, turn around and looks at my wife and said "but not with my wife, cause she is away." The look on his face is a "I wish my wife here to take this bus trip with me." He continues his way to the bus stop.

Upon hearing this encounter from my wife, I felt this strong sensation in my body. I felt for him that he is missing life partner. My heart just felt for him.

Chris Himmelfahrt or Vatertag?

For the religious among us, the 17 May 2012 is a celebrated day when Christ ascended to Heaven. For the others who are not, there is vatertag to celebrate.


Our neighbour celebrated this tradition last year and he kindly invited me to join them this year. The participant only needs to be a dad (in loose terms) to join in, or have the potential to be a dad. This event is also popular with young men (in their twenties) as well.


For the trip itself, it need to meet some criteria for it  be traditional. Firstly, we need a group of men (see above). In our group, there were seven of us, all men and from the local neighbourhood.


Secondly, access to some beer is critical. The local brew is preferred. For us, that would the Kolsch, or Köln water. As there are seven of us, the organiser made an executive decision as got 4 kegs or 20 litres of beer. I also think that beer help to social aspects of the group of men.


Thirdly, we need a wagon that can be pulled along. The wagon needs to big enough to carry all the beer, and food. Well, the food only consists of some cans of Pringles and the traditional Salt sticks.


An lastly, we need a route through the forest. The whole idea is the walk through the woods with beer in a wagon and have a good afternoon talk men stuff. Our organiser chose to start from the nearby town of Burscheid and walk downhill to our home town of Leichlingen. The trip is about 14km long, along a re-purposed railway track, and through some beautiful forests.


The trip started at 10am and we reached home by 6.30pm. We stopped at a local pub for a meal by 3pm. They were also plenty of chances to grab a wurst along the way as well.


My neighbour told me that this tradition is an important part of a man's life in Germany. I guess that it is a way for men to talk, share and do men stuff. When I heard about this last year, I was rather skeptical as to the value of it. Other than a sorry excuse to get drunk, I fail to see how it would add value. Well, I was totally wrong on many levels. After the walk and talk with the other dads, even with my limit German, I was able to get a sense of how the men of Germany live their lives. They are proud people and have many traditions to uphold. This walk is one of many. Personally, my participation allows me to form a bond and break the social barrier that an expat feels when living in a non-native speaking country. 


Contrasting this to the culture of men in Australia, I find it difficult why more of these type of events does happen back in Australia. Are the Europeans more cultured? Who really knows, but I do think that this type of events does give the men a more healthy lifestyle.

WEBMU 2012, Berlin bound

The votes have been tallied, and the host city for WEBMU 2012 is....BERLIN!!. The Berlin delegation jumps for joy and roar with excitement, throwing their hats in the air and giving each other high fives and hugs. 

Well almost...The host city for WEBMU 2012 has been announced. Now it is time to vote for a time to hold it. There are plenty of considerations. Should it be held at the same time as another cultural event? What will the weather be? Where will be the TQEQE be going this year? So many questions.

If you have some of the answers, why not get over to the WEBMU discussion forum and put your two EURO cents in. You have to be blogger and an expat living in Germany.

Talk soon...

German hospital

In the last few days, I had some personal reasons to get intimate with a German hospital. I won't go into the details, but I have some respect the German health system.

Coming from Australia, the health system there can be best described as broken. Not slightly dented, or even worn out. It is simply broken.

I believe that health care for the people should be one of those things that needs to be free and be accessible for everyone. Australia is a developed country, and can provide plenty of advance health care, but unless you are able to afford private health insurance, that level care is usually not quite good enough. It usually takes too long to get something happening.

In Germany, My family and I have only the statutory health insurance. This is equivalent to Medicare in Australia. Even at this level of care, our entitlements are quite high. The care that they give to children is tremendous. All their prescribed medication are available without any further expenses, their visit to the doctors are also without any further expenses. The adult consultation is only charged at 10€ per quarter, but the medication incurs some expenses.

The hospital have a social worker that helps you with your home care, if required. This home care is part of your entitlement from the health insurance. Not only is home care available, assistance with the children are also possible. We are currently in the middle these discussions with our health insurance. I shall do another post when the details have finalised.

The German system is funded by the tax payers, very similar to the Medicare system. A percentage is calculated on your salary. I think that the Medicare system calculates the payment on the taxable income. The German system, calculates the gross income and the payable amount is capped. 

Speyer Technik Museum

It was a quick, "Let's head down to Speyer this weekend?" and just like that, we packed some bags into the car and headed south towards Speyer. I just returned from a business trip to Gothenburg, Sweden yesterday, and now I am heading to Speyer.


Apart from the nice historical centre of Speyer, there is another reason for heading to Speyer. Planes, trains and automobils. The Speyer Technik Museum was mentioned to us by a friend about 9 months ago, and after reading about it on the internet, it was one of the place for us to go.

The drive from Cologne was about 3 hours, with some stops here and there. When we arrived, we were a bit taken back by a full size Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet that is up in the sky. It was literally put on some pylons and is about 15meters up in the air.

Our two kids eyes became bigger and bigger as we got close to the museum. We found a car park and entered the museum. Once we are in, the whole place is packed with old cars, planes, old steam locomotives, planes, old motor bikes, and oh, did I mentioned planes. 

Many of the planes on display were either suspended over our heads by steel cables (inside display) or placed upon pylons (outside display). The planes that were displayed outside are usually the larger planes. A stair well usually is available for the inside of the planes to be entered. However, most of the interiors of the planes were gutted, and only the shell remain. The cockpit is also locked behind the original door, or a fenced off via a large piece of perspex.

The planes were from various dates, most of them were post second world war. There were also several replicas of flight instruments from the Leonardo da Vinci days.

The other main attraction at this museum is the real space shuttle on display. Well, it is the Russian version, the Buran. I am not sure if it actually made it into space, Wikipedia mentioned that Buran was only in space for 3 hours.

Did I mentioned that this museum also has a maritime section? Well, there is a great collection of boats, rescue boats, tugs, hydrofoils and an old soviet submarine. Yep, an old submarine from the Soviets. It was quite eerie to climb down the hatch for a look inside the submarine. It was my first time inside a submarine. I was not claustrophobic, but I could imagine some submariners going insane being cramped up for weeks upon weeks. Life can't be easy for those folks.

The kids also climbed into the submarine. This is the only item on display where the insides did not suffer much renovations. There were buttons, switches, taps, dials, lights, doors and gizmos for the kids (and me) to push, turn, shout into and to stomp on. It was quite an amazing experience.

The museum also has a IMAX 3D theatre. We did not go for this as our children were a little too young for it.

If you are planning to go there as well, one word of warning. We did not see many little girls around the museum compound as we walked around. It was mostly boys and their parents, running around, looking at all the different planes, trains and automobils. It is very much a place for boys to get amount the machinery. Definitely, toys for the boys (big and small).


This the updated museum. The original Technik Museum is in Sinsheim, which is still exhibiting. This Sinsheim museum have the two versions on the Concorde (the Aeroflot version and the British Airways/Air France version), a large display of F1 cars and planes.


We will have to get the original museum one day. 

WEBMU 2011, what a blast!

The WEBMU weekend came with much anticipation. After much planning, debate, polling, discussion and planning (yes, the planning was quite thorough), it finally started. I was not able to make the Friday night dinner at the Cologne's tex mex, but I heard that the mood was good and the conversations were fantastic.

On Saturday, we splited into two groups. A bunch of us brave the cold and the heights, and headed into the DOM cathederal. The other group stayed on the ground and did a tour of the city. Although I have lived in the area ever since I arrived in Germany (2009),  I have never been on a tour of the DOM, although I have been inside the DOM many times. The tour gives a different perspective on the DOM.

The tour is a climb into the upper layer of the DOM. 

There are things that you can see up here that you can only really appreciate from down on the floor.


The tour was led by a very knowledgable fellow, and he did his best to explan that various facts about the DOM. One of the fun facts he mentioned was the carvings near the top of the DOM are not only of kings, queens and religious items, chickens and football players were also carved in as well!

The DOM tour did not go to one of the two tallest spires at the front, but we did climbed the tallest point at the rear of the DOM, which gave us an incredible view of the city of Cologne.

After the DOM tour, the two groups joined together, visited one of the many churches, and broke bread. It was at a delicious Turkish restaurant at Heumarkt. Excellent choice. It was here that I truly understand why WEBMU is such a great event. As Cliff1976 mentioned to me, "it is the people that attends the WEBMU that makes it", the event such as the DOM tour or the city tour is almost secondary.

I had a chance to talk to CNHeidelberg, German Gems and Snooker in Berlin. It was really fascinating to understand their motiviation on what they blog and what brough them to Germany. Their tales are quite engaging.

We had a free time for the afternoon, after which the dinner was planned at the Paeffgen brauhaus in the Belgium quarter of Cologne. I had a Haxe, and it arrived with a rousing cheer from the party. Our waiter did his job well by keeping the Kolsch flowing nicely.

The annual tradition of the TQEQE (The Queer Expatriot's Queer Experience) was led by Adam into one of the many great bars in the Bermuda Triangle (Cologne Gay district). 

The Sunday was the farewell brunch at Cafe Litchenberg in Neumarkt. It was casual, and late enough for those recovering from the TQEQE. It also gave everyone a chance to say their goodbyes before next year. 

Frau Dietz did an exhaustive post on the event. This post has all the attendees.

German Gems wrote a post on it.

Cliff1976 did a photo post of the event.

Zurika did a excellent post on the event. Great photos, really capture the ambience.

I just want to thank Cliff1976 for being driver for this wonderful event, and the ResidentOnEarth and Fultile Diatribes on their hard work for organising it with me.


If you are expat living in Germany and write a blog, come and join in the banter next year. Head over to expatbloggersingermany.com and sign up for more information.

By the way, sorry for the lack of photos as I forgot to bring the camera along and only had my phone do the photo snapping.

Time to commit

I know that committing to something can be tough, especially for something in the short term future. It's tough when you don't even know what you are doing tomorrow!

Well, for something as fun as the upcoming WEBMU 2011, this is a no-brainer. We are a bunch of expat bloggers getting together for a bit of chat and a laugh! This year the event is being held in Cologne around October.

There is poll up on the expat bloggers in Germany forum asking fellow bloggers to commit, this is mostly to get an idea of the numbers so that certain events can be booked.

If that has piqued your interest, head over the forum and show your commitment.

By the way, the details for WEBMU 2011 are

Location: Cologne

Date: 22 Oct - 23 Oct, however a kick off dinner is the Friday evening 21 Oct.

The forum also has a list of possible hotel options as well.

The Cologne host team Resident on Earth, MusikKöln Media, Futile Diatribes, TQE and Cheap as Chips will be posting a full agenda for the weekend, and I hear that there are some fantastic events planned :-)

WEBMU 2011 accommodation options are up

If you are planning to visit Cologne around October 2011, and you are an expat blogger, why not consider meeting up with other expat bloggers at the annual WEBMU, 2011 edition. 

The Cologne host team Germany Doesn't Suck, Resident on Earth, MusikKöln Media, Futile Diatribes and Cheap as Chips, came up with a list of accommodation recommendations. The list consist of wide range optons, ranging from hostels to high end hotels, and also in a variety of locations around Cologne. It also has recommendations for different size travelling groups (singles, couples to family groups).

If you are interested, join in at the Expat Bloggers in Germany, be part of the fun.

WEBMU is scheduled to started on the weekend of 22 October 2011, but some items are being planned for the Friday 21 October 2011. Possible options are a shopping trip around the Belgian Quarter, a side trip to Aachen or a visit to Augustusburg and Falkenlust palaces of Brühl.

By the way, WEBMU is Whinny Expat Bloggers Meet Up, well we really get together for a fun time and experience a new city.

Bike ride to work

I have recently taken to riding my bike to work. Well, it is all together my decision. I recently lost my driver's license in a traffic offense (more about that in another post). Anyway, I live in Leichlingen and I work in Fuhlingen (a town just across the Rhine from Leverkusen).

In Leichlingen, I have noticed that there are many bike path signs. I thought great! but how do I plot a route from home to work or from work to home.

I initially tried to use Google Maps, but that only shows roads suitable for cars. Even so, the map is not that accurate. I mean, the street that I live on doesn't even have the correct name.

After some investigation on the net, I came across the rad route planner. 

There is an English version, but I found that the German version has much better features, and also not too bad to work out. Best of all, after you have decided on a route, you can download the path in a variety for format for usages in other applications such as Google Map or your GPS.

Update on WEBUM 2011

The planning for the 2011 edition of WEBUM is well on the way.  Let's do a quick recap on what is already planned.

Place: Cologne

Date:  22nd & 23rd of October 2011

Although the "official" dates are 22nd and 23rd, there will be some events planned for the Friday on the 21st as well.

 

The current poll is to decide what activity to do on the Friday. On offer we have either 

• the Augustusburg and Falkenlust palaces of Brühl
• the Old Town of Aachen

So if you are a non-local living in Germany and have a blog about anything, consider joining us at WEBUM 2011. More information the expat blogger. 

Buying German car insurance

Our beloved Renault Scenic died unexpectedly. It all started when my wife rang me to see if the car is still OK to drive even though it was making a funny noise when it is braking. Not to tempt fate too much, I check the car into the mechanic. The problem turns out to be three major costly problems, a sensor has malfunction within the braking system, a belt has reached its end of life and needed to be replaced and the car is overdue for its regular service by 10000km. It was going to cost about 3500 € to get the car back on the road.

Given that we originally only paid 5000 € (some say that it was too much already), we opted to trade it in and get a new car.

Well, with a new car, I need to shop around for some insurance for it. The insurance needs to be the full insurance covering liability and comprehensive.

Along the way, I discovered the following things.

• There are surcharges if you choose to pay quarterly (3% surcharge) or monthly (5% surcharge). So go annually or half yearly if you can.
• Protect your insurance rating. We had a accident during the year and our rating went from a SF 10 to a SF 04. The higher the number, the lower your insurance cost. For us, this is a different of 30%. The rating goes down quickly, but goes up slowly.
• Shop around. Using both check24.de and geld.de, we were able to get a comparison of some of the major German insurers. From this comparison, we were able to get a 10% discount from our current insurer's offer.
• Internet insurers vs shop front insurers. Those who sell insurances online seems to cost a bit less.
• A small car may not be cheaper to insure than a bigger car. Apparently if a lot of young people drives a particular type of car, the cost of insuring it will be higher even though the driver is not consider young any more.

After a few days of insurance shopping, I decided to stick with my current insurer as they can speak a good deal of English. I feel that my German is probably not good enough to deal with the insurers if something goes wrong.

Update: Since I had posted this article there are some items that is worth mentioning.

1. If you did get into an accident, it may be worthwhile considering paying for the damage yourself. This damage for your own car or the other parties. This will help to protect you insurance rating. For example, recently we had an accident where the side view mirror needed replacing. The cost was about 150 €, so opted to pay for it ourselves. If we had chosen to get the insurer to pay for it, our insurance rating would suffer and our premiums would have increased. When our insurance rating return to the same level, the difference in premiums would be more than 150 € that we paid.

2. If you have a second car, the insurance premiums for it will be different to your first car. It would start at the lowest insurance rating. A history will need to be built up to improve the rating and decrease the premiums.

3. I came across an nice summary, and much more details, on car insurance at  http://www.settle-in-berlin.com/car-insurance-in-germany-guide/. Check it out.

WEBMU 2011 - to be hosted in Cologne

After 3 weeks of much jockeying and debating among four possible cities, the host city for WEBMU 2011 has been elected. It is Cologne!

The next step is to come up with a range of possible dates and put them up to the vote.

If you haven't heard of WEBMU, it is a meet up for Whiney Expat Bloggers. If you are a blogger and an expat in Germany and want to meet other expat bloggers in Germany, consider joining up to WEBMU and come along.