The school was very nice, classes no bigger than 23 children and all classes/grades located in the campus. It was slightly chaotic as the kids were all over the place coming in and out from breaks and switching classes. There is a tram stop right by the school which makes it very convenient if we choose to go there. They also have a drop off option. Evie would be in school by 8:30 and finish up at 3:00 everyday.
We drove through Weinheim and surrounding areas on the way back to the hotel. Uli dropped us off and we walked down to the Mannheim Weihnachtsmarkt for a cup of Glühwein and a bit to eat. It was fun to walk through the market and see all the different shops. We walked back to the hotel and stopped at Lidl for some coffee and chocolate to take home.
We were tired and got all ready for bed by 6:00. We were both out cold by 8:00 and Dave was wide awake around midnight for a bit and I was awake at 3:00. After chatting with people back home, internet surfing and confirming a 9:30 pickup with Uli via email I managed to fall back into a deep sleep only for us to be woken quite suddenly at 9:35 by Uli waiting downstairs for us! We quickly dressed and ran down to meet him and make it to our 10:00 appointment.
The 1st apartment we viewed was something else! A penthouse in Weinheim and very modern with air! This is located NE of Mannheim and North of Heidelberg. It was beautiful, bright with luxurious amenities. It was really outside of anything we had ever seen before. The lift came right to the inside of the house. There were beautiful terraces with castle views! It was conveniently located near the train station and in walking distance to daily needs.
The 2nd house was in Oftersheim SE of Mannheim, W of Heidelberg and referred to as a bungalow. Now this was completely different than what we had seen before. It was on a lovely lot with lots of space backing right up to a field. It was older and bit of an odd layout but more of what we were expecting to see.
The 3rd house was in Sandhausen a smaller village to the south of Heidelberg. It was a double house, with 4 stories total. It was a really nice house but we had a hard time hurdling over all of the “stuff” ALL over the place. The owner had warned us it wasn’t tidy but we’d agree that possibly a tornado had whipped through there?! Well, looking past all of it we found it to be great space and good fit for us. It would be a tad bit more of a commute for Dave to work.
The 4th house was interesting- a house in Mannheim owned by a sweet elderly couple who had a small apartment area downstairs. It was large with a lot of space but very outdated. There was air conditioning in some of the downstairs! The couple was very nice.
The 5th apartment was a penthouse in Mannheim that backed right up to the beautiful Luisenpark. The space was great, tons of light but the bedroom situation for the kids would’ve been a bit of a challenge. Not all the rooms windows had roller shades and it would’ve been hard to try to make them bedrooms. The park was a plus though!
Tuesday night we enjoyed a peaceful dinner right at the restaurant Mister Postman in the Hilton and discussed all we had seen. Great options so far! It was a pretty early night. Dave was going into work the next morning for a bit until we had our only appointment at noon.
Dave walked to his office on Wednesday morning and I stayed at the hotel, worked out and had breakfast. Our noon appointment was another penthouse apartment in Mannheim. This was a brand new building in an area with TONS of new building going on. The apartment was beautiful, bright white and new with nice amenities and tons of light. While we loved the house, we didn’t feel great about the area. The neighborhood wasn’t so appealing. Not as family friendly as others we have been in it seemed.
I spent the afternoon walking around Mannheim, poking through some shops and the Christmas markets again and looking for some treats to take the kiddos back home.
Wednesday evening we met Dave’s new team for dinner at The Rheinterrase Restaurant right on the Rhine River a very nice spot in the warm weather to dine outside. It was so nice to meet the team from all over, Spain, Italy, France, Poland and of course Germany.
Thursday was a nice relaxing day for me, hanging around the hotel to workout and have lunch and then another stroll down through the Christmas Market. I packed up the car and checked out of the hotel.
We had 2 more houses to see before making the final decision. We were hoping for a meeting with the landlady of the Weinheim penthouse (because we put this high on our list!) but she didn’t want to meet with us if we still had 2 more to see. Because the housing market is quite tight we learned that the landlords can be very picky about who they let into their homes and that they could easily refuse us if they didn’t like something about us. Ok we thought, that’s fine we have options!
We saw a ground level house in Schwetzingen which was very nice! We loved the space, the location, the yard. There is a huge castle and grounds right in town about 15 minutes walk to Altstadt that would be a great perk to have close as well as indoor/outdoor pools (schwimbad) and shops and restaurants. It’s a nice location but not really too walkable to school and daily grocery.
The second was a very nice double house in Großsachsen, very spacious with 4 stories again but wonderfully laid out. It was close to the Autobahn and you could hear the noise. Coincidentally, the family was moving to Iowa! Yes weird right?! Der Mann also works for JD so they are going to be doing a few years assignment in Cedar Falls. Such a small world. (And not to mention there were 3 of us wearing Hawkeye gear on the plane home :). This house was not in the best location for Dave’s commute but it was certainly a possibility.
We spent a lot time in the car getting back to the hotel in Mannheim due to accidents and traffic jams on the Autobahn. We had forgotten about all that traffic! And the stau’s oh the (Sh-tau) E.V.E.R.Y. time on the autobahn! I had already checked out of the hotel so we just jumped in our BMW Wagon rental and went up to Frankfurt to stay the night so we were easily there for our flight on Friday morning.
The Hilton at The Squaire is really nice and really convenient in Frankfurt because the airport is so huge and there IS so much traffic. We checked in and went to grab dinner at The Paulaner Restaurant where we’ve been a number of times in Frankfurt.
We were really stuck on this decision of the house. Of course there are pros and cons to every house and we could truly see ourselves in any of them and be happy in any of them. We were glad we had so many options but boy oh boy it wasn’t easy to prioritize them! We told Uli we would have the list to him in the morning.
Right before we boarded we decided on...
#1 The modern and sleek penthouse in Weinheim
#2 The spacious ground floor apartment with a yard and terraces in Schwetzingen
#3 The modern (and messy) Doppelhaushälfte in Sandhausen
Now we wait - these are all drastically different and will certainly impact what we take over with us in terms of furniture and belongings. It was a great week and now back to the grind of our current everyday life and getting ready for Christmas. December will fly by.
Tschüss!
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