Where to stay in Berlin - Traveplatz or Charlottenburg?

Where to stay in Berlin - Traveplatz or Charlottenburg?

Hi, I'll be going to Berlin with a friend in June. We're trying to
decide if we should stay in Traveplatz or in Charlottenburg (near
Savignyplatz). Anyone here can shed some light on these two areas?
What are these places like? We're most concerned about safety and
convenience (must have shops and restaurants nearby, good transport
links). Would appreciate any info.

Re: Where to stay in Berlin - Traveplatz or Charlottenburg?

You must be from the US to be concerned with safety...
Lol !!

<ll 1002@yahoo . com > a écrit dans le message de
news:38cb2494-2864-4550-8d85-2d7d38686f10@j33g2000pri.googlegroups . com ...
> Hi, I'll be going to Berlin with a friend in June. We're trying to
> decide if we should stay in Traveplatz or in Charlottenburg (near
> Savignyplatz). Anyone here can shed some light on these two areas?
> What are these places like? We're most concerned about safety and
> convenience (must have shops and restaurants nearby, good transport
> links). Would appreciate any info.

Re: Where to stay in Berlin - Traveplatz or Charlottenburg?

On Sun, 11 May 2008 10:22:27 +0200, "Runge11" <philsa@bigfoot . com >
wrote:

>You must be from the US to be concerned with safety...
>Lol !!

Whilst the chances of getting mugged in Lichtenberg, Neukölln, or
Wedding are still slight, shit does sometimes happen.

Keith (formerly of Bristol UK)
now moved to Berlin/nach Berlin umgezogen

Re: Where to stay in Berlin - Traveplatz or Charlottenburg? - leave dangerous homes immediately


"Keith Anderson" <keefy@privacy . net > kirjoitti
viestissä:92cd245cc29s1di3pl7spp9fnn0jh06d83@4ax . com ...
> On Sun, 11 May 2008 10:22:27 +0200, "Runge11" <philsa@bigfoot . com >
> wrote:
>
>>You must be from the US to be concerned with safety...
>>Lol !!
>
> Whilst the chances of getting mugged in Lichtenberg, Neukölln, or
> Wedding are still slight, shit does sometimes happen.
>
> Keith (formerly of Bristol UK)
> now moved to Berlin/nach Berlin umgezogen
>
As we all know, statistically most of the nasty things materialize at home.

Re: Where to stay in Berlin - Traveplatz or Charlottenburg?

Not as a point of being primarily concerned with safety...
Poor americans, constantly watching for their safety, walk as you please in
this neighborhood but do not cross the line or else...
Lol !!

"Keith Anderson" <keefy@privacy . net > a écrit dans le message de
news:92cd245cc29s1di3pl7spp9fnn0jh06d83@4ax . com ...
> On Sun, 11 May 2008 10:22:27 +0200, "Runge11" <philsa@bigfoot . com >
> wrote:
>
>>You must be from the US to be concerned with safety...
>>Lol !!
>
> Whilst the chances of getting mugged in Lichtenberg, Neukölln, or
> Wedding are still slight, shit does sometimes happen.
>
> Keith (formerly of Bristol UK)
> now moved to Berlin/nach Berlin umgezogen

Re: Where to stay in Berlin - Traveplatz or Charlottenburg?

On May 11, 4:22 pm, "Runge11" <phi...@bigfoot . com > wrote:
> You must be from the US to be concerned with safety...
> Lol !!
>
>
>

Nope, not Americans, just female!

Re: Where to stay in Berlin - Traveplatz or Charlottenburg?

On Sat, 10 May 2008 15:15:32 -0700 (PDT), ll 1002@yahoo . com wrote:

>Hi, I'll be going to Berlin with a friend in June. We're trying to
>decide if we should stay in Traveplatz or in Charlottenburg (near
>Savignyplatz). Anyone here can shed some light on these two areas?
>What are these places like? We're most concerned about safety and
>convenience (must have shops and restaurants nearby, good transport
>links). Would appreciate any info.

Savignyplatz is a good choice - near Kurfürstendamm and "Centre West"
- plenty of restaurants and shops nearby as well as the S-Bahn station
and bus routes.One stop on the S-Bahn and you're at Zoo station, from
where useful bus routes such as the 100 and 200 start. Both the 100
and 200 head towards Alexanderplatz and go along Unter den Linden -
the 200 goes via Potsdamer Platz and the 100 via the
Reichstag/Brandenburger Tor. Under the railway bridge at Zoo station
is Ullrich's supermarket - amazing choice of stuff (especially wines
and spirits) and it opens on Sunday which most shops don't in Germany.

Traveplatz in Friedrichshain would be good as well - Friedrichshain is
an "up and coming" area and Traveplatz is not far from Simon-Dach
Strasse which is full of restaurants. You're also near Karl Marx Allee
(former Stalinallee) - built in the 1950s as a "Socialist Boulevard"
in the Stalin "wedding-cake" style, but with neo-classical porches and
doorways as a reference back to the Berlin architect Karl-Friedrich
Schinkel. You're on the M13 tram route which will take you to places
with interchange to the S-Bahn (overhead fast railway) and the
Underground (U-Bahn).

Both areas are regarded as part of the Berlin "Szene" ("scene") and
are safe.

Personally, I'd go for Savignyplatz because of the transport links at
Zoo, but see what others say.

Buy a "Tageskarte" (day ticket) at the machines at an S-Bahn or
underground station - instructions in English too. Currently a
Tageskarte for zones A and B is € 6.10 - if you want to go to Potsdam
you'll need a day ticket for zones A,B and C - this is € 6.50. Forget
the City Tour Card and Berlin Welcome Card unless you have clear plans
of what you want to see - the CTC and BWC are more expensive but offer
discounts tocertain tourist attractions.

Have fun!



Keith (formerly of Bristol UK)
now moved to Berlin/nach Berlin umgezogen

Re: Where to stay in Berlin - Traveplatz or Charlottenburg?

On Sun, 11 May 2008 10:22:37 +0200, Keith Anderson <keefy@privacy . net >
wrote:

>
>Buy a "Tageskarte" (day ticket) at the machines at an S-Bahn or
>underground station - instructions in English too. Currently a
>Tageskarte for zones A and B is € 6.10 - if you want to go to Potsdam
>you'll need a day ticket for zones A,B and C - this is € 6.50. Forget
>the City Tour Card and Berlin Welcome Card unless you have clear plans
>of what you want to see - the CTC and BWC are more expensive but offer
>discounts tocertain tourist attractions.

Day tikets are valid for unlimited travel on buses, U-Bahn, S-Bahn and
trams - even on some of the ferries (e.g. Wannsee-Kladow). Once
purchased, they're not valid until they're date-stamped...machines by
platform entrances and on buses and trams.

More info:

* w w w .bvg.de/index.php/en/Bvg/Start

* w w w .s-bahn-berlin.de/englisch/


Keith (formerly of Bristol UK)
now moved to Berlin/nach Berlin umgezogen

Re: Berlin

Keith. might I ask:

"How long you've lived there ?"
Was it job transfer or " just wanted to move there'
Temporary / permanent ?
Employment outlook ?
Cost comparison between UK and Berlin etc ?
" do you now / did you previously - speak German ?"
" do you live in inner city?" or 'suburb'?
and finally - How do you like living there ?

I've been to Berlin 6 times and really liked it. My perspective each time
was - as a tourist, and only for 3,4 days each time. I really liked it and
I've been thinking lately that I wouldn't mind living there for a while
.... and that's why the questions. Thank you for any feedback.

Bobb



"Keith Anderson" <keefy@privacy . net > wrote in message
news:v7cd241mj6em0lt6h5vp0t6vnp07pgej9l@4ax . com ...
> On Sun, 11 May 2008 10:22:37 +0200, Keith Anderson <keefy@privacy . net >
> wrote:
>
>>
>>Buy a "Tageskarte" (day ticket) at the machines at an S-Bahn or
>>underground station - instructions in English too. Currently a
>>Tageskarte for zones A and B is ? 6.10 - if you want to go to Potsdam
>>you'll need a day ticket for zones A,B and C - this is ? 6.50. Forget
>>the City Tour Card and Berlin Welcome Card unless you have clear plans
>>of what you want to see - the CTC and BWC are more expensive but offer
>>discounts tocertain tourist attractions.
>
> Day tikets are valid for unlimited travel on buses, U-Bahn, S-Bahn and
> trams - even on some of the ferries (e.g. Wannsee-Kladow). Once
> purchased, they're not valid until they're date-stamped...machines by
> platform entrances and on buses and trams.
>
> More info:
>
> * w w w .bvg.de/index.php/en/Bvg/Start
>
> * w w w .s-bahn-berlin.de/englisch/
>
>
> Keith (formerly of Bristol UK)
> now moved to Berlin/nach Berlin umgezogen

Re: Berlin

On Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:53:51 -0400, "- Bobb -" <bobb@noemail.123>
wrote:

>Keith. might I ask:
>
>"How long you've lived there ?"

Since August last year (2007)

>Was it job transfer or " just wanted to move there'

After an increasing mortgage (original endowment policy would not
cover) - then taking out a top-up endowment which STILL wouldn't
cover, I had to put the thing on a repayment basis which doubled my
outgoings.

That was at a time when I was taken ill while working freelance in
Germany. Two hopitalisations and a forced return to the UK in 2006 cut
my summer freelance earnings from thousands to virtually nil. To add
insult to injury, hours in my term-time teaching job were cut.

Result? Facing financial ruin. Too much going out, not enough coming
in. What to do?

While I was in hospital, I read an article about a guy who'd bought a
huge farmhouse in (former) East Germany for peanuts. Rang a colleague
(a Berliner) and said "Hey, that's the answer! Sell up in the UK and
move to East Gerany!" He told me that for the same money (i.e. about
80,000 Euros) I could buy a flat in Berlin. Light bulbs flashed.
Berlin! Loved the place since I first set foot in it. So now positive
as well as negative reasons for moving.

So, started to put things in place 2006-2007 - had an operation to
sort out the problems discovered in Germany, sold up in the UK and
used the profits to buy outright here.
>Temporary / permanent ?

Permanent

>Employment outlook ?

Good. Working in tourism again. Undertook a training course with the
Association of Berlin Tourist Guides - passed my exams in May and am
now an official Berlin guide. Off tomorrow to the UK and Ireland for a
3-week tour-management assignment. - good fun, good money.

>Cost comparison between UK and Berlin etc ?

Property, renting or buying - much cheaper. Public transport - better
and cheaper. Food/eating out - cheaper. Clothes OK - but buy your
shoes in the UK!!

>" do you now / did you previously - speak German ?"

Spoke German already. Left school 1970 and worked on the dining-car
services of the German railways for 8 months - converted "O" Level
German to fluency.

>" do you live in inner city?" or 'suburb'?

I'm in Friedenau, just south of the S-Bahn "Ringbahn" - street I live
in has a preservation order on it. Architect-designed 1920s apartments
with gardens, fountains, Japanese cherry tress - peaceful but within
easy reach of public transport.

>and finally - How do you like living there ?

Love it!
>
>I've been to Berlin 6 times and really liked it. My perspective each time
>was - as a tourist, and only for 3,4 days each time. I really liked it and
>I've been thinking lately that I wouldn't mind living there for a while
>.... and that's why the questions. Thank you for any feedback.
>
You're welcome!

As I'm off tomorrow for 3 weeks and won't be able to access
newsgroups, you're welcome to email me:

keith (dot) anderson (at) gmx (dot) de

In the meantime, try this website - a colleague of mine has written a
book and conducts seminars for people movig to the city. His English
is fluent as well, and if you email him with questions, tell him it
was me that told you about him!

* berlinforbeginners.de/

Have fun! It's taken me a year to integrate into the German system for
really feeling at home, finding doctors, dentists, making friends etc
- homesickness at times earlier on but now everything's really great.


Keith (formerly of Bristol UK)
now moved to Berlin/nach Berlin umgezogen

Re: Berlin

You people do enjoy spilling out your lives in public

"Keith Anderson" <keefy@privacy . net > a écrit dans le message de
news:ukkl84hgs90lskb4a06rv7oi21jrqvgum8@4ax . com ...
> On Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:53:51 -0400, "- Bobb -" <bobb@noemail.123>
> wrote:
>
>>Keith. might I ask:
>>
>>"How long you've lived there ?"
>
> Since August last year (2007)
>
>>Was it job transfer or " just wanted to move there'
>
> After an increasing mortgage (original endowment policy would not
> cover) - then taking out a top-up endowment which STILL wouldn't
> cover, I had to put the thing on a repayment basis which doubled my
> outgoings.
>
> That was at a time when I was taken ill while working freelance in
> Germany. Two hopitalisations and a forced return to the UK in 2006 cut
> my summer freelance earnings from thousands to virtually nil. To add
> insult to injury, hours in my term-time teaching job were cut.
>
> Result? Facing financial ruin. Too much going out, not enough coming
> in. What to do?
>
> While I was in hospital, I read an article about a guy who'd bought a
> huge farmhouse in (former) East Germany for peanuts. Rang a colleague
> (a Berliner) and said "Hey, that's the answer! Sell up in the UK and
> move to East Gerany!" He told me that for the same money (i.e. about
> 80,000 Euros) I could buy a flat in Berlin. Light bulbs flashed.
> Berlin! Loved the place since I first set foot in it. So now positive
> as well as negative reasons for moving.
>
> So, started to put things in place 2006-2007 - had an operation to
> sort out the problems discovered in Germany, sold up in the UK and
> used the profits to buy outright here.
>>Temporary / permanent ?
>
> Permanent
>
>>Employment outlook ?
>
> Good. Working in tourism again. Undertook a training course with the
> Association of Berlin Tourist Guides - passed my exams in May and am
> now an official Berlin guide. Off tomorrow to the UK and Ireland for a
> 3-week tour-management assignment. - good fun, good money.
>
>>Cost comparison between UK and Berlin etc ?
>
> Property, renting or buying - much cheaper. Public transport - better
> and cheaper. Food/eating out - cheaper. Clothes OK - but buy your
> shoes in the UK!!
>
>>" do you now / did you previously - speak German ?"
>
> Spoke German already. Left school 1970 and worked on the dining-car
> services of the German railways for 8 months - converted "O" Level
> German to fluency.
>
>>" do you live in inner city?" or 'suburb'?
>
> I'm in Friedenau, just south of the S-Bahn "Ringbahn" - street I live
> in has a preservation order on it. Architect-designed 1920s apartments
> with gardens, fountains, Japanese cherry tress - peaceful but within
> easy reach of public transport.
>
>>and finally - How do you like living there ?
>
> Love it!
>>
>>I've been to Berlin 6 times and really liked it. My perspective each time
>>was - as a tourist, and only for 3,4 days each time. I really liked it and
>>I've been thinking lately that I wouldn't mind living there for a while
>>.... and that's why the questions. Thank you for any feedback.
>>
> You're welcome!
>
> As I'm off tomorrow for 3 weeks and won't be able to access
> newsgroups, you're welcome to email me:
>
> keith (dot) anderson (at) gmx (dot) de
>
> In the meantime, try this website - a colleague of mine has written a
> book and conducts seminars for people movig to the city. His English
> is fluent as well, and if you email him with questions, tell him it
> was me that told you about him!
>
> * berlinforbeginners.de/
>
> Have fun! It's taken me a year to integrate into the German system for
> really feeling at home, finding doctors, dentists, making friends etc
> - homesickness at times earlier on but now everything's really great.
>
>
> Keith (formerly of Bristol UK)
> now moved to Berlin/nach Berlin umgezogen

Re: Berlin

Keith Anderson wrote:
> On Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:53:51 -0400, "- Bobb -" <bobb@noemail.123>
> wrote:
>
>
>>Keith. might I ask:
>>
>>"How long you've lived there ?"
>
>
> Since August last year (2007)
>
>
>>Was it job transfer or " just wanted to move there'
>
>
> After an increasing mortgage (original endowment policy would not
> cover) - then taking out a top-up endowment which STILL wouldn't
> cover, I had to put the thing on a repayment basis which doubled my
> outgoings.
>
> That was at a time when I was taken ill while working freelance in
> Germany. Two hopitalisations and a forced return to the UK in 2006 cut
> my summer freelance earnings from thousands to virtually nil. To add
> insult to injury, hours in my term-time teaching job were cut.
>
> Result? Facing financial ruin. Too much going out, not enough coming
> in. What to do?
>
> While I was in hospital, I read an article about a guy who'd bought a
> huge farmhouse in (former) East Germany for peanuts. Rang a colleague
> (a Berliner) and said "Hey, that's the answer! Sell up in the UK and
> move to East Gerany!" He told me that for the same money (i.e. about
> 80,000 Euros) I could buy a flat in Berlin. Light bulbs flashed.
> Berlin! Loved the place since I first set foot in it. So now positive
> as well as negative reasons for moving.
>
> So, started to put things in place 2006-2007 - had an operation to
> sort out the problems discovered in Germany, sold up in the UK and
> used the profits to buy outright here.
>


Sounds a little like the story I had years back. Faced with the choice
of paying off a gigantic mortgage on a suburban junkheap that left me
nothing to live on, I sold up and moved to Germany. I rented a fantastic
luxury flat right in downtown Düsseldorf for some years, then built the
house which I am now living in at a standard infinitely better than
anything in the UK. In the meantime, the doctors here correctly
diagnosed and treated a couple of serious health problems that the NHS
had completely failed to identify.
OK, had I stuck it out for years in the UK, the house would now be
worth a fortune, thanks to the totally crazy overpriced UK house market.
By comparision, the house market in Germany is virtually static. Houses
are built and sold at cost, with prices hardly keeping up with
inflation, which is near zero.

T.

Re: Berlin

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 12:54:19 +0200, Tom P <notreallylgogp@freenet.de> wrote:

>Keith Anderson wrote:
>> On Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:53:51 -0400, "- Bobb -" <bobb@noemail.123>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Keith. might I ask:
>>>
>>>"How long you've lived there ?"
>>
>>
>> Since August last year (2007)
>>
>>
>>>Was it job transfer or " just wanted to move there'
>>
>>
>> After an increasing mortgage (original endowment policy would not
>> cover) - then taking out a top-up endowment which STILL wouldn't
>> cover, I had to put the thing on a repayment basis which doubled my
>> outgoings.
>>
>> That was at a time when I was taken ill while working freelance in
>> Germany. Two hopitalisations and a forced return to the UK in 2006 cut
>> my summer freelance earnings from thousands to virtually nil. To add
>> insult to injury, hours in my term-time teaching job were cut.
>>
>> Result? Facing financial ruin. Too much going out, not enough coming
>> in. What to do?
>>
>> While I was in hospital, I read an article about a guy who'd bought a
>> huge farmhouse in (former) East Germany for peanuts. Rang a colleague
>> (a Berliner) and said "Hey, that's the answer! Sell up in the UK and
>> move to East Gerany!" He told me that for the same money (i.e. about
>> 80,000 Euros) I could buy a flat in Berlin. Light bulbs flashed.
>> Berlin! Loved the place since I first set foot in it. So now positive
>> as well as negative reasons for moving.
>>
>> So, started to put things in place 2006-2007 - had an operation to
>> sort out the problems discovered in Germany, sold up in the UK and
>> used the profits to buy outright here.
>>
>
>
>Sounds a little like the story I had years back. Faced with the choice
>of paying off a gigantic mortgage on a suburban junkheap that left me
>nothing to live on, I sold up and moved to Germany.

I moved to The Netherlands for similar reasons.

>I rented a fantastic
>luxury flat right in downtown Düsseldorf for some years, then built the
>house which I am now living in at a standard infinitely better than
>anything in the UK. In the meantime, the doctors here correctly
>diagnosed and treated a couple of serious health problems that the NHS
>had completely failed to identify.
> OK, had I stuck it out for years in the UK, the house would now be
>worth a fortune, thanks to the totally crazy overpriced UK house market.
>By comparision, the house market in Germany is virtually static. Houses
>are built and sold at cost, with prices hardly keeping up with
>inflation, which is near zero.

Near zero? Dutch inflation is supposed to be the lowest in the EU and it is
nothing like near zero. They don't even claim it to be.
--

Martin

Re: Berlin

Tom P:
> Keith Anderson wrote:
> > On Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:53:51 -0400, "- Bobb -" <bobb@noemail.123>
> > wrote:
> >
> >
> >>Keith. might I ask:
> >>
> >>"How long you've lived there ?"
> >
> >
> > Since August last year (2007)
> >
> >
> >>Was it job transfer or " just wanted to move there'

> > So, started to put things in place 2006-2007 - had an operation to
> > sort out the problems discovered in Germany, sold up in the UK and
> > used the profits to buy outright here.
> >
>
>
> Sounds a little like the story I had years back. Faced with the choice
> of paying off a gigantic mortgage on a suburban junkheap that left me
> nothing to live on, I sold up and moved to Germany. I rented a fantastic
> luxury flat right in downtown Düsseldorf for some years, then built the
> house which I am now living in at a standard infinitely better than
> anything in the UK. In the meantime, the doctors here correctly
> diagnosed and treated a couple of serious health problems that the NHS
> had completely failed to identify.

If I may.....
my story is less dramatic, but ends up in Germany as well. After having
lived in Amsterdam until my 20th (then married Ursula) and in Hoorn and
Monnickendam until my 45th, I was fired. The insurance company, where
I've worked for 20 years as an ICT Project Manager, released me due to
reorganization and take-overs.
So, there we were. No job, a house in Monnickendam worth little less than
300,000 (70% of which had been paid for) and a small bag of money from
the company. What to do?

For the next two years, we searched for property on the Internet. The
whole northern half of Germany had our initial interest, from Eifel to
Friesland, from Harz to Lübeck. Anything where we could live decently,
perhaps find a job and create our own little B&B as a hobby, would do.
And we went looking....every weekend, we drove to a different region.
Until we had the proper feeling where we would like to end up: right at
the western border, in the Emsland or Grafschaft-Bentheim Regions!
Only then we realized, that we had learned every week, and that it has
taken us two years to find out what our new place in this world should
look like.

The rest went pretty quickly. We found our current house with some help
from a broker, moved from Monnickendam to Osterwald in Summer of 2006,
invested to build a couple of guest rooms, and enjoyed. Here, live is
great if you like neatness and order, a slightly slower pace, and respect
for each other. What was left over from the deal with the property got us
through our first year, until I found my current job in Nordhorn as an
ICT Team Leader at a publishing company, little over a year ago.

Ursula and I have no clue what the next 20 years will bring us. But we're
pretty sure that we want to stay here. It has become 'home'...a wonderful
place to live until we both need to check in into a nursing home for the
elderly.



--
Erick

Re: Berlin

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:18:13 +0200, Erick T. Barkhuis
<erick.use-net@ardane.c-o-m> wrote:

>Tom P:
>> Keith Anderson wrote:
>> > On Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:53:51 -0400, "- Bobb -" <bobb@noemail.123>
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> >>Keith. might I ask:
>> >>
>> >>"How long you've lived there ?"
>> >
>> >
>> > Since August last year (2007)
>> >
>> >
>> >>Was it job transfer or " just wanted to move there'
>
>> > So, started to put things in place 2006-2007 - had an operation to
>> > sort out the problems discovered in Germany, sold up in the UK and
>> > used the profits to buy outright here.
>> >
>>
>>
>> Sounds a little like the story I had years back. Faced with the choice
>> of paying off a gigantic mortgage on a suburban junkheap that left me
>> nothing to live on, I sold up and moved to Germany. I rented a fantastic
>> luxury flat right in downtown Düsseldorf for some years, then built the
>> house which I am now living in at a standard infinitely better than
>> anything in the UK. In the meantime, the doctors here correctly
>> diagnosed and treated a couple of serious health problems that the NHS
>> had completely failed to identify.
>
>If I may.....
>my story is less dramatic, but ends up in Germany as well. After having
>lived in Amsterdam until my 20th (then married Ursula) and in Hoorn and
>Monnickendam until my 45th, I was fired. The insurance company, where
>I've worked for 20 years as an ICT Project Manager, released me due to
>reorganization and take-overs.
>So, there we were. No job, a house in Monnickendam worth little less than
>300,000 (70% of which had been paid for) and a small bag of money from
>the company. What to do?
>
>For the next two years, we searched for property on the Internet. The
>whole northern half of Germany had our initial interest, from Eifel to
>Friesland, from Harz to Lübeck. Anything where we could live decently,
>perhaps find a job and create our own little B&B as a hobby, would do.
>And we went looking....every weekend, we drove to a different region.
>Until we had the proper feeling where we would like to end up: right at
>the western border, in the Emsland or Grafschaft-Bentheim Regions!
>Only then we realized, that we had learned every week, and that it has
>taken us two years to find out what our new place in this world should
>look like.
>
>The rest went pretty quickly. We found our current house with some help
>from a broker, moved from Monnickendam to Osterwald in Summer of 2006,
>invested to build a couple of guest rooms, and enjoyed. Here, live is
>great if you like neatness and order, a slightly slower pace, and respect
>for each other. What was left over from the deal with the property got us
>through our first year, until I found my current job in Nordhorn as an
>ICT Team Leader at a publishing company, little over a year ago.
>
>Ursula and I have no clue what the next 20 years will bring us. But we're
>pretty sure that we want to stay here. It has become 'home'...a wonderful
>place to live until we both need to check in into a nursing home for the
>elderly.

Monnickendam was a nice place to live too? Despite being handy for Volendam? :o)
--

Martin