New Apartment!
/You ready for it?
No, really are you ready for it?
Want to see our new home?
Ta Da!!!
Street view of our new apartment
This, ladies and gentlemen, will be our new home in a few weeks! It's located in a really nice neighborhood in Mannheim (the Oststadt) and is close to the Quadrate. It's on the fourth floor, with no elevator, but it is very close to a tram stop and only a 15 minute or so walk to the Hauptbahnhof (you can take the tram or walk). I had to work a little bit to convince Aaron that this should be the apartment we chose. Some of my tactics included:
Stressing the size of the kitchen
Pointing out the fact this this apartment was completely renovated after the last tenants moved out
How close it was to not only a tram stop, but also the quadrate (i.e. city center) and the Hauptbahnhof
It's close proximity to the Luisenpark
This building has CHARACTER! None of the other apartments had this much character.
Promising not to complain about lugging dive gear up four flights of stairs and the fact that the balcony has a prefect place to dry it (side note, I technically promised not to complain too much)
Continually pointing out that he was the one who said he wanted to experience "cit living" during our assignment and I was simply holding him to his word
Reminding him that happy wife = happy life
Well, it worked!
From the minute I walked in to this apartment it felt like home; however, the large, brand new kitchen and huge wall of built-in clothing storage in the bedroom didn't hurt. Below is picture of the kitchen. It has tons of space and even has a freezer (something I didn't realize wasn't as common in Europe as in the US). There's lots of room for a dining table in here too.
Large open kitchen!
Off the master bedroom is a good sized balcony that overlooks a little courtyard (a great place to dry our scuba gear, once we lug it up the four flights of stairs). It has a full bathroom with a shower, instead of a bathtub which many of the apartments we looked at had. It even came with some curtains and light fixtures - score! There is a small WC (i.e. half bath) and a storage closet with hook ups for a washer (and perhaps a dryer). Along the front of the apartment are two rooms - one has a piano and access to a small balcony that is shared with the neighbors - and the other has a large wall of windows that let in a lot of natural light. More pictures of our new home are below.
We explored the neighborhood a little at night and during the day. It seems quite and there is a restaurant, coffee shop, small bar and, most importantly, a bakery just as you step out the front door. It's a quick walk to the Quadrate and our commute into work is nice and short. We are excited, and relieved, to have found a place to call home in Mannheim. While this whole thing still seems a little surreal, it's quickly becoming more and more real as we start to get things checked off our to do list.
Once we nailed down a place to live, we had a little bit more time to explore. This time, we went to a neighboring town - Heidelberg. Stay tuned!
- Meghan -
