You ready for it?  

No, really are you ready for it?

Want to see our new home?

Ta Da!!!

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.

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 -