Archives for 2012

How Oberursel plans to increase childcare costs

Oberursel's town hallTwo weeks ago I sat in on a meeting of the town council where the charges for Kindergarten places were discussed at length.  Now the town administration has come up with new proposals that will be put to the next town council meeting for approval.

It is worth taking a moment to look at the demands that parents had made a few months ago when the topic first arose.  Many of them have been fulfilled, such as keeping the Siblingbonus in place and not reducing the quality or number of places available in the town.

They also wanted the increase to take place in several steps, which is what will now happen.  The increases will take effect on 1st August 2012, 1st February 2012 and 1st August 2013.  However they insisted that the increase should be “moderate”.  The question is: what is moderate?

At the town council meeting some parties were more direct, and announced the highest percentage that they considered to be reasonable.

In the end, however, some people will end up with a larger increase than many wanted. [Read more…]

A visit to the Hessentag in Wetzlar

A flag at the Hessentag in WetzlarHaving spent ten days last year writing about the Hessentag in Oberursel, my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to visit the event this year in Wetzlar.  Although I did not set out to do a direct comparison with last year, the headline in the Oberurseler Woche claiming “Oberursel war schöner” (Oberursel was nicer) intrigued me as well.

And so it was that I set off on Friday morning to drive to Wetzlar, which is about 45 minutes by motorway from Oberursel.

I followed the signs from the motorway exit to the car park, and my heart sunk when I saw which one the route had taken me to: P12.  The furthest car park away from the Hessentag area!

Luckily there was a shuttle bus to take me into town.  Unluckily it did not actually leave from the car park, so my Hessentag experience started with a short walk through a field alongside a river, to where the bus was waiting.  It must say something about the distances involved that there were even toilets laid on for people waiting for the bus at this point. [Read more…]

Are you planning on moving to Germany?

Hit US travel and property show House Hunters International is launching a worldwide search for expats who are hoping to buy or rent a home abroad to appear in the new series!

The half-hour Reality format program currently airing on the Home and Garden Television Network (HGTV) is a spin-off of the popular House Hunters and has spent the last several seasons exploring the idiosyncrasies of buying real estate in other countries.

House Hunters International

The series de-mystifies the international moving process by going behind the scenes of a house hunt where expats and their real estate agents tour 3 homes. Eventually, they make a decision to choose the one they like best. The expats make the big move, and we pay them a visit to see how they are getting on. [Read more…]

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