I'm in Hamburg! Now I have a week to settle into our apartment and my work while getting things ready for the arrival of Shelby and Scout.
My flight was more or less uneventful. I had a seat in an exit row directly across the aisle from a bank of lavatories, which meant that I had people waiting for the toilet standing in my footspace for most of the trip, and got to see everybody's bizarre little stretching exercises.
On my arrival in Hamburg, I was met by Helma, who works in the office here, and we took a cab to the apartment. After waiting around for a while, an employee of the apartment brokerage showed up; I signed some contracts, was given a little tour, and was then left with the keys. After that, Helma and I walked around the neighborhood; she pointed out items of interest, guided me through some basic errands, and then left to take care of an emerging crisis back at the office.
I like our apartment; it's just the right size for two people and a dog who've put everything they own into storage. It's two stories, with a sleeping area at the top and everything else down below. The space is very light and airy, with lots of windows. There are some things I'm not happy with (whoever mentioned an "American kitchen" or an "American-style queen size bed" in the original advertisement has obviously never been to America), but overall it's far better than where I was staying in 2000.
One area of concern is net connectivity for Shelby. When the apartment broker gave me the tour, she pointed at the phone and said "that phone is more like a phone at a hotel than a real phone; more expensive. If you want it turned on, let me know; I'll tell the landlord and you'll get a separate bill." There goes our plan to hook up an ISDN modem -- if your house can't get DSL, Internet in Germany is like going back to the early 90s, with measured-rate access to everything; I'm afraid to think what the tariffs plus "hotel like" phone service might cost! Cruising for wireless networks shows there's an open network in our building, belonging to one of the businesses with offices on the floors below; however, it seems to be up and down at odd times, and their open-ness might not last long once they discover it's attracting people from the outside. Looks like it's time to look into one of the companies that's claiming to blanket Hamburg with a Wi-Fi network, available anywhere for a low monthly price. We'll see . . .
Posted by at February 3, 2004 06:30 AM