The Halftime Report

I can believe it’s the middle of October already!  After Kirchtag we had a realization that summer was going to be over soon. We quickly made plans to fill up just about every weekend for the last 2 months with things that we thought we would have done earlier.  Of course that also means that I haven’t had much time to blog about any of it, so I’ll try to catch up with the highlights over the next few posts.

One of our favorite things from last summer was an overnight bike trip on the Danube cycling trail (Donauradweg).  The trail follows the entire length of the river from it’s start in Germany all the way to Black Sea, but some of the most popular stretches are right here in Austria.  We decided to try a new section of this year.

The area from Passau, Germany to Linz, Austria is especially nice, well equipped with cafes and guesthouses just for cyclists.  We rode it over 2 days staying overnight  in Schloegen, a place where the river makes two 180 degree turns to form a giant S curve.

The trail switches occasionally from one side of the river to the other (and sometimes there is a trail on both sides).  There are very few bridges, but there are ferries along the way.  Some take both cars and bikes, but others are small and only for bikes.  It’s a fun way to see the river and the countryside, as well as cross the border from Germany to Austria (there are no customs anymore, by the way).

Here’s a view of me and Danube.  More soon about the rest of our late summer adventures.

After we got our fill of the mountains in Tirol and Voralberg, we cruised up to Köln (Cologne).  It was a long drive, but we were motivated. One of our favorite bands, the Foo Fighters, played there and we had tickets.  They put on a great show, and we headed back south again happy and tired.

Oh yeah, and Cologne has a nice cathedral, too.

Here ‘s the Foos in action:

My parents recently visited us and we got to do quite a few touristy things in the area.  The next few posts will be some short descriptions and reviews of them.

While we have a local airport about 30 minutes drive away, the closest big, international airport is Munich, about 3 hours away.  We met my parents there and spent the next few days visiting some sights in the area.  This was our 3rd trip to Munich in the last three months and it’s quickly becoming one of my favorite cities.

The U-bahn, S-bahn, and trams are pretty easy to navigate and everything you probably want to see is accessible from them.  The central area packs a lot of interesting sites into a small walkable area, and there quite a few day trips outside the city that are also easy to do.  We still haven’t seen everything, so I’m sure we’ll be back.

While we visited all the famous sites like the Frauenkirche and the Glockenspiel, this time around we also went to the BMW Welt, which is the center where you can pick up your car if you buy it there.  It has some great exhibitions and it’s free. We also drove out to Neuschwanstein to see the castle and then visited another at Nymphenburg within the city.

All the sightseeing worked up quite a thirst in us, so we made another stop at the Hofbräu Haus.  We bypassed the crowded tables downstairs and went up to the top floor.  I think this room is usually used for big groups, and there were a few obvious tour groups and some ‘company party’ tables as well. However, if there are just a few of you, you might be able to find a spot.  There is a different band that plays upstairs and the atmosphere is pretty nice.  We also tried out the Augustiner beer garden, which is near the main train station.  It’s huge, but if you can get a table in the Keller, you are in for a treat.  It’s worthwhile mentioning that everyone shares tables at these beer halls.  Don’t be surprised if the waiter seats other people at your table, and don’t be afraid to ask to sit at a table where there are a few open seats as well.  It’s actually an interesting way to meet people, or at least an entertaining way to eavesdrop on their conversations.

Here’s the fuel that kept us going:

When we last left our heroine (me), she was informed by her husband that he was leaving for a business trip and she would need to pick up the new car in Munich by herself.  And drive it back to Austria.  And take care of a few details to get it registered… Let’s re-join the story in progress.

I arrived at the dealer in Munich more than a little worried that we had forgotten some crucial item and wouldn’t be able to get the car.  I shouldn’t have been concerned because everything ran smoothly and within an hour I had the car, keys, temporary insurance, and temporary license plates, and was on the Autobahn heading south.

The drive home to Austria was great and I started to think about how jealous Eric would be that I was driving the car.  My excitement was short lived because I soon found out all the steps I needed to complete to actually finish the process.  My temporary plates and insurance expired in 4 days, but I had a naive confidence that I could get the car registered in that time.

The first  step in “importing” the car to Austria is to get it inspected.  I took it to a local BMW dealer and they told me it would take a few days to get all the paper work done.  At the time this seemed unreasonably long, but later on I saw the test report and understood.  It’s a four page document with every conceivable specification of the car listed, from carbon emissions to cubic engine capacity.  The car is not new, but it’s in great shape, so the only snag I ran into was that it didn’t have snow tires.  While they are technically not “required”, if you don’t have them between November and April, your insurance is invalidated.  That option didn’t sound very good, so I got out my wallet again and plunked down 900 Euros for the cheapest tires they could offer.  (Eric probably wants to go on record that he was horrified by the steel wheels I put on the car, but the pretty aluminum ones were 3x the price and I was horrified by that.). So after four days, I had the paperwork to go to the next step.  However, the temporary plates had expired, so I couldn’t drive the car and it was stranded at the dealer.

The next steps were several visits (on foot) to the state Finance Office, where I presented the inspection forms and was asked to fill out a bunch of paperwork.  While I’m feeling pretty good about how my understanding of German is progressing, the forms nearly brought me to tears.  After I filled in my name and address, the rest of the words were completely incomprehensible.  I have a whole new respect for immigrants, as well as huge gratitude to the patient lady at the office who sensed my desperation and helped me complete the paperwork.

After the Finance people got all the information, they took a few days to calculate the amount of tax we owed.  The tax rate is based on some secret formula that includes the price, the number of grams of CO2 emissions, and extra fees for each horse power over 115.  At the end I got a whopping bill for 3000 Euros, which I had no choice but to pay since the car was at the lot waiting for me.

With the tax receipt in hand, I met with an insurance agent who asked for yet more Euros.  After we finished more paperwork, he disappeared for an hour, but returned with the crown jewels… my new license plates!  He was also nice enough to give me a ride to the dealer who helped put them on.

At this point I drove off happily into the sunset, the proud owner of 2007 BMW 325xi sedan.  Of course, I don’t have anywhere to park it yet…  but that’s a story for another time.

Here’s the obligatory picture:

Our apartment in Austria is on the main street of town, so just about everything we need is in walking distance, including Eric’s job.  This means that we don’t really need a car on a daily basis which is quite a change from SoCal where you can’t go anywhere without one.

Having said that, we really do need a car here – the bigger supermarkets and household/furniture stores are all outside of town or in the next town.  We also want to be able to go skiing or hiking and explore the neighboring countries too.  We’ve had a loaner company car for a few months, but they asked for it back.  It’s finally time for us to take the plunge and buy a car here.  It’s complicated enough in English in the US and I totally dreaded doing it here.

It turned out that buying the car itself wasn’t the biggest challenge.  The selection here in Austria is not that good.  If you want a Volkswagen or an Audi there are some to choose from, but used BMW’s with low mileage don’t seem to exist.  A few people recommended that we go to Munich in Germany where they are made and it was great advice.  There are several large dealers there and the one that we picked had thousands of cars.  It was like a candy store for us.

We picked out a few that looked promising and made an appointment to take one for a test drive.  When we showed up they handed us the keys and told us to be back in hour. We must have looked stunned because the dealer finally said something like “oh that’s right, you don’t where to go…  just go down the street and try the autobahn.”

Autobahn?  Sweet.  Since there are no speed limits in Germany let’s just say it was an excellent test drive.  At this point we decided that we definitely wanted another Bimmer.   We had to sell ours in the US before we left and I think it was the low point of our moving experience.  I don’t normally get attached to mechanical things, but I think we had been through a lot with that car and on some level it represented the lifestyle in Cali that we gave up to move here.  I couldn’t even watch when the buyer drove it away.

Back to Munich and the car dealer…  We found the car we wanted, but were told we couldn’t buy it because it was a Saturday and the cashier was closed.  We would have to make another appointment to come back in a few weeks and pick it up.  What?   I don’t think any dealer in the US would ever actually let you leave the lot without a car.  We walked away with nothing but “we’ll call you next week.”

The next problem was the financing.  In order to pick up the car, we were told we basically had to show up with cash.  This could either be our own or from a bank loan.  However, since we don’t live in Germany we can’t get a loan there.  After a lot of discussions with the bank in Austria and a review of our savings in the US, we finally got that all sorted out.  However, the last few days were a little tense as we waited for the wire transfer from the US to get into our Austrian bank account here, and then waited for it to get into the dealer’s German back account.  In the end it all went through electronically and smoothly, and I’m relieved we didn’t have to carry 30 grand in cash on the train (yes, we actually considered that at one point).

After that was set, the next step was to go back up to Munich to pick up the car.  I need to point out that most of the conversations with the dealer were all in English, which was a huge help, but there are some things that just seem to get lost in the translations.  We kept asking about whether the car would have license plates or insurance, and if not how to get them.  We got a lot of vague answers like “yes” with no further explanation.  In the end we decided to trust the process and hope it would all work out.  One thing we’ve learned about Germany and Austria is that things take a lot longer than in the US.  However, they work very efficiently, so as long as you are patient and follow the rules, you really don’t need to worry that things will get done.

I think this is a key difference from the US.  In the US, if someone hasn’t returned my call by the next day, it probably means they forgot about me or something went wrong and I have to chase  them.  Here it just means they are still working on it and will get back to me when it’s done.  I’ve seen this with our visa applications, furniture orders, and now with the car.  It requires a certain level of patience and confidence that someone is actually doing their job and whatever you’ve asked for will eventually be delivered.

I think this is a good place to take a break and I’ll continue next time with the rest of the story.  Picking up the car in Munich went well, but it was really just the beginning.