I talked about our trip to Germany back in a May post, and now it's just about upon us. We leave next week for a month in Duisburg, Germany (that's their downtown above). Mr R-T is going to embark on a work-related project , and I am going along just for fun. We have a nice apartment near the university, and I'm going to try to live like a local for the month.
My German is coming along. In addition to the sites I mentioned last time, I have found Deutsche-Welle, which is a German site devoted to helping people learn the German language (I think it is subsidized by the German government). I'm working on my B2 level course, which is sort of advanced intermediate. My vocabulary has grown by leaps and bounds, but without a German speaker to chat with, I don't really feel fluent. But I'll be jumping in to the deep end of the pool in a few days.
Figuring out what to bring is my next challenge. I swear that going for a month is harder than either going for a week or going for a year. In the former case, there are things I would just live without; in the latter case, it would be worth the effort of finding out the equivalent in the local shops. Luckily, we are allowed a lot of bags on United, so I think we will be able to fit it all. Whether we will be able to lug that much on and off trains is a different question. And I'm still waking up in the middle of the night thinking of important things to add to the list.
We are going to travel each weekend. One weekend will be spent with our host, so I don't have do anything for that. I have discovered that my Nexus tablet is better for reading guidebooks than my Kindle (I have a relatively old, B&W Kindle), because the books are full of hi-res photos. Current plans have us travelling to Amsterdam, Berlin, and the Cinque Terre region of Italy, but stay tuned to see where we really end up. I'm also thinking of visiting a friend in Poland for a few days.
There are other logistics too: letting credit cards know not to freeze our account because we are out of the country for so long. We have credit cards with chip and pin technology (having been unable to pay a road toll once because that was the only way you could pay, we were thrilled to find these), and the same cards don't charge a fee for currency conversion, a big savings. Finding cheapest way to get cash -- my bank doesn't charge a fee at its end, but it doesn't seem to have deals with any European bank networks. Finding a gym or Pilates studio, wi-fi access, bike rental to get to places I can't easily walk to, phones and phone data plans. And more.
Each day I think of one more think I need to look into. The folks at the University have been fantastic -- they are even lending us a printer for things like printing out directions.
Since travelling is (or ought to be) an important part of retirement, at least in the early years, I'm going to post regular updates about our trip on this blog. Stay tuned.
