The purpose of our trip to the Schwörer Headquarters was for us to undertake a process called “pre-sampling” where we would get the opportunity to see the many options that we have for the details of the house both exterior and interior. As part of this visit we were given a tour of the factory in Oberstetten where eventually the components of our house will be constructed.

We learned that the factory can build 800 houses a year and that each one is custom made and no two houses are the same and that in normal operation 4-5 houses leave the factory per week. The factory is also producing wood products in addition to houses, but we found out that the huge stock of wood in the photos was only enough to last the factory for 4 weeks.

First we got to see the incredible amount of wood that they have to hold in stock, this was all held outside firstly as tree trunks that slowly became planks of wood and other wood products.

The front of the wood store at Schwörer HQ in Oberstetten, enough for only 4 weeks

Even more of the wood, still part of the stock that only lasts for 4 weeks!

The biomass from the plant is all kept and there is a power station on the site that burns all of the biomass and creates enough energy for 60,000 houses, another impressive number!

The waste biomass that is used to run a power station that generates enough energy for 60,000 houses.

Next we went to see the factory floor where our house walls, roof and other components will be manufactured, this was a real surprise for me to see how much of the work is manually done.

Incoming wood products ready to be made into a house.

Here you can see wall pieces lying on a conveyor belt to be manually built.

An Electrician working on a wall segment for an upper floor.

Here you can see the thick insulation being added to a wall section.

These wall segments are having the window frames fitted ready for the windows to be added

Wall segments are hung vertically for the windows to be fitted and other work to be done.

After this we saw the loading area:

4 trailers are normally needed to transport a house to the building site, they are packed in this hall.

A trailer being loaded with house - it is the same as IKEA but on a different scale!

This is the door that all houses leave through on the way to the relevant building site - our house will one day travel through this door on the way to Serrig.

I found the whole process really fascinating especially the level of detail that is done in the factory. It would be really great if we could visit the factory when they are building the walls for our house. We have a lot work to do until then!

As I keep updating my status on Facebook or talking to people in the UK or elsewhere they are getting very confused by the German health system and about the experience we have had – which I can only say has been perfect so far! This post is to explain in a bit more detail (for those that have asked) exactly what we have experienced here.

Firstly I should point out that Saarburg hospital is a rural hospital in a town that has a population of about 6000 and serves many local villages in addition to Saarburg. I point this out because everything that we have experienced should not be taken for granted across all of Germany, some of what we have experienced is down to use using a rural hospital too.

Before the birth:

Nicole has (like all women in Germany) always visited a Gynaecologist or Women’s doctor since she was 15 for any “women’s issues”. This doctor exists purely for women as in addition to a normal doctor.

So when we found out Nicole was pregnant from a test kit we went straight to her Frauenarzt (Women’s doctor) who immediately gave her an ultrasound scan and at 6 weeks we got our first picture of Lily and could already hear her heart beating. Visits to the Frauenarzt continued every 2 weeks until we passed the 12 week milestone – each time we got an ultrasound scan. From week 12 to week 30 we went to the Frauenarzt every 4 weeks for a scan and from week 30 there was a visit every week for a CTG and every second week we wold get another scan. Our (mandatory) health insurance would only pay for 3 scans so we had to pay €100 to get all the rest of the scans, but this has been the only additional payment we have had to make.

The Frauenarzt was also the doctor in the delivery room who helped bring Lily into the world.

Nicole met our Midwife (Maria) at about week 22 when she attended a class on pregnancy exercises in a swimming pool. At this point we already knew she would be our midwife. Maria met us both at about week 33 and gave us a tour of the delivery room and other facilities and explained exactly how things would work. She gave us her home number and mobile number and told us to phone her when the waters broke and then pack our bag and come to the hospital.

Nicole also met our health visitor / breast feeding advisor (Doris) at about week 26 who gave the antenatal classes. Just like with Maria we already knew at this point Doris would be our breast feeding advisor.

The Frauenarzt, midwife and breast feeding advisor all work as a team and look after Nicole and Lily at different stages of the pregnancy, but are all in contact about how things are progressing.

Once the waters broke:

We were out celebrating Nicole’s mum’s 60th birthday when Nicole’s waters broke and we then phoned Maria who agreed to meet us at the hospital 40 minutes later. We travelled home packed a fairly light bag mostly clothes for Lily and Nicole for when they leave the hospital. The bag didn’t need much because the hospital told us they would provide everything during our stay.

When we got to the delivery area Lily and Nicole were immediately monitored by Maria who said that it would be a while yet and told us to walk around for an hour to try and kick things off. Once we were back from our walk and it was clear nothing was going to happen that night Maria sent us to bed. I should explain that in the delivery area there are two bedrooms one for the midwife and one for the parents. The parents room has a double bed so that we can sleep together and wait until something more starts to happen.

The delivery area has enough rooms to deal with 3 births at the same time, but there was no one else in there – in fact the last baby had been born 3 days before.

We got up at 5am and after another walk Nicole took a bath in the birthing pool to try and relax – still nothing.

After a while things started to kick off and the contractions started getting a bit bigger the Frauenarzt was called and consulted about what course of action to take with Nicole and she was put on some medication to increase the contractions. Eventually the pain was too much for Nicole and she had to have an epidural anaesthetic. This happened quite quickly (not quick enough for Nicole) and was done a team of two doctors and at this point the Frauenarzt had turned up. This was the only point I was asked to leave the delivery room.

Delivery happened quite quickly after the epidural and the Frauenarzt, and midwife worked almost without words. I got to cut the umbilical cord :D.

Once Lily had made her way out and Nicole had picked her up and laid her on her chest the doctor and midwife melted away and left us on our own together for about 90 minutes. Eventually Maria came back to help get Lily breast feeding.

After the birth:

Once Lily was born Nicole and Lily were moved to a care ward in a room of their own, and it was offered that I could stay with them for €25 a night. Nicole could have left the hospital 2 hours after the birth – but she was entitled to stay there for at least 7 days (more if the doctors decided).

We have so far stayed in the hospital 4 nights – but think we will stay at least one more.

In the care area we were one of 3 babies on the first night, the only baby on the 2nd and 3rd nights and are one of 2 babies tonight. We always have a sister around to help with everything and they have changed and washed the baby etc until we have been ready to take on these duties. Also we get 3 meals a day made for us which is work we would have to do if we were back at home. The hospital has also been a better place to receive our first visitors as we don’t have to worry much about keeping it tidy etc.

Every morning we get visited by first Maria, then our Frauenarzt and then Doris is here for the whole morning to help with breast feeding issues. Clothes, nappies, babywipes etc are all provided for the lengt of our stay and we really did need to bring nothing extra. They will even lend us a few things for a week or two after we are here.

All in all the experience has been fantastic – perfect even. I can’t imagine how anything could be improved. I have had to be out buying things etc during the days and doing a few other tasks, if I hadn’t been able to stay at the hospital I’d have been kicked out at 9pm and hardly seen as much of my daughter as I have been able to. The help we have been given in becoming parents and the fact we have been able to slowly get used to it is something I can’t imagine having any other way. I have always been fascinated when friends have had a child and asked them what it was like the moment they got home with their child and closed the front door. This moment for me was when you really had to work out what to do with the baby next and it was now all up to you. For us I no longer fear closing the door behind us when we get home I feel quite prepared for the first weeks of  us looking after Lily.

Firstly we sucessfully moved to Germany and we have moved in to a great flat in a quiet part of a small town about 5 Kilometers from Nicole’s family. It took a while for us to settle in as we have been doing quite a lot of travelling for work and social reasons.

In May we found out that Nicole was pregnant which was great news – but has obviously changed our out-llok on life and encouraged us to think about settling down in one place for a while. The baby is due on the 31st of December which should bring 2009 to a fantastic close.

At the start of July I asked Nicole to marry me and she luckily has said yes.

I think that brings everything up to date.

One of my reasons for coming and living in Germany was that I would like my German to improve rapidly. My goal is that I can sit down for dinner with all of Nicole’s family and follow the conversation without needing any help from Nicole. I am still a long way from this and get very frustrated with my pace of learning – especially as I am also very busy with work which cuts the amount of time I have for studying.

Anyway that covers everything new – hope to find more time to write about living in Germany soon.

The reasons are not simple to outline but they roughly break down as:

• Nicole is travelling a lot with her job and currently a 2 hour meeting in Frankfurt takes 3 days with irregular and badly connecting flights
• When I have to meet in the UK I lose a lot time on travelling to the UK – it is not cheap either since Ryanair left the airport here after an argument with the city government.
• We have been here 8 months yet still know very few people
• There is more to life than fantastic weather and a wonderful city

We have yet to find a flat in Germany but we don’t expect things to be quite as complex there – we will move to a town which is about 5km from where Nicole grew up.

Thats the news for now  - sorry it has been a while – but maybe you want to follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/grouchal

I had packed most of the van the day before, but we were up at 7 to finish the packing and then at 8 Nicole’s dad and two Brothers-in-law helped load up the heavy stuff onto the roofrack.

We had a final breakfast with Nicole’s parents and Nicole’s sister Kerstin and her husband Timo stated saying our goodbyes and then I started having problems with the vision in my left eye. The vision problem always happens when I am going to get a migraine. So I took a pill and said my goodbyes not properly being able to see, and not feeling great expecting the headache to begin. Normally when I get a migraine I goand sleep for a couple of hours – mostly to avoid the numbness that I get in my right hand.

We then popped around to see Nicole’s other sister Silke and Nicole’s nephew Luca to say goodbye. Luca (18 months old) has been a great little friend for me while I have been there. He got attached to my name because it was so easy to say – Al, and I got attached to him because neither of us really understood most of the conversations and everyone talked to us in simple words. I spent a lot of time chasing him around and playing with him.

Once we had done our goodbyes we went to do the next most important thing – buy some bread to take with us (the Spanish bread is not as good!). Finally after all of this we got going at about 10:30.

It was about 20 minutes before we crossed the border to Luxembourg and followed the Mosel into France another 20 minutes later. Just as we crossed into France there was a call on Nicole’s mobile (Handy as they say in German) I saw it was Nicole’s dad so handed the phone to her smiling and saying “What have we forgotten?”.

The phonecall was Nicole’s mum (Hanne) saying that we had a letter from the car insurance company saying that we were no longer insured with them. Hanne had phoned the company up and found out that because we had still not proven that we had a large no claims bonus in the UK they were terminating the insurance. This was particularly frustrating as we had spoken to them the week before about this and they said all we needed to do was change the insurance from Nicole’s name to mine and all would be fine. At this point my migraine started feeling even worse.

So there we were just inside France and completely illegally driving – what to do next? Well it seemed there were a few options – either we got some insurance and carried on driving, turned around and went back or we drove on illegally. Nicole was convinced we would not get insurance sorted over the phone (as I would expect in the UK) and I was not happy about going back (“Never go back”) but we are also not the type of people to have taken the risk on driving illegally – so what to do?

After much discussion we decided to try and sort out the insurance over the phone and after 2 hours we were insured again – phew! (if you look carefully at the picture above you will see Nicole on the phone in the front of the van gong through the long winded negotiations). The reason it took so long was that the situation was not simple with us already being in France – me being British and us needing the insurance that day. It became more complex when Nicole’s German phone ran out of pay-as-you-go credit. Then her UK phone refused to phone a German number until we drove back into Luxembourg and were in range of German mobile phone signals again.

The rest of the day went quite smoothly – we drove through France with ease, occasionally stopping but mostly just trucking along. The migraine got better for me – but Nicole started to get some stomach problems.

We got within about 200km from the south coast of France by 10pm and decided to look for a campsite. This proved to be quite easy and we got to see some nice bits of France off the motorways.

Day 2 of our journey went much more smoothly, the motorway went along the south coast of France and then into Spain and along the cost in Spain. The motorway had (selfishly) been built often as far away as 15km from the actual sea – so we only got glimpses of the sea – but it was still a very pleasant drive.

We got to the flat at 4:30pm and then had to wait an hour or so until the Landlord turned up to let us in – but that was it – the start of a new adventure. By 7pm the Landlord had left and we were in our new home.

I think I have mentioned before but one of the things most people associate with the British is bad weather – within 5 minutes of meeting someone new there is usually a joke about raining Cats and Dogs. I try to do my best to get rid of this stereotype – by pointing out that we have less rain in London than there is in Rome each year. Telling people that it is just a perception and that it is not true – this never works – they look like they believe me – but next time I see them – A British weather joke again. (Incidentally I have found this stereotype is so strong that even the British believe it – there is no way to get rid of it – yet if you actually write down and notice the weather over a month I think you will be surprised.)

It has been great for me that the weather in Germany has been awful the time that we have been there – I think that there were only 4 sunny days – the rest cloudy and rainy (there really has been a lot of rain!).  So I have managed to convince people that perhaps the weather is the same in Germany and the UK – an achievement over two months!

In the future I will work on other silly stereotypes that still get taught at school:

• The British have a cup of afternoon tea each day at 4pm
• Policemen are referred to as Bobbies and wear those hats with nipples on
• We are very traditional people with lots of heritage who don’t like change
• Everyone has perfect stripes on their lawn

Finally a mention of a couple of things the British are referred to in Germany. We are called “The Island Monkeys”, Tommies and Beefeaters among others.

This is another great invention – once it is dark people lurk around and play mischief on others – simple things like throwing loo roll all over a garden – to planting trees and stealing door mats etc – but all great fun.

I didn’t get to find out about this until 1:30 int he morning on the way home from visiting people – how much fun could have been had with just a little preperation – still there is always a chance we might visit next year :-D

I have heard of this is in the UK – but I can’t remember the night. My mum has told me about similar things happening in York – but I don’t know if this is wider spread in Yorkshire or any other places “up north”.

I still have no idea – but just before we left Germany I was lucky enough to get involved in another great holiday that is humdrum in the UK – but really made into something special in Germany (and most other European countries).

I should first explain how public holidays work in Germany. Unlike the UK, holidays are held on the day they are associated with no – the next Monday. So May the 1st in Germany is the public holiday – not the first Monday in May as it is for us. This is an interesting system and has plus points and negative points. A big negative is that when May 1st falls on a weekend – you don’t get a holiday. A even worse example is when for some reason two holidays clash on the same day. This year May 1st was on Ascension Day – which is another holiday in Germany – so rather than have two public holidays there was only 1!.

Now Ascension Day is the day that has been turned into a great celebration – this is ignored in the UK – but in Germany – the men have hijacked it – and it is Father’s day. When I say father’s day – it really is – no mucking around with cards and that sort of malarky – men get a cart  – fill it with bottles of beer and go off into the woods for a day of walking and drinking (no need to tell you which one is done the most!).

We joined the Brass band of Serrig for a 2.5 hour walk from Serrig to Saarhoelzbach – where there was festival for the day – mostly oompah music but still enjoyable food, drink and company.

So why don’t we celebrate with such enthusiasm – I still have no idea – but next bank holiday – book a flight to Germany and no matter where you go there is likely to be a good simple party! :-D

Here are some photos of the great views:

I carried the rucksack with Lunch and some water in it – not realising that we didn’t have enough water and that we had way too much food – for four people we had 11 sausages, 80 meatballs and 2 loafs of bread – not suprisingly I carried a lot of it back down!

Hanne and Rudi decided not to climb to the top of the rock – I didn’t realise why until halfway up the very scary climb up on worn out steps!

On the way home we walked past the impressive lock that I mentioned we went through when my mum came to visit – 14m high – making it the second highest in Europe!

After eating bread and sausages for lunch – it wouldn’t hve been a typical German day if it didn’t involve a beer at the end of it – so we stopped in the pub on the way home!