Relocating to Munich for 6 months

dori_dormer · 17-02-2015 3:38pm #1

Hello,

So my husbands company are moving us to munich for 6 months, probably in September. My husband will be based in Vaterstetten. We have a one year old little boy.

I'm looking for advise on more practical day to day stuff, rather than moving stuff ( we have moved twice already, USA and Israel)
so some thoughts going through my mind

What areas should we be looking at for rentals?
What is there to do for young children?
Do most mothers work aswell or would it be similar to Ireland?
How cold/ how much snow/ what type of clothes are we looking at?
What do people with kids do during the winter time?

The company will pay rent and utilities and insurance etc, so they thankfully are not big worries as I know the outset cost in Germany is high.

Also is it difficult to rent with pets, in particular cats?

Are there any major cultural differences to Ireland? I can't think of any but I've never visited Germany before although learnt German in school for a few years. I'm thinking of joining him on his business trip in a few weeks. What should I be looking out for? Does everyone know English also? Ill have to brush up on my German before we go.

Thanks!

aidanic · 24-02-2015 9:36am

... where to start...

On Munich, and the locality, I can offer no advice (sorry). Also, not a pet person, so no comment on the cat either

For childrens clothing, there's a huge second hand market in Germany. Every parish (Geminde) seems to have spring and autumn market, which has private people sell old childrens clothes. They are generally in good condition, and very cheap. The local school or sports club takes ~10% commission from the sellers. We are not close to a big city like Munich, but http://www.inkibava.de/ this looks to be a good start for you.

You'll find German children much better dressed for the weather than Irish children. During the winter, I'd recommend you and the family to have good terminal underwear (long johns), and good boots. Houses and flats are well insulated, but outdoors it can get to below minus 10C at night in winter.

For small children under 7 years, one piece snow suits are their daily outdoor clothing. http://www.tchibo.de/ Tchibo, Lidl and Aldi all have good deals on kids clothes - quality can be a problem sometimes.

I'd recommend you listen to some local Munich radio station over the internet to "get your ear around" the local dialect. The Bavarians can be a bit like the "independent republic of Cork" sometimes, both with accent and attitude.

Local to us, only about 50% of mums work. Some also work part-time. This is not Sweden where a stay at home mum is regarded as a scrounger.

You should get a copy of the rental agreement in advance to check the policy on pets. It should be OK.

6 months might not be enough to create a social circle - or you might get tied to your husbands work crowd.

Culture - yes, it's different to Ireland - in many many ways. Some quick tips:

Adult birthdays are a big thing...
Many restaurants only serve hot food between 12:00 and 14:00, and then from 17:00 to 21:00. Trying for a solid meal at 15:00 is going to have you offered coffee and cake.
In my experience, going to the pub after work is not a big thing
Take your shoes off indoors
(as a male) Shake hands with people you meet, even if you know them well

Other important things

You need to sign up at the local town hall when you move in (you get a receipt)
You need this receipt for a few things, including registering a mobile phone (even pre-pay)
Get your E101/A1 form organised and an E106, and get Krankenkasse for the family (PM me for details)
Child benefit can continue to be paid in Ireland - but healthcare will be given in Germany
See if you can find a bi-lingual kindergarten/krabblegruppe for your son.

Very little is open on Sundays - many shops close at 2pm on Saturday, only to re-open on Monday morning. Your local bakery will be the exception to this.

Many businesses expect you to pay cash - credit cards are not as common as in Ireland. You'll need a local bank account and local debit card. It's possible to use an Irish Visa Debit card (AIB/BOI/PTSB) but not everywhere will accept it. You will carry more cash on your person than in Ireland.

English news http://www.thelocal.de
Ex-pats website (TTG) http://www.toytowngermany.com/

I only look at TTG the very odd time. The bigger concentration of posters is in the south of Germany, so there might be more for you here.

In a middle class area, you might be disappointed about the number of locals who speak English - with some of our neighbours I speak English, and they speak German. This sounds odd, but works well. With the dentist and many others I speak (terrible) German. My daughter is fully bi-lingual. My work is 100% in English.

I'd discourage you a little from socialising with native English speakers the whole time. It's worth meeting and socialising with the locals. There are many refreshing things about the German point of view.

"Christmas Day" for the Germans is the 24th December, not the 25. We end up having two, one on the 24 and a second one on the 25th.

I'm sure there's more....

Aidan

dori_dormer · 24-02-2015 2:54pm

Thanks a mil for replying!

Not too worried about the shops being closed as Israel closes everything from fri afternoon til Saturday night, so we actually enjoy the quiet day and miss it here!

Didn't know about the town hall thing, but hopefully our relocation team will help us with all that.

My main worry is the winter clothes. We've never lived anywhere so cold

never even been skiing!

Must get Rosetta Stone and brush up on my German. Thanks for he radio tip!

aidanic · 25-02-2015 9:45am

Print out this form, and bring it with you to the relocation team.

http://vaterstetten.de/city_info/webaccessibility/index.cfm?region_id=276&waid=518&design_id=5435&item_id=863266&modul_id=16&record_id=7361&keyword=0&eps=20&cat=0

franzilein · 02-03-2015 12:17pm

Regarding the cats: I think last year or so there was a ruling that landlords cannot stop tenants from having pets. I'm not 100% sure though what the reality is like.

Munich is the place with the highest rents in Germany. But given your husband will be based just outside Munich, you could probably look at renting a place somewhere around that area if you had to.

The two main websites for accommodation are immobilienscout.de and immonet.de
When searching for an apartment or house, bear in mind that the Germans don't give the number of bedrooms but the number of rooms. (E.g. a "4-Zimmer-Wohnung" would be an apartment with 3 bedrooms and 1 living room.)

Also, rented accommodation usually comes unfurnished. Unless you want to bring/buy furniture, make sure you look for "möbliert" (=furnished). Immobilienscout.de has a section for "Wohnen auf Zeit" (=short term rentals), so that might be something worth looking at.

I wouldn't worry too much about the clothing. All your son will need is a warm snow suit, snow boots, a hat and mittens. All the main shops (H&M, C&A) sell snow gear and it doesn't even have to be expensive. Oh and you might want to get him a sled :-) What I would say is that German children spend a lot more time outside, even in cold weather. You'll find that there are more playgrounds than in Ireland as well.

As Aidan said, I'd suggest joining a mother and child group ("Krabbelgruppe" or "Spielkreis") or even a mother and child sports group ("Mutter-Kind-Turnen"... most sports clubs offer this for children from 1-2 years)

dori_dormer · 02-03-2015 12:24pm

Thanks for your reply! we have good references from our landlords abroad and in ireland regarding the cats. We also know what to look out for ourselves. They arent destructive cats and well used to moving at this stage, but we know leather is easily damaged by claws even them just getting a fright and jumping off the sofa.

You are right about the snowsuit we will be there in plenty of time to get one from a german shop! I really hope he can walk well before the winter as Id say the snow suit would hinder him a bit.

I cant wait to get him a sled now!!

munchkin_utd · 02-03-2015 4:05pm

If there's one thing to know, it's to be aware of the existance of department stores (so equivalent to arnotts/ clearys), the 2 main ones being karstadt and kaufhof.
For snow suits, sledges, camping gear, household stuff or generally pretty much anything you need, you'll find it there.
There's large walmart the places on the outskirts like v-markt or real which also are useful for seasonal kit like sledges skis and the likes.
Germany, munich in particular, is great for all sorts of specialist stores but they often only have top of the range kit which costs insane money, which is where the department stores come in offering stuff for the non expert!

Relocating to Munich for 6 months

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