First time in Bremen

As many of you know we headed off to Bremen last weekend in search of an apartment. It was a trip that we were all a little nervous and excited for; nervous that we may not find an apartment and excited to see the city that we will be living in soon.

Before we left for the trip there were many late nights put into searching for apartments and making appointments. At least it was a good reintroduction to the German language (something we all need to start practicing again). Our searches did not pull up anything "perfect" or anything that came all that close either. We were determined to live closer to Jason's work than we do now (as we will still be using bikes to get around), close to church, near a park, easy access to grocery stores, 3 bedrooms and a fitted kitchen (eg., kitchen cupboards). Most of the apartments we had found did not even check off one of those items, but we were still hopeful!

We left Thursday afternoon, arrived in Bremen about 4 hours later, checked in at our hotel, grabbed a quick dinner and headed to apartment appointments. The kids finally got to bed some time after 10 and we made it some time after midnight. No promising results.

Friday was packed full of appointments and began with a delicious breakfast buffet (love not needing cook and clean while at a hotel). Our last appointment of the day was very promising; around the corner from church and the grocery store, down the street from the city park, shared garden in the back and half the distance to Jason's work as we currently are. The downside was that the rent price was higher than we were planning for. We balanced numbers that night, prayed about it, and woke in the morning feeling that applying for the apartment was the right thing to do. 

Saturday morning we called about the apartment as early as possible, but with no concrete answer we had to head off to another busy morning of appointments. When lunch time rolled around we were all exhausted and decided to walk downtown for some lunch. This gave us an opportunity to see a few different things as we walked and ate and even take some photos (taken with our little camera, so forgive the picture quality). We should probably preface the pictures with the fact that we know very little about Bremen. We're sure some of these beautiful buildings have functions, we just do not know what they are - yet.

One of our favorite places we saw because it reminded us of Holland.

entrance to the shopping street marked by the pig herder statue. The pig herder would bring his pigs down market street at the end of the day for the pigs to eat all the food bits that had been left behind (not anymore, of course).

A church with a flower stall in front called "Hollandischer"...

It would seem that this is THE thing to see in Bremen. They are the Bremen Town Musicians. Originally a Brothers Grimm Fairytale, there have been many renditions of the story since. It is apparently good luck to hold both of the donkey's front hooves. Milayla is tucked in the wrap on Laura, so she is sure to get some good luck too!

This is on the main square and we need to learn what this building is...

and this one too...

We even stumbled upon Böttcherstraße which you can read about here.

The hidden entrance to Böttcherstraße

 It has museums, hotels, a candy maker, small cafes and restaurants along with some really neat artistic details worked into the buildings,

the candy maker. There were people lined up outside the windows to see the candy being made.

outdoor seating in front of stained glass windows. looks like a movie set.

a view of the narrow street

 After lunch it was back to the hotel for some much needed rest. We were all exhausted. This series of pictures with Milayla and Jason sleeping on the couch is so precious!

Here is Atticus curled up on his quilt, bum in the air and thumb in the mouth; a position he rarely sleeps in unless very tired.

We woke from our nap time to a phone call to say that the apartment was ours! Full bellies and naps really do make things better. We had a couple appointments that afternoon that we honored before meeting the agent to handle the paperwork. Luckily, one of Jason's future coworkers accompanied us to do the paperwork and aid us in understanding all the German. We celebrated by getting some groceries for Sunday at the grocery store by our soon-to-be-ours apartment.

Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel and visited the Bremen ward. There is a beautiful, new church building in Bremen and we received a very warm welcome from the members. Atticus surprised us both by happily staying in the nursery. By the end of church, Atticus was running around with new friends that he had made and saying "Tschüss!" (a friendly way to say goodbye) as we left.

We drove back to Leiden Sunday afternoon feeling relieved, excited and very blessed. We found an apartment that is very perfect for us, have already made some friends, and have two kids who patiently went from one appointment to the next greeting each apartment agent with big smiles.

Now that we have an apartment it is time to really get motivated and finish packing up our things, booking moving vehicles, cancelling contracts, opening new bank accounts....the list goes on. Less than 3 weeks to go. While we are excited about the journey ahead, we are not looking forward to saying goodbye.