Intro: moving to Germany!

[G22]

Hi ladies. At the recommendation of mrsukyankee, I figured I'd intro here since I now have something in common with you.

My H and I are moving to Germany next week. We are a military family and excited about being stationed over there for a few years. I've done some international traveling, but never lived outside the U.S. So I'm feeling a lot of emotions right now and stressing about everything coming together smoothly for our travel days. I'm also almost 7.5 months pregnant, so pretty sure the hormones are playing into all the feelings I'm having at the moment.

We'll be flying over with our pets, so if anyone has advice regarding flying with pets I'm all ears! We have 3 dogs and 1 cat who have no idea what is going down soon. I'm nervous about handing my fur babies off to the airline and hoping they make it to the other side with minimal scarring!

[NomadicMama]

I am so jealous that you'll be living in Germany!!!  We lived in Wiesbaden for three years and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Have you gotten your animals their European chips and updated their rabies?  When we flew out 3.5 years ago, we had to get a health certificate complete by a veterinarian that was then certified by the state (we lived in VA).  

Our dog dog was too big to ride in the cabin, so into cargo he went.  Honestly, that was one of the most stressful parts of the experience for both me and my DH.  Ultimately our dog did fine.  I don't recall how he did going there, but coming home seven months ago, our dog dealt with some separation anxiety after the flight, but he got over it in a couple of weeks.

Let me know if you have any questions, I'm happy to share my experiences.  I'm headed out now for a few hours, but I'll check back.

[G22]

Thank you NomadicMama! We are really looking forward to this opportunity! We'll be at Spangdahlem and heard nothing but good things about living in Germany so far.

Yes, the pets have their microchips and rabies done. We have an appt next week to get the health certificates with the base vet here since it has to be done within 10 days of flying. So we are down to the last few things to do before leaving. All of our pets will be flying in cargo. The dogs are all too big to be cabin pets and unfortunately the airline I'm flying won't allowed ANY cabin pets for the international flight, so the cat will be down there as well. I just found that out last week and had a mini meltdown over it (I can blame pregnancy for that right?), but I've gotten used to the idea now.

I'm glad to hear your pup did fine for the most part. I think 2 of our dogs will be fine, they are pretty easy going. The 3rd one and the cat I'm a bit worried about getting scared, but I'm sure I'm just worrying a lot more than I need to. I can see them both having some separation anxiety after the ordeal possibly, but we'll see.

My biggest source of stress is definitely the flying with the pets right now. On top of the above worries, we're flying out of Texas and really need the temperature to cooperate because if its too hot the pets can't fly the day of. So we've been stalking the weather and praying it cooperates for us. H and I will be flying separately (each with 2 pets) but on the same day. He luckily gets to fly the rotator into base, while I'll be going commercially into another airport.

ETA: I just sent you a PM

[dutchgirl678]

Good luck on your move! I hope the pets will do fine. We are in the Netherlands, not military. I think you will like that area of Germany. We just spent a week in the Eifel region and had a great time there. The restaurant food tends to be really good and cheap in Germany. Sometimes we dealt with some culture shock as the service did not come across as too friendly . And stores were closed at lunch time and some restaurants were closed every Monday and some even every Tuesday. But those are fairly minor things to adjust to.

[sequins]

G22, that's awesome!! When are you due? I'm so excited for you.

[Grimmy]

Good luck with the move! It'll be an adjustment, but living abroad is a wonderful experience.

[G22]

Sept 6, 2015 0:38:14 GMT -5 sequins said:

G22, that's awesome!! When are you due? I'm so excited for you.

Thank you!! Nov 3rd hard to believe I'm down to single digit weeks before our little guy shows up now!

[GilliC]

Not in Germany and not military (work-related move to Norway ...via China) but welcome!!!

I flew my two cats to Oslo and they were fine. It was a paperwork and flight-booking hassle, but even my nervous skittish kitty survived and was back to normal (as normal as she gets) in a few days.

[Brit]

Awesome! What a fun adventure! You are lucky to be military because you will probably have access to cheap American foods. My H is in the U.S. right now and will fly all of our 'home' foods back with him which is totally a pain in the butt.

It sounds like the plan is to have your baby there?

[G22]

Sept 7, 2015 10:42:42 GMT -5 Brit said:

Awesome! What a fun adventure! You are lucky to be military because you will probably have access to cheap American foods. My H is in the U.S. right now and will fly all of our 'home' foods back with him which is totally a pain in the butt.

It sounds like the plan is to have your baby there?

Thankfully being military, we will have access to the base grocery store for American foods. I have no idea how well they keep it stocked compared to the stateside ones, but its better than nothing

Yes the plan is to have the baby here. Our new base will be small and doesn't have OB services, so I'll be having him in a German hospital with local doctors. But I've heard mostly good things about the 2 hospitals that I'll have the option of delivering at and good things about giving birth in Germany in general. So I'm feeling much more comfortable with it than when we first found out we were moving there before the baby came

[marriedfilingjoint]

Congrats and good luck with moving day! If I had to pick a country to move to with 4 pets, it would definitely be Germany! Dogs are welcome everywhere in Germany, it's great. And congrats on the baby on the way.

[travelingturtle]

My dad was Air Force and we lived in Germany when I was in high school. He was actually stationed at a German base about an hour from Spangdahlem, but Spang and Bitburg (Bitburg's closed mostly now, but I think there are still a few things there) were our closest American bases. I went to high school in Bitburg.

My husband and I moved to Germany in 2010 and just moved back to the US earlier this year. While we were in Germany, though, my parents visited and we went to Spangdahlem. It's so different now, but one thing I like is that there seems to be a good selection of American food options. Plus there's Ramstein that's not TOO far.

As someone else mentioned, the Eifel region is nice. Especially along the Mosel River. It's all really nice and rural. It's in a great spot to see so much in just a short drive. Take advantage of the American military hotel down in Garmisch. We stayed there last year when my parents visited and I loved it. Gorgeous. I wanted to make it an annual tradition when they visited, but we decided to come back to the US instead.

I'm not sure if you know this, but there are a lot of active Spangdahlem-area communities on FB for military.

[G22]

Sept 9, 2015 16:55:29 GMT -5 travelingturtle said:

My dad was Air Force and we lived in Germany when I was in high school. He was actually stationed at a German base about an hour from Spangdahlem, but Spang and Bitburg (Bitburg's closed mostly now, but I think there are still a few things there) were our closest American bases. I went to high school in Bitburg.

My husband and I moved to Germany in 2010 and just moved back to the US earlier this year. While we were in Germany, though, my parents visited and we went to Spangdahlem. It's so different now, but one thing I like is that there seems to be a good selection of American food options. Plus there's Ramstein that's not TOO far.

As someone else mentioned, the Eifel region is nice. Especially along the Mosel River. It's all really nice and rural. It's in a great spot to see so much in just a short drive. Take advantage of the American military hotel down in Garmisch. We stayed there last year when my parents visited and I loved it. Gorgeous. I wanted to make it an annual tradition when they visited, but we decided to come back to the US instead.

I'm not sure if you know this, but there are a lot of active Spangdahlem-area communities on FB for military.

Thank you for the ideas of places to see. I've heard good things about the Eifel area, I'm looking forward to visiting it. I am on a few FB groups for the base there, so that's been nice when I've had questions about to the area. Bitburg is actually one of the hospitals I could end up delivering at.

[poisonkisses]

Welcome to Germany! My H is in the Canadian military and we are currently posted in Germany up in Geilenkirchen. We brought over our two cats and it took them a little while to start acting normal again, once we got our furniture they were definitely more comfortable. We've been here a just over a year now and it's been a surprisingly easy adjustment. Our German is still pretty weak though, we know some basics but sometimes have to do some gestures and arm waving. Even though there's a language barrier at times, basically everyone loves being posted to Germany.

[dorothyinAus]

Welcome to the board. I'm sorry I can't offer any help with Germany, but I am happy to see new faces around here. Hope your flight over is smooth and that you get settled quickly.

[tortis]

I missed this when you originally posted and you are obviously in Germany now, but welcome! A friend from high school is also military and she and her husband (both military) just moved back to the states after a few years stationed in Germany.

Hope your pups did fine, that was my biggest fear by far. One of ours is prone to anxiety but from what I can tell she did great! I'm sure yours did as well, they could smell each other to know they weren't alone! I like to joke that our pets are more well-traveled than many people!

How exciting to have the baby internationally! A friend I met here in the UK just had a baby here and said the experience was wonderful and she was very pleasantly surprised. Granted this was in the UK rather than Germany, but Europe as a whole has such a different outlook on pregnancy and childbirth than the US so I think some of it carries over. Should also be interesting to see if your child picks up any type of accent!

Welcome to the board!

[G22]

Thank you tortis! We've been here for a couple weeks now and are finally moving into a house tomorrow! I'm so ready to be out of a hotel and feeling settled!

The pups did fine, I was all worried for nothing! They have been staying at a boarding kennel while we waited for housing and we'll be picking them up and bringing them home as well tomorrow. I can't wait, I know they have been so confused with the flying and then staying at a kennel for 2 weeks. We've gone to visit them a few times, but it's not the same as having them with us. And I completely agree, our pets are so well traveled even before we made the move here. But now even more so!

I've really heard only good things about having a baby here, so that eases my nerves a lot. I had my first appt with my new OB today and liked him a lot. He and his staff also speak good English which is reassuring since I know very little German at the moment. And I definitely get the vibe that it will be different here than in the US, but in a good way. Granted this is my first child so I have zero experience, but even just from my appt today I got a much more laid back vibe with how they view the whole birthing experience.