Where do we live?
So, where do Steve and Alex live?
Well, that’s a good question. I’ve been thinking a bit about this and the best comparison to Sydney is probably Crows Nest. The area we live in is called Pempelfort and it is one train station from the main shopping area of Düsseldorf and 3 stations from my work. As well as being close to the city, it is only 13 minutes by U-bahn (train) to Steve’s work, which is in a suburb called Kaiserswerth which is probably equivalent to Pymble in status.
Pempelfort reminds me of Crows Nest a bit, not only because of its convenient location, but also because it is a fairly lively suburb with lots of shops, but none of the grot of Newtown (although there is quite a lot of dog poo around everywhere, particularly around the bottoms of trees (which are plentiful) and in the gutters). There is an Aldi Supermarket about five minutes walk from our apartment, and right next door to that is another really big supermarket - so we are quite spoilt for choice!
Our apartment itself on the first floor and is very nice with fake wooden floorboards throughout (you know the type, looks quite realistic). The kitchen is long and skinny and probably has about the same amount of bench space as we had in Newtown, but what it does have that we didn’t have in Sydney is a dishwasher! I have had discussions with people in the past about whether they actually save you any time or not, and now I am truely convinced that they are a real advantage - especially for people like me and Steve who always seemed to have an enormous pile of washing-up waiting to be done! And since this kitchen is much nicer than the one we had in Sydney, I am much more motivated to keep it nice and clean and tidy, which is of course made easier by this wonderful appliance.
Here’s a dodgy floor-plan drawn by me:
The living room is almost as big as our one in Enmore, plus it has a separate dining room attached to it. I think that the dining room will be converted to the guest room when people come to visit. It is also quite big and we have bought 2 very comfy sofabeds, so all guests should be well accomodated. Unfortunately, there is no door separating the dining room and living room, but at bed time the living room door can be closed for privacy.
We have a separate WC which is at the end of the hallway and a bathroom with a shower which is off the study (we’ll come to that shortly). The loo and bathroom are both pretty good (anything is better than Enmore was!), but we have a very temperamental instantaneous hot water system. Just when you think you have the shower ‘tuned-in’ it suddenly becomes boiling or freezing. I think I have managed to have one perfect shower so far, but I’m sure we will master it sooner or later.
The study is a large room which was rather empty, but is gradually being filled up with desks, a computer, bookshelves etc and is now starting to actually look like a study. You have to walk through the study to get to our bedroom. Once again the bedroom is larger than what we had in Newtown by quite a lot. One of our very kind neighbours gave us a wardrobe, and other than the bed, that is pretty much all that’s in there.
We don’t have our own outdoor area, but we can use the communal terrace, which is very nice on a balmy summer night (although there haven’t been many of those). Another very friendly neighbour, Desi, lives in a small apartment off the terrace, so she is very close to our place and we see her quite often.
So all together, we are paying the equivalent of $325 per week (which includes cable TV) and it seems like we are getting much better value for money that what we would have gotten in Sydney. I will try and draw a floor plan and post that soon, for those that are interested.
About four buildings down from us is our local pub (’Kneipe’ in German). It is called ‘Im R’össel’, but don’t ask me what that means. I think that in walking distance it is even closer to us than the Duke was. Needless to say, Steve has already become a regular and has lots of friends there.
I hope that you can all come and visit us soon and see this all for yourselves. Düsseldorf is a really pleasant city for living in, although not too much for tourists to do. There are heaps of pubs (they call the altstadt “the longest bar in the world”), nightclubs, restaurants and shops. There are also lots of gardens and parks for when the weather is fine (which doesn’t seem to be that often).
