The first step in moving out is to find a place to stay for the few days it takes to pack up, ideally, a place near the house one is leaving. We had seen the Hotel am Berg during neighborhood walks and, although we referred to it as the spooky old hotel, the location was right.

Inside, the lobby of the 100-year-old mansion was grand, in a shabby shiek sort of way. Our room was also grand, in a 1930's sort of way. The furniture and even the curtains were from and earlier era. However, after five days filled with work and worry, we came to feel comfortable in our mansion suite. I suspect we'd stay here again, if conditions warrant and who knows?

http://www.hotel-am-berg.ffm.de

On Tuesday, the moving truck scheduled for 9:00 showed up at 7:15. This was the truck for Marianne's small shipment to the Sommersmuehle farm, so we simply pointed to the dozen boxes for the movers to load while we finished dressing.

By 10:30, everything was in the new apartment. This must be a record move out of my three-dozen anyway. Unpacking would take another week, but three and a half hours from start of pick-up to finish delivery was darn quick.

Wednesday was more complicated. Now the movers had to pack an entire household including hard to handle furniture and fragile dishware and ceramics. They did a good job however and our place was almost empty by the end of the day.

Of course we had to keep out our cleaning and painting gear as well as a few things we would keep with us. We used the bathroom as a "safe zone" but I'm not sure what it was safe from because it certainly seemed to have more in it than our two cars could handle - but that was a problem for another day.

Thursday was another early start, as we had to make the two-hour drive to Pommersfelden before the mover's truck did. During this time we worried more and more that we had more stuff than storage barn. We had prepared one room and had guessed that the landing above the cellar"might" be used. Before we were done, both areas were stuffed but everything was inside.

Our two movers were even smiling at this point. The friendliness and professional of the movers from Victoria Moving may also have been a record compared to my past. I don't know how much the U.S. Department of Defense paid for the move, but it was worth it to us.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were the worst of all. We had to paint the entire apartment and it was far more work than we had contemplated. In normal German rental contracts, the renter must return the apartment to the condition it was received in and, since ours had just been completely remodeled, and since we could not match the slight gray of the original paint, the whole 1,000 square-foot apartment needed new paint.

At the end of three long days of hard physical labor, the place looked pretty good and, in the end, we will get back our deposit, worth three-months rent. And, this will be our last German rental contract that requires repainting!