Retired from a long working life as secretary/assistant in UN and EU institutions. Freelance stress counsellor and proofreader/copyeditor. Now living in Berlin.
One thing I AM beginning to understand: Why many Germans are so suspicious of others.
I sold my parking space, to be handed over to the buyers on 1 August, together with two keys (a contractual requirement) for the entrance door because there is a small box in the basement that goes with the parking space.
When I asked our Hausverwaltung how I could procure those two keys, they said that would be too complicated because I would need a power of attorney, so they would take care of it. Because of one person going on holiday, another taking over, and copy of that e-mail correspondence to a third person, three people were involved in this promise in mid-June, so I thought that surely it would get done. If it had been only one person I might have reminded him or her at some point, but THREE …… I am not used to that kind of suspicion and mistrust.
But lo and behold, it did not get done, and now the only key shop in Berlin that kan make them is on holiday. And I am in trouble because I am in breach of contract.
I am going to bed. Tomorrow, I will think hard to find just one reason why I should stay in this country. Oh, and the small matter of where else to go, of course . And what to do with a flat that can neither be sold nor rented out (the neighbours from Hell – remember?) But right now I just want to drop everything and run.
A very pleasant town, only a good hour by regional train from Berlin, bigger than I thought, with lakes and canals and a river. Like in Berlin, too many private cars, also in the “no car zones”. Several churches, and towers that used to be part of the medieval wall system.
Above: “Loriot’s Dogs“. When Vicco von Bühlow died, a German satirist also known as ‘Loriot’, who was born right here in Brandenburg an der Havel, the city decided to honor him this way.
The Nazi euthanasia programme (T4) was coordinated in Berlin, in Tiergartenstraße 4, on the spot where there is now a memorial, just outside the Philharmonic, Tiergarten entrance.
EDIT: I have just been informed that this is what it is going to look like for the duration, as far I understood the vague reply. That means at least another couple of years. I think I am going to scream. Does anyone know a lawyer with whom I could have a word about this?
Also, it turns out that they did what they had to do last week and that it was no longer necessary for the balcony to be empty. They just could not be bothered to inform me and grant me the honour of cleaning the balcony of the thick layer of dust and put everything back on it. I spent almost two hours yesterday cleaning the balcony. Today I went out most of the day and came home to find another thick layer of dust everywhere, including on the plants which I had been naive enough to put back. The nightmare never ends.
Earlier: I know it seems that I am just very angry – no more no less – but I am actually devastated.
I thought my balcony was chaotic in the past thirteen months or so, but just as I thought it was bound to get better soon, it got 150 percent worse. Not only is my balcony now even less useable, but my living room is barely live-able-in because so many things from the balcony have to be stored in there. Of course they said my balcony would never be directly affected (that’s almost hilarious ….), but to be fair, they never promised me that my living room would not be affected ……
This year of all years, where many of us have to stay at home the majority of the time, and not go out and be among other people, and not travel, it would have been so good to have a comfortable and nice-looking home, and the option to spend a lot of time on the balcony for daylight.
Now, having to spend so much time incramped and ugly surroundings, especially having no idea how long it will last (because Cresco Real Estate refuses to answer questions about it) is extremely stressful.
I used to love my flat and consider myself so lucky to have found it, but had I known what was going to happen and for how long, I am not sure I would have bought it. And now it is not only semi-un-useable, it is definitely un-sellable, and probably will be for the next around five years – this being Berlin.
The whole thing is literally zum Heulen, as they say. And there is no end in sight. Again today, NOTHING is happening at this end of the building.
And the irony: They are not even building a contemporary and interesting building. They are spending probably the best part of a decade, and I don’t even to know how many euros, plus making life a misery for hundreds of people living in the area – to restore one of the ugliest monstrosities in the world (Victoriahöfe, Lindenstraße).
EDIT 26 July: A full working week later, absolutely nothing has happened (apart from another couple of mm of dust). The situation is 150 percent worse, as I now am not able to use neither my balcony nor my living room, and my wild flowers and herbs are dying because they are not suited to be indoors.
The initial promise that our balconies would not be directly affected, which turned out to be false already more than a year ago, is getting further and further from the truth by the day.
Maximum daylight, and to have full use of my balcony, would have been particularly important to me this year where I am still trying to stay at home four to five days a week most weeks. As it is now, I barely have the use of neither my balcony nor my living room.
How is it even allowed to encroach upon other people’s private property, as seen in the photo, for so long?
EARLIER: Around mid-day on Friday 17 July, I was ordered – not asked – to empty my balcony of all plants, furniture etc. before Monday 20 July, because on that day, they wanted to start repairing the wall where the scaffolding is.
Despite the fact that 1) we were told at the beginning that this would not directly affect our balconies (in the case of my balcony, it has done nothing else for 13 months now ….), 2) it would cause some chaos in my living room and kitchen to find room for everything, and 3) technically, I was away from my flat for the weekend, but luckily, I was not further away than I was able to cancel two other plans, and go home and do as I had been told.
I even did that quite happily, because I thought it would be the beginning of the end of the nightmare.
Now, on the evening of Monday 20 July, has anything happened – anything at all? Nope.
Do I feel stupid for believing them, and for clicking my heels and letting myself be bossed about by them? Yep.
I could have kept my week-end plans, and then spent today emptying the balcony.
Instead, I am now wondering how many weeks or months I have to live with the chaos (and watch my herbs and wild flowers die because they are not meant to be indoors).
I often find that many Germans are very suspicious of others, and I understand better and better why. They probably think everybody is as unreliable as they are.
Kiel is the seat of the Schleswig-Holstein state government and an Olympic, university and port city on a fjord.
With the historic paddle steamer Freya, from Kiel to Rendsburg along the Kiel Canal which is the most frequented man-made maritime shipping route in the world and connects the North Sea with the Baltic Sea. Alledgedly, almost three times as many ships as on the Panama and Suez Canals.
Holtenau Lock. Tour of Rendsburg. St. Marienkirche, old town market and town hall.
But first, a pre-breakfast walk.
The obligatory two war memorials
Yellow poppies – a first for me
The lock:
First impressions at the end of day two:
What was I thinking? Why did I not cancel?
Masking and distancing rules are not being complied with at all.
Already in Berlin, several people were allowed on the bus without masks, and are consistently refusing to wear them. No reaction to that from neither the driver nor the guide. The guide mostly does not wear his when interacting with us in and on the way in and out of the bus.
During meals at the hotel (so far, dinner last night and breakfast this morning) we sit far too close to each other for my comfort (i.e. as if everything were back to normal), and the staff who serve food and drinks are not wearing masks, and not keeping any kind of distance at all but speaking straight into our faces. I feel very uneasy and am not very hungry (that is the upside of everything :-)). The Riesling goes down very well, though.
Breakfast is a buffet (unlike what was described in the programme), and people are mostly unmasked and not following the “one-way” signs, in short, ambling around the buffet area, chatting (i.e. spewing droplets on the food). Yuck. There are two other bus-fulls of people presumably also from other German states.
On the boat today, there were way too many people in my opinion, and the numbers were definitely not reduced, unlike what we had been promised), and I gave up sitting with the rest at the tables allocated to us for the buffet lunch since it was indoors on the lower deck, too cramped and with no air.
We keep hearing that “here in Schleswig-Holstein, the rules are not so strict” and therefore bus-fulls of tourists from other areas, such as Berlin, are apparently believed to have miraculously lost any contagion which they may have carried with them, the second they entered Schleswig-Holstein (?????), and can therefore drop the precautions and measures in force where we came from.
So apparently, we have all misunderstood something when travel restrictions were implemented? Is the fact really that when you travel from a more affected area to a less affected area, you immediately become less likely to be carrying the virus? The entire travel and hospitality industry is going bankrupt for nothing? Then why don’t we invite for example Americans to come to Europe and be cured, if that is how things work?
It is one of the dumbest arguments I have ever heard and reminds me of something Donald Trump might say.
The ignorance, even after almost seven months, about how this virus spreads is breathtaking.
Unfortunately, we arrived back at the hotel too late for me to start packing and making my way back to Berlin, and tomorrow I will be spending most of the day in my hotel room for the webinar, which I absolutely do not want to miss, so I have to be stationary all day.
I will then decide whether I go back to Berlin after that, tomorrow evening, or whether I stick it out, wear my mask and my visor, try to ignore what others do or don’t do, make as little conversation as possible, and skip lunch on the boat on Saturday if it is as cramped and stuffy as it was today.
Seeing the North Sea was going to be the other highlight for me, so part of me is reluctant to skip Saturday’s programme. The other part feels I am already making a big mistake by being here.
Others don’t seem to mind catching this disease, and if I knew I would just keel over and die immediately upon being infected, that would be fine, but I really do not feel like going through what others my age are going through for months when they get infected, and then either die or live with horrible after effects for the rest of their lives.
Day three: On this day, I will attend a webinar photography course, organised by artistravel and presented by Martin Timm
I will be missing a trip through “charming villages” (not my thing) to Sieseby, Kappeln and “the Viking city of Schleswig” (definitely not my thing). Happy to be staying in and near my room.
During the morning, it was raining quite a lot, so for the first couple of tasks, I “recycled” some of the photos taken the day before (above). Here are some of the rest:
Playtime
After the course, I went out to investigate the location of the nearest bus stop and took my camera with me:
And now I have tempted fate long enough. Am returning to Berlin tomorrow (Saturday). Missing this:
Eckernförde, lunch, and a last glimpse of the sea.
The distancing and hygiene rules we had been sent/promised prior to the trip – and I stupidly believed they would be complied with:
Busfahrt:
Intensive Reinigung des Busses vor Antritt Ihrer Reise, besonders an allen Kontaktflächen, wie Haltegriffen, Knöpfe, Armlehnen und Kopfteile
Sie reisen in einer kleinen Gruppe von 26 Personen, so dass ausreichend Platz im Bus vorhanden ist
Ihr Reisegepäck wird ausschließlich vom Busfahrer verladen
Mund-Nasen-Schutz zum Ein- und Aussteigen und während der Fahrt, wenn ein Mindestabstand von 1,5 m nicht eingehalten werden kann (ausgenommen sind Personen, die in einem gemeinsamen Haushalt leben) – für Notfälle hält der Fahrer einige Einweg-Mund-Nasen-Schutzmasken bereit
Auf nicht kontaktfreie Begrüßungsrituale (Händeschütteln etc.) ist zu verzichten. Wir schenken Ihnen lieber ein Lächeln!
Vor Betreten des Busses bitte die Hände desinfizieren. Beim Fahrer und auch auf dem WC steht Desinfektionsmittel bereit
Nach jeder Beförderung werden die Kontaktflächen vom Busfahrer desinfiziert
Um eine erhöhte Luftzirkulation im Bus zu gewährleisten werden vermehrt Pausen eingelegt
Zu Beginn der Fahrt erhalten Sie noch einmal eine ausführliche Einweisung durch den Fahrer
Hotel:
Das Tragen eines Mund-Nasen-Schutzes ist nicht verpflichtend, auf den Fluren oder auf dem Weg zur Restaurant empfehlen wir dies aber für Ihre eigene Sicherheit
Das Frühstück wird Ihnen nach Ihren Wünschen vom Servicepersonal zusammengestellt
Für das Abendessen erhalten Sie eine Auswahlkarte
10 Personen aus verschiedenen Haushalten dürfen an einem Tisch sitzen
Adler-Schiffe
Die Kapazität der Schiffe wurde um 50% gesenkt, so dass ausreichend Platz vorhanden ist und der Mindestabstand von 1,5 m eingehalten werden kann
Mund-Nasen-Schutz muß beim Betreten/Aussteigen und beim Bewegen auf den Schiffen getragen werden. Bei entsprechendem Abstand, Draußen und am Tisch darf der Mund-Nasen-Schutz abgenommen werden
Bei den Rundfahrten auf Amrum und der Hallig werden die Gruppen nochmals geteilt, so dass auch hier ausreichend Platz zur Verfügung steht.
Time to recap what I have already outlined in several previous posts. Perhaps if I link to the entrepeneur, Cresco Real Estate, often enough, somebody will finally respond.
Some time during the first half of 2019, we were informed that a scaffolding would be constructed at the end of the neighbouring building, that it would be there for six to eight months, and that it would NOT directly affect our balconies.
The scaffolding was constructed during June 2019, and before the end of the summer, the work for which it had been constructed was completed (it had created an unholy mess on my balcony, but that is another story).
Three important factors are 1) that that part of the scaffolding is not linked to the original scaffolding around that building. It was put up much later, and could therefore also be removed without affecting the original scaffolding. 2) It has not been used for anything at all since late last summer. And 3) As far as I can see, when they get around to repairing that part of the building, they will need to take the scaffolding down anyway and use another one.
So that was one summer partially ruined, for which we were promised financial compensation – money that we have not seen or heard of since then, but it is also not really my point. I would rather have had the full use of my balcony all this year.
Fast-forward to February-March this year, when we all started to look forward to getting rid of the scaffolding and thus get a lot more daylight on our balconies and in our homes.
Nothing happened. On 7 April, in an e-mail to Cresco Real Estate, and to our Hausverwaltung, Schön & Sever, I asked when we could expect the scaffolding to be removed, enabling us to fully enjoy the priviledge of having a balcony, especially this year, where we have to stay at home much more than normally. I re-sent the e-mail a week or two later. I have not yet received a reply (as of 21 July).
A couple of weeks ago, some workers suddenly appeared on the scaffolding, raising my hopes that it would now be removed, but they only removed one little component, which caused part of the net to fall on my balcony. They did not bother to pick it up, but left soon after. I had to get out my ladder and a hefty pair of scissors to remove it.
Meanwhile, the scaffolding has now been there for 13 months, not six to eight months which we were initially informed, and the best part of the second summer partially ruined. How much longer will we have to look at this eyesore, and how much longer will it be stealing valuable daylight, for no purpose whatsoever. Both Cresco Real Estate and Schön & Sever are still refusing to answer this question.
One more thing – especially this year, where socialising is so limited, it would have been ideal to be able to invite one or two visitors for brunch or lunch or coffee or whatever, on the balcony from time to time. Obviously, the way that looks now, this is not really possible.
As if the often infernal noise was not bad enough, but that is unavoidable so everybody tries to just ignore it . (Unlike the inexplicable shouting and singing which starts shortly after 6AM, and the loud “music” being played at intervals during the day, but our complaints about that are largely ignored),
But THE most frustrating thing is the fact that my questions about it are studiously ignored, both by Cresco Real Estate and by Schön & Sever who both still refusing to respond.
Starting to sound like a broken record, but I am SO TIRED of being met with the sight of this mess every morning.
On 1 June, my hopes were raised when a couple of workers turned up and removed …….. ONE little component, which resulted in parts of the netting falling onto the table on my balcony (photo in previous post). They did not bother to pick it up. They just disappeared again and I have not seen them since. I had to get out my ladder and a hefty pair of scissors in order to get rid of the bundle of netting.
As described many times before, this part of the scaffolding went up early last summer, beginning of June as far as I recall, it is separate from the rest of the scaffolding, and the word was it would be there six to eight months (!) which would have meant it would be gone my March this year (2020). Fast-forward to July, it is still there.
If it had a purpose, and was actually being used for something, that would be another matter, but it has not been used for anything at all since about August or September last year (when they made an unholy mess on my balcony, but that is a seperate story). All it has done is stealing valuable light – light which would have been especially important in March and April this year (which was the time they had told us it would be gone again) where most of us stayed at home 24/7 except for very short grocery-shopping trips, light which would have been valuable now, and light which will be even more valuable, but I fear it will still be lacking, come late summer and autumn.
Some of us are still spending much more time at home than we would normally, and we still have to look at that mess which makes it hard to fully enjoy the priviledge of having a balcony in these times.
But the most frustrating factor is that nobody wants to deal with or even hear about it. Obviously not the workers, and also not the entrepreneur, and not even our Hausverwaltung. On 7 April, I e-mailed them both asking how much longer, and re-sent that e-mail a couple of weeks later. So far, none of them have bothered to reply.
Superduper. When this happened two days ago, it gave me hope – not only that they would remove the netting – but that perhaps they were finally going to remove that part of the scaffolding, which has not been used for anything for about a year but has caused such great nuisance.
But since 1 July, all that has happened is that I had to get my ladder and a hefty pair of scissors out to get rid of most of that netting myself.
No sign of them today either.
Both our Hausverwaltung Schön & Sever and the entrepreneur Cresco Capital Group or Cresco Real Estate or whatever they are called are still refusing to answer questions about the scaffolding, which should have been removed end winter/early spring, as described earlier. My latest e-mail was sent 7 April and re-sent a couple of weeks later. You would think they had had time to respond. But obviously not the will.
In this of all years where some of us spend much more time at home than normally. And I, for one, would have liked to be able to enjoy spending some of that time on my balcony.
. And what to do with a flat that can neither be sold nor rented out (the neighbours from Hell – remember?) But right now I just want to drop everything and run.
