Chapter 49 - Our Flat in Klingenbach

At long last we are in our own place! They were great to us at Sigma, but we have been wanting our own place, especially one with a kitchen. We've already been enjoying meals like we used to prepare at home.

Our landlords, Gabriel and Hilda Zwonarits, were wonderful in their preparation of our furnished flat. They provided us with all the necessities such as kitchen items and bedroom linens. All we literally had to do was move in.

Of course technical things are never simple. We struggled for a week to get the Internet operating - many technical problems I won't bore you with and probably couldn't even accurately explain. While I was reading the instructions for the vacumn cleaner and watching TV at the same time (my version of multi-tasking), the TV loudly popped and expired. This couch potato freaked of course so our first major purchase was a new TV.

I intend to do blogs on Klingenbach. It's a small village of about 1,200 people, but it has had an interesting history and has more than once been at the nexus point of important world events. But in this first Klingenbach blog, I'm going to show off our flat. We're right in the middle of town, literally on Main Street. Of course Main Street here is Odenburger Strasse (which means the "street to Odenburg," the German name for the nearby Hungarian town of Sopron).

This is Zwonarits cafe. The restaurant is downstairs on the left, and our flat is inside the three windows upstairs on the right. We are above the tanning salon.


The middle door is the entrance to our flat.


This is the flight of 19 steps to the upstairs. Bob says it's the longest 19 steps in the world when you're carrying an AC unit or a TV. I don't know why he's complaining - I watched the whole time he carried them up and then had to climb the same flight carrying a bag and a very heavy purse. He wouldn't give me any sympathy though - go figure.


Looking down the hall to our door.


This is a common piece of furniture over here. It's for coats and has a bench to sit on while you don or doff winter boots. Haven't thought about winter yet. It's funny, but Bob has never owned a winter hat or boots. I've mentioned a couple of times that he will need to purchase those items, and I hear him muttering, most of which I can't understand, but I did hear invectives describing the word "snow."


This shelf unit is ideal for things like my purse and Bob's briefcase. It is also handy for holding the various coins like Euros and Hungarian forints.


This is the main hallway of the flat.


First door on the right - the main living area.


Eating area.


This is the built-in kitchen that is common in this area. The tall cabinet just to the left of the microwave is the refrigerator/freezer. On the lower left is a cabinet, dishwasher, then another cabinet. Everything works great although I have to admit I miss having a garbage disposal.


Now this is one of the strange things about Austria. They demand that you separate all your different kinds of trash which they pick up every month or two (brings back fond memories of twice a week in Kingwood). So we have five trash cans - labeled for plastic, paper, metal, glass and garbage. The labels are for Bob; I know what goes where. And I need the step stool because although the cabinets aren't long, they are tall.


I absolutely love the windows over here. You see this kind everywhere in central Europe. Here are our living room windows closed.


You turn the handle one way, and the windows open slightly at the top for ventilation. The outside metal shutters protect against direct sunlight (and I think are good with snow for some reason I'll discover this winter) yet the small holes continue to provide airflow.


A side view of the slightly open position.


You turn the handle another way, and the windows open wide. This is great on warm days when open windows in two opposite rooms provide more airflow. There are no screens however which is occasionally irritating. I can get the occasional flies and mosquitos, but the other day a bee flew in the window. Luckily Bob was home to get it.


The second door on the right leads to our bedroom. Bob figured out a way to jerry rig the AC. We call it "the little AC that could."


They don't have closets over here; people use wardrobes like this one.


This is the bathroom, last door on the left. Note the curtains - lace curtains are very popular over here, and I was delighted that these I brought from home perfectly fit the window.


The WC is in its own little room at the end of the hall in front of the huge water heater.


This is the study, second door on the left.


My favorite view - the kids, grandkids and niece.


This huge wardrobe holds all our office supplies and hanging clothes.


This will be our guest room, but I also use it to hang clothes that shouldn't go in the dryer. The dryer has one temperature - very high.


And here's a big reason Bob loves the flat. I'm standing at the downstairs entrance to our flat. In the left center across the street, just to the left of the public telephone booth, is the main entrance to Bob's company. This is the shortest commute he's ever had!