New Digs

I began this post just after we arrived here and now we are nearly at the three week mark. There seems to have been enough interest that some of you may still be interested in in hearing a more thorough description of our new set-up. As you walk down our narrow street (which still seems to be a fairly busy road some times of day), you pass some medieval towers that herald from a time when manliness was demonstrated with high structures. Oh wait, I guess that is still happening in our big cities. Anyway, maybe a block or less past these medieval structures is the door to Car College, which is open during the day and closed in the evening/night/weekend. During those times there is a tiny door (can you see it in the second picture?) in the huge the main door that we unlock and pass through and then pass through a gate as well and finally into the courtyard (this view is from our room).

We go up a tiny elevator or three flights of stairs to the second floor, which is actually the third, because the first floor is '0'. Then we walk into our hallway and go into one of two doors on the inner side of the building (facing the courtyard). We have two one-bedroom apartments right next to each other. We began our stay by shifting the two twin beds from one apartment's bedroom (now a work/guest room) into the living/dining/kitchen room of the other. So now on one side there is a bedroom, bedroom, bathroom apartment; and further down the hall on the same side is a mirror image of the same (with our adjustments), bathroom, work/guest room, living/dining/kitchen. The two bathrooms are identical except that they are a each half a room, so the bathroom in the 'living' apartment doesn't have a window. Every other room does, and they are huge, 8-10' tall and about 3' wide. The bathrooms are a curious example of European priorities, as they each are spacious and include a bidet, but have a tiny shower (I don't know how my Man fits in there) and no bathtub. Here are some pictures so you have a better idea, although I don't seem to have taken any of the second/'living' apartment. You get the idea of the kitchen from the one we don't really use in the girls' room. Actually, the door in that same picture is opened up to the hallway: