Advice on moving to Aalen

Hi

I am moving to Aalen in the next couple of months (from Wales), my husband is already there - but we need to find a stable for my horse (I won't go without her) and an apartment before I move across. I want to take a reasonable amont of household/personal/horsy goods across with me and had been thinlking about hiring a van - but I can't seem to find any companies that do one way rentals. Has anyone got any ideas or suggestions.

I also understand that most apartments come without kitchens. Has anyone any suggestions where to look for good 2nd hand kitchens.

Any other thoughts or suggestions for someone new to Germany - who doesn't speak German yet, would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Locals might be a bit difficult to understand (schwäbisch) but I like the general area (esp most of the food). I've been going to that area on flying hols for over 15 years so know most of it from the air (also once landed at Flugplatz Aalen-Heidenheim & needed an aero-tow home). Will be there again from end July for 2 weeks this year.

You are in prime German gliding country!

I have only driven through Aalen a few times but the general area has plenty countryside and is I think generally horsey but cannot speak specifically for Aalen.

Well worth a visit (& when you receive visitors) is the Besucherbergwerk Tiefer Stollen. Been there twice.

German isn´t particularly useful in Aalen ... better learn the regional language Schwäbisch first


A brief introduction into the Swabian dialect

Just stick an "a" on the end of each word & you are halfway there...

Hi there!

I live about 25km from Aalen, around a half hour or 40 min drive, and there's a riding stable next door to me (click for web site). I can ask about stabling if you'd like. My neighbour keeps her horse there. Might be a good temporary measure. Once you're settled in and have a place, then you could find something closer. Mr. Link, the owner, is a decent chap and is used to working with English speakers since he had quite a few American soldiers coming to ride, back when Schwäbisch Hall was an active US military base.

Don't know Aalen itself very well, but you should be able to find an apartment with a built-in kitchen or Einbauküche (indicated with "EBK" in ads). It depends on your budget and how flexible you are in terms of how large a radius around Aalen you're willing to search.

Cheers!

My wife & daughter ride... I just booked accommodation for self & son for our coming gliding hols (with several other friends) - but its more in the Geislingen area. So far havnt been able to persuade female half of family to also come mostly due to not finding suitable stables close by (we have no horse; just a glider...). Anyhow the airspace will be unsafe from 26th July...

Thanks everyone for your advise so far. Bipa, I really appreciate your lead on the stables and your comments about kitchens. I'm coming over to Aalen in a couple of weeks to have a look at a few stables and once I have found the right one - then we can look for an apartment near to them.

Any other assistance or advise anyone can give me about moving to and living in Germany would be much appreciated. I'd particuarly like to know if there is a language school/German teacher in Aalen as I will need to learn to speak German/local dialect. I'd also love to hear from any other horse riders.

many thanks

Ahhh... I see you've got your priorities straight... first find a good home for the horse, then worry about the humans.
Let me know if you decide to check out any stables near here. There's a Greek/German restaurant right next to "our" riding stable with a nice terrace area.

For learning German, you could start by checking out the Volkshochschule Aalen which offers a number of German as a second language courses. In case you haven't seen it yet, the city of Aalen also has basic info available in English on its official web site. Unfortunately, you'll be learning High German in the school rather than the local dialect. But you'll quickly learn to understand some of it just through interacting with people.

Folks are pretty friendly around here. And you'll have a head start by having your horse here as an ice breaker. Think about joining a riding club ("Reitverein" in German), and you'll have instant access to a large group of possible new friends and people who share your riding interests. A "verein" is a club, which can be just for fun or into serious competition or something in between. They also organise social events for members and friends throughout the year. An example of a riding club is the Reitverein Grafenhof which uses the stables here as their headquarters. They're mainly into dressage and jumping, but also have a pony club for the kids. I'm just using the one here as an example - there are many others around in the area for you to check out. Sorry I'm not much of a rider, at least not English style. But you'll have no trouble finding riding partners since this is definitely horse country.

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HEM, thanks for the heads up... or should I say rather heads down as of July 26th. If I notice any gliders around here, then I'll wave and my dogs will bark at ya. Heck, my Jack Russell will probably try to jump and catch the darned glider... she's started chasing after birds now and even gets the occasional one. Good thing she can't jump quite that high... yet...