Getting started

Logistics

For such a tiny country, the Luxembourgers do not lack in the language department. They have three official languages: French, German and Luxembourgish. Luxembourgish, who knew!? We’re focusing on French right now, as it appears most of the signage and documents in Luxembourg City are in Français. I’m also brushing up a bit on my German. Hopefully being immersed will make things easier. Not even going to attempt Luxembourgish. We’re only there for a three-year rotation.

Shipping the pooches (Toby the Dachshund and Jonas the Feisthund) isn’t that difficult on paper, but anyone that has had the pleasure of meeting our boys knows this is going to be a real traumatic experience for all those involved (sorry luggage guys). Exhibit A

JoJo with his ever present sock

Mr Tobias von Wigglebottom

 We’re slowly acclimating them to the crates, and when its time, we’ll load them up and hope for the best. Once in country, we’ll get them Pet Passports, and they’ll be free to move throughout the European union. I love that they are so dog friendly!

We put the house in the rental market this week. This should be interesting. Renters can be a real crapshoot, but I feel confident in our property manager, Seth. More on this as things develop. We love this house, and we definitely want it to be standing when we return.

I took the boys out for one last hike in Shenandoah today. We saw a little black bear. He couldn't have been more than a year old. Between wrangling the dogs and looking out for Momma Bear, I wasn't able to snap a photo. He couldn't have been more than 30 feet away. Fortunately the boys didn't notice. I think the bear is a portent of good things to come. Jeni and I saw a bear on our very first hike together just about a decade ago. Toby was on that hike too.