The Bayers

The Bayers
Our Landlords are our neighbors. When we were looking for a place to live in Germany, this was the only place we looked were the landlord also lived in the building. We gave some thought to having our landlords be our neighbors and there were some good points and some bad points.
Fortunately, the positives are far greater than the negatives. If you lock yourself out, you can ring their doorbell and they can let you in. Yo9u do not have to drive yourself to an office in another town to pick up the spare key and then have to return the key later. It is like leaving a spare key with the neighbors. If you have a maintenance issue they are right there to take a look and make arrangements to fix it.
The Bayers are exceptional neighbors. Yes, there are rules but for the most part they are relaxed and Pam and I try to be good neighbors and they respect their rules. Yes, they have let me into the house twice when I locked myself out. Then again, Frau Bayer buzzed our door bell so I could let her into the building (she keeps the key in the door to their apartment during the day) when the door was closed behind her. Also, when we had a maintenance issue, it was fixed in hours. I told Frau Bayer, Frau Bayer called the repair guy, the repair guy came, looked, left for a part and returned and two hours later…..everything was fixed.
Then there was the time that Pam left the house for work and it was supposed to rain later that day. Frau Bayer called Jutta (our Relocation person in Germany) who had my cell number and called me to ask if it was alright if Frau Bayer could enter our apartment and close the windows, of course it was ok, but it is nice to be asked. Of course, it was 9am in Germany and 3am in Philadelphia where I was asleep at Mom’s having come home for Ryan’s graduation.
The Bayers though are genuinely kind people and there are far more benefits we gain with them as neighbors, like produce! It started in spring with strawberries (erbereen), mirabellen (not something found in the states), apples, squash and zucchini.