During our first few days in Tübingen, everybody — and I do mean everybody, said that it is very hard to find an apartment in Tübingen. This was not a reassuring thing to hear as newcomers hunting for an apartment.

Before contacting any rental agencies or landlords, we spent the first weekend here roaming around the city, checking out everything from the historic “old city” area, as well as the area at the top of our hill which has several high-rise apartment buildings, and everything in between. After narrowing down our ideal criteria, we plunged into the online ads and started to contact some people and/or rental agents who had listed apartments that were coming available in September/October. Out of the first set of 10 messages we sent, by the next morning we’d been contacted by two places, one of which we could go see that morning. So, off we went.

And, even though it was the first apartment we’d looked at, we took it!

Why? Well, to start, location, location, location. It’s in that “old city” part of town, pretty near the plaza shown in the web cam. That plaza also turns out to have a 3 times per week open air farmers market on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays. The building is also near 2 supermarkets, one of which is almost right around the corner, plus it’s near the delis and other shops that we’ve been scoping out in our wanderings. And, it’s only about a 10 minute walk to Chris’ office. Really, the location could not be better.

Map showing relative location of new apartment

The apartment building dates from 1513; it’s one of the “half-timbre” style houses that just say “medieval Europe architecture” to me, and it’s the most common style building in the old city part of town. This building, though, has been completely renovated inside; they are still finishing off the common areas at the moment (you can see the workers and trucks in that photo below). It’s all supposed to be finished by next week. So, the interior is all modern, even though the outside is historic, there’s even an elevator they’ve installed inside, which definitely doesn’t date to 1513. 😉

Our new apartment building, Tübingen

Funnily enough, that first weekend when we were just exploring around the old town, we commented that it would be fun to live in that part of town. But, since all the buildings there are really so old, we didn’t know what they would be like inside, and we also thought it would also be fun to live in a more modern place in Tübingen than we’d had in Bolzano. So, as we walked by one old building that was clearly in the midst of being remodeled, I said to Chris, look, there’s one mailbox on that place that doesn’t have a name on it, maybe we could live there, since it would best of both worlds, an interesting old building that’s all new and modern inside.

I was just joking, of course.

So, it was more than a little surprising to go see the apartment we’d gotten the call about, only to discover that it was in that very building we’d joked about.

Fate, that’s what that was.

OK, so the location is outstanding, the outside of the building is historic, the inside is all brand-spanking new, and it comes fully “internet-ready” with internet hookups, and there’s a laundry room in the building (in the basement). So what’s the catch, right?

Well, here in Germany, it is far less common to find furnished apartments than it was in Italy. So, while our vacation apartment is, by definition, furnished so that people on vacation have everything they need, our new apartment is unfurnished, and therefore has practically nothing in it, particularly from a North American standpoint. Typically here, there would just be the usual fixtures in the bathroom and nothing else: no kitchen appliances no light fixture, no closets.

Fortunately for us, and unusually for an unfurnished flat in Germany, our new place actually already has a full set of kitchen appliances: stove, dishwasher, refrigerator, plus some under-the-counter cabinets. So, that’s a plus. But, we need to get everything else. For two people who are not the least bit handy when it comes to stuff around the house, seeing dangling wires for the light fixtures was more than a little daunting. Plus, we haven’t had to shop for furniture in many, many years – and now we need everything, from housewares, to a bed, to cabinets, etc. etc.

But, this is no different from any other unfurnished place would be here in Germany, or Italy or Japan, all countries that work the same way when it comes to apartments without provided furnishings. It’s just that we haven’t lived in one before.

So, while we got lucky, and seem to be the exception that proves the rule for “it’s hard to find an apartment in Tübingen”, we still have some work to do in the next couple of weeks to furnish the place before we can move in. We did manage to find a Home Depot-like store that sells light fixtures, and our landlord has agreed to install them for us. The electricity account is now in our name, and the internet is supposed to be turned on by the end of the month (we hope). For kitchenware, we brought our mokka coffee pot from Italy, plus we have two kitchen knives and a corkscrew.

We have no furniture, no closets/cabinets, and no sheets, towels, or anything else that goes with starting out in apartment, though. Clearly, we have just a little more shopping to do…