And the fourth stop is........

 Frankfurt, Germany! 

image from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Germany

Staying true to all that is 2020, this was a very weird bidding season. The list of total posts available to bid on was relatively small compared to last time (60 posts this time versus 160 posts last time). With a teen that will be a rising junior when we arrive, we had to be a tad more choosy when it came to schools as well (so of course all those posts had 10-20 bidders). Richard made the 'getting an interview' hurdle at a large number of the places he bid. He was also told he made nearly every short list (aka top 5), but not the coveted #1 spot (so there was always a chance someone would get two top spots and if you were on the short list you would move up....but it is a gamble). After several nail biting weeks, a few new sparkling tresses, and likely an ulcer or two.....Richard found the perfect position.

map from: https://www.whereig.com/germany/frankfurt-location-map.html

We see many road trips in our future - both via car and train. We are excited to get to explore Europe and not be in a time crunch - COVID-19 dependent obviously, we can take weekend trips to so many countries! An added bonus....we are not moving all that far....our HHE and car shouldn't take that long to arrive!

map from: https://www.ajot.com/news/cma-cgm-to-improve-its-services-connecting-north-europe-with-middle-east-an

The public transportation system seems a bit more complex than what were used to....hopefully we will quickly learn our way and get off on the correct "ausfahrt" (yes - I know that's technically a freeway exit....but at the moment, that's about the only German word I know....lol).

map from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt#/media/File:Frankfurt_am_Main_-_Netzplan_Schienennahverkehr.png

So there you have.....I know there is a backlog due to the pandemic. So start getting your passports renewed and let us get the our haus unpacked at the end of Summer 2021! (look at that...now I know two German words!). For now, our animal crossing characters can start to walk the walk...lol.

Hopefully, we will have a bit of time to do some more exploring Qatar and other nearby countries, before we leave the middle east region....especially with the weather finally out of the triple digits!