Relocating to Central Europe

If you want Germany I recommend Berchtesgaden. That’s where I would retire if I didn’t have to work much.

Why Berchtesgaden, Rene?

I drove nearby en route to Salzburg from Bad Gadstein, but have never stopped there.

I should tell you why I have chosen to relocate to Europe. I’ve been going to Europe almost every summer and twice a year to Japan. I would like to eliminate the transatlantic flights. I would like to be close to the airport where I can fly direct to Japan, non-stop. Berchtesgaden does not fit my bill.

I don’t want to drive much any more, and the US is based on car travel to any where. I’d like to be located where I can travel by train, not by car.

Last year I met an American woman on train to Munich from Zurich. She lives in the central part of Munich and she and her husband raised two sons in an apartment and they don’t own a car. She told that Munich is a good location, central enough and she was telling me of a play she would be seeing in Salzburg.

Tomoko,
I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but Dusseldorf has a healthy-sized Japanese community – the largest in Europe, I believe…

Kevin,

I know about the Japanese community in Dusseldorf since I stayed overnight there once.

The size of the Japanese community is not that important to me, but it would be nice to be living in a city where more Japanese live than in Baltimore.

It’s about 15 minutes to the Salzburg airport from Berchtesgaden. That’s not much of a drive and you can take a bus. I don’t believe, however that they have a direct flight to Japan from Salzburg so you’d have to get a connecting flight to Frankfurt and then Tokyo.

Why Berchtesgaden? For starters Germans and others vacation in Berchtesgaden and surrounding villages. So it’s arguably the pretties part of Germany. Cleaner air, great skiing, fabulous mountain trails, great walkways, sweet and inexpensive spa and indoor swim center, great traditions for shooting, it’s clean and close to cities like Salzburg (20 minutes) or Munich (2 hours). It’s a great playground. Most places can be walked to…you won’t need a car. Bus transportation is great and the trains run on time.

If you don’t need to deal with obnoxious homeboys (i.e. get a full time job) then it’s heaven.

When I told my B&B host and hostess in Bad Gastein about my interest in relocating to Austria, they said, Why not Bad Gastein. It is not as close to Salzburg as Berchtesgaden is, but it has a train connection of one hour or so there.

I discovered that it is 4 hours and a half by train to Venice from Bad Gastein. It takes longer to get to Vienna, but it is 3 hours by train to Munich. Direct non-stop flights to Japan are available in Frankfurt, Vienna, probably still Milan, and of course Paris.

I was surprised to learn that there is no direct flight out of Prague, to Japan.

Tomoko,

in Germany two cities come to mind: Düsseldorf, which is quite nice and has, as Kevin already noted, a large Japanese community, and Cologne. Cologne has lots of photographers (and TV people) as well as a sizeable classical music scene, which I suppose could be interesting for you. Both cities have international airports, so it’s easy to get anywhere. Cologne also has excellent train connections to Brussels and Paris.

Carsten

Carsten,

Thanks for mentioning Cologne (Köln) about their lots of photographers and its sizeable classical music scene. I passed through Cologne by bus, having only a sight of the cathedral from the bus.

Yesterday I made a reservation to fly to Zurich from New York (first in many years) on June 19. My return flight out of Zurich is August 21. There is a special fare of about $1000USD for flights with a longer stay in Europe up to 3 months, During the time I need to fly to Japan and back to Europe and it would be nice if I could be in Japan on June 30 so that I can shoot the annual ritual practiced in Kyoto.

I am trying to decide where in Europe to fly to Tokyo from.

Here are a list of cities I’ve ever stepped a foot on the continental Europe:

Less than a day: Brussels, Paris, Düsseldorf, Hannover, Lübeck, Köthen, Bratislava, Nürnberg, Bolzano, Meran (Merano), Mantova (Mantua), Budapest, Linz, Zug

Overnight to a few nights:Hamburg, Lüneburg, Dresden, Prague, Brno, Salzburg, Munich, Brixen (Bressanone), Verona, Milan, Innsbruck, Mannheim, Eisenach, Venice, Padua (Padova), Zurich, Geneva, Erfurt

A week or more: Vienna, Steyr, Gmunden, Bad Gastein, Weissenfels, Leipzig

In addition I’ve stayed in mountain huts and pensions in the Dolomites and a thermal bath town of Montegrotto in Italy. There is not question that my idea of Europe has been formed by the above experiences. The biggest city I have stayed for more than a week is Vienna.

With the exception of Vienna, I have not stayed in a big city for a week or more.

Baltimore has changed for worse for film-shooting photographers. The City’s main prolab, where I have an account, sold their business to someone and has only an office presence no lab anymore. This means that there is no way for me to have my film processed within a day.

Last summer I was in Vienna and Zurich (I actually stayed outside of the city and commuted to the city to have my film processed) and I was able to get E6 done within a day. That is true in Tokyo.

Tomoko

If you relocated to Vienna then it is a short ride to Bratislava for direct flight to Tokyo.

You forgot berlin on your list – I don’t think anyone mentioned it.
I recommend a visit to Berlin highly as its a great city and you find almost anything you want here (apart from decent bacon rolls) – but you can definitely have film developed within a day – viel spåß – j x

Rene,

As far as I know, there is no direct flight from Bratislava to Tokyo, but there is one in Vienna and as you said, it is only a short ride to Vienna. I should consider this city as there are enough German spoken there. I don’t know about E6 processing.

Besides, it won’t be too expensive to live. My Social Security income won’t be enough to live on, so perhaps it might be a good idea to live in an inexpensive place which is convenient to a large city.

Jane, I haven’t been to Berlin. That is one of the places I would be interested in visiting, but there is no direct flight to Tokyo!

My mistake. I thought you said Bratislava has flights to Japan so I suggested Vienna. I have a family living downtown Bratislava and it is a great city to live in. Definitely less expensive than Berchtesgaden.

How about E6 processing in Bratislava, Rene?

Tomoko,

I really wouldn’t choose a place based on the availability of E6 processing, which seems to be going downhill everywhere.

Carsten

I have no idea

Hi Tomoko,

I moved to Basel for work. It is a small town with an airport with regular flights to Munich and Frankfurt and a train direct to Zurich airport. I say this, because it is quicker for me to go to the airport (10mins), fly to Frankfurt after checking in an hour before departure (the beauty of a small airport) and get a connection, than it was to go to London Heathrow, and fly anywhere direct. In a big city that size, you had to plan 2.5 hours for a 25 mile trip and you were either stressed when you got there as it took 2.5-3.5 hours, or you arrived after 1 hour. For Zurich I can check in my luggage the day before and take an easy train ride and go through security with 1 hour before the flight. Freiburg is in Germany and is also close to Basel airport and about 2 hours from Frankfurt by train direct to the airport. Mannheim – I dont like as it has little charm (sorry to anyone in Mannheim – but then you probably work for a chemical company anyway :-) ).

However – Basel is not a cheap city, except for renting apartments, where 800 sq. feet (two bedroom apartment with living room and separate kitchen) cost about CHF1650 per month. But you can buy your food in Germany or France.

Berlin is one of the most liveable capital cities in the world and I remember it as a great place with lots happening.

Amsterdam is also a great place to live and has good connections. However it is not a German speaking country.

Thanks, Ravi, for telling me the advantage of a small-size city close to a major hub. Zurich’s airport is not big, but Zurich is more expensive than Basel, I imagine.

I made my flights arrangement to fly out of Vienna to Tokyo, but I should certainly have time to check out Basel when I fly in or out of Zurich to return to the US.

I have a feeling I may have to move again after I move across the pond. Probably an inexpensive place, but convenient to a major hub first might work out best. Then I will be spending less for my living expense. I have not reached my full-retirement age yet, so anywhere cheaper to live than even Baltimore would be an advantage. I have a small house to sell in Baltimore, which should give me some cushion.

Unless of course somebody/organizations really like what I have been doing and am about to do, it might be safe for me to plan for a cheap place to base myself first and travel around Europe to see my fit.

Let me know when you are coming through Basel or Zurich, maybe I am around too. Pity no others have said what a great city Berlin is – I really liked it and think it has a great artistic vibe.

The German towns near Basel are cheaper than Basel – but more expensive than other German towns.

Anyway good luck in your adventure.

Germany’s terrific. Extremely efficient and ultra modern. Great beer. Great people.

The last time I went through Germany, the train was delayed considerably, around Munich.

Last summer I went to Munich for medical reasons. The hospital reception was not efficient. I waited for my turn only to be told that I would need to go to another office. I supposedly had an appointment, but because of this initial registration and further waiting, the appointment time did not make sense any more.

In Vienna, I went in as a walk-in patient, but although I had to wait, I did not have to wait as much. The patients were processed more effiently.

Perhaps it was because the two hospitals are different kinds of hospitals, the German hospital I went in as an outpatient was not as efficient.

Ravi, I’ve made flight reservation with Swiss International Airline to fly to Zurich from New York. This is the first time in many years to fly out of New York.

I’ll be in Zurich on June 20. I’ll be flying out of Vienna for Japan for three weeks on June 25. I’ll probably stop at Bad Gastein where I left part of my photo equipment last Ausgust before flying out of Vienna. I have friends in Vienna, so I may be able to leave some of my photo equipment with one of them. I’ll return to Vienna on July 17 and go to Bratislava. After a week in Bratislava, I’ll come back to Bad Gastein and spend a week or so and head down to Venice. After Venice I’ll return to Zurich and spend a week in the area before flying back to New York on August 21.

I have never done this kind of routing including flights to Japan from Europe. I’ll see how it would be like. The only things I have set so far are the flights to Zurich and back from New York and the flights to Tokyo and back from Vienna. The rests are flexible and open.

Ravi, are you going to be in town when I arrive in Zurich or before I leave Zurich?

Changing back to the Bratislava part of my trip, I found the following story to be interesting:

“Airport Cancellation Endangers – Vienna-Bratislava Infra-Structure Improvement”:
http://www.wieninternational.at/en/node/1473

In a nutshell, the two capitals are merging into a single market. Hopefully the Bratislava-Vienna connection, particularly to the Schwechat airport, will improve in the near future.

Distancewise, Baltimore is close or closer to D.C. than Bratislava is to Vienna. The infrastructure is not good. Baltimore has its own airport, Baltimore-Washington International. DC’s international airport, Dulles International Airport, does not have any rail connection to the downtown D.C. Baltimoreans wanting to travel to Asia are forced to take an expensive limousine (about $100 and up one way) to fly out of IAD or relying on family members to take them where there is a direct flight to Tokyo and major airports in Europe. 9/11 has affected severely national airlines in Europe and they eliminated flights out of IAD.

I think in the future that the air-rail link will be important. Those airports which have a good air-rail link to downtown will thrive. Munich has the link, but it is not efficient. Zurich has a better connection between the airport and the downtown.

Tokyo is better in this regard, because they built a brand-new airport out of ricefields years ago and connecting the airport to Tokyo Main Station in an hour (non-stop ride with all seats reserved).

Bratislava’s cost of food is higher than Czech Republic.

Rene,

Do you think I should consider Bruno/Brünn in Czech Republic as well? By rail it is an hour and a half away, and it is not the capital of the country, but it is the major city in Moravia.

I was originally hoping to hear from many others who moved to where they are now for a variety of reasons.

I still hope that more will chime in to tell their stories of how they made a change.

I am wondering how many days it would take to know whether this is your town you would move to. I moved to Baltimore for a job. This time I am moving without a job lined up. I will be moving to where I can live without a car, and can function on my own without my own transportation. I would like to be at a place where my retirement monies can stretch further. I also would like to travel and perform.

Hey Tomoko

I was London based, but have recently relocated to Bratislava as my company have an office run from out here.

My move was for purely financial reasons, though I love it here; its a great city, loads going on and a great size too – really manageable.

There are a couple of really good camera stores located in the city, though prices for this kind of stuff aren’t as attractive as I’d hoped.

But for general living (expenses etc), you cant beat it

James

Thanks, James, for sharing your view on Bratislava from a transplant’s point of view.

Do you happen to know if there is E6 processing available in Bratislava?

Thanks.

Tomoko

Tomoko-san,

I worked for Burindiko publishing out of Zurich. It is an easy palce to work from, but hard to get a work permit. I got around this by having all accounts through my NY bank accounts. It is expensive to live there, but wonderful and easy to travel to anywhere in the world from there. I have lived in Germany now for five years. Its nice, but just not my style. Cheaper than Zurich. I live in heidelberg, an hour from Frankfurt airport. Lovely city on the Neckar River, prices much cheaper than Switzerland. But am now moving to Italy where my heart is and my house as well. Good luck to you. Drop me a line if you need anything specific.
Gary

Tomoko,

E6 is processed through these guys (http://www.prolaika.sk), its about a weeks turnaround but doesn’t seem so bad when it costs £2.00,

good luck!

James

Thanks, James, for the info.

It looks that in order to get E6 processed fast, I would need to go to Vienna where the fastest will do the processing within the day.

Also, thanks to Gary in Vicenza. I was thinking about Italy because of the Venice studio lights thread. I’ve been to Vicenza only a day, and did not get to view the Palladio masterpieces as they are because I was interested in something else.

I was wondering whether I should move to a place cheap enough for me to live first and move again to where my heart is. Zurich is nice, perhaps the places near the city where one can have views of the mountains and perhaps a bit cheaper. From Vicenza, you have a view of the Prealpi, I imagine.

The work permit issue is a problem for living in Switzerland, since it is a desirable country for many people, too many people.

Are you in Vicenza for work now?

Hi Tomoko,

I sent you a PM – hope to see you when you pass through.

Cheapest places in Western Europe are Spain, Portugal and Greece. In Spain there are places where German is more necessary than Spanish :-) Italy is great and I would dearly love to know the language and live there! It is the exact opposite to Switzerland.

Work permits for Switzerland are hard to come by – as are residency permits. You just need to have money for the latter and a job with skills that cannot be filled by a Swiss person for the former.

Thanks, Ravi, for your post here and your PM which I have seen. Yesterday I got sidetracked to the Venice thread.

In Italy, the northern part of northern Italy is where German is spoken. Even in the areas like Padua and Verona, my German was handy since there are enough natives speaking the language for tourism and there are Germans who settled there. I’ve met a few of those. In fact, my German was useful in ascertaining the location where a certain view is to be found. I speak a little Italian and with time I’ll probably be able to manage in northern Italy. As Japanese, pronounciation is easier with Italian.

The language I have least exposure is Spanish. I have tried to learn French, but have not had a strong incentive to press on. Singing two French songs has not been enough to induce me to do the learning more than the pronounciation rules.

I’ll PM you regarding my travel plans.

Tomoko-san,
I will be living in Vicenza starting in July I hope. I am awaiting my work Visa now. Not a problem,, just time consuming. Palladio’s work is all aorund Vicenza as you well know. Venice is not the easiest airport to get out of for long distance travel, but for local European hops, it’s fine. I enjoyed working most in Zurich as the transportation hub worked well. Vicenza will be another challaenge as I will be editing a small weekly newspaper there. In Zurich I had a residency permit through my wife who worked for a Swiss company. But even with that could not get a work permit even though the fantastic people at the Keystone photo agency did their best to accomplish the task. So working there is always a problem. I wish you luck. When I do get down there, I will be able to rent out a nice set of studio/location monoblocs, if anyone is so intersted. ciao

Hi Tomoko

Just wanted to say there doesn’t seem to be a direct flight to Japan form Dusseldorf but there are flights from Munich. The Japanese guys I work with here either fly from the UK and combine a UK visit of fly from Frankfurt

J.

Thenks, John, for pointing out the Munich-Tokyo direct (non-stop) flight. Lufthansa has the route.

I might be wrong but the Japanese carriers do not fly direct between Munich and Tokyo.

I checked the flight schedule and the train schedule to see the convenience of living in Salzburg, for example, and of taking the train to fly out of Munich. It seems doable without staying overnight in Munich.

Several years ago I stayed in Salzburg for several days twice, for the first time in 1992 with the choir and later on my own. I’ll check out the place during my forthcoming trip to Europe.

John, how did you get based in Pau? Did you speak French before you decided to base yourself in France?

Thanks again.

Perhaps some of you contributed to this thread might be wondering what kind of progress I have made during my recent travel to Europe.

Although my search for a medical treatment did not pan out well, I did get to travel to Bratislava (three nights in an apartment in the city, but away from the old town), Berlin (two nights, weekend visit from Erlangen, staying in a nice old hotel in the center of the city), two weeks in Bad Gastein, close to a week in the Zurich area, and two nights in Basel. I also stayed in a small town of Hainburg an der Donau (northeast of Vienna), and two overnights in Vienna.

It was sort an emotional move on my part, but when the treatment I sought did not work out, I wanted to go somewhere where I know people, and that is how I ended up in Bad Gastein. I called the place that morning and by the end of the day I was there sleeping in a familiar room again. I did think about going to Cologne, but I could not think of lugging my suitcase and backpack to a strange place again. The Erlangen hotel was expensive!

I do really like the airport-city connection in Zurich and other train travel ease in Switzerland, but I feel more attachment to Austria, having traveled there and stayed more than any other countries except northern Italy where I have stayed for a two-week stretch more than once. As much as I loved the scenery there, the amenity for everyday living is lacking. The community is so isolated. Bad Gastein, on the main train route, has improved its livability by their supermarket’s stocking tofu, kefir, Japanese mushrooms and by the existence of an organic food store in the village center. The train connection is also good. You can reach Salzburg in an hour and a half by train.

I have to say I never liked Dusseldorf when I had an overnight stay there many years ago. Berlin appears to me a young city, still a lot to rebuild particularly in the eastern part of the city. I had a communication problem in Bratislava since not many people speak English. My German became handy when a middle-aged lady helped me go downtown.

I stayed in a pension, but really an apartment with breakfast served in Basel. I was in the part of the town across the Rhine from the old town. There was a huge Asian food market which I would envy, but I don’t know how I would find a job in Switzerland as it is such a desirable country for Japanese. It has a small old town and the scenery around the Rhine did not impress me.

So at the moment I am toying between Vienna and Bad Gastein. If I can help it, I would like to live in both, Vienna for the city and Bad Gastein for the natural mountaineous surrounding.

I don`t know whether it makes sense to update this now that it has been a year since this thread. Right now I am struglling to get my house ready for the market which has taken a lot longer.

I wish I could live in Bad Gastein and find a job, but it did not look like it, so I decided to invent a job in Vienna. Basically I`m starting a business involving myself and a pianist at least to give photo-song concerts aimed at music-loving Japanese tourists. The proceeds of my house sale will become a capital, so it will be important to sell the house at a reasonably good price.

Just saw this post again after almost a year of inactivity. I have been living in south-central Sweden for four years, having moved from NYC, where I was shooting quite a bit for the AP, NY Times, Bloomberg and other editorial publications. I moved here with my Swedish wife to buy a house in the remote countryside. I also speak fluent German, which along with English has helped me learn Swedish, but I rarely have to speak Swedish. Most people living in the Scandinavian countries and Finland are fluent English speakers, which has benefited me. I am roughly equidistant from the main airports in Stockholm, Göteborg, Copenhagen and Oslo, so getting me to destinations outside of Sweden is rather easy and fast. I currently worked mostly for EurasiaNet (a Web-based news magazine covering central Asia, Caucasus and a few other countries). But I have also been able to shoot quite a bit for the NY Times and IHT in this part of northern Europe. Then I pick up other assignments – editorial and commercial – enough for now. Every year has gotten better, and now that my two daughters will be spending more time at dayschool I can devote much more energy to getting new editorial clients, working on personal projects, building my stock portfolio and other things.

If you are very interested in moving to Europe, it’s good to understand that much of ‘western’ Europe is of course much more expensive than ‘eastern’ Europe – unless of course you are in the bigger cities like Prague or Budapest. I have many friends who live throughout Europe and survive as freelancers. Have you considered Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki? They can be more expensive of course, but your English is more than enough to get by. Processing is available. Long distance flights are available.

Cheers, Dean

Thanks, Dean, for your input on this topic.

I have not seriously considered Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki. Since I am not a photojournalist and my main subjects are the Lieder, particularly by Franz Schubert, I thought that I should be close to my subject matter, sceneries in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, northern Italy, perhaps the Czech Republic (Bohemia and Moravia). The poets German lieder composers used were in those countries. (One exception is a series of songs Schubert composed using the German translation of the poems by Sir Walter Scott.) Scandinavia has produced several composers of lieders, but they are in their own languages. I also think by locating in Vienna, I can catch those Japanese travelers who are interested in German lieders better than anywhere else. At the moment, my photo-song program is centered around Schubert`s songs and my own Japanese songs.

Scandinavia has one big advantage over central Europe for me because it is closer to Tokyo by flight. The flying time is shorter by about two hours to Tokyo. In the past year, I have learned about a Japanese pianist who used to live in Helsinki. He married a Finnish. For some reason, he is back in Japan.

I understand that my program even with Schubert songs could be attractive to older people in Scandinavia. This was conveyed to me indirectly when a couple of Austrians advocated my program to a representative of a Swedish tourism company operating hotels in Bad Gastein, Austria and bringing Swedish vacationers (particularly skiiers) there. But the problem is that I am Japanese, not Swedish, and the company prefers to contract Swedish entertainers in Bad Gastein.

During my travel for the past 15 years, I`ve met only a few Swedish people with whom I communicated in German or English. My nonstatistical impressions are that Austrians react more favorably to my program, and the second being Germans.