Zee Bill

A bill arrived this week related to our wedding. Now, I'm a little bit unsure about what exactly this bill is for. I think it's the cost of for the local government to issue us a paper saying we don't need a Familienbuch (family book) for use foreigners. Germans normally have a family book, which states who married who and who their children were, nice and official-like. The kids hand this over when they get married, and it supposedly reduces the paperwork. Since we don't have a nice and official-like book, we have to pay a fee for the Bavarian government to grudgingly say, "Okay okay, we'll let them get married here anyways. Even if they don't have a family book."

We are paying €260 for this privilege and honour. This is based on our yearly income. So, in a way, fair enough, rich people should pay more. But, it's not like they actually ask for any proof. The woman behind the desk just asks how much you make, types in whatever number you say, and then they base it on that. So if you were slightly unscrupulous or felt that it was a silly way to tax people or felt you has already paid enough in Germany taxes without the right to vote for anyone in control of how they use that money, you could possibly, perhaps be tempted to say a number a bit lower than the actual amount you earnt...

But of course we didn't do that. No sir.

Spammers

Spam has now reached its oily grip to comments on blogs. I have now turned on verification to slow the spammers down. Ha! Take that, you filthy spammers!

Updates

There isn't actually that much to update. We've sort of figured out a plan for the day, although nothing has been committed to yet. In other words, this might be what happens or it might end up being totally different. But it's probably a good bet.

Wedding at 1:50 pm. I've been told it takes around 10 minutes. Seems like a very short time for a very important ceremony, but I guess when I add up all the time running around to get the other paperwork finished, it's not that short. Afterwards we'll have some sparkling wine, Lebkuchen (gingerbread cookies) and Glühwein (spiced wine) to celebrate. One of my friends has very kindly offered to serve the drinks for this, which was really nice. I didn't even mention the idea, she volunteered herself. This could be inside or outside, depending on the weather. If it's not pouring rain, we'll probably do it outside. The place we are getting married is right by the Englischer Garten (a big park in the center of town), so we can have it on the bridge leading into the park.

After that, things get a bit fuzzier. It'll be early on, so too early really for dinner. Maybe we'll go have coffee and cake somewhere and then go off to dinner. The two Bavarian weddings we went to this summer seemed to have a lot of eating involved in them. A brisk walk to the Christmas market at the Chinese Tower, cake, then head off to dinner at a nice Bavarian restaurant. Still trying to decide where we want for a nice Bavarian restaurant. Something centralish, with good food and good service and possibly a private room for around 10 people. Any suggestions more than welcome!