Moving to Germany with your family

My kids were older (middleschool/highschool) and we were only planning to stay for 3 years so our kids went to an International School.   They made friends there...Facebook and the like was a blessing and a curse...it took a while for my youngest to make friends in Germany as she was holding on to the older friends for a while.  But when she did make friends, it was for life...she still visits them.

My husband made friends through his work (we did a rotation because of his company)..but how would I make friends?  I made friends through two venues:  We had an International Women's Group (English Speaking) where I met women from all over the world (including Germany) and also i took German classes at the VHS.

Fortuneately we had a relocation company (easy-entry) that helped us with all the logistics.  I would suggest that people moving over find out where other expats who are moving sell their stuff.  For example, the school had a bulletin board, the relocation company did as well..we got an allowance to buy Gernan electronics but would have done better if we bought pre-owned stuff.

We leased cars when we were there...easy to give back when you have to move.   But we also took advantage of bicycling and public transport as it was convenient and cheap.