After a tiring seven-hour flight from Boston to Frankfurt, a three-hour drive from the airport, and six flights of stairs to our apartment, we arrived in Düsseldorf and quickly learned air conditioning isn’t really a thing in Germany.
The large tilt-and-turn windows in our place didn’t have screens, only metal rolling shutters. This meant we couldn’t open the windows fully for fear our cats would try to go outside.
Instead, we cranked the metal shutters down early in the morning to keep hot air out and rolled them up at night to let in cool air.
We also stayed hydrated, added ice cubes to the cats’ water bowls, tried not to use the oven, took cool showers, and ordered a standing fan.
It blew my mind to learn that only about one in eight German households use air conditioning. Still, we had no choice but to adjust to that lifestyle.
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