May be moving to Frankfurt!

[mormontreehugger]

DH might get an assignment to PCS to near/around Frankfurt. Boy do I have a lot of questions!
1. Will we be required to vaccinate our baby? (due in Sept, would move in Nov.)
2. Is the cost of living ridiculous? Are there places to live in the area that are cheaper (more rural would be more fun I think, as long as there's a train station)
3. Mass transit: what exactly is this Europass thing?
4. I'll probably switch to Tricare Standard before I go, are there crunchy-friendly docs in the area that I could see?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated while we try to get these orders through. TIA!!

[oceane]

there is no law that requires you to vaccinate. I don't know if daycare providers, kindergartens etc. are allowed to require it before accepting your child, but in general there isn't.
while rent is pretty high in Frankfurt (I read a newspaper from that area ) cost of living for food especially is low in Germany compared to other countries. we have tons of discount supermarkets, farmer's markets and discount drugstores. I guess Frankfurt is a good area for transit, watch out though, rural areas in general are a pain to get around in and there's not many trains and hardly any buses. depends on where you are though, maybe google Frankfurt there should be lots of expatriats. maybe some have a blog?

I don't know Europass. Deutsche Bahn has offers sometimes (trains) and eurolines is a cheapo busline.