We're under contract to purchase the land!

I haven't posted in about a month, yet obviously, a lot has happened. I will save the story of the container and all the furniture and purchases we made for the house, for anotheer post. Today, I want to focus on what happened yesterday- we signed the contract for our lot!
Before we left for the States, we had set a date of July 22nd to meet with the lot owners at a notary public to sign the sales contract. Since we had to stay in the States longer, to pack the container, we had to move the date of the meeting. We got in on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, my father-in-law called us to tell us that he spoke with the family we are purchasing from, and that they had rescheduled the meeting to yesterday (Thursday.)
Our meeting was yesterday at 5 pm in Esslingen am Neckar at a notary public. Since I've never purchased real estate in the US, I can't compare the process. But, I can explain what the process is like here to purchase a building lot.
First, Joern and I gathered with the family selling us the land, as well as Joern's father. When we were called, we all went to a room, where a government official collected our passports. He also checked our factual information listed in the contract, like the spelling of our names and our addresses. He then took our passports to make photocopies, and returned with the notary public.
In the States, I only remember going to a notary public to have them witness a signature. I think I had been to one twice, but can't place the reason for either visit. In Germany, a notary public holds a much larger role. This guy was a big guy in every sense, he was physically large, and took up the wohle room with his voice and personality. After introducing himself, the notary public explained to me that a translator was not provided for me, and that I needed to make sure that I understood the entire contract, and could not sign it until I understood every detail.
An hour later, the notary public had read the entire contract, and explained in detail each paragraph in it. There were a few tricky additions to the contract. We are purchasing with the land 1/6 of the private road that runs in front of our house, and only found out yesterday, that we are responsible for paying 1/6 of the final paving of said street. We also had to clarify with the notary public that a condition of our land purchase is that we would allow our next door neighbors to build directly on our property line, instead of 2.5 meters removed from our property line. We also agreed to build our house (but not our garage- which you are legally allowed to build on the property line,) 5 meters back from the property line. Oy, that took another 15 minutes of discussion.
If the meeting were shorter it would have been interesting. It was just long though. I did learn though that because Joern and I are purchasing the land as co-owners, the house will automatically be in both our names. I also learned that we can't purchase the lot just yet. Because Germany is so wonderful, the signed contract with the house placement needs to go back to the town of Neckartailfingen, just to make sure that the town really does not plan to put a school, road, or anything else public on our building lot. How foolish. The town approved the building in the first place, in Februrary, or March, but we just need to make sure. Sheesh! Once the town agrees that no town pool is being planned for our building lot, we will then be allowed to complete the purchase of the land. They truly assume here you have all the time in the world! But now that we have signed the contract, we are legally required to pay for the land within 10 days after receiving the okay from the town. The other positive though is that the sellers cannot sell the land now to anyone else. Hooray!
The big surprise came after the meeting was over, when the sellers invited us, Joern's father included, out to dinner. We went to a really nice restaurant in the town center. We had such a yummy dinner, and nice conversation. It was certainly an evening to remember!