Day 215: German Red Cross

We have a lot of errands to run today. I'm still on the third book of the Left Behind series because of all of the stuff that had to be done yesterday.

Our first stop is Kelley base to get Euros for the weekend. This doesn't take too long and we are on our way. Interestingly, they have this GIANT straw man at the entrance. It's made out of the rolls of hay and bales of hay and has pumpkins around it. It's so cute! I'm going to have to take a picture of it!!

Second stop is ATU (the car place) to find out about the car's fan and the door lock. Ted bought WD-40 and applied it to the lock. It still sticks. We'll have to deal with that another time. When we got to ATU, the place is packed and we are having a tough time finding a parking spot. We finally find one and I sat reading while Ted went inside. They told us we would need to go to the dealership because this is a special part that only the dealership could install. The dealership is right around the corner but by the time we got there, it was closed. That means Ted has to schedule the appointment to get the car fixed early Monday morning.

Then on to the German Red Cross to scope out the remaining furniture we have to buy (entertainment center for storage and for TV, wardrobes for the master bedroom and the hallway and a love seat). We also have to hit the Base thrift store at some point but not today.

When we get there, there's a tent with "flamkuchen" and of course, Ted wanted to eat first. So we stopped and got two of them along with two glasses of Coke. Flamkuchen is this unleavened bread with ham and onions and cheese with some sort of cream as the sauce and they are baked in an oven. It was good as usual.

We went inside and found out that they only accept cash (no credit cards) and they would store the purchases for one week for free and then 10 Euro per item per week after that. They also deliver and it was somewhat expensive so we decided that we have to buy everything at once and then have everything delivered at once.

We looked at wardrobes and sofas and entertainment centers. All of them were nice and I wish we could have bought them right then and there but we are not prepared to do that this week. We have to get the car fixed and funds were earmarked for that this week. We can do this in two weeks when we've saved enough to take care of it all. Ted and I were at odds with one another. He wanted a TV stand and I said, absolutely not! We need the storage because there is none right now and we have stuff that needs to be put away and no where to put it. I told him we have a plan and we need to work the plan.

We decided to take a side road back to Reutlingen (we have to go get the rest of the drapery hooks). It actually was a beautiful drive and a beautiful day for it!! While the trees are turning colors, they aren't the brilliant reds, oranges and golds of the Ohio valley but it is beautiful. And the trip was shorter than trying to go on the autobahn even though it was only a two-lane road.

When we got to Reutlingen and Rieters (the store), we found they had already put up Christmas decorations (they wouldn't have Thanksgiving...so no decoration for that). It was a nice display and we walked around looking at Christmas stuff. Ted wanted to know if I wanted anything. I said no I was going to wait until we went to the Christmas market in Nuremburg sometime in December.

We finally found the hooks and Ted wanted another tieback for the Living room drapes so we got the last one they had. We weren't sure if it was the same one but we bought it anyways.

He also wanted to go to the store across from Rieters. I thought it was a supermarket but it turns out, it's the discount version of the Rieters store. We went inside and looked at furniture (just to verify that the prices were all higher here than at the Red Cross) and of course, they were!! There was at least one item that if we cannot find it at the Red Cross we will be back to get it. It's the hallway wardrobe. It was 118 Euro which is about $175. If the Red Cross doesn't have one, we'll get it there. We also picked up an iron for 14 Euro which is about $21.

I was done shopping but we still had to go to the German grocery store today since I kept putting it off all week long. We went home first to get my "granny cart" and some bags and we took the few purchases that we had upstairs with us.

We went to LIDL instead of to Netto because Ted had to recycle plastic bottles that we had been accumulating for the past few weeks. It turns out we had 4.50 Euro (about $7.75) in refunds that will apply to our LIDL purchases. We shopped and got everything on my list then we went home.

We had a dinner of leftovers and then sat and watched Snow White (another Disney movie I'd never seen and that Ted felt I was deprived of). Although they are classic Disney movies, my all-time favorite Disney movie will always be the Beauty and the Beast.

Saturday 10/24/09