Shopping Spree

We set the alarm so we wouldn't miss the beautiful breakfast buffet, as we did yesterday. But after breakfast, we went back to the room and back to sleep until noon. Jetlag is hanging in there. Not letting us get to sleep until like 3am this morning.

When we finally got up, we went and unloaded some suitcases at our apartment and went shopping. We got an iron, ironing board, blowdryer, curling iron, laundry basket, hangers, body pillows, and a color printer. All of the things we use weekly, if not daily, but were impractical to pack and bring with us. We had some schnitzel and Cokes for lunch, and did a little grocery shopping.

Here's the killer for the day... they were actually serving free sample shots of hard liquor and wine in the grocery store! I don't think you'd ever find that in America. We found it vastly amusing and were almost tempted to try some as well.

We only spent 200 euros on this half day of shopping, and the cool thing is, the tax is included in the posted prices, so we think the prices were pretty reasonable.

We took our new stuff to the apartment and then headed back to our hotel for our last night there. It was nice to spend Halloween in a place where trick-or-treaters couldn't reach us. It's the one holiday we don't celebrate.

Tomorrow: Home Sweet Home and I'll include some picks of our "little place in this world".

Germany = Home

It's been a very busy month. I returned from Milan to a couple of weeks of packing and compacting stuff. In my "plan to lose it all", we gave away a ton of stuff. I feel a little guity about that, because I'm only handing off my anchors to others to weigh them down. Of course there were some things given away that are truly useful, and some things donated to people in need. Many other things were sold and some just... trashed.

We stored memorabilia, pictures and such. We recorded old VHS tapes onto the computer and then gave them and the VCR away. The only furniture we kept was our sleep number bed, ikea chests, night stands, 2 flat screen TVs, the washer & dryer, and the dyson vacuum. Marty's bro, Juan, is keeping (and using) these. He's already found "his number". =)

Our anchor is much much lighter... in the form of 5 big suitcases. Still need to "lose some", I think.

We sold both of our cars, and with the money bought a car for Mark and Beth. After all, they surprised us with the news that we are grandparents, during that 2 week period. Beth is expecting in April. Here's to a new little "Spicer" coming into this world. They are going to make monthly payments to pay us back for some of the cost of the car. We wanted to give them a sense of "ownership" in the car. That and we also didn't want to spend that much money on it to begin with.

After a week in Toronto (Whoa Canada! again), where I met yet another guildie, Mike "Sinso", and we had dinner at Kelsey's... I headed home to finish the packing / storing and prep for our semi-permanent move to Germany.

And here we are... the purpose of this post. We flew out Wed, Oct 28 at 2:45pm and arrived at 6:15am in Frankfort. I didn't sleep. Marty slept a little. It took an hour to get luggage and make our way through the airport to the rental car place. They couldn't find the car that was reserved for us, so we had to wait. We finally hit the road around 8:45am. After an hour or so of driving, Marty was fast asleep and I was nodding off. I pulled into a rest stop and we slept for a couple hours. Then we drove on to Memmingen... more specifically Ottobeuren, which is where we stayed at the ParkHotel Maximillian. You can see pics if you look back to the post in early Sept.

We slept some more... jetlag!!! Got up and had dinner at 8pm, salmon and tuna, and... wait for it... creme brulee for dessert. Marty's favorite. Back to the room, and back to bed.

Fri, Oct 30: We had slept from around midnight until 10:40am in the morning when housekeeping knocked on the door. And still the effects of jetlag plague us... PLUS, we were bummed that we slept through the fabulous hotel breakfast bar.

I hit up the work email for a bit, then we had lunch at the hotel. We had baked chicken salad, which included pineapple, peanuts, and ginger. Amazing! I need to remember to take pictures of the food for Sharayah's sake. Each dish is a work of art.

Next, we drove to Memmingen. We went to the Deutsche Bank and opened a checking account so we can convert USD to Euros via online wire transfers for the best possible exchange rate, and the lowest possible cost. We went to the hotel that is renting us a flat and went to check out our new little place. We move in on Sunday... pictures to come. It won't take many pictures, because truly... in the European style... it is small!

Back at the hotel we hiked one of the trails through the forest. The first thing that stands out as being so different is the silence. It's just much quieter everywhere we go in Germany. In the Memmingen city center, where most everyone walks, there is the absence of the noise of traffic and airplanes overhead. The air is cleaner and fresher... the water from the tap is as good as any bottled water we've had before. And it's a good thing, since they charge like 5 euros for a big bottle of water at dinner! Yikes!

We went to dinner at the hotel and had turkey steak and filet steak, and... wait for it... chocolate canelloni with pistachio sauce for dessert. Delish! The waiter taught us the German word for delicious - - hervorragend. Which is actually the word for "excellent". I looked it up later. Either way, it works!