Snow Snow, Everywhere, Snow

I had big plans for today. We were going to go to the Metz Fleamarket. I guess it's a pretty big one and I love flea markets. Love them. After that, we were going to go to our French Walmart aka Cora and pick up some French goodies. Then, we would drive to Mettlach where they have a Villroy & Boch outlet, along with Silit and Land's End outlets. {Of course, we'd keep our eyes open for any other flea markets along the way.} Next we'd make our way to European Country Living to mostly look around there. We have fallen in love with a farmhouse style table with a butterfly leaf that costs as much as our rent. But they also have other cute things there and sometimes we splurge a little. We'd finish up the day at Ramstein where there is an Air Force base and a big American-type mall complete with a movie theater complex and a Macaroni Grill. Then we'd drive home and sleep soundly in a warm bed.

That was my plan.

Until it snowed last night.

( picture taken after all said events)

We left anyway this morning to make the plan a reality (a little later than I wanted to, but we left nevertheless).

We drove.

Then we were driving slower. Meanwhile let me add there was lots of snow everywhere but the freeways were pretty okay. But then traffic slowed down to 20. And I think that was kilometers. Maybe I'm confused how slow we were going but it wasn't pretty and we still had a long ways to go.

So we turned around.

Sad. I know.

We tried to follow signs to other flea markets but the snow was bad and we thought they might have cancelled them anyway.

We found one flea market that was basically like 5 people having a combined garage sale. We got 2 children's books. Our children to be are going to have no idea what we're saying but we got them anyway.

Then we went to Ikea and got lunch because it was already that time. Yes, we had been driving around for like 3 hours! And we spent way more money that we planned for lunch. Because I thought they were still serving breakfast until I got up to the lady behind the counter with the food. So we ate delicious Swedish meatballs and salmon and drank hot chocolate. We did this even though we splurgged last night and ate at Die Kartoffel. And when I say splurgged, I mean we splurgged.

Die Kartoffel brings out a salad and then later a huge potato with mounds {literally} of sour cream. The main meat comes out on a hot simmering stone. It cooks in front of you. It's pretty cool and we had to do it at least once. We ate down in some old wine cellar that was decorated with antiques. Should have taken a picture of those. It was fun, we got to know more people from church.


So now we're home. Rick's asleep on the couch and I am almost done cooking an incredible soup recipe. If tortellini sausage soup doesn't hit the spot then I don't know what would because that soup is amazingly delicious! p.s. that website, the one with the soup, is amazing. I've already tried their Brazilian Lemonade and Cinammon or Orange Rolls. They are amazing.

Okay, so basically I just gave you all my secrets. So treat them wisely.

But getting back to the snow part--it sort of stunk. I need to go to flea markets. NEED.

I guess there's next week...

Here's a teaser picture from our Strassbourg outing the week after Christmas,

Can you believe they strung up that beautiful chandelier in the middle of a street. It was really beautiful. The house behind it isn't bad either.