Throughout all of our stops in the Christmas markets I have been in search of just the right krippe (nativity scene) for our house. I had seen some that I liked last time I was in Germany when I was 17, and I had hoped to find one this time that I liked now that I can actually afford to buy one. We've had a bevy of Goldilocks moments. This one is too big, I don't like the faces on that one, or what's up with the garish paint job? Today, as the first rain drops fell on our trip, I spotted one I liked. Mark and I looked closer, and we both liked it. And then we had to decide which animals and people. Of course you need a camel, but really, do we need a ram? I don't like that shepherd... the other one can represent all shepherds, right? We made our choices, and plunked down a small fortune. And then Tina talked the woman out of a donkey for us since we spent so much. Yay! We had lunch, shopped some more and then drove an hour back to the hotel in the rain (yes, the damn rain finally caught us!)
Packing up our goodies to hit the road to Hamburg I decided to admire just one of my new pieces. Ah, I opened the camel first. Such beautiful work! But hmmm. There are 4 packages, and the camel was by himself. Did she really cram the other 12 figurines into 3 packs? I started to have a small bit of concern. As I continued to unwrap all of the carefully wrapped parcels now, it was clear we were missing 5 pieces, including Jesus, Joseph and a wise man. Sheesh! I mean really Joseph is ancillary to the story, but you really do need Jesus to make it qualify as a nativity scene and not just a random collection of people and animals from "olden times". Oh carp, what to do now? Apparently, it was time for me to seek Jesus yet again. I texted Tina to see if they were still in Munster- no luck they were already on their way home too. I looked at the receipt and it had no phone number. Yikes. If all else failed at least we could drive by there on our way to Hamburg, but we were hoping to get a really early start because they are expecting a huge storm in Hamburg tomorrow. Finally I found the company's phone number that makes the pieces in Austria. We called the owner (I dialed and I had Renate do the negotiating in high German). He gave us the name and number of the woman working the market, with a bit of swearing thrown in when he found out which pieces were missing. He assured Renate that they would send all pieces missing free of charge wherever we wanted them sent. Then we called Edith, still at the booth to give her our address and make sure she still had the pieces. She was beside herself with joy that we called. She noticed the mistake after we left the booth and went looking for us- at the largest Christmas market in Germany. She even had it announced over the loudspeaker. Well at least she can rest now, and we can hope that Jesus finds his way to my doorstep by Christmas Eve.
Tomorrow we head to Hamburg for our last stop, and will meet up again with Alan and Jennifer. Tonight Renate and Mark and I grabbed a bite at our hotel and were laughing about some of the weird adventures on the trip, like losing Jesus. When we went to the fancy schmancy Mozart dinner they set down our plates for the main course, and as we started to tuck in, Renate was trying to put her finger on what was different about her plate. Then she realized, they forgot to put the actual main course on her plate. We've also marveled at the heartiness of the toilet paper. I think each square could probably be used as a coaster. Everywhere we went for dinner in Austria the Krampus and Father Christmas showed up, including the Mozart dinner. We felt like we were being stalked. And of course when we arrived in Iserlohn, the GPS kept trying to make us drive up a walking path. Tomorrow night we are supposed to have dinner in a restaurant on the Elbe river in Hamburg, though they are expecting flooding, and incredibly high water levels. We may have more adventures to share then! I included a sad picture of Mary for you too...
Linda
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