Authors note:  I was tempted to not even publish this post because it’s kind of boring, but thought my American friends and family might find shopping in Germany to be interesting.  Sorry (my German friends & family) if you’re bored – you can skip this one 🙂

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Not a whole lot happening here on Tuesday.  We just did a little grocery shopping to get ready for the New Year celebrations and Stilla’s birthday.  Her birthday is on the 31st of December and everyone celebrates with fireworks 🙂

We drove to nearby Freystadt with our son William and stopped first at the German equivalent of a Dollar Store®.

Do we have arrow-shaped sponges in America?

How about round sponges on a stick?

I wonder if customs will let us bring back this giant-sized doggie sausage back with us for little ‘Coach’?

This one (below) is for my cousin Phil… bet he’d like to play with this.

Dollar (er… Euro) wall art.

How about some Star Wars theme party plates, napkins, etc., ?

We checked out at this German version of a Dollar Store® and then drove over to a grocery store called LiDL®.

Now here’s a concept we need to institute in the states… shopping carts that require a 50 Euro Cent piece to be placed in the handle to release a lock.  You get your coin back when you put the cart back and connect to another cart.  Cool… no more dings in your car door from carts left in the parking lot, and probably not as many stolen carts being driven around town by bag ladies and bums 🙂

Of course, they all require a little extra drivers training (on my part) because the back wheels aren’t locked in the forward position like the ones in the states.  These seem to have a mind of their own.

Baked goodies:

Now, this is interesting…

… put your fresh loaf of bread into the machine, set the thickness, slide the window closed, push the start button, and voila!  It slices your loaf in seconds.

But you still have to bag it yourself… guess you can’t have everything 🙂

You won’t find milk in the refrigerator here.  Only on the shelves.

And the grocery stores here have well-stocked liquor aisles.

And lots of fireworks for the upcoming new year celebrations:

Anybody know what a Litschi is?

Me either… but you can buy them here (below).

Most (if not all) stores in Germany, do not provide grocery bags when checking out.  If you want a grocery bag, you’ll have to bring your own or pay a fee for a fabric / cloth-type bag.  This store puts it’s empty cardboard boxes near the register in a large wire basket for customers to use (below).  That helps the store get rid of their cardboard while at the same time – helps the customers that forgot to bring their own shopping bag(s).

Loading the cart.

Loading the car.

Next, we stopped off at the Getränkemarkt (Drink Store).

Anyone want a beer (bier)?

You can even get a Corona® here.

How about a nice mini-keg?

If you buy this six-pack (below) you get a free trash can 🙂

Beer lovers paradise:

Nice varied assortment of holiday biers, only 9 Oreos (er, Euros) 🙂

ChristkindlesMarkt Glühwein in a bottle… in case you don’t want to go to a Christmas market.

Original Budweiser® from the Czech Republic.

Even my favorite – Pyraser Bier®, next to the other local biers; Spalter®, Tucher®, and Winkler Bräu®.

This is a ready-mixed beer and limo (below), called a Radler, it’s kind of like beer and Sprite… pretty popular over here for those times you want a refreshing drink without getting tipsy on the high alcohol content of German bier.

And this is a ready-mix Hefeweizen bier with Cola.  Also popular here.

Checkout counter at the Getränkemarkt (Drink Store).

Our final grocery store stop for the day was at Edeka®.  We went to multiple grocery stores because the last one didn’t have a particular item that Stilla needed to get for Opa.

Bakery at the entrance to the Edeka® grocery store.  Tempting eh?

The frozen foods aisle(s).

Impulse buy… frozen thin-crust pizza.  Yummm.

The yogurt aisle.

The soup aisle.

William decided to stock up on some soup.

The cookie aisle.

The chip aisle.

The alcohol aisle.

And the chocolate aisle.

Darn it… we didn’t get out of here without getting another cart load of groceries 😉

Hope you weren’t too bored with the shopping trip.  Check back for my next post on my old Army barracks in Schwabach.  We did a day trip yesterday (Wednesday) to a museum at O’Brien Barracks and also drove by Katterbach Army Air Field – both were places I was stationed at with the U.S Army for many years.  O’Brien Barracks was turned back over to the Germans in ’92 I believe, but Katterbach is still going strong.