A Georgia Girl in Germany

This past weekend, I managed to head up to the Ramstein Bazaar with two friends…sans kids. I had intended to drag my kiddos along for this shopping extravaganza, but when Carolyn suggested going together -- and leaving our kids with her husband -- I gladly took them up on the offer! Zachary actually ended up helping another scout on his Eagle project all day, but MacKenzie and Benjamin enjoyed the day with Emma and Evan. And I enjoyed the rare opportunity to go shopping without the munchkins in tow.

I hoped to find an antique monk’s bench while there, and even took out the extra seats from the van to provide room to bring one back, should I find one. I found several there, but none really spoke to me. After nearly seven hours of shopping through two aircraft hangars and an outdoor tent, I resigned myself to the idea that I would have to keep looking. Then, as we were making our final pass through one of the hangars, I spotted exactly what I had been looking for. I think we missed this vendor on our first pass because we were so intrigued by the grass shopping baskets from Ghana across the way,

Monks were allowed to have only one piece of furniture in the monasteries, so the pieces needed to be rather versatile. The ingenious design of a typical monk’s bench was such that it was a bench, with storage under the seat and a hinged back that would allow the back to fold down onto the arms to form a table -- three functions in one. This particular one is made of oak and mahogany from England, and dates to between 1860-1890. It’s sitting in our entryway already -- the perfect spot to sit and get shoes on before heading out, while the storage can hide the kids’ backpacks that usually clutter up our entryway.

The photo above shows the bench as a bench, while the photo at the left shows it as a table.

Of course, I found a few other items at the bazaar that came home with me as well: several more Polish Pottery pieces, a grass basket from Mali (similar design as the ones from Ghana), some chocolate-topped Belgian waffles, and a small package of fudge (I was craving fudge last Christmas and couldn’t find any). Then we capped off our shopping trip with a stop at the gourmet hamburger joint on base (albeit, no Red Robin) before heading back home. Overall, it was a wonderful trip…and all objectives were met!

Labels: Germany, Pam's thoughts