Flea Market!

What's better than a real flea market? Not the kind with pirated DVDs or tube socks or tacky t-shirts, but the kind that requires "No new items" and sells things with a history, with a past, with a real uniqueness.

So last week I found out there was a flea market in Mannheim that was supposed to be big. It's held once a month, and I didn't know about it!

Here's my hero who rolls in from a trip Friday afternoon, only to go straight to a school carnival until 8pm, then says, "You want to go to a flea market tomorrow morning? Sure, let's go."

Oh yeah, this is gonna be good.

Flea markets have a little something for everybody.

And here's my hero carrying our purchases. I didn't actually think I'd buy anything, so I didn't even take a bag. But Eric got this cool guitar-pick shaped table for 5Euros, I got a small ceramic Asian horse for 1Euro, a Portugese platter for 4Euro and a gift for someone for an incredible deal (don't worry, it's someone who will love that I got it at the flea market.) We oohed and aahed over a teak Danish Modern coffee table, but it didn't match the wood color we currently have in our house or the space of our living room. We really wanted it, but couldn't figure out what to do with it and didn't want to drop 125Euros (about $175 currently) for it. Then we got home and Eric found it on-line for ... are you ready for this? ... $1175! This is why we don't have real Danish Modern furniture yet. Plus there's the fact that movers toss all our stuff around every 2 or 3 years and scuff it up. So it's IKEA for now.

All in all a great morning. It was chilly, but I had a wonderful time just walking with Eric (the kids stayed at home. They aren't flea marketers), talking, checking out cool and weird stuff. On the 7th there's a "50s through 70s" flea market about an hour away. (Mid-century modern here I come!) and this Mannheim one happens once more in November, before the weather gets really too cold. Plus then there's Belgium ... and Paris ...