We headed into Oldenburg relatively early, for the flea market. Like so many, though, it had mostly professionals selling and there weren’t any real bargains to be had. Little Hanno was happy, though – he found his OMGFAVOURITETHING, a Traktor. Traktor! Traktor!

For brunch/lunch, we headed to a cafe which was decorated like a very traditional, somewhat posh cafe – but all the food was organic. I’m not entirely sure about my hot chocolate, but I am happy to believe that it was good for the environment as well as good for my tummy.

Stopped at a couple of shops on the way back to the car – first, a big clothing store, where I picked up a few things for the girls despite the differing seasons. Yay, they took VISA. I kind of had to guess at sizes, so sent Fraser an urgent email to let me know their important measurements before I go OMGSICK! in OMGESSEN!. Then on to look at a games and toy shop – again, a great range, but I am getting spoiled now. It wasn’t a patch on the games shops in Budapest or Karlsruhe.

Posted some potscards, too, including a range of Agricola postcards. OMG!

Saturday afternoon, it was time to experience the Glamour of the Games Business at first hand. The neighbours’ kids came over, so that we could hand write the numbers from 1 to 2500 on the limited edition Bohnanza booster decks. Errm, expansion packs. Heh. This was more of a performance than it sounds, as loyal Lookout Games customers pre-order particular numbers each year. 42 is taken, 666 is not. Is it wrong that they are the two numbers I first thought of?

Anyway, there was only so much room at the table, so I took the youngest child to the OMGVEGIEMEEPLES assembly area.

Now this was a rather more complicated activity than it seems. Each pack of vegiemeeples has at least 18 veggies and at least 25 grain. But ugh, who wants to count out 1000 bags like that? No, Hanno had a better plan: Fruchtzwerge.

Fruit dwarves? I hear you ask. WTF???

Well, they are little yoghurt treats that you buy in 6- or 8-packs for kids. And, coincidentally, a red Fruchtzwerg container holds 18-20 veggiemeeples and a yellow Fruchtzwerg holds about 13 grain meeples.

Yep.

We recycled kiddie yoghurt packs to use as meeple measuring cups.

It worked quite well, except that they were kind of not terribly sturdy. We spent quite a bit of time pushing dents out of our  Scientific Meeple Measures.

Afterwards, Hanno and I played a game of Agricola with the two oldest children (13 and 15?).  Yay – first game with Veggiemeeples!

Today I also discovered that one side benefit of this trip is that Otto’s computer literacy skills have improved. Well, she has learned to use skype. She woke up at crazy o’clock in the morning and went straight to the computer  to send me a message – a kissy face. Then she started trying to get me to talk to her – which doesn’t work well when my battery is about to run out. She was a little annoyed, I think.