Shipping Logistics and a Taste of Home

After doing a lot of shopping on amazon.de and this last Christmas season coming and going I have learned a lot of differences in how shipped items are handled and what to watch out for. The kids were asking for "footy pajamas" for Christmas. We searched pretty extensively in local stores and online for something affordable that met the requirements to be called footy pajamas. In the end we decided to order from the Big Feet Pajama Company. They are USA based and ship to Germany. I found an online promo code and justified the additional shipping expense to get the kids what they wanted. The package arrived in plenty of time and all was good. However, a few days later I received a bill from FedEx for 26 Euros. It was a customs and import tax (I think), maybe it was the 19% VAT (value added tax), but either way this was additional expense that I was not factoring in when making my purchase decision. The 19% tax here does seem pretty steep when you compare it to 8.25% sales tax in Dallas, but there is one difference. Here, when you look at the price of something it already includes VAT, so you know exactly how much you are paying for that item. Even online orders display the total cost. That has been nice and we have really gotten used to it. I just didn't know it was going to hit my imported pajamas after the fact. It does seem to be a challenge to ship to Germany. We wanted to get some American Girl doll stuff for Katherine for Christmas and for her birthday but the company will not ship to Germany. They tried in the past, and now they have a strict policy against it. Another option would have been to ship it to a friend or family member in the USA and ask them to turn around and ship it to us. To me, that is too risky and expensive. Why? Well, the cost of shipping a box of any size internationally is bad enough. It has also averaged more than three weeks to receive an item after it was shipped. Most of that time the box is waiting to clear customs. If it does make it past customs we will eventually get an invoice to pay the customs and import fees. American Girl doll stuff is expensive in the first place, I don't want to chance it getting lost or paying additional fees to get here. She will be in the sweet spot age range for American Girl once we return to the USA. How is that for justification? Basically, the way I understand the fees, if something is shipped to us and it is valued at more than 45 Euros we will have to pay the fees on the full value of the goods. You can try to send it with a lower value than what the actual value is, but I am not sure if that will work. That is why I said last time to not send us anything over 45 Euros. I think we can wait until we get back to be showered with gifts from everyone. We will return the favor. I already have a stash of trinkets for specific people once we return. The shipping cost would be more than most of them are worth and they will still be good once we get back.

There is also a difference in how the various carriers handle shipments and import fees. With FedEx we received the package and they sent the invoice later. Not sure what would happen if you don't pay the import fees. I didn't want to find out, so I reluctantly paid it. Deutsche Post is the post office in Bavaria. They also own the carrier DHL. Everything is branded similar and it seems the two are interchangeable around here. When I shipped a box to the USA a few months ago I used the DHL Deutsche Post office locally. By the time it arrived at it's destination the box was demolished and one of the items was broken. It was a miracle anything survived based on the picture that I saw.  

I also received a box from DHL earlier this month. Well, not so much received as I had to go pick it up. Why? It has import and customs fees due on it. They don't bill you later I guess, you have to go get it. This is not that big of a deal since there is a post office within a five minute drive. The lines are usually pretty crazy but they have kept moving pretty quickly every time that I have been so far.

Ordering things from amazon.de is not as good as amazon.com. They have a pretty good selection, it is the logistics that don't make sense. I can place an order for ten items, all Amazon Prime eligible, and get eight different shipments. Some will show up using UPS, others DHL, some FedEx, and even other lesser known carriers. In addition I get a separate charges on my bank card for each shipment. In other words, the cost of the items shipped is broken into what was in each box. Even though it was one order to start I might get eight different charges that add up to the total order. Oh well, it is still easier than trying to shop around here.

Looking for a Taste of Home:
Personally I did really good for about five months, not missing the tastes of home too much. Bavarians love meat and so do I.  We did well trying new things and cooking at home. Lately I have found myself missing more and more of the things from back home. Cindy did a post a couple of months ago on some of the things she misses. I have found myself searching harder for food items that I miss, and having some success. I think the kids are having similar cravings too. We knew coming here that Chick-fil-a and Pei Wei were going to be missed. There is no Whataburger or Dairy Queen. Luckily McDonald's is very common around here. Not so much for breakfast items, but they have McNuggets, so the kids are happy. Cindy and I don't get too excited about the McDonald's menu but the fries are the same and nice to have once in a while. We are averaging about three times a month having a McDonald's dinner. We also have things like Coke, Pringles and M&M's at the store. The kids wear those things out. They will be sick of them before we get back I think.

I have really missed breakfast food. I still have not found a breakfast sausage (they have every other kind of sausage here) that I or the kids like. However, I have found bacon. It is in a package labeled
"Bacon: American Style".

Well, not quite my "American Style", but the flavor is right. I prefer the thicker cut, but no complaints, I found BACON!! This is a tiny package of the thinnest strips of bacon imaginable. When you place a piece on a hot skillet it instantly shrivels to half it's size. The nice thing about it is that it is very easy to make it nice and crispy. This month I have been taking the kids to school and around 11am cooking up some bacon and eggs and either putting them on a plate with toast or throwing it into a flour tortilla. That is my meal until dinner time. Cindy has enjoyed the bacon and eggs a couple of times on the weekend too.

For the first five months the kids were having cereal almost every morning for breakfast. They also don't like to change things up much. For David we found something similar to Cinnamon Toast Crunch and for Katherine it was a Nestle Chocolate cereal. Then I found some "American Pancakes" and at long last American style pancake syrup.

They have now abandoned cereal and want these pancakes every morning. They prefer these pre-made refrigerated pancakes over the German mix that I found to make fresh pancakes. Recently I found some original Aunt Jemima mix, I am going to see if they like it better soon. I guess I shouldn't care too much. They eat almost one package of these each morning at a cost of 1.19 Euros, plus the milk they drink. Pretty cheap breakfast for a day to day stand by. The syrup is a different story. I found it once in the grocery store, but this last time I had to order it. They are going through a bottle pretty quickly having pancakes every morning.

I found the pancake syrup on a web site that specializes in American foods in Germany. I was looking for Nestle Milk Chocolate Chips for making David's favorite cookies. They also had baking soda, the pancake mix, and a few other items tough to find in stores around here. We made our first batch of cookies last week and they were good. This kid does not like many sweets. Besides M&M's Chocolate Chip cookies are about the only other things he likes. I did not have the right flower last time, we are goods to go for next time. Quick aside, there are about twenty different types of flour in the grocery store. I had to research which one to buy for cookies. Crazy.

Prior to moving we had a Sunday morning donut habit. While there are bakeries on every corner around here, there are not American donuts. In general most things around here are not as sweet as the counterpart in the USA. The things that look like donuts are served cold and they are not nearly sweet enough. We ran into our neighbors coming home the other day and they told us about the once a year limited time availability of these things.

Again, not as sweet but still pretty good. We have tried a few of the flavors, some good some we can do without. All of them are filled with various fruit or other flavored fillings. We are still on the lookout for glazed or chocolate glazed donuts fresh out of the fryer.

Recently we got a little care package from Texas that included some of the tastes that we are missing. No doubt, there is no tex-mex food around here. There is a rumor of a Spanish/Mexican restaurant in central Munich, but we aren't getting our hopes up. Last week we did make some queso, with hamburger meat, and enjoyed it with some tortillas. It was good. No we did not dip Pringles in the queso. David opted for another meal option and did not enjoy the queso with us.

We have been able to find some other familiar tastes too. Believe it or not peanut butter is not that common, but my store does have some and it is pretty good. Grape jelly does not exist around here as far as I can tell, but there are some good alternatives. I have also found myself looking in the spice aisle for things that might result in familiar flavors for cooking at home. The bread that we are buying is labeled "American Toast", maybe not as fresh as Mrs. Baird's, but it works. I have been wearing out the cinnamon toast lately. 

I promise we do eat some healthy stuff. It's just not as fun to talk about, and I can't say that I miss any specific vegetable from the USA, and that is the difference. 

After three or fours months in our house we did finally venture out to our first local restaurant in Unterschleissheim. We went to a local Greek restaurant with another TI'er and his wife. He is a German and his wife is Dutch. Cindy and I did not have a good experience at another Greek restaurant in Freising, so they wanted to show us the ropes at this one close to our house. I admit, having a German with us in our dinner party that is familiar with the Greek foods was nice. The waitress did not speak much English. They gave us several suggestions and everything was great. 

This far through this blog post I am now realizing that I might have buried the lead story.

BAM!!!

We have gotten all "European" on everyone and purchased a fancy coffee maker. I only say that because it seems like everyone has a fancy machine around here. That creamy yummy looking cup is straight up black coffee, no cream or milk. Just a fancy machine that grinds and brews with one touch. We can also make one touch Cappuccino, Espresso, Latte Macchiato, etc. There is a little bit of maintenance to keep it clean and to keep the milk frothing system working properly, but I did not have to take barista training to make a perfect froth, it does it all.
That whole idea that doing something for 28 days makes it a habit. I disagree when it comes to food and drink. When we first moved I decided to give up caffeine in the form of coffee and diet soda. I did really well for several months until we went to Chamonix for Christmas. In a restaurant there everyone in our group was having a Cafe au lait. I decided I was on vacation and could also enjoy one, or three. That was all it took. I was all of the sudden a coffee drinker again. Maybe that speaks more to the addiction than anything else. Either way it didn't take long once we got back to invest in a coffee machine. I am still doing good staying away from the diet colas, but I enjoy the heck out of my coffee machine. Now I just have to figure out how to get 220 volts to it once we get back to the USA. My amortization schedule for this machine goes way past the time that we get back to the states, I have to get it to work.

Just a couple of random pics of the kids.
 
The last one is funny and a bit sad. It is David multi-tasking this weekend. Playing Minion Rush on the computer while watching and listening to a YouTube video on his tablet.

Next time will be a bunch of pictures celebrating Katherine's birthday. It has already passed, and we celebrated as a family. The big party and sleep over is this Saturday. She has five other girls coming over to spend the night. If we all survive we will blog about it next week.