Waiting in Saarbrucken

We returned to Saarbrucken to wait for the call from the airlines about our lost baggage in Luxembourg.  It was fortunately also a wonderful opportunity to shop.  The shopping area was nice, and it was a lot larger than the I remember.

 

This is a city on the river Saar in Germany.  It is a few kilometers from René and Elsy’s house in Gaubiving, France.  Food and goods are usually cheaper in Germany because of the French taxes.  The competing French stores all disappeared and Saarbrucken became a center of commerce for both the French and Germans in the area.   I guess it says a lot about what happens when you tax the population too heavily.  It was sad for the French merchants!

 

We had been calling KLM trying to find out when we were getting our bags.  The conversations with their help-desk personnel were questionable because of their command of the English language.  At one point I had to ask the woman what language she was speaking . . and she said English.  But, I had to ask her in French before she understood!

 

Finally, we asked René to talk with them on the French support lines.  They found our baggage in 15 minutes, and we drove to the Saarbrucken airport and picked them up.   Hmmm.

 

It turned out that they sent the bags from the Luxembourg airport to the Saarbrucken airport via plane (50 miles away).  They were then going to give the bags to a carrier that could cross into France.  It would have been days, I think!

 

Afterwards, we went to René and Elsy’s for conversation and a wonderful series of drinks and a meal.  It was terrific.  Elsy shared a recipe with Nancy who is also an excellent cook.  Tomorrow is Strasbourg, one of our favorite cities,  . . then golf!