Musings on Germany

Some random thoughts on things I noticed in Germany:

1. Cars are small. I actually liked it. It's much easier to parallel park! The smart cars that seat two people are hysterical.

2. Bikes are much more prevelant...everywhere...from the large cities to country towns. I'm sure the high gas prices (about $5.50 a gallon) make this much more attractive but it also helps that there are bike lanes and bike paths everywhere too. There are devoted bike lanes along streets in the major towns and even in the more rural areas of Germany there are bike/pedestrian paths always present.

3. Solar and wind power. I've never seen so many modern wind mills and so many houses with solar panels on them before! It was really cool!!

4. Germans are better drivers. Despite the idea that there's no speed limit on the autobahn (parts only, there are speed limits in lots of places on the autobahn), people are much better drivers. They consistently use turn signals, don't pass on the right (it's illegal and enforced), keep their distance from the vehicle in front of them, and stop for pedestrians.

5. Holstein cows, you know - the black and white ones, are named after the Schleswig-Holstein state of Germany (where Matthias is from). Matthias *claimes* that the cows are all over the place up there. Well I saw exactly 5 of them. He *claimes* that it was too cold while we were there so they were probably inside. I didn't buy it. We saw lots of what I called fuzzy cows and quite a lot of sheep though.

6. Tall and blond? Everyone in Germany is tall. Matthias is like average height in Germany, I swear. In the US I can usually look through a crowd and find him; not in Germany. Going back to the car conversation, this is rather funny...all of these 6' + people in tiny cars. But are they all blond? Not really.

7. Bathrooms. The public bathrooms and bathrooms in restaurants in Germany are exceptionally clean. Why? Because it costs you up to .50 Euro to pee. Sometimes this meant throwing money into a machine to get into the bathroom but other times it meant that there was a lady sitting outside of the bathroom with a white ceramic plate for you to put a tip for using the bathroom.

8. Meat and Potatoes. Yes, that really is the german diet, plus you can add bread to the list. However, despite what some people told me, I could find a salad to eat if I wanted to and obviously Matthias and I found pizza and Italian restaurants. There are also Chinese restaurants too. The one thing we didn't see was a Mexican restaurant. Matthias and I have already made quesadillas twice since we've been back!

Overall, I really liked Germany and most things were very similar to the US.