20 Surprising Things I Learned in Germany

This summer Thom and I escaped to Germany for nearly a month.  Why Germany?  Well, we had never spent any time there in the past and figured it could be an interesting place to explore while enjoying cooler temps. (Remember we live in the hot desert southwest, so this is an ongoing plan.). We did start our trip in Berlin because friends we had met on another trip lived there and urged us to come.  But otherwise, we headed to southern Germany usually known as Bavaria and focused on small towns.  Not surprisingly, there are many things unique to Germany that we had not experienced before and decided to share those that seemed most interesting.

First off Germany is a great place to visit (at least during the summer) and we are very happy we did.  However, just like any place, other things take a bit of getting used to. In no particular order, here are twenty things that stood out.

• Germans love to bike! Everywhere you go—cities, small towns and even through the countryside, there are paved bicycle paths. Plus they start riding very young. Germans apparently teach their children to ride bikes when they are barely out of diapers.  We constantly saw children just above toddler age riding tiny bikes—and no training wheels either.   The kids were amazing, and mom and dad were right there (rain or shine) biking with them! However, only about 20% of adults wore helmets.
• Driving is relatively easy. We were upgraded to a compact SUV that was bigger than I originally wanted but turned out quite nice.  And the roads were mostly excellent.  Freeways were smooth and signage easy.  Of course, that said we avoided driving in cities (like Berlin) or navigating the small roads in small towns.
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• Something else that makes driving easier is that like what we found in Japan, Germans seem to always follow their rules. There is never a right turn on a red.  No one ever goes through red (or even yellow) lights.  And there is no jaywalking.  You wait your turn when you want to cross the street.  They also stay in the slow lane when driving on the freeway and only use the left lane to pass.
• Unfortunately, parking can be a challenge. Unlike the U.S. with massive parking lots by every store, Finding parking in approved parking can be difficult because they fill up early.  Oh, and they always charge with meters that you must scout out and then figure out how to pay—in German no less.  Much easier to have parking at your hotel or Airbnb and then walk to where you need to go.
• Speaking of walking, most Germans walk A LOT. So did we while visiting.  Maybe because the weather was so good and parking so difficult, we found ourselves walking to stores, restaurants and while sightseeing.  It definitely helped burn off some of the calories were consuming.
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• Speaking of food. Germans love their meat and potatoes.  And their meat (at least where we visited) was mostly pork.  They also love their sausages.  While we are meat eaters ourselves, we got a bit tired of it after a month.  One of our favorites turned out to be a combination of pasta, mushrooms and ham named Schwabenpfanne. The worst was currywurst—basically a hotdog in a sweet tomato-based sauce. They also don’t use much spice—including salt or pepper. Of course, their bread and pastries were good, so we didn’t starve!!
• Unfortunately lots of Germans smoke. It was unusual to see so many people smoking everywhere although they are not allowed inside restaurants.  However patios were full of them.  There are also cigarette vending machines on practically ever corner!
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• Because we mostly stayed in Airbnbs we were able to appreciate the construction of most houses. Even those quite old had sturdy thick doors and double paned windows.  Nearly all the windows had levers on them so you could open them to the side (like doors) or just tilt them from the top and leave open for ventilation. Plus, they all had roll down shutters that were either electric or hand pulled.  These metal shutters blocked out light (and cold) and provided security.  A very nice feature I wish we had more of in the U.S.
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• They don’t use top sheets on beds. Instead, all beds come with a typical fitted bottom sheet like we are all familiar with.  But on top all they have is a twin sized quilted duvet that is laying folded over on each side of the bed when you arrive.  (Along with a pillow of course.). Now I don’t know about you but that is WAY too hot for me.  What Thom usually did was he took the quilted part out of the duvet and just used the cover as his “blanket.”  Instead, what I did was bring my own sheet.  If you stay in a hotel, you can always ask housekeeping for an extra bottom sheet (to use as a cover) but we mostly stayed in Airbnbs so that wasn’t possible.
• Using ice in homes is uncommon. We stayed in three different Airbnbs while in Germany and only one of them had a freezer and even that one didn’t have any way to make ice cubes.  Apparently, it is not a “thing” here.  While one of our landlords let us buy some ice in town and store it in his big freezer downstairs, we just had to do without.  So iced tea was out of the question, and we only made cocktails a few times.
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• Germans LOVE their beer. We kind of knew this in advance but seeing people sitting and drinking beer at all times of the day (morning, noon and night) was surprising.  Interesting to us at least was how little you saw them drinking soda pop at all.  Just beer.  And while we never saw any small children drink beer, we did see quite a few teenagers.  (Of course, guessing ages is getting harder all the time.)  I should mention that the beer really is great tasting!  Oh, when not drinking beer they were eating ice cream!
• Many Germans know how to speak English, but they don’t do it.  We were surprised because we were told that most Germans take English in school so they “learn it.”  However, because they don’t often speak it at home or around, they don’t use it and don’t feel confident using it unless absolutely necessary.  (One of our landlords told us that.).   So, to communicate with many of them or to read signs or especially menus in restaurants I had to use my Google translator.  Not ideal but it did get us by.
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• There are a few German words or phrases that come easily like Danke Schon (thank you) or Auf Wiedersehen (goodbye) or Guten Morgen (good morning). Then there are a few slang words they all routinely say like “hall-oh” for hello to greet one another, or ciao to say goodbye.
• Our overall impression of Germans is that they are courteous, but rather stoic.  They aren’t rude or unkind, just abrupt when answering questions.  They never initiate conversation (of course the language gap likely has something to do with this), but this took a bit of getting used to for us.  While Thom did have a nice chat with a German man during one of our train trips, that was rare.  On the other hand, when we encountered other travelers on vacation, they were usually quite friendly.
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• Breakfast in Germany is very different from the typical U.S. breakfast of bacon and eggs.  Instead, bread or pastry and coffee is the norm.  For lunch you could often find avocado toast or even a poached egg on toast but not for breakfast.   We ended up buying fresh fruit and yogurt in the store and making our own on most days.
• Fortunately, the grocery stores offer lots of fresh fruits and vegetable.  Perhaps because it was summer we bought amazing lettuce and other salad makings for our apartment.  Even better?  The prices were surprisingly low.
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• Speaking of prices—we were pleasantly surprised to see how reasonable they were.  While we never ate at high-end restaurants, we did eat at some very good highly rated restaurants.  What we usually did was order one entrée, one appetizer (like a side salad) and one or two beverages.   Not only was the main entrée usually quite large, but the restaurant never seemed to mind our splitting and getting us an extra plate.  This type of meal arrangement for lunch usually cost about $20-30.  For dinner it would be $40-50.  We usually only ate one meal a day at a restaurant and the other at home.
• In case you’re wondering, Germany feels very safe to visit.  At no time did we feel threatened or worried about our safety.  All the properties where we stayed were very secure.  Even in Berlin (the only big city we stayed in) was easy to navigate.  Of course, we didn’t go out late at night or visit questionable neighborhoods, but all was fine where we traveled.
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• What about Germany’s history? In Berlin we learned quite a bit about the wall between east and west that came down in 1989. We also heard from several guides about WWI and WWII and most every city we visited had Jewish War Memorials.  Very similar to the history we learned in Japan all Germans are taught in school (and out) that such violence and aggression should never be repeated.
• In the end we are very happy with our choice to stay in a couple of the smaller towns and enjoy the ambiance of the culture.  Places like Bamberg with its medieval architecture, Nordlingen with an intact covered wall surrounding the town, and Uhldingen on the lake and hosting fireworks one night will all stay in my mind forever.  Those memories and others have helped to make it a great summer.

As usual I am reminded of how fortunate I am to be able to travel and experience different cultures.  Of course it is SMART to keep in mind, as St. Augustine said, “The World is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”