Random observations
German life and culture is often the subject of stereotypes in America. I got a huge laugh Thursday night from my cousin, Florian Penkwitt, and his friends when I said the popular perception of a German beer garden is of fat men and burly waitresses in Bavarian lederhosen swilling huge mugs of beer. There was plenty of beer being swilled at the Amadeus beer garden where we were, but Germans as a whole are a lot slimmer than Americans and dress pretty much like we do.
And here are some other thoughts:
--German drivers stop for pedestrians, by and large. I had drivers stop and wave me across the street when I didn't proceed immediately out onto the crosswalk, which can get you killed in America. German pedestrians rarely jaywalk. They'll stand and wait patiently for the light to change even if no car is in sight. The real risk to pedestrians is bicycles. Bicycles share the sidewalks with pedestrians, and often have a marked bike path that American pedestrians invade at their peril.
--Restaurants in Germany don't rip you off when it comes to wine. It was quite easy in Berlin to get a half-liter carafe of good wine for 6 or 7 Euros, or about $7-8. Waitresses inevitably ask you if you want water to go with it. You can be arrested for d.u.i. in Germany with a blood alcohol count of 0.5. In Pennsylvania, it's 0.8.
--Most public toilets charge between 0.30 and 0.55 Euros for the privilege. Even McDonald's Restaurants, the haven for free toilets in the U.S., do this. German toilet paper is definitely of the character-building variety. You can also use it to sand down that old table you've been meaning to refinish.
--Germany seems to have more slim, fine-featured, classically beautiful women than just about any place I've been. Kein Wunder, as they say, that so many American soldiers stationed here get themselves a Fraulein. You can't bring home the beer, but you can bring home the babe.
--My wife will probably kill me for that last observation.