Random musings on Germany

As we spend our final day in Germany, I have some thoughts that I've collected during our weeklong stay. 

-We have visited cities in four different federal districts (Neidersachsen, Rhine-Westphalia, Bremen and Hamburg), and found a wide range of cultures within them. As a student of history this should not surprise me, but it did. Each of the fourteen states was an independent country until German unification in the 1880s. So as a "country" they are relatively new. The United States had vastly different cultures between regions prior to the civil war, and it took that internal conflict to unify us. My guess is that our homogenized view of one distinct Germany is fueled by the Second World War, which coalesced Germans of all types into one terrifying image of national socialists and SS officers. Being able to travel to so many regions (Bavaria and Berlin are the only two big ones we are missing) has really given me a personal feel for how rich and diverse the country actually is. 

-Drivers have to be nuts here. Sure, there are major autobahns between big cities. But watching tour busses and semis navigate cobblestone streets designed a thousand years ago is simply terrifying. In addition, there seems to be very little rhyme or reason to things. Cars park on the street in two-lane roads resulting in games of chicken for who gets the only remaining lane. Vehicles park on sidewalks, drive on sidewalks, drive down paths that look like they're built for dogs instead of cars. Two-lane highways are so narrow that when two vehicles pass they are so close that both shudder violently. Does either slow down though? No way! And yet I have only seen one traffic jam and no accidents. There are without a doubt many fewer cars than in any equivalent city in the U.S.

-Bicycles are still relevant. In Amsterdam we saw bicycles everywhere. Okay, they're a city known for bicycling, where there isn't any room for cars on the narrow canal streets. But every city in Germany is filled with bicyclists as well. Not so many as Amsterdam, but enough to see people of all walks of life on bikes in every city, town, and hamlet. People biking to work. People biking on their phones. People biking while smoking. People biking with kids on the handlebars.

-Public transit is amazing. Intra-city is great, but I am mostly impressed by the extensive light rail system that goes nearly everywhere. I haven't checked the exact mileage yet, but when we used it to travel to Bremen and Hamburg last weekend, it was analogous to taking day trips to Chicago and Minneapolis. The discount weekend pass made it cost €9 per person for both trips combined. 

-No Walmarts

-There is a lot that actually reminds me of the 1990s in the U.S.  Cell phones are much less common. Pay phones are still everywhere on the streets. Smoking is permitted nearly everywhere (trains are the only places I've seen it forbidden). Newspapers are more prevalent. Everyone uses cash and pays bills together in restaurants. And of course there is a lot of 90s music playing on the radio. 

-People have been universally friendly to me. I realize that I have been making every effort to speak to them in their own language, and successfully had at least 4 all-German (rudimentary) conversations, but even so I have not had one bad experience. I just cannot imagine that being the case for a German visiting our country, even if he speaks perfect English.