The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Our stay in and journey through Germany had many aspects, not all of them possitive. So far, it was the country we liked least, but let's see what we still have ahead of us.

The Good

The good side of Germany had for us to do with eating and drinking. After such a long stay in Scandinavia, having a can of beer for less than a DM and a good meal with plenty of food was a relief. Eating and drinking was easy in Germany, also because of the large number of Greek restaurants. They were really fitting our a bit peculiar appetite. No problem when you order a large number of dishes and even ask them all at the same time. Similarly, plenty of salads for Fiona and plenty of lamb for me. We loved it.

greek restaurant

Greek food

or "real fast" food

fast food

Another pleasent surprise was that in Germany people on the street are making a chat with unknowns. People wish you good morning and are not just looking at you without saying anything.

The Bad

Long distance cycling in Germany is not nice. Surprisingly, because there are many special bicycle pathes. But one key problem is that those pieces of tarmac are not made to accomodate you, but only to give more space to the "holy car". When a bike-path doesn't exist, you are often obliged to ride on the pavement. There you go with your 50 kg bikes. In between the shopping pedestrians and children. And of course the path ends 2 km further on. This would result in endlessly crossing the road to get to the bike-path. Very dangerous. But when you ignore the rules and stay on the main road, you immediately get a claxon-concerto behind you including drivers who even open their windows to point you to the place where you belong. Germans don't follow rules, they obey them. Very bad!

Also, cars are standardly driving 20 km/h too fast and after lunch and therefore beer you can double that. The car is really sacred and every other traffic participant has to get out of the way.

own risk

you're welcome

forced
onto the sidewalk

bike path

The Ugly

Surprisingly Germany was dirty. Very dirty. Everywhere glass on the road, a lot of beer-bottles, cola-cans and sigarette packs thrown away, it really is a mess. But also no bus-stop was clean enough to sit without first putting a layer of tissues on the seats. And the wastebaskets were most often not emptied.

The hygiene level of campings was of course changing, but never on a real high level. Very unexpected for us. Naturally, we were used to the Scandinavian levels, but it appears now that even France is cleaner then Germany. Real ugly.