Germany Is Different

Life in Germany is interesting. There are a lot of similarities with the States or with Nova Scotia, like the fact that people move from place to place largely inside of automobiles propelled along over roads, and both places have water and electricity, and chairs and windows, and air to breathe and birds that make chirping sounds. Both places also have people going about their days, shopping or commuting, usually not talking to each other unless they’re traveling in packs. Other than the basic human stuff, Germany really is different. If you sit quietly in your dwelling and don’t interact with the outside world, you might not catch it, though you’d have to sit very still and in one place and not look around very much. The breathable air and the inclusion of solid interlocking construction materials to make walls and floors seems universal, and heated air lends a nice reminiscence of home, but as soon as you start looking around, the differences abound. Let’s start inside: the electrical outlets are of the 220-volt European variety featuring two round prongs instead of the two flat prongs we have back home which, when combined with electrical things brought from the States, immediately creates the need for a means of translation, so to speak. This sounds really simple, “hey, just pick up an adapter” - easier said than done. A few years ago North American plug-in stuff underwent a slight design modification that has kept me from the simple solution of just picking up an adapter. I’ll give you a clue: they do have adapters her, but they don’t fit. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? That’s right! A few years ago we changed our plugs to include one oversized prong so you can only plug things in one way, I think this was to prevent us from plugging in our nightlights upside down. It probably has something to do with homeland security (wink). Anyway, all of the commercially available adapters here are for the olds style same-sized-prong plugs. You would think that OBI, Germany’s equivalent to Home Depot, would have the latest version, but no. Since most electronics, in this case a laptop and a camera, are designed to run on anywhere from 100 to 250 volts, there is no problem just changing the plug end, which I did on my laptop which already had a compromised electrical cord from an earlier repair, but I didn’t want to hack up a perfectly good camera cable, just because I couldn’t locate the correct adapter. Long story short, I ended up going to a specialty electronics shop where the gentleman behind the counter listened intently to our story of the incompatible electrical standards and the new North American plug design until he reached under the counter and produced a small black plastic European adaptor and plugged it onto my North American plug. Voila! "Ein euro funfzig, bitte", that's like "Two bucks, please (with currency conversion)". So simple, yet it took me two weeks, several different stores, and a specialty electronics shop to come up with an adapter that should have been available at the OBI. North American travelers beware!

Another immediately noticeable difference is the windows. I don’t have any experience outside of Germany, but the windows here rock! Back home the windows are mostly of the two frame variety, one over the other with counter balances built into the window casings to hold the particular window frame from crashing down under the effects of gravity. When you want a little air you would usually lift the bottom frame a little, or possibly lower the top frame although this practice is not employed with any regularity, usually only when the smoke alarm is going off in the kitchen, but usually the bottom frame is raised, and when you want a lot of air the lower frame is raised fully to provide a large opening through which air might flow. You also have a shade or blind that is used inside of the window to darken the room and usually a screen outside of everything to keep the bugs outside. In Germany the windows are quite different. There is one large single frame window that has a two way handle the when turned to the up position allows the entire window to be tipped in from the top giving a ventilation opening of about six inches - just right, when the handle is turned horizontally, the entire window opens like a door giving you the entire opening of the window for ventilation, the window locks when the handle is in the down position. This one simple design distinction makes for a wonderful open window experience. It’s the kind of window that Marilyn Monroe was leaning out of in that famous photo of her waving (I should find out where that was taken, I seem to recall it was France or England). And that’s not even my favorite part; every window here has a rolling metal blind that is built into the top of the casing, with a pull-able flat cord inside that is used to unfurl the outside shade. Once it’s down, you have the option of rolling all the way down for completely dark (and I mean completely), or if you back it off just an inch or two, you get mostly dark since backing it off reveals light slits between the interlocking metal louvers. It’s such a great design, and they seem to be on most of the buildings here. Of course the historic houses aren’t fortunate enough to have the rolling blinds, since they weren’t around when the Romans or the Renaissance builders were making houses, and as with most places, there are restriction here on modifying historic structures. But other than on the old homes, these windows are pretty much ubiquitous.

Did I mention the bathrooms? German bathrooms are awesome too. They possess such a simplicity of design. My one favorite feature is the toilet. Favorite design element number one: it’s suspended from the wall and does not touch the floor! Hello! My least favorite part about cleaning a bathroom is cleaning the base of the toilet and the floor around where it’s sitting. In Germany, they’ve eliminated this problem entirely. My second favorite design innovation: on every flush you get to select how much water gets used depending on what it is you need to flush. It’s so simple, it’s brilliant. This eliminates the “if it yellow, let it mellow” approach to water conservation that I’ve seen so often in use back home. OK, enough with the bathrooms, let’s get outdoors, actually I’ll do that in a later post, this is just part one of what I call: Germany is Different.

We’re heading down to the Allgauer Region in the Alps to go castle hunting this weekend. My camera battery is now fully charged, thanks to the new adapter, so I’ll have some photos to share when we return. BTW, Internet access is still a big issue, so I’m not posting as often as I’d like.

That’s all for now.

Cheers!

~B