{"id":10,"date":"2004-05-18T20:38:00","date_gmt":"2004-05-18T20:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.therem.net\/blog\/?p=10"},"modified":"2004-05-18T20:38:00","modified_gmt":"2004-05-18T20:38:00","slug":"german-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therem.net\/blog\/german-things\/","title":{"rendered":"German things"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I recently returned from a week-long vacation in Germany, in the Frankfurt\/Darmstadt area. This is a list of cultural observances I wrote down while I was there.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Doors overlap their frames on one side, creating a very solid seal when they are closed.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>Light switches are often OUTSIDE the room.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>Trees are planted everywhere, even in private parking lots, etc. Urban spaces are pleasant and well-maintained.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>The new Euro currency is confusing. Some coins can&#8217;t be told apart without close scrutiny.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>Though German is the official language, you are likely to find an English label on many products, and you hear many other languages spoken in public (true of a lot of Europe).<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>Trains go nearly everywhere. If not trains, then trams or buses.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>Bicycles are extremely popular, and bike lanes can be found on many roads.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>Many towns brew their own distinctive beer(s). In the Frankfurt region, Hefeweizen (highly alcoholic wheat beer) and Apfelwein (hard cider) are popular.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>Measurement lines on the sides of glasses eliminate doubts about how much you&#8217;ve been served.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>MEAT. BUTTER. CREAM SAUCE. INESCAPABLE.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>To flush toilets, look for buttons on the tank or the wall behind. The average toilet design in Germany is much more effective than in the U.S. &#8212; the water pours down forcefully from the entire circumference of the bowl, and the bowl is steeply inclined. No floaters!<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>General consideration for public facilities is clear, because extra paper in restrooms could be easily stolen, but it hardly ever is.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>On the other hand, smoking is allowed in most public places apart from trains and buses. Non-smoking areas in restaurants and pubs are nearly unheard of.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>The waitstaff makes up for it by figuring separate bills for everyone by default.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>But unfortunately, very few restaurants accept credit cards. EU debit cards are welcome, though.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>Hardly anyone owns an SUV.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I recently returned from a week-long vacation in Germany, in the Frankfurt\/Darmstadt area. This is a list of cultural observances I wrote down while I was there. Doors overlap their frames on one side, creating a very solid seal when they are closed. Light switches are often OUTSIDE the room. Trees are planted everywhere, even [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-society"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therem.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therem.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therem.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therem.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therem.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.therem.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therem.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therem.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therem.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}