Saturday June 15th

A day at the airport.  We had to leave as soon as we could, despite our flight being at 15:05, we had not been able to check in online for the past 48 hours as we usually would have done because we had no internet connection, so we had to do it in person.  It only meant that we had a higher chance of not getting 2 seats together.  Fortunately there was plenty of room on the flight and we checked in with no problem.

We easily found a place which sold Paninis (Thank you!) and had lunch in the waiting area before boarding the plane.  The journey was yet again pretty uneventful, but there was quite a bit of turbulence especially as we came into London because it was grey and drizzling.  We landed safely, got off the pane and collected our luggage before buying some nibbles for the journey home on the coach and finally, back home :)

-----------------------------------------------------------------

There were a number of observations which we made whilst in Germany, so I thought I would summarise them at the end.  Not having had this experience before, there were a few things which were new to us / surprised us.  So here they are!


TRAFFIC

Roundabouts - all the ones we encountered looked pretty new and they were all fairly small, comprising of one lane only on the roundabout and also one lane leading up to the roundabout.  In and near city centres cross junctions were favoured - with multiple lanes.  This may have been for the parts of the country we visited of course, but we didn't encounter any roundabouts with more than one lane except ONE next to Frankfurt airport.

Filtering when road works squeeze traffic from 2 lanes into 1 for a short duration of the journey: the whole filtering thing didn't really work.  Everyone seemed to want to get to the front of where the lane gets cut off before trying to get into single file, resulting in a jam.  UK drivers usually begin filtering gradually as soon as they see the signs about it resulting in slow, but flowing traffic.

Road signs seemed to be fairly subtle, although this may just be because we are used to something different.  For all we know, a German holidaying in the UK might think the same of ours.  Roads with A numbers like A5 for example, were actually signposted as [5], and roads which we would call B roads in the UK didn't have the letter on them either.  And as for the complicated ones with 4 numbers, we just forgot about it - it was easier to navigate from vilage to village, and use the numbers on main roads only.



FOOD


Salt and Vinegar is basically the Nation's favourite flavour, and it goes on pretty much everything.  Seriously.  There is a LOT of salt in a lot of dishes.  If you suffer from high blood pressure / trying to cut down your salt intake and you're holidaying in Germany, it would be advisable to learn a phrase to ask for no salt in whatever you order.  And if you order a salad, you can guarantee that 90% of it will be pickled.  So much vinegar.  Everything practically swims in it basically, so if you don't like vinegar, stay away from German salad in particular!


The humble sandwich seemed to be very difficult to find in Germany.  I guess it's not gripped Germany quite so much.  The best bet location wise - especially in a small town - was to find a Bakery.  Not all Bakeries had sandwiches though, but when we did find one which had some, fillings were fairly restricted.  Ham and cheese was be the basis, some with salami in place of the ham, and sometimes maybe with egg, tomato, cucumber or a combination of the three (with the ham and cheese) and mayonnaise was often be the favoured butter substitute.  We also saw the odd giant pretzel and croissant which have the same fillings too.  There are a few other places which are more specialised though, such as "Nordsee" which is a bit like Subway, only the main filling of any sandwich here is some sort of fish or shellfish.


Soda, lemonade or cola was tricky to find on the go because we didn't know where to look.  These drinks weren't as elusive as the sandwich, but the places which do have them, had them in their window or on the counter, so we had to keep our eyes peeled.  Often, the Bakery which had a sandwich did not necessarily have the drinks we wanted.


GENERAL STUFF

A large part of Germany is more religious than I thought it was, especially the area of Bavaria which we visited.  Every village has a church yes, but the bell frequently chimes - this does not happen in many places in the UK so it was a bit of a novelty for us which we thought quaint and rather pleasant.

The double bed arrangement in Germany was an interesting one.  I don't know if this is a country-wide thing in German houses, but it certainly is in hotels - you get the frame for a double bed, but you get two single matresses and two single duvets.  Out of the 8 Hotels / Guesthouses we stayed in, only 2 had one single king size matress and even then we had two single duvets.  I have to admit, this is genius thinking especially for light sleepers like myself.  First off you have a decent amount of space in which to move your limbs like any single bed, unlike any standard sized double matress.  Secondly, your partner can toss and turn all he / she likes and you remain undisturbed whilst getting your beauty sleep.  What's more, there's no fighting about who's got more of the duvet - although Mathew and I rarely have this problem anyway as I'm always cold, he's always too warm, so it just results in him getting rid of his half of the duvet by piling it on top of me.  It's a win-win situation!

Pillows in German Hotels / Guesthouses are where the sleeping experience in Germany was a let down.  Pillow cases are often huge - about twice the size of ours in the UK and square. The pillow inside looks all very nice and floofy when you walk into the room of course, but when you lay your head on it, you'll basically be ending up with your head on the matress.  There is practically no substance in these pillows, so it's best to do what I did -  roll the pillow up into cylindrical form.  It'll end up as half the size of UK or US pillow but at least you'll feel like you have one under your head when you lie down.

Germany is OBSESSED with paper napkins, and we have not yet determined why.  There are racks and racks of them almost in every single shop you see - displayed like greetings cards or postcards on rotating displays.  I had never seen so many napkins with so many designs on them.  You will see them everywhere and sometimes in two different sizes, sometimes on two displays next to each other.  Even the German equivalent of Paperchase sells them.

CHRISTMAS - there's a lot of Christmas stuff going on in Germany.  It's a thing and, well, this is Germany so it's everywhere and you just have to deal with seeing the Nutcracker every now and then, and the odd shop which sells absolutely nothing but Christmas decorations.  And paper napkins.

Gift shops at tourist attractions are very different to those in the UK.  Children's sections are very small and poorly stocked, whilst adults are limited to a LOT of porcelain (understandably so but I don't know many people who really THAT many mugs), tapestry cushions and silk / floaty scarves.  Magnets, bookmarks, postcards etc of course, but don't expect to find something original for a souvenir.  There doesn't seem to be much in the way of themed chocolate or biscuits either, if anything - visiting a bakery is more worthwhile for this.  Come to think of it, you won't really find a great deal which is actually themed on the attraction you just finished looking at.  And paper napkins.

Buying tickets to a tourist attraction can be a complicated decision making process in some places here, especially if you're not familiar with the language and there isn't always a translation.  It's advisable to pop online and visit the website of the attraction via google and translate the page if the website doesn't have a flag at the top to allow the selection of English.  It's easier to figure out what you need and to remember the German for it here.  If you buy a ticket and think you have been given the wrong one, there is a chance that the ticket desk will change it for you but make sure you haven't used it somewhere in the grounds where they punch a hole or tear it, otherwise you'll be paying extra for the garden that you thought was originally included in the price (as this happened to us!).

And don't forget the paper napkins!!