Trip to Germany

Cathy L wrote:

Why do you people have to be so nasty??

Tell ya what. I'll agree to be less nasty if you'll agree to be less
stupid.

Deal?

You can start by figuring out how to edit a post to which you are
replying, like, f'r instance, not quoting the entire thing and
adding two lines of whining commentary.
--
dgs

Fishkill Bill wrote:


We would have to say the cities are quite unimpressive. A lot of 50's
style plain looking buildings. The little towns are the cleanest we
have ever seen. Most look the same though. Down near the Alps is
probably the best area.

Driving is a dream in Germany. Not a pothole in the entire country.
Not the most friendly people though, (not like Ireland).

I found Germans friendly enough everywhere I went. As I have posted here
previously, the friendliest, most sincere hospitality I ever experience
while travelling was in Bavaria.

I agree about the roads. While we did most of our travel on the Autobahn,
we did get onto some secondary roads and found them to be in excellent
condition. The only potholes I encountered where in a construction zone,
and that road was being rebuilt, not just a new coat of asphalt or a few
patches, but stripped down to the gravel base and re-paved.

The small towns we stayed in were very clean. There was no litter, no road
sand on the side walks. In one town in which we spent a few days the
children were sent out on Saturday mornings to sweep the sidewalks and the
roads in front of their houses.

Martin wote:

On Sun, 30 Sep 2007 14:36:21 -0700, "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)"
wrote:



Pat wrote:
"Fishkill Bill" --thanks for the satire, Bill. I enjoyed it. People
need to
lighten up and realize satire when it appears.

Pat in TX

Are you SURE it was intended as satire? (If so, the "Cathy
and Bill" posts are works of pure genius, because they NEVER
give any indication their ingenuousness is counterfeit!)

You maybe didn't read all the comments some of us made at the time. I
didn't
believe any of it. I was only surprised that Cathy was not a victim of
pickpockets in 12 countries in 12 days.


I was thinking...could Our Magda have pulled the "Cathy n' Bill" scheme as a
bit of japery...???


--
Best
Greg

Make credence recognised that on Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:47:03 -0400,
Cathy L has scripted:

Why do you people have to be so nasty?? Can't a person express their
opinion without being called names? It's so childish.

Damn, you know how to get a reaction!

The art of trolling aint dead.
--
---
DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
---
--

On Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:51:14 -0400, Dave Smith
wrote:

Fishkill Bill wrote:


We would have to say the cities are quite unimpressive. A lot of 50's
style plain looking buildings. The little towns are the cleanest we
have ever seen. Most look the same though. Down near the Alps is
probably the best area.

Driving is a dream in Germany. Not a pothole in the entire country.
Not the most friendly people though, (not like Ireland).

I found Germans friendly enough everywhere I went. As I have posted here
previously, the friendliest, most sincere hospitality I ever experience
while travelling was in Bavaria.

I agree about the roads. While we did most of our travel on the Autobahn,
we did get onto some secondary roads and found them to be in excellent
condition. The only potholes I encountered where in a construction zone,
and that road was being rebuilt, not just a new coat of asphalt or a few
patches, but stripped down to the gravel base and re-paved.

The small towns we stayed in were very clean. There was no litter, no road
sand on the side walks. In one town in which we spent a few days the
children were sent out on Saturday mornings to sweep the sidewalks and the
roads in front of their houses.

Boy, we must have traveled the same roads as you did. The only bumpy
road was a small section they were resurfacing.

The people we met are Germany were not "unfriendly" to us in any way.
We just get a kick out of when my husband would smile and say good
morning to someone we encountered while walking down a street, they
were rarely respond in any way. Not like in Ireland, where you would
get a large friendly response.

I loved to see people sweeping or vacuuming the steps of their homes.
No one even throws cigarette butts on the ground.

Cathy

Martin wrote:


If that happened to you in Bavaria too, it must be a personal problem . Maybe
you were mistaken for pickpockets? Maybe the people weren't German.
Of course if you smile and say good morning to everybody in a busy shopping
street you might be mistaken for idiots or a candid camera crew.

People need to realize that when you are a tourist and in a tourist area
there is a good chance that the people you run into are also tourists. I
am reminded of complaints about litter in European cities. I have noted
that areas with lots of litter
are usually those with lots of tourists, but when you get out of the high
tourism areas there is a lot less. That leads me to the conclusion that it
is the tourists who are throwing the litter around.

I can think of one incident where I was treated somewhat rudely. I was in
Baden Baden and asked an elderly woman, in my fractured German, where the
baths were. While she ignored me, an elderly gentleman overheard me and
beckoned me to follow him and we went a considerable distance out of his
way to show us the way.


When you sat
down at a table with strangers in a restaurant or a bar, did they speak to you
or ignore you?

While travelling by train in Germany we shared a compartment with a German
businessman who was polite enough but did not engage us in conversation at
first. My wife was working on a music theory exercise and asked me for
help, but when I could not help her he offered assistance.

On Tue, 02 Oct 2007 17:02:35 +0200, Martin wrote:

On Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:28:23 -0400, Dave Smith wrote:



In general I've always encountered nothing but friendliness and helpfulness in
south Germany.

We must have stopped people at least a dozen times to ask directions.
They were overly helpful, feeling bad that they couldn't speak
English.

I am talking about walking down a street, in a non-tourist area, and
encountering a person walking alone toward us. When my husband would
smile and say good morning, or whatever, rarely would he get a
response. No big deal, just an observation. We noticed a big
difference when we moved up state from Queens. People are not as
openly friendly. German seems to be that way.

People in Ireland seem to be more openly friendly.

I'm sure we are the only poeple on the planet that have made this
observation.

Cathy

On Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:59:28 +0200, Martin wrote:



Are you going to show us your holiday photos?

Why do you want to see our vacation photos? Have you run out of people
to make fun of?

Cathy

Martin wrote:

O

I'm sure we are the only poeple on the planet that have made this
observation.

About people in south Germany almost certainly.


I commented on it after my trip there several years ago, and being a native
English speaker I appreciate that they were extremely hospitable to us in a
language that was foreign to them.

Fishkill Bill wrote:

Here are the places we visited:

Heidelberg-Bacharacher

Bacharach
-Cologne

Köln
-Bremen-Hamburg-Wittenburg

Wittenberg
-Berlin-Potsdam-Dresden-Nuremberg

Nürnberg
-Rothenburg-Nordlington

Nördlingen
-Neuschwanstein-Munich

München
-Oberommergau

Oberammergau
-Peiting-Donauworth

Donauwörth
-Nordlington

We had that one before.
-Dinkelsbuhl

Dinkelsbühl
-Anbach

Ansbach
-Nurmberg

Remember Nürnberg?
-Bamberg-Schonbrunn

Schönbrunn
-Burgebrach-Werzburg

Würzburg
-Schwinberg

Schweinberg (Why would anybody visit Schweinberg, BTW? Since they
where building a bypass in the 70s, I never had this idea.)
-Tausberbeschofsheim

Tauberbischofsheim
-Rottingen

Röttingen
-Creglingen-Heilbrann

Heilbronn
-Dieburg-Dormstadt

Darmstadt
-Buttelborn

Büttelborn
-Grob-Gerau

Groß-Gerau
-Frankfurt.

We would have to say the cities are quite unimpressive.

Unlike these cities, your orthography is very impressive.

Jens