Gardening: All gardens are spick and span. Flower boxes on windowsills are abundant with masses of petunias and portulacas. Some even contain hydrangeas in full bloom. All plants thrive. Fertilising is a mystery but it is evidently highly effective. If a person didn't much like gardening, they would need to do something to make their yard neat, otherwise the hood might take retributive action. (I just made that last bit up, but it wouldn't surprise me.)
Watching Fussball: The World Cup has brought out the yellow, read and black flags. I saw a car in Worms with more than a hundred flags on its roof, a bonnet and mirrors slip-covered with the national flag, and a model soccer pitch perched on the bonnet. That was the most extreme example I have seen so far. But there is bunting everywhere, colourful plastic leis and more and more flags. Michael said that when the World Cup was staged in 2006, Germans first displayed their flag as a point of national pride. It must take a long time for a culture to get over the shame of a war.
Drinking beer and coffee: Biergartens are numerous as are Kaffee und Kuchen shops. All supermarkets have a Backerei in the foyer where it is possible to buy pastry or cakes or rolls and coffee. Regular bakeries offer slices of cakes and biscuits along with a coffee. If you wish for milk, you are only offered that dreadful Kaffee Sahne however.
Ice-cream: This is a national past-time. Coloured glasses brim full of coloured ice-cream decorated with mock cream and wafers are sold in their millions. For those wishing to perambulate and lick, there is the waffle choice. Also cups - paper and plastic. Italian ice-cream is the preferred ice-cream. Of course.
Sun-baking: Yes, as outre as it may be in our culture, it has not entirely caught on here that sunburn is NOT good.
Smoking: And about fifty per cent of the population smoke. Cigarettes are very cheap by our standards. In a country where Natur is revered, this is curious behaviour.
Walking: The countryside is jam-packed with walking Germans. All ages, both genders, with and without gear (I mean specialist walking gear, not clothing, like the folks who shed theirs in the mixed sauna overlooking the Rhein and sat in the window for all to see.) Sundays in particular seem to be the day when a lot of walking gets done.
Riding bikes: See point 7 above.
Colour: After black black Melbourne, it is refreshing to see men and women wearing yellow, orange, pink, acqua, green, lavender, rust...Shirts, pants, sweaters, scarves. And red hair. Red hair dye has always been a favourite and is now sported in several shades.
Pigs: I am yet to spot a live pig, but pork is plentiful - sometimes the only meat - on menus. Perhaps it is because we are in the Rhein Pfalz region that pork proliferates. Who knows? I would have thought a good solid sausage with some potatoes and sauerkraut was the national dish, but here the schnitzel reigns supreme.
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