Deutschland,Deutschl and uber alles. Or is it?

Forgive the predictive text in the title.

Rather a generalisation I think.

It's like any other country, you don't really know what it is like until you live and work there, then all the problems start to show.

Sadly, we British are not very good at being patriotic or maybe we are becoming afraid to be so.

I have a friend who lives in Berlin and she assures me it is no better or worse than here in terms of services, jobs, getting a plumber or similar out in an emergency etc. Her daughter and SIL work very long hours with less annual leave than they would have in the UK. The education sysyem seems to be just as much of a mishmash with competition to get children into 'good' schools and the same tricks going on to do so. Private schools are flourishing there amongst ordinary families so the state system is obviously not perfect. So I think it probably depends on your stage of life, whereabouts in Germany you are, and what your priorities are, but on the whole not much different.

On a lighter note, we are certainly much better a queuing !

Rugby? I've never heard of any German expertise in that!

'They drive much better than us'. What does that mean, exactly?

And we are very polite. We say sorry all the time, even when people bang into us. Not saying Germans aren't polite, but .... We are quite possibly the best in the world

On the plus side I think they have a better work/life balance. Shops are not open 24/7 so shopping is not the weekend "hobby" it has become in the UK. On the minus side their loo paper still feels like recycled egg boxes. I do like their shoes and clothes and the way they can have an open air festival or market with beer for all but no drunken louts to make them a no go area for families wirh children.

The bus and taxi drivers all seemed to be so tired and weary! Why was that? The bus seats were rock hard, too. I think our public transport system is far better than theirs in every way.

They have this thing with the traffic lights where it goes green for cars at the same time as the green man shows. The cars have to give way to the pedestrians. The pedestrians have to keep their fingers crossed that the drivers know about it. Apparently it keeps the traffic flowing better. Weird.

The housing stock in Berlin, where we were most of the time, was miserable looking apartment blocks, one after the other, with shops at ground level.

And the TV tower in Alexanderplatz isn't as high as the Shard. And the view is nothing like as good as London.

Sorry. Didn't think a lot of Berlin. Well, we did raze it to the ground in the war. That is a shame. The few historical buildings they do have left are lovely. And they have made a good job of rebuilding the ones they lost.

Weather was warm and sunny, whilst it was chucking it down over here. That was good.

I do like their little green men.

On the traffic lights that is! They are marching. Very sweet.

When my DH was a pilot he was queued up on a taxi way to take off. A Lufthansa plane was also on another taxiway queuing. They jumped the queue and took off. When my husband commented on that the Lufthansa pilot said " but we put our towel on the runway last night".

I visit Germany regularly as I have close friends near Frankfurt. In my opinion their train and bus services are much better than ours, and the roads are in a better state of repair. The whole country seems to be better run, somehow. And most people are lovely.
It's simply not true that the Germans have no sense of humour, they most certainly do, and are generally warm hearted and welcoming.
The only downside is the food; beer and sausages can get a bit tedious after a while! But some restaurants do serve a better range of food.
(don't ever eat the herring-burgers, they are horrible!)

Brenda

Love the food! Kaffee und Kuchen, Currywurst, Matjes Heringe, Bockwurst and Sauerkraut, Schnitzel etc etc etc - what's not to like? Trains are clean, fast and frequent as well as punctual and the streets are clean and litter free. We could learn a lot. Oh and public loos may cost ypu 20 or 50 cents to spend a pfennig but they are pristine and usually have an attendant to keep them immaculate.

I would love to go to Germany. I learned (learnt?) German at school and it was the ONLY thing I was good at. My uncle married a German lady and she used to get me to write to her in German and she would send my letters back corrected, so I cheated a bit but I really enjoyed learning the language and can still remember some of it.

We stayed in the Nikolai Quarter and it was completely different from the rest of Berlin. It was really lovely. Small and friendly. Loads of outdoor places to eat too. If I go again I don't think I would stray far from that area.

My DS and DGS live in Berlin, it seems nice and clean, people are helpful, and public transport is great, housing rent seems very cheap as well, given it is a city- they pay 700 euros a month for a large two bed apartment with balcony, which includes all utilities.
Architecture a bit grim though !

I think Germany is like any other country, there are good and bad points to it. I definitely think there transport system is far superior to ours and their parks are superb and well maintained. One of my DSs lives in Germany and is married to a German girl and so one of my DGs is half German and they see good and bad there. Sometimes when we visit places we only see the good points but it can change when you live in the same place.

The NHS. Always worth a shot.
Creative industries generally, including film and special effects.
Shakespeare.
Race relations? more inclusive/diverse?

I agree Kiora, I think the Germans get it right. They still manufacture quality products. All my bedroom furniture is German, my kitchen and appliances are German. I even have a German car. When I needed a new mattress I got a German one and then had the bedding sent over too.
I do think their TV is poor and I buy British TV series DVDs for my sister to watch instead.

Hey - we do cheap stuff better than they do?

They've still got C & A's.

Their ambulance drivers are not Paramedics so cannot administer strong medication, they are going to be trained by UK. A lot of Germans live in flats/apartments so no gardens. There are very few service stations on the autobahns.

However it is a spotless country, there are no drunken louts, even at Bierfest time the security guards escort any troublemakers out of the tents. The trains run like clockwork, they are cheap and are well