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Slow Tourism and Grocery Carts

Guten Abend aus Deutschland!

The trees are starting to take on fall colors, while others are busy dropping their leaves already. Many trees are still mostly green, such as the ones in the photo. It's been relatively warm (in the 70's) and mostly sunny this week, and getting dark earlier and earlier. At 49 N latitude, we're not nearly as extreme with the changes in daylight, but it's still noticeable. 

My knee is finally recovered from the accidental long walk, and we went today in pursuit of a supposed thrift store. I say supposed, because the address was in the middle of an warehouse district, where there was a lot of new construction going on amidst what looked like old apartments for refugees, literally next to the train tracks. It wasn't the normal tourist attraction by a long shot. There was nothing resembling a thrift store in sight. I do miss Bishop's Attic!

Speaking of tourism, I like to call what we're experiencing "slow tourism". I say slow, in contrast to the "Ten countries in 12 days" tourism. I've always thought that if I ever made it to Germany, I'd do just what we've been doing--going to the grocery store, walking in parks, trying new food, watching TV in German, going to church, talking to locals, etc. 

Some things I've noticed Germany doesn't have: yellow school buses (or any school buses), corn tortillas, good thrift stores, Halloween (or Thanksgiving), quarters (25 cent pieces), paper money less than 5 Euros, campaign commercials (yay), big interchanges and parking lots.

Some things I've noticed that Germany has that the US generally does not: lots of bicycle riders (the photo shows a bike path between the street and the pedestrian walkway), schools and stores in the middle of neighborhoods, lots of smokers who are allowed to smoke in most outdoor settings, cigarette vending machines, holidays that are 'holy days', wurst and more wurst, great bread, bakeries in bunches, quark, skyr, schorle, beer gardens, clean and comfortable buses, containers for separating your trash for recycling, roll-down sun shields on windows, 2 cent coins and tiny pennies, centuries-old buildings, to name a few.

Oh, yes, and grocery carts with all 4-wheel drive! Seriously, all 4 wheels can turn, so it's possible to move out of someone's way by rolling sideways. And turning around is a breeze. You have to unlock the cart with a coin, which you get back when you put the cart back. Even if you drive to the store, the parking lot is so small that it would be sheer laziness not to put the cart back, but the coin gives an incentive. There are no cart corrals in a huge parking lot like back in the US. Most people visit the store every few days, so they don't haul off a bunch of groceries in one shot, anyway. I take to cloth bags, and I get all I can carry in one trip while walking, and I usually average 20 Euros a trip. That's like $22-23 dollars, and that includes meat and wine. (Photo credit--from the Internet). 

Have a nice day,

Ciao





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