I was last there in 1995. I found the city dwellers to be angry and repressed. The food sucked, the dangers would throw your plate down and you couldn’t get a decent wine. In the small towns the people were friendlier, the food sucked and you couldn’t get a decent wine. 😉
True story. My BIL who was stationed with the state dept in Frankfurt and I went into Aldis to grocery shop. Nobody was talking everyone was totally silent. At one point some poor woman had her cart in the way of a man and he never said a word but just erupted and smashed his cart into hers pushing it out of the way and he traveled on down the aisle. The lady never said a word and just moved on. My BIL looked at me and said “welcome to Germany”.
Then we go to the check out line and we’re waiting our turn. Its obvious the check out girl is having problems with her machine. Again its totally quiet in the line. As we get closer my BIL says “ watch she’s getting ready to blow”. Sure enough a minute later this girl who has never said a word erupts and starts smashing her checkout machine with her fist. Everyone just stands there while she obliterated this adding machine. It was one of the most bizarre grocery events ever. We still laugh about occasionally.
Then we left and went to France where people were friendly, the food was great and so was the wine. 😉
agree the food is bland and you don’t go to germany for the wine. (beer maybe.)
I was in Germany just before the big invasions of syrians and other mideasterners.
When I was young in the 1950’s and 60’s my dad was stationed in Germany. A much different world then.
My experience was different. I was in Germany from 95 - about 2003. I got away from the bases and learned as much of the language as I could. I also spent a lot of time with Yugoslav and Hungarian refugees.