Stuff about Germany: Streets

The streets in Germany are different than those I'm used to in Canada.

What I'm used to is a street that is paved with asphalt that is usually wide enough to fit two cars across, with probably some extra space on each side to let larger vehicles go by each other. Sometimes there is even more room to allow for parking. At the edge of that is usually a paved sidewalk. The sidewalk can be right up against the street, but usually it is separated by a bit of grass. Also, the sidewalk is usually raised up from the street by a curb.

From what I've seen of Germany, streets are like that at all.

First, the streets are paved with a variety of materials. Dirt, rocks, bricks, cobblestone, stone tile, asphalt, bottlecaps, chocolate and occasionally the backs of the working poor (only some of the previous are true). The most common paving material I've seen is brick.

Main roads tend to be about two vehicles wide. With no real space on the edges. Cars are smaller here, so I suppose that works out. Some roads are slightly more than one car wide, which doesn't make them one way, it just makes them harder to drive along. Generally, cars park on the sidewalk, either fully, or partially - though I have seen them park at the edge of the street on occasion, but those streets are usually wider than average (which still puts them about a car's width skinnier than a Canadian street).

Skinny roads with traffic going both ways leads to a lot of instances where cars wait for each other to pass between the two lanes of parked cars already on the street. So far, the German drivers seem to be very patient for this. They are not very patient when it comes to taking a corner though, so if you do drive here, try to make very quick left turns.

Sidewalks start at the edge of the road, and generally continue right up to the garden wall, or right up the house itself. The sidewalk is meant for people, execept for when it's used for parking by cars. Or when it is used as a bike lane. Or when it is used as both a bike lane and for parking.

Bike lanes are marked in red. This can be red brick, red paint, an area outlined by red, or simply space on one side of a lane marker (which is often white). Bike lanes may be on the road, on an area all to themselves, or as part of the sidewalk. And any bike lane may hop on and off the road at various points, depending on the level of car traffic and the whims of the traffic planners at city hall.

Pedestrians are supposed to stay off the red areas, and some places are pretty mean about making sure this happens. Generally, bikers and pedestrians get along pretty well. And cars are generally pretty courteous about bikes sharing the road. As long as you stay off the main highway areas, it seems like a good way to get around.

Stuff about Germany: Money

One of the biggest differences I've noticed in Germany is the money. Because of the adoption of the Euro, German money is the same money used in a bunch of other countries. I haven't been to these other countries (aside from Iceland, and that hardly counts - any place you're in for less than an hour does not count as a real visit).

The Euro comes in a bunch of denominations. In Canada, most people will see the $100, $50, $20, $10 and $5 bills. Canada used to have $2 and $1 bills, but these were changed out for coins years ago. In Euros, you have the same bill denominations as in Canada. No bills lower than 5 euros. Simple. Main difference is the smaller the bill, the smaller the size of the bill. The 10 euro is pretty tiny - about the size of Monopoly money. The 5 euro is smaller than that, maybe the size of pretend Monopoly money - you know, the stuff you get at the dollar stores.

The 20 Euro is close to the size of a regular Canadian bill. Thus, the 50 and 100 euro are larger. It feels a bit strange, but you can get used to it pretty quick. For me, it means having to work out a new system for my pocket money, since I used to sort it somewhat in the way a blind person might. By folding bills in different ways, or failing that, by simply remembering what I had in my pocket and where.

Coins are another things. Canada has a pretty standard set of coins. $2, $1, $0.25, $0.10, $0.05, and $0.01. Six coins in all. There is the occasional half-dollar coin that you can find, but these are more collectors items, and there's no machine that will take them. Cashiers look at you like you are crazy if you try to use them to buy things too.

Coins in Canada vary in size with the $2 being the biggest and the $0.01 the smallest. They go down in size as the value goes down, with the exception being the $0.10. The $0.10 is the smallest coin. I don't know why.

Euro coins come in 2, 1, 0.50, 0.20, 0.10, 0.05, 0.02 and 0.01. That's eight different coins. Most machines will take them all, but some machines reject the 0.20 coin or others - for no real reason that I can see. They also go down in size from the 2 euro, with the 0.50 being bigger than the 1 euro - again, no idea why.

Blogging...

Right... while the blog is supposed to be about my goals for fitness and whatever else I'm doing, I feel that I may have to sidetrack things to come around to blogging a bit about Germany. Now that I'm here, I'm afraid is really is a pretty significant diversion. So, expect a bit of rambling on it.

As far as fitness goes, I've really backslid on that. I pretty much dropped the whole 100 days thing, and stopped eating at all well. Went back on cola, and stopped doing anything that could constitute fitness in the least.

I am considering a gym here, which shouldn't be too expensive on a per month basis. But I won't even think about that until the month starts. Until then, I'm trying to eat better, cook better, and also get myself sorted out a bit.

Walking and hopefully getting back on the bike soon.

I'm apparently about 15km from Mannheim - so I could probably ride that distance without too much trouble - assuming there's a good route between here and there.