So, are Germans nice like the French?

Written on August 7th (but I was away from the internet)

As mentioned earlier, this is my first time in Germany. We are here for three days in Baden-Baden visiting some friends we made via housetrading, Peter and Sabine. We followed Peter’s directions to his home in Baden-Baden. When we arrived, there was no obvious public parking, but some private parking that we pulled into temporarily to check the exact address. Within 10 seconds, we had our very first interaction with a German. A man from an apartment building balcony some distance away dramatically waggled his finger to us in the universal sign of “don’t do that”. We attempted some conversation with him to explain that our presence there was very temporary, but he was too far away to understand Leslie’s halting German. So, we retreated.

I didn’t think this was a good sign. I had been in France for four weeks and not one “don’t do that” came my way. Now, less than 10 seconds parked in Germany and I am already being corrected!

The above was going to be the end of my blog entry, but since then every other interaction with the people here has been marvelous. And, even extraordinary. I think I will wait for another blog entry to fully describe our fabulous German hosts. But, let me say for the record that I really doubt that nicer and more generous people can be found in the world than Peter and Sabine.

But, I do want to relate another tale that gives a good example of our welcome here. Peter and Sabine keep an extra apartment for family and friends that is only a few blocks from their house. It is a very comfortable flat on the fifth floor of the building (the sixth floor in American-speak). While there is an elevator, we always use the stairs. Today, I went out to buy some food when I realized I needed a little more money. I returned to the door and put the key in – but couldn’t get the lock to work. As I was fiddling, I heard Leslie approach from the other side of the door to open it for me. But, it wasn’t Leslie. It was another woman, – dressed in a white t-shirt – and nothing else (that I could see, that is). Obviously, I screwed up the floor. As I was searching my brain for my German from high school to explain and apologize, the woman exclaimed: “Hello! Are you the friends of Peter and Sabine?” I expected fear, shock or irritation that I was trying to enter her home– but instead she pulled me into her apartment as if we were long-lost friends and apologized for her clothes as she was in the process of cleaning. Let me re-emphasize - she was the one apologizing!! She mentioned that “if you were French, I wouldn’t have answered the door looking like this– but I know people from the United States are more casual and wouldn’t mind”. (She had a peep-hole, so presumably she looked through it and surmised who I was from my no-French-woman-would-be-caught-dead-in-it t-shirt.) And, by the way, she actually looked fabulous. She introduced herself (her name is Monica) and then proceeded to entertain me with stories of Peter and Sabine, showed me a lot of photos, gave me restaurant recommendations and so forth. By the end of this surprise encounter with Monica, I had invited her to visit us in the United States! And, I really hope she comes sometime, may I add.

So, bottom-line, Germans are nice, too.