h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

- Windows that open inwards, letting in enough air to air a room and enabling cleaning without engaging a steeplejack

- showers that actually have enough strength to wash off the soap

- taps that mix the water to an intermediate temperature (not one of each or one with two outlets, where you can still feel hot and cold water

WHAT I WOULD BE PLEASED TO HAVE AGAIN, AS FOUND IN ENGLAND

- toilets everywhere

- warm water in public toilets for washing hands

- kitchens with doors out into the garden. In Germany you come in from the garden with mud on your shoes only via the patio doors, into the lounge, - you know, the one with the light beige carpet. Especially the children (children with muddy shoes not beige carpets)

windows that open inward...now there was real genius, why is it that germany seems to be the only place that has realized windows should open inward?
showers with strength...what is it with these people nowadays that they think we want trickles instead of downpours?? they keep placing these water saver things into our shower heads and what is the first thing we all do?? REMOVE THE BLOODY THING!! it is useless, if i wanted to be pissed on i would change my grandsons nappy!!
now the kitchen doors that open out into the garden...i believe if i didn't have this i would go insane. i love being able to step out my kitchen door into the garden, listen to the waterfall from my goldfish pond, pick fresh herbs for cooking, smell the flowers, everything ...i could not imagine not having doors leading to the outside from my kitchen...
AA

Thanks Auntie.

I see you get my points. And thank you for visiting my space. I'm off to look at yours now....

you are quite welcome my dear
i must say thank-you for the memories...something else i thought of a bit ago which i miss terribly...window boxes filled with fragrant flowers and herbs ....i must do something to correct the lack of window boxes around my home now. they always looked so lovely when walking past the cottages
AA

-People waiting for the green man before crossing the road. Everyone in UK laughs at me as I patiently wait... and wait... and wait...
-Taxis with child seats in them
-Busses where the driver helps you on with your double-pushchair
-Bread!
-Rhamspinat (mit dem Blubb!)
-Milk in plastic bags (reminds me of my childhood)
-Oh the windows! Yes, it's worth staying here for them
-Feeling smug because I can "do it all" in 2 languages
-Cyclepaths
-Yellow rubbish bags

Things I wouldn't miss....

The fact that everyone in our village (pop: 400) sweeps the pavement 24 hrs a day, and wash their windows (inside & out) 2 or 3 times per week.......

A friend of mine moved back home to Ireland. Then, a few months later she came back to Germany.

The other day she said what she had missed most of all was "Wurstsalat".

She needs to get out more!

Well, the story is more complicated than that. And she has just had a baby. But this was an example of the unusual things people can really get hooked on. It's certainly not my idea of heaven! Nor is sauerkraut or much else that is specialist food here. AT the moment it's the "Zwetschgekuche und Grumbeersupp" season. (Plum cake and potato soup - they are eaten together)

That is one thing I wouldn't miss about Germany.... this attitude "what do you mean you fancy Asparagus, it isn't May!!"

But I know how your friends feel... I was at boarding school in England and what I really craved was Frülingsquark. Which was unavailable in England at the time, and also Bauernbrot. And Bi-fi (yuk now, but then... yum), and Sprengel orange/lemon chocolates.

*off for a quick snack...*

CLUB chocolate bars.
I really loved them, especially the blue ones
Apart from that I miss the "not the nine o'clock news" and a good pint of Caffrey's (I know it's Irish but you got it almost in every english pub)
What I definitely don't miss is carpet floors in a bath room. I couldn't believe it when I saw my bath room the first time