Drink...and Don't Drive

All you North Americans (ie Canadians and Americans) are surely familiar with the Don't Drink and Drive campaigns...

Well, we did discover a similar sentiment here in Germany, however, at least they have their priorities straight - Drink! (and don't drive). Very clever...

This little discovery was all thanks to our first visitor since we moved to Germany - Hoff!

The nice thing about visitors is you actually plan all the sightseeing trips you should take but don't because you live here (we took him to Heidelberg, saw the castle and bought Cuban cigars - since he's from the USA it's a treat!). More importantly, however, visitors allow you to discover the little cultural differences between where you were and where you are.

This came about when Hoff asked what would be a quintessentially German gift he could bring back for friends, leading to a discussion of his observations of what's different. To sum up:

a) Drink and don't drive (as long as there's drinking!)
b) And if you're drinking anyway, drink in the streets (it's like Vegas without the incessant sounds of slot machines! - see picture)
c) And if you're going to drink in the streets - you should smoke since there are still free samples given out by cigarette companies, vending machines in the streets and a convenient slide in the grocery store where your pack drops right onto the conveyor belt for easy access - also see picture.

While it was decided that beer and smokes were what he should take back, I hope he bought a t-shirt at the airport.

For good measure, I also included some pictures from the gardens by our place in Darmstadt and us in Heidelberg - just to prove we aren't the worst hosts ever...

So these are the take homes from our first visitor. I hope you had a good time Hoff, or at least pretend - otherwise, we won't get any more visitors!! Hopefully we can get our act together before our next guest - Mark's mum!