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Questions For People Who Live In Germany

Persephone

17:48 / 20.02.06

Has natural gas been commonly used for stoves in Germany, say, since the 1940s or so? Does it have a smell? In the U.S., natural gas has been scented to prevent explosions since the thirties. Has it been the same in Germany?

Mistoffelees

18:39 / 20.02.06

I had to look it up on wikipedia, because although I often visit a friend, who has a gas stove, I never smelled anything.

It´s done here too, and is called Odorierung.

Interesting: Because you can get used to the smell, if the leak is small, the smell is "increased" regularly. It´s sulphur based and supposedly smells like rotten eggs.

Persephone

22:37 / 20.02.06

Thank you --that's interesting, something different is used in the U.S. to make the gas smell. But does it say in that link about when this was started, like around what year?

Mistoffelees

08:15 / 21.02.06

Can´t help you there. I looked through all kinds of sources, and they all must have have copy and pasted the wikipedia article, which doesn´t mention a date.

Persephone

10:23 / 21.02.06

That's okay, thank you very much!

William Sack

12:52 / 21.02.06

New question: Is it true that most German humour revolves around arses?

Smoothly

13:10 / 21.02.06

Yahs

Morgana

13:10 / 21.02.06

Nope.

But it is true that Germans are more anal retentive, as they tend to say "shit" where the average English speaking person says "fuck".

Hope that helps.

Mistoffelees

13:23 / 21.02.06

No. What´s quite common, is doctor jokes. Like
"How long do I have left to live?"
"10"
"10 what, doc? 10 weeks?"
"9"

But I don´t know much about the state of German comedy, because I don´t have a TV. What I have seen of it, is pretty bad. And ever since I first came across the League of Gentlemen last year, it´s just too tame for my taste.

With the exception of the satire magazin Titanic of course:

"Where´s Ulrike Meinhof´s brain?" "Brain, what brain?"
There was a scandal of a scientist secretly cutting up UM´s brain. UM was an infamous 70ies terrorist.

HCE

05:05 / 22.02.06

Artist, not terrorist!

Mistoffelees

06:04 / 22.02.06

You mean like Tyler Durden?

Ron Stoppable

12:02 / 07.11.07

Gebumpen!

Hi all,

for those who live in, have lived in or know Germany well; it appears I may be going to Aachen for New Year's.

All well and awesome but - can i get a recommendation on how best to spend the night in question in a German town I know little about. The internet isn't helping enormously.

Ever so grateful - the winning suggestion gets their choice of easily-transported Duty Free!!

lille christina

15:16 / 07.11.07

Hotels in Aachen

from the same page:
Hotel Aquis Grana (seems to be relatively inexpensive 208 Euro (302 USD) for 4 nights)

maneki neko

16:47 / 07.11.07

I used to spend a lot of time in Aachen about 10 years ago and don't remember it as the liveliest of towns. There are a few pubs in the old part, around the market square but I'm not sure how much fun they will be. Aachen is a typical students town and outside of term time the town used to be rather dead. I tried to google "silvester - meaning new years eve - in Aachen, and nothing came up, which could confirm that theory.

Maybe you could just take a short train ride to Cologne? Am not sure what's happening there but you could have a look at the city guide, which as far as I remember is called Prinz.

Ron Stoppable

08:15 / 08.11.07

Thanks, both of you!

And yes, it's looking like Cologne may be the place - I've emailed their tourist information people and will see what they come back with...

charrellz

15:21 / 08.11.07

Hey, Germans!
I'm going to be in Berlin for most of January, and now my brother has worked his schedule so that he can spend a week there with me before my classes start. The original plan was to fly into Frankfurt and then take a train to Berlin, but now we're wondering if there might be a more entertaining way to do this.

If you were planning a one week trip through Germany for two American college students, what would you include? If it helps, we like to be kinda museum heavy in our sightseeing.

Thanks for any help!

Mistoffelees

16:04 / 08.11.07

I rarely travel through Germany, so I can´t help you there. But Berlin is full of nice museums.

Recently, I´ve been to the Ethnological Museum, and it takes many hours to see most of it. They got houses and boats from the South Sea, a buddhist cave, exhibits about the Maya and North American Indians and lots more.

Also, there´s the Egyptian Museum, Helmut Newton Foundation, Museum Berggruen (Picasso, Klee, Giacometti and Matisse), Museum Dahlem, Pergamon Museum and more (links)

Also, you could take day trips to Potsdam, Hamburg and Dresden.
The latter two can be reached fast by train, and Potsdam is just across the Glienicker Brücke. I visited Potsdam just a few days ago, and though I don´t know if they got any interesting museums, there are many wonderful parks and castles: Sanssouci, Schloß Cecilienhof, Babelsberg Studios, Einstein Tower.

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