Anyone been to Germany? Worth going?

-
Germany is really cool, I've only been there for a weekend visiting my cousin while he was doing his doctor's residency at a hospital but the town of Gelnhausen where he was living at the time was gorgeous with tons of history. I was lucky enough to be there for one of their town market/bazaar things where everyone puts out their arts, crafts, old trinkets etc. and it was so neat. So much history too, town has a very old cathedral from I think the 1300s and iirc the town was founded in the year 1130. I really want to go back and spend more time.

I also think it's super important for Americans to travel to other parts of the world because we're kind of isolated thanks to having to fly over a major ocean to visit a foreign country (besides Canada or Mexico of course). I've also been to Jordan, France and the United Arab Emirates. I really recommend checking out a middle eastern country that's "safe" like Jordan, Morocco, UAE, Egypt, Qatar (Israel doesn't count lol) because sadly what we've been led to believe by the events of the last 20-odd years and our media paint a picture of the Arab world that is not very accurate.

Next countries I want to visit most are Turkey and southern Spain. Seeing Istanbul and the Bosphoros(sp?) as well as the Alhambra mosque are on my bucket list.

Oh and for the record I'm not fluent in any language besides English lol. Like others said as long as you at least try to speak their language, foreigners will generally welcome you with open arms. Even if you don't most cultures treat foreign visitors very well and English is pretty much everywhere.
 
diymirage said:
just one bit of anecdotal evidence, when me and my wife were first dating, she had also learned french in highschool, and she wanted to try her hand at conversational french with some native speakers
so as a gung ho boyfriend i loaded up my old opel and took her for a long weekend to paris

the trip was awesome

the interaction with the locals was not
they were, in our estimation, jerks

so the next time we went to the french speaking part of belgium, and you know what?
she loved it, the people were just so much warmer

so, based on my experience, the french have a deserved reputation, but then again, to the best of my knowledge, i never met you, did i, mon ami?
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear about your bad experience in France, but the parisian people are sometimes a little bit... "special".
On my side, I visited USA in 1990, 1994 and 2017. I met some very interesting and kind people and some less interesting :rolleyes:
I do not generalize. There are fantastic people in every country, and some others who don't deserve to be met...

François
 
French demon said:
Sorry to hear about your bad experience in France, but the parisian people are sometimes a little bit... "special".
On my side, I visited USA in 1990, 1994 and 2017. I met some very interesting and kind people and some less interesting :rolleyes:
I do not generalize. There are fantastic people in every country, and some others who don't deserve to be met...

François
Click to expand...
i'll be in France at the end of june hopefully. will spend a couple days in Paris then to my brothers in the south of France where he lives.
 
French demon said:
Sorry to hear about your bad experience in France, but the parisian people are sometimes a little bit... "special".
On my side, I visited USA in 1990, 1994 and 2017. I met some very interesting and kind people and some less interesting :rolleyes:
I do not generalize. There are fantastic people in every country, and some others who don't deserve to be met...

François
Click to expand...
if it is any consolation, i love parisienne walkways

 
While you're there, take a trip to Amsterdam, it will blow you away.
One side of the street is the height of sophistication and culture, Van Gogh Museum, Rembrandt, Vermeer, etc. Vermeer's paintings are so life like that viewed from 6 feet it looks like a photograph ! Across the street are prostitutes in large picture windows, hawking their wares. Down the street are "coffee shops", you enter and ask to see the menu.
Which is a briefcase the has a sample of every drug you can imagine. There are depraved offerings as well. I'm not saying go for all that, but rather view it as the most worldly, cultural, depraved, open minded city in the world ! It's an education in itself.!! It's no mistake that the train station is near the "district "
 
Last edited:
abodyjoe said:
does saint-maximin sound right?
Click to expand...

Hum, no. Rather Sainte-Maxime.
Saint-Maximin exists, but is located in north, near Paris.

Sainte-Maxime is a harbor on the Mediterranean sea. South-east of France. On the french Riviera.
I'm also in south of France, but on the other side, close to Spain.
 
ill have to find out for sure. I've only ever seen pictures. couple pics of things near his place. those old towns are what i want to see. some ancient aqua-ducts near him i am dying to see too.

Screenshot_2023-01-10-17-38-07-00_6012fa4d4ddec268fc5c7112cbb265e7.jpg


Screenshot_2023-01-10-17-38-22-50_6012fa4d4ddec268fc5c7112cbb265e7.jpg
 
Oops, I answered too much quickly.
There is another Saint-Maximin in south of France.
Its complete name is Saint-Maximin-la-sainte-Beaume (30 kms away from Sainte-Maxime and 20km from Marseille).

I think it's the place your brother lives in.
 
Last edited:
My dad and my older brother were both sent there.
My brother loved it. My dad, not so much.

49B22EEE-A361-4BAF-B31F-C435A71704E5.jpeg
 
French demon said:
Hum, no. Rather Sainte-Maxime.
Saint-Maximin exists, but is located in north, near Paris.

Sainte-Maxime is a harbor on the Mediterranean sea. South-east of France. On the french Riviera.
I'm also in south of France, but on the other side, close to Spain.
Click to expand...

I was in Dijon last February (2022). The sightseeing was fantastic, took a stroll through the vineyards out in the country and the history in the old part of town was amazing (House of the Duke of Burgundy blew me away!!). I'm pretty shy especially in foreign places so I didn't interact with many people but the few I did seemed very nice. Overall though it seemed like most people were in kind of a grumpy mood, maybe it was just because of the weather haha. I also heard some stories from my friend who was my tour guide that they aren't very amenable to other cultures and those stories kind of bothered me (my friend is Algerian). But that was just one experience in one city and it's not like France is a "small" country. For example if my only experience visiting the U.S. was in visiting Philadelphia, PA I wouldn't be impressed lol.

I do have to say I *thought* I had retained enough French from 7th grade to at least partially understand speech but nope lol. I was able to figure out a lot from reading French but trying to listen to people speak it fluently I could not for the life of me pick out more than one word for every couple sentences. German works better for me because there are no silent letters in their words and they annunciate letters more clearly. Another downside of living in most parts of the U.S., you just don't get much exposure to other languages besides Spanish so it's hard to practice and keep your skills fresh.
 
the first Parisian I ever met was in Antlers Oklahoma. She pronounced it "pear-iz, pear-iz teck-ziz". I thought she was charming - but don't think that was French!
 
Should you go? Uh, yeah!!!
I was stationed there twice and would head back in a heartbeat!
The 1st time, I was young and single. Not going to get into the details, but man did I have a blast.
The 2nd time I invited my grandfather to come visit.
He was a WWII veteran, and was part of the detail that wired the bridge over the Rhine in Remagen with explosives. I took two weeks leave and I took him all over the country. I'm glad I did it and you could tell he was too.
You have the best host too. A Major in the Army! She'll have access to places you wouldn't normally have and she'll have a car. Trains are cool, but not so much when you have to share with a bunch of people.
I'd say if you don't go, you're robbing yourself of a once in the lifetime experience.
I understand wanting to stay close to the house, but every now and again, you need to spread your wings and get outside of your comfort zone.
 
MopaR&D said:
Another downside of living in most parts of the U.S., you just don't get much exposure to other languages besides Spanish so it's hard to practice and keep your skills fresh.
Click to expand...

Maybe, but not totally true. People in east of Canada speak french.
In 2017, I was in Louisiana. Contrary to the legend, no people speaking french in NOLA, even at the "french market".
But in Lafayette and surroundings, I've been very surprised. A lot of american people speak french there, including stores. They are proud to perpetuate the language of theirs ancestors, when Louisiana belonged to France till 1804. It's a little bit funny because they speak an old french, the same one which was spoken in "Nouvelle France", Acadie and Quebec, when the british have forcibly moved the french population from there to Louisiana in 1755. There are lot of french family names in Louisiana.
The history of North America is closely linked to its European roots :)

François
 
diymirage said:
well, i took two years of french in high school but my attitude towards schooling wasnt the best, and to be honest, my french teacher was, can you guess?
yep, a jerk
(une grande jerk, to be exact)

so and since this was two decades ago, and i have since picked up quite a bit of spanish (which, as you know is also a romantic language, all but one french word had been lost from my memory

what is that one remaining word you as?

Oublier

true story, and therefor all the more funny (though i am sure the humor was lost to most of our members here.


now, you mention that you attempt to speak english on this forum, and off course i applaud that, but do not presume that means english is my native tongue, it is not.

now, to address the elephant in the room, i do not mean to say that you, as a singular frenchman are a jerk
but i will say that the french, as a people, have a reputation for being jerks, not being accommodating to tourist and being very nationalistic

just one bit of anecdotal evidence, when me and my wife were first dating, she had also learned french in highschool, and she wanted to try her hand at conversational french with some native speakers
so as a gung ho boyfriend i loaded up my old opel and took her for a long weekend to paris

the trip was awesome

the interaction with the locals was not
they were, in our estimation, jerks

so the next time we went to the french speaking part of belgium, and you know what?
she loved it, the people were just so much warmer

so, based on my experience, the french have a deserved reputation, but then again, to the best of my knowledge, i never met you, did i, mon ami?




wheres about in the Netherlands were you stationed?
Click to expand...

diymirage said:
well, i took two years of french in high school but my attitude towards schooling wasnt the best, and to be honest, my french teacher was, can you guess?
yep, a jerk
(une grande jerk, to be exact)

so and since this was two decades ago, and i have since picked up quite a bit of spanish (which, as you know is also a romantic language, all but one french word had been lost from my memory

what is that one remaining word you as?

Oublier

true story, and therefor all the more funny (though i am sure the humor was lost to most of our members here.


now, you mention that you attempt to speak english on this forum, and off course i applaud that, but do not presume that means english is my native tongue, it is not.

now, to address the elephant in the room, i do not mean to say that you, as a singular frenchman are a jerk
but i will say that the french, as a people, have a reputation for being jerks, not being accommodating to tourist and being very nationalistic

just one bit of anecdotal evidence, when me and my wife were first dating, she had also learned french in highschool, and she wanted to try her hand at conversational french with some native speakers
so as a gung ho boyfriend i loaded up my old opel and took her for a long weekend to paris

the trip was awesome

the interaction with the locals was not
they were, in our estimation, jerks

so the next time we went to the french speaking part of belgium, and you know what?
she loved it, the people were just so much warmer

so, based on my experience, the french have a deserved reputation, but then again, to the best of my knowledge, i never met you, did i, mon ami?



diymirage said:
well, i took two years of french in high school but my attitude towards schooling wasnt the best, and to be honest, my french teacher was, can you guess?
yep, a jerk
(une grande jerk, to be exact)

so and since this was two decades ago, and i have since picked up quite a bit of spanish (which, as you know is also a romantic language, all but one french word had been lost from my memory

what is that one remaining word you as?

Oublier

true story, and therefor all the more funny (though i am sure the humor was lost to most of our members here.


now, you mention that you attempt to speak english on this forum, and off course i applaud that, but do not presume that means english is my native tongue, it is not.

now, to address the elephant in the room, i do not mean to say that you, as a singular frenchman are a jerk
but i will say that the french, as a people, have a reputation for being jerks, not being accommodating to tourist and being very nationalistic

just one bit of anecdotal evidence, when me and my wife were first dating, she had also learned french in highschool, and she wanted to try her hand at conversational french with some native speakers
so as a gung ho boyfriend i loaded up my old opel and took her for a long weekend to paris

the trip was awesome

the interaction with the locals was not
they were, in our estimation, jerks

so the next time we went to the french speaking part of belgium, and you know what?
she loved it, the people were just so much warmer

so, based on my experience, the french have a deserved reputation, but then again, to the best of my knowledge, i never met you, did i, mon ami?




wheres about in the Netherlands were you stationed?
Click to expand...

wheres about in the Netherlands were you stationed?
Click to expand...
The NATO organization I was in was moved from Brussels to Heerlen upon approval of the NATO AWACS program. Moved into a new building which was built on AFCENT. 13 NATO countries had members in the organization. Really neat to deal with mostly senior officers which were assigned to the political arm of NATO
 
I’ve been to Marsielle France and to all the dozen countries and places in Europe I’ve been to. They were the least inviting people, just my experience.
 
Blucuda413 said:
The NATO organization I was in was moved from Brussels to Heerlen upon approval of the NATO AWACS program. Moved into a new building which was built on AFCENT. 13 NATO countries had members in the organization. Really neat to deal with mostly senior officers which were assigned to the political arm of NATO
Click to expand...

.

Man, you were way down south
Best place to be, in my estimation

The people are warmer, the food and drink are better


Shoot, you probably can still get genuine zuurvlies (horse stew) there


I grew up roughly 70 miles north of there
 
diymirage said:
.

Man, you were way down south
Best place to be, in my estimation

The people are warmer, the food and drink are bette
Shoot, you probably can still get genuine zuurvlies (horse stew) there


I grew up roughly 70 miles north of there
Click to expand...
It was neat, 10 mins to Germany, 10 mins to Belgium. Altho I'm not a big F1 fan one year we went to Monoco Grand Prix and one year attended the Belgium Grand Prix at Zolder where we rented a sleeping place on the racetrack grounds. My boys and I will always remember some good times there.
 
MopaR&D said:
Next countries I want to visit most are Turkey and southern Spain. Seeing Istanbul and the Bosphoros(sp?) as well as the Alhambra mosque are on my bucket list.
Click to expand...

We road tripped through the south part of Spain for a couple of weeks. Visited Granada, Nerja, Ronda, Seville and Lisbon, Portugal. It was awesome...

If your feeling adventurous, stay in a "cave house" in the Sacromonte area northeast of the Alhambra. Kind of a hippy/gypsy area. Wife had to talk me into staying there, but it was very cool and had an amazing view of the Alhambra and Generalife.
 
MileHighDart said:
So here's the deal. We have a god-daughter who is a Major in the Army, lives in Germany, not sure what town. She and her military husband, and kids live off base.
She has offered to buy our plane tickets to Germany, and we would be staying with them when there. Maybe a week, but probably two.

My wife is dead set on going, me not so much, but she wants an answer so plane tickets could be purchased.
I on the on the other hand, really have no desire to ever leave the U.S.A

She will be quite upset if I say NO, and she will go on her own, but she's already guilt tripping about making her navigate the airports and such by her self. She is 70 so ya know.

So i guess I need a little convincing, am I missing the opportunity of a life time by not going? Or any reasons to NOT go?
Our hosts are much younger and I expect they will want to be on the go all the time, showing us around, maybe visiting neighboring countries.
But at our ages 63 and 70, I think all this running around is going to be too much for us.
Click to expand...
I know I'm a little late on this thread but, I would definitely go. I'm headed there at the end of May for 3 weeks. Been planning since before all the BS happened and travel got choked. Finally get to do it. I missed my opportunity when I was in the Army, shoulda re-upped. Dad's family came from there and the history is fascinating. I hear the food ain't bad either. Excited to see if I can find Wurst and Strudel like my Oma used to make.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top