But I found certain things about traveling in Germany quirky, and that\u2019s actually a good thing, because a book tour can be exhausting with the constant change of scene and because you’re working so hard.\u00a0 Without a sense of humor, you can really get worn down.\u00a0 Noting cultural differences is a fun distraction–and educational, too.<\/p>\n
Those same great trains and train stations have been a consistent source of amusement for me. No matter where I am or what train I\u2019m on, even though an announcement might be delivered in German and<\/em> English, the speaker always leaves out important content in English. The German announcement will apologize for a train being late in German but that won\u2019t be repeated in English, and forget hearing anything about connections or even whether there\u2019s a bistro or restaurant on the train. Without knowing German, you can miss a lot, and let\u2019s face it, plenty of foreigners travel on Die Bahn<\/a>.<\/p>\n The beds are low but the showers are high. You almost always have to step up into the shower or bath tub which admittedly isn\u2019t a big deal. But the dismount can be tricky when you\u2019re all wet. And why are German toilets high, too? Are you supposed to be having elevated, philosophical thoughts on the throne because you\u2019re in the land of Goethe?<\/p>\n Maybe so. Let\u2019s face it, Germany is Goethe-crazy. On one tour I ate at a Heidelberg restaurant<\/a> Goethe mentioned in one of his journals, and the restaurant noted in its publicity material and in a mural on its wall that he almost slept at the inn there way back when. Almost.<\/em><\/p>\n But even Germans make fun of their Goethe worship. In the university town of T\u00fcbingen<\/a>, there\u2019s a plaque <\/a>indicating that Goethe puked there. What\u2019s even funnier is that plenty of American tourists don\u2019t realize it\u2019s a joke.<\/p>\n Lev Raphael loves travel and speaking foreign languages.\u00a0 He’s the author of twenty-five books in genres from memoir to mystery, and teaches creative writing online at www.writewithoutborders.com<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m lucky to have had three sponsored book tours in Germany, a country I surprisingly fell in love with, given that my parents were Holocaust survivors. I was touring for several books including a memoir, My Germany, and I always had a terrific time, especially with my hosts in one city after another.\u00a0 I admire … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[347],"tags":[1172,749,292,1361,1520,821,1516,785,1517,1519,1011,677,1515,870,1518,341],"class_list":["post-4017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel","tag-traveltuesday","tag-author-tours","tag-book-tours","tag-children-of-holocaust-survivors","tag-die-bahn","tag-europe","tag-german-train-stations","tag-germany","tag-goethe","tag-heidelberg","tag-holocaust","tag-holocaust-survivors","tag-lev-raphaels-my-germany","tag-my-germany","tag-reading-tours","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4017"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4037,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4017\/revisions\/4037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/my-germany-200x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Hotels of all sorts there are a puzzle. Why are so many German beds so low to the ground? This isn\u2019t a country prone to earthquakes \u2014 they really don\u2019t have to fear falling out bed, do they? And what\u2019s with German pillows? They\u2019re mostly as soft as rags, which is why the hotel staff can arrange them in pretty shapes on the bed (triangles seem to be popular). Usually I need a handful of them to make for a somewhat restful sleep, or the hope of one.<\/p>\n