I’m on an August Break from my regular blogging schedule. Here’s today’s pictures.

Drinks in Germany are kind of segregated.  Many offices and even some private homes use a drink delivery service, so it’s not uncommon to see trucks like this on the street:

In larger grocery stores, drinks take up an entire very large section all their own.  There are even special drink stores, called Getränkemarkts.  You can buy entire cases of beer, or individual bottles.

There are many types of water available.  Many Germans prefer their water with carbonation.  I don’t care for it that way.

Despite the tremendous amount of beverages available, there aren’t usually that many kinds of soda around, at least not in the stores I frequent.   Coke is always on hand, though.

One of my favorite parts of the drink market experience is the bottle return machines, or, as I call them, the ‘Crunch Crunch Crunch’ machines.  I’ve spoken before on this blog about the concept of Pfand, which functions as a bottle deposit in this environment.  Basically, you keep your empty bottles and return them to the machine.  The machine has a tiny conveyer belt inside-  it scans the appropriate bar codes on the bottle, then whisks them away to be satisfyingly crunched.  You get a receipt for the bottles you’ve returned and you take that to the cash register.

Do you have any favorite specialty types of stores?

I’m on an August Break from my regular blogging schedule. Here’s today’s picture.

When I grew up, people who needed crutches always had the vaguely triangular under-the-armpit model with the rubber pad at the top.  Here in Germany, I’ve never seen that style, though.  When someone is on crutches here, it’s always this version. I actually think these are better designed, and I find them kind of interesting.

Have you ever had to use this style of crutches?

I’m on an August Break from my regular blogging schedule. Here’s today’s picture.

School-children here all wear these giant jetpack-shaped backpacks called Schulranzen, which basically just means “satchels.”  They’re enormous and typically sort of hardshell, and they look like they hold just about the entire world.  They’ve got all kinds of designs, and they’re colorful with racing cars and ninjas and princesses and unicorns and seahorses and so forth.  When an entire class gets on a bus at once, the sea of colorful backpacks is nothing short of brilliant.

We only had bland one-color Jansport bags.  I’m a little jealous.

Would you have liked these when you were a kid?