Souvenirs from Germany

After an 8-month stay in Germany, you might reasonably assume I’d accumulated souvenirs and other German stuff to bring back home. But I resisted the temptation to buy a bunch of stuff that would just collect dust on a shelf.

I did come home with a couple of functional items: 2 beer glasses from Belgium, and my GPS unit.

Each brand and style of beer in Germany (Belgium, too) seems to have its own special glass. If you go into a bar or restaurant, and order two different beers, you’ll get a different glass each time. So ‘collecting’ beer glasses could get completely out of control.

Driving back to Düsseldorf after a work trip to Brussels, I stopped in the Belgian equivalent of Wal-Mart. I wandered around a bit, and found an entire aisle of Belgian beer. I’ve been told there are over 900 different beers in Belgium, and it seemed this store had a good percentage of them (that is only a slight exaggeration).

Belgian beers seem to be often served in more of a goblet than a beer glass. This store had a package of Leffe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leffe), which I like, along with 2 Leffe glasses. I figured this would be my beer souvenir. It’s possible to find Leffe in the U.S., so I figured I’d be able to use the glasses for their intended purpose.


The GPS unit was less of a souvenir. Since my car in Germany had a built-in GPS, I’d gotten used to having one. It saved me many times trying to find my way along streets that changed direction seemingly at random.

I bought this particular GPS unit because it has maps of both the U.S. and Europe. I’ve written previously about my experience buying this in the Düsseldorf airport and trying to get a VAT rebate, with no success.

On my way out of Germany, in the Köln-Bonn airport, I tried one last time. I went to the customs office, showed them my receipt and passport, and asked about getting the tax rebate. As in Düsseldorf, they said no, I’d been in Germany too long. But in contrast to the agent in Düsseldorf, they were quite friendly and apologetic. It occurred to me that this confirmed the perception that people from Köln are friendlier than those from Düsseldorf, who can have, shall we say, a bit of an attitude.

Back in the U.S., I’ve kept the German voice on the GPS unit – one of those little ways to keep some exposure to German. There are actually 4 German voices to choose from: Katrin, Stefan, Lisa, and Werner. I’ve got Katrin giving me directions. It’s comical at times to hear the attempts (computer-generated) at pronouncing U.S. road and city names. “Interstate 480 West” just doesn’t sound right in German. Neither does “fahren Sie auf die Autobahn”, when I am only able to legally drive 65mph.