Deutschland v Österreich (v Italia)
What are the similarities and differences between Germany and Austria? It’s time for a travel exam essay question!
SIMILARITIES
Bike culture
Bikes are true first class citizens in these German-speaking lands. Bikes get a wide, dedicated lane, sometimes on the road, sometimes on the sidewalk. The bike lane is often a different color. Helmets are not used. We’ve had more than a few close calls by wandering into the bike lane.
Italy: We saw people biking on the walls of Lucca, and we saw tons of people wrapped in neon spandex in bike club peloton traveling around Tuscany. In Italy, you share the road and you says your prayers because everything is narrow.
Bathrooms
We’ve coped with a variety of comical showers on this German-speaking trip. Water containment is the biggest weakness, it seemed like every shower wanted to spray directly on the bathroom floor. For added excitement, many of those bathroom floors had slippery tile. German bathrooms have a killer instinct.
Italy: We don’t remember this being a problem more than once.
Cars
Germans drive full-size cars. They are mostly cars, not SUVs. There are even some American muscle cars, which feels like something the cool kids drive.
Italy: Welcome to miniatur wunderland where all the cars are tiny!
Salad
Germany proper is truly the king (the emperor!) of salad. Austria lags behind a bit.
Italy: I don’t remember if the Italians even bothered with salad. I’m not sure there is a reason to eat salad in Italy.
Drinks
The German speakers love their easy drinking beers. I’ve definitely come to appreciate the simple pleasure of a giant frosty mug on a warm day. Some in our party have become passionate about the radler, although we think we’re going to have to make it on our own to get a true German style radler.
All the German beers are also quite prominently marketed with alcohol free (alcoholfrei) versions. They just love the taste of beer.
Italy: I don’t remember the alcoholic section having quite as much prominence in Italian markets.
Markets
The small (by American standards) supermarket is everywhere in Europe. Walking a quarter to half mile, getting groceries and returning home was a daily task both here and in Italy. Italy also had micro markets, tiny but full featured markets with meat, cheese, veggies et cetera.
DIFFERENCES
Toilettes
In 100% of the cases that we have observed, the Austrians have the potty in a separate room from the shower and other cleaning up spaces. We haven’t seen this anywhere else.
Italy: Bidets were common, we’ve only seen one on this trip.
Scooters
Not the Vespas like Italians use, but the kick scooter that you move with your feet. Some Austrians use these and some even use electric ones. Germany is 100% manual powered bike.
Italy: They use Vespas.
Style
Warning: generalization coming and the sample size is small etc etc.
Italians have Style. Four of our Italian apartments in particular stand out as places that were designed with an eye for beauty. For reference: Dolomites and all three of the places that we stayed in Sicily.
This Salzburg apartment has great big windows with tremendous views. But on the inside it’s functional.
Coffee
This will come as no surprise, but Germans can’t make coffee compared to Italians. We’ve seen quite a few coin operated super automatic machines. On the plus side, we did get to try Turkish coffee here.
The best coffee that we had here was in Berlin in a vegan coffee shop. It was good, but it also took 30 minutes to arrive and was something that an Italian would have whipped up in 30 seconds. Of particular concern to me, is the Germans’ slapdash foam-making technique.
