Side notes:

Time for a few other side notes. Something I’ve noticed throughout Germany: people have a tendency to over-dress for the current weather. Obviously this is personal preference, but when it is upward of 75 degrees Fare height outside, I tend not to wear a jacket, jeans, shoes, and socks; it’s too hot. But those here seem to find that the norm.

Another note: whereas in America, drainage systems (even in the mountains) tend to have water directed by intricate systems of pipes and sewers. Here, though, I see gravel and other rocks contained inside armadillo-trap-styled metal grids as a means to slow the flow of rain down the hills. This is quite ingenious to me; it saves much effort for drainage that would destroy roads and other engineering projects while also managing not to make the beauty of the mind-boggling rural countryside an industrial wasteland.

Most buildings, as I have said, do not have air conditioning in them. I’ve figured out why I haven’t died of a heat stroke yet, though: the majority of the buildings here are made of concrete or stone of some form. At first I thought nothing of it, but now I am realizing that these buildings stay cool far better than the traditional wood/metal buildings we have in America, thus eliminating the need for AC to a certain degree. This architectural style allows buildings to be easily heated via the [in my mind] archaic radiating heaters in each room while largely eliminating the need to cool the rooms. Brilliant!

Diesel, at least at the time of this writing, is cheaper than gas here: one station showed 1.64 Euro/liter of gasoline(about 6.23 Euros, or $8.87) versus 1.43/liter of diesel (about 5.44 Euros/Gal, which is $7.75). So… if we think OUR gas prices are high, hit up a German.

Apparently the government here does not see the need to tax diesel as harshly as America, and I get the feeling that this is due to the widespread use of trains as transport methods, which I also suspect are unofficially subsidized by the government.

More side notes to come.