5 Things Germans Have 🇩🇪, That Americans Have NEVER Seen! 

Know of anymore unique objects to Germany or your country others might not know exists??

Gym Shoes: in my gym you’d get thrown out for not wearing them. Also we also have indoor shoes for p. e. In school. So we get used to it from a very early age.

I always assumed that the "paprika" flavoured crisps were named after the spice, which is used a lot in Hungarian cuisine. Some brands actually call them "ungarisch".

In Germany you have separate shoes already in school sports. One pair for indoors that should have a white sole, so no marks are left on the gym floor and another pair if you go outside. Therefore it is very common to have a separate pair. Of course if you are not walking to the gym, but drive instead ( chances to get you shoes dirty are minimized) you may wear your indoor shoes already on the way.

the plastic park disk usually doubles as a ice scraper to get winter ice of your windshield ;)

4:24 thing #3: I am Swedish and I am surprised that this is a surprise to you. Already when I went to school it was strictly prohibited to take one step on the gym hall floor with outdoor shoes. The same in another gym which I went to later. They are careful that the floor is clean and not worn or scratched. - Do you really walk in from the street with mud and sand and dirt on the shoes? It seems unbelievable to me and quite barbarous.

I believe, Paprika flavour doesn't refer to bell pepper but to paprika spice, which would be a pretty common basic spice to season potato products.

I never thought about other countries not having Paprika chips as it´s THE chip flavour here 😄 I actually like the salty ones or lately tried Lays with herb butter flavour. They were really good. And i like our Getränkemärkte as I think no supermarket is big enough to have so many different kind of drinks. And you often can find stuff here that they do not sell in usual grocery stores. Btw funfact: It is illegal in Germany to use a Parkscheibe thats not blue or has a different size than the usual one. But what else to expect from rule-loving Germany 😉

Lay's: I don't know about that "Paprika" stuff man, seems kinda niche meanwhile at Pringles HQ Germany: yo, so we got "Paprika" and "Sweet Paprika" ... let's roll out "grilled Paprika"

"Flachspüler" Toiletts were more common in the north. Seaman often got parasites or other diseases during there trips around the world. It was really important to discover your health problems as soon as possible. But, like you mentioned, these kind of toilets are going out of style today.

I think what they're striving for with paprika chips is not so much the bell pepper taste as a vegetable, but the powdery spice made from the dried fruits which tastes slightly hot. Paprika/bell pepper and chilis are really the same fruit, but European bell pepper is bred to taste milder, to the point that some varieties have no heat at all.

In Germany you have to bring your sports outfit to school, when sport is a subject that day. This includes a seperate pair of sport shoes even if you are wearing sport shoes for the rest of the day. That goes for all schools including the Brufsschule. Even the German military outfits its soldiers with two pair of sport shoes of which one is specific for indoor sports. Team rigt handed.

First off, righthanded. And the thing with the shoes: we are engrained from childhood on to wear special shoes when we are entering certain spaces. Slippers in Kindergarten and sometimes elementary school, special trainers when entering the Turnhalle (only light non marking soles) and of course at home the Hausschuhe. When you get conditioned that way it is a habit hard to break. And till today I feel like a sinner when i.e. I am about to leave the house and put on my outdoor shoes and realize that I forgot the Trash in the kitchen and simply walk over without changing back to Houseshoes. Or vice versa stepping outside with inside shoes on my feet.

I was stationed in Germany from 91-94. Back then the real poop shelf toilet was the game in town. My wife and I visit Germany regularly these days. I have struggled to find a poop shelf toilet to show to my wife in recent years. I did finally find one on about our third visit. It was is a small men's restroom in a restaurant. As we were leaving I had my wife stick her head in to see proper old fashioned poop shelf toilet. :-) Team right handed.

On one of my first days living in Germany where I had a job, I decided to go into a bakery to get a snack for at work. There was a lady who came in behind me and who told the saleswoman that she was in a rush. Since I already spoke fluent German I told her to step in front of me. She ordered an Amerikaner. She was ask whether she wanted a black one or a white one. I at first thought that is was some mention of me but then I saw the Amerikaner the Vitrine and she ordered a white one. So when I got to order, I also ordered Amerikaner - one white and one black. Taste bit like sweet muffins. On the flip side, there is no German chocolate cake in Germany

5:55 It make real sense to use clean shoes in the gym, because 1.: The gym is not so dirty, so you can lay on the floor without using mats 2.: Most gyms are multi functional gyms. So they have an expensive special floor, which could be damaged due to little stones in your street shoes PS: Sorry, I am bothhanded

5:55 I can only speak from my experience but using "Hallenschuhe" is a thing that was taught to me since elementary school. I think it stems from the fact that a Turnhalle (simply an indoor training and handball/field hockey all purpose gym hall next to a school) usually has a neatly done special parquet floor which you would and should never set foot upon with dirty shoes or footwear with *black soles,* inevitably leaving hard to remove rubber marks.

Parkscheibe: they're not only for private parking lots like those of supermarkets but also required for many public parking lots in cities. Btw you are allowed to set the disk to the next half hour, so at 13:05 you can set it to 13:30 as your arrival time and you have to leave by 15:30 in case the maximum parking time was 2 hours.

Sometimes extra indoor shoes, so called Hallenschuhe, are required. Their sole has a special/bright rubber compound to avoid, among other things, black lines on the floor.

I'm Dutch and when I grew up (I'm 60) the only flavors in chips were salted or 'paprika'. The others came decades later. The first time I saw other flavors was when I went to the UK the first time.

Being a german, my taste in chips / crisps isn't what you would expect. Yes, I do like Paprika / hungarian chips, but my absolute favourite is salt+vinegar. And the weirdest / most disgusting is "Currywurst". I LOVE Currywurst. But the chips? Blergh!

I'm from germany and: - my favorite chip flavor is sour cream actually - gym shoes definitely a must and cleaning the used devices after leaving them too

Righthanded. In Sweden we have the same shoes rules as Germany and we use a parking disk as well.

Actually that thing with the gym shoes is instilled from school. And actually there it has 2 good reasons. A lot of outdoor shoes with dark colored rubbersoles leave black rubber marks on the floor. They can be easily removed if you do that by hand but a gymnasium is big and if there are black marks everywhere everyday it's just not possible. Second in a gymnasium the floor is relatively smooth and proper indoor shoes should give you better grip on the floor especially when it's a bit moist on a spot someone has fallen on. And at that time dirt can also become a problem. It can happen that when there's dirt at some spot your shoes can't grip the floor properly and you actually slip on dirt. So basically it's drilled into us to wear proper shoes when doing sport.

About the gym shoes, it is simply the case that you have a extra pair of shoes for sport because: 1. Your feet will sweat and it is unhygenic and potentialy smelly to run around in them all day and it gives you a higher chance for fungal infections if you don't switch your shoes. 2. Our altual sport shoes have soles that don't leave black strikes on the floor. Just so the entire place does not look like a dump after a while. 3. It is simply disrespectfull and once more unhygenic to wear your shoes inside, while it might not be a big deal in private homes where people don't care since it is in their private space and just clean up if dirt got caried in there house or flat a public gym is something quite different. It is a public place where people mix all the time and there is a constant risk of infections. And while sweat and body odors can be removed by using whipes and disinfectant... if some one runs around the gym with their street shoes you don't know what they have stept into the day or a week befor. And sure there is no absolute need for anything to happen but the general idea is to reduce risk of infection. But as long as your gym has no houserule saying you have to you are free to do as you like. If your gym has a rule in this regard to this thou, and you ignored it for what ever reason, it is a perfectly good reason to cancel your membership.

Actually you guys provided just now the weirdest chips flavour I've ever seen: *dill pickle?!* 😯😂 And yeah, shoe hygiene is BIG. I'm an Austrian, and have lived both in Austria and Germany, and as with many experiences, this is the same in both countries. Starting in kindergarten up, you always are required to put on slippers inside, so at the start of the school year you bring the slippers and leave it there for the rest of the year. Hell, a lot of work places require that you change out of your street shoes into slippers or otherwise clean shoes that you only wear in that work place. Personally, I appreciate that a lot. We even have the equivalent of a mudroom in our house, so muck stays out. Like, you see in Hollywood movies people moving around their freaking living room, kitchen and bedroom in street shoes. How true to reality is that, I've always wondered. Doesn't it just gross people out? Eww. Those poor carpets!

No joke, the "Parking disc" must be blue! Otherwise you could get a fine

in german military the equipment they give to us actually includes one pair of shoes for outdoor sports and one pair for indoor =D

In Italy we have exactly the same gadget for parking times, it's called "disco orario" and it's still commonly used

Hey there, a native German here. To answer the gym shoe question, it is all taught to us via school gyms. Most Gyms here do also keep the same Rules as schools do and only allow white or light colored soles on your shoes. It's to prevent the floors from getting dirty and the equipment to also stay dirt free so the only thing that needs to be cared about, is the bodily fluids to be wiped off after the training. 👍

The big thing about the Getränkemarkets is that they work mostly due to the 'GdB' standardised bottles and crates. Almost all manufacturers or Mineral Water etc use the same bottle type, and you can return those anywhere they sell other GbB drinks (ie Getränkemärkte, Supermarkets etc) without having to remember where you bought a specific brand or whether they will accept that particular brand. The markets will return the bottles/crates to central washing/sanitizing centers and those will then ship those bottles to the diff. manufacturers. So the system is very efficient. And the deposit/refund structure is unified too, so this drink distribution system frees the manufacturers from handling their own returns etc

Ich krieg Gänsehaut von der Art und Weise, wie ihr „Paprika“ aussprecht. Die Betonung liegt auf der ersten Silbe!

I've really come to love your bloopers 😃🤣

This inspection myth for shelf toilets is completely nonsense. Even considering that worms had been much more common in early times this was never an argument. Imagine living in a time where indoor plumbing was new. So you were much more used to latrines or buckets. One thing you didn't want was what was called Neptuns revenge a splash of the content of such a place on your behind. It is very likely that some people were so disgusted from the feeling of water splashes that this became a popular design. Once something is common and gets its job done it is not very likely to be changed. With the raise of the wall mounted toilets in the 70th this kind became quickly outdated.

Great work guys, as a German who lived in both the US and the UK, your content is really fun to watch! As to paprika flavour chips / crisps : some more confusion derives from the fact that Paprika in German means both the vegetable Americans call bell pepper AND a spice made from it, the latter, I believe, is what flavours the chips / crisps (and is known, in the UK at least, as paprika powder, it come in mild, spicy and, most common in Spain, a smoked variety).

5:37 the easiest way to think of it is that our "turnhallen" (gyms for like volleyball and such) got special bouncy floors which are expensive and let's say you got a pebble stuck in the profile of your regular shoes then that would leavy scratches in the flooring. extrapolate that by the amount of people using the gyms and you quickly realize how much of a cost saver that is for that little inconvinience btw, in the military we are issued 2 pairs of boots, 1 pair each of indoor and outdoor sports shoes, flip-flops and oxfords for all the different purposes ^^

BTW Lays wasn't an American brand introduced to Europe. In Europe we had Smith Chips. After a fusion, they continued under their own name, but later adopted the name Lays for both production lines. There is no import from the US and all European chips are produced in the EU under EU food safety and food regulations. Even the same type of chips taste different because of lower salt and EU approval of the ingredients used.

When we build a house, we made one of the toilets a "poop shelf" one. Especially when you're getting older, thete will be times, when your doctor calls for poop samples, in some cases with colon-disorders, this might become a regular thing. These toilets are for just that.

I always thought, the interest of the "flat" toilets is to avoid a huge splash on your back, which is kind of disgusting. For the gym-shoes, it is clear that I would not use them outside, but I might use them for other sports like indoor-tennis, bowling, etc. All of these places require that you use clean shoes. Maybe I could add a kind of nasty comment, that americans don't need this, because they always go everywhere by car and so they always keep their shoes clean ?

Cool series. Shows me that there are lot of things which we see as common but for others they aren't. Love it. Brings a different view on ourselves. Keep that up. Please. 🙂

Cycling to the gym, realizing only in the dressing room that I forgot to bring my gym shoes. And thus heading back home without using the gym. Totally a thing that I'm prone to do, yep.

I remember the 'poop shelves' were sometimes preferred not for inspection, but to avoid the splashback from hitting the water, making it an involutary bidet. I think those got rarer by the time, with different designs of the bowl it is possible to avoid both smell and splash.

The Lays Paprika is also surprisingly good and I prefer it over Chio Chips, Funny Frisch and other established brands.

Yes, in many gyms it’s prohibited to wear your outside shoes, no matter what kind you wear outside.. nobody wants dirt inside

Nice video, I enjoy very much to learn how exotic German habits are for Americans (most of these habits a very similar in Austria). Indoor shoes: I am from Austria and we had indoor shoes for the school, separate shoes for the school-gym, currently I wear indoor shoes in my apartment (and most of my guests too) and I wear indoor-gym shoes at the gym (this is kind of mandatory). This habit seems more hygienic and makes cleaning easier. Parkscheibe: I have no car, but I use a Parkscheibe to tell my colleagues when I will be back from a meeting or lunch since we have a Grossraumbüro (but this is more of a joke then a necessity). 😉 Paprika-Pronounciation: I would suggest not stressing the I so much, the accent is more on the first a.

Always take out your Parkscheibe (I call it a Parkuhr) when required. Private lots are very common and chare a LOT.

To be honest, I haven't seen a Flachspüler toilet in any house built after 1980. There was this phase in the 60's/70's where people were hyper-aware of tape worms for some reason, that's why these toilets were a big thing back then. But that went away as quickly as it started, so you can pretty much only find these toilets in houses built around that time now.

Did you notice that your plastic Parkscheibe has grooves on the side which are intended to help you with scratching ice off your car windows in the winter?

Enjoyed the video (again). After 2 years you're still finding material! Team right handed. The poop inspection shelf is definitely out. I read somewhere that it was a health fad in the 1920's. Paprika is the definite chip flavor preference. The Parkscheibe eliminates the need for parking meters. I think the Getränkemärkte are more like wholesalers in the US. I always changed my shoes at the fitness center (but not according to activity). With the wine harvest season coming up, are you going to do a video about the wine festivals or Besen-/Straussenwirtschaften? The fall colors of the vinyards are really beautiful now.

I'm German and I can confirm that Paprikachips are the most common flavour here. When I was a kid I think it was literally the only flavour available until some daring brands introduced "salted chips" and I distinctly remember a craze about cheese and onion flavoured chips in the nineties - how dashing. This being said I don't really like Paprikachips. I think they are bland and boring and I never understood what was "Paprika" about them. I don't think it refers to the bell pepper but to the (Hungarian) paprika spice... which might be made out of bell peppers? I don't know. When I was 14 and went to England for the first time in my life someone handed me a bag of Salt-and-Vinegar-crisps and I was hooked.

to answer the gym shoe thing: that is an absolute must do! if I forget my inside sport shoes, I 100% leave again and not wear my street shoes. even if they'd be suitable and somewhat clean. And that is one thing that I'd absolutely love about german culture... in my gym you could almost eat from the floor and don't really have to think about if there was someone working out prior to you who walked through dog poop earlier. and I wouldn't want to sweat that much in my street shoes either. overall doing indoor sports with dirty shoes is pretty much frowned upon.. something you learn already back in school where you usually aren't allowed to take part in gym class, when you don't bring your indoor sport shoes :)

Well, this is the third video i've been watching now and I can say you have another fan here in Germany I like the way you explain the Things and the humor you use when you do it especially when you explain it for the american audience... Keep up the goot clips :)

i would NEVER wear my gym shoes outside of my gym right handed

8:24 except we learned you can always go up to the next 30min intervall - like when you arive at 5:10pm you can set it to 5:30pm mfg Olli

One of the biggest differences I have seen between our countries, is the need in the US to redecorate on a regular basis, especially when it comes to kitchens and bathrooms. It is quite common for people when they move, to completely redo both the kitchen and the bathroom and to hope that they can recoup that cost (in large houses 50K or more) with the sale price of the house, and best of all, it works. Most people do get their money back. But even people who stay in their homes, just redecorate every so often, when they perceive their old decor to be not up to par (keeping up with the Jones's, or with the latest fad on HGTV). Now I am not saying, Germans never throw out their decor and buy new stuff, but beyond furniture, curtains/ shades, lamps, etc., I don't think that many people redo their whole decor, especially of kitchens and bathrooms on a whim. The inconvenience of temporary construction sites you have to live with, the realization of how much waste gets created, and pure rejection of too much consumerism, would probably prevent most Germans from even thinking about such a project, until there really is a need for that. Most things are not done just for fun, or to follow the newest trend for countertops, or bathroom designs, etc. One of the results of these different behaviors is though, that you will see much more old or worn stuff, at times. Whether that is old designs, like the slightly less practical toilets, or other amenities that are old, such things are just more of a common sight, and not seen as something that urgently needs replacing. There is no perverted ideas about examining poop going on, we are quite normal, thank you very much, and anyways - who ever laid that one on you, lol? Anyhow, you will just find tons of people, living with old slanted floors, uneven steps, tiles broken lose, or used creatively in alternative gardens, and tons of quaint things, and well occasionally, you will find the not so quaint as well, like old toilets. Apparently the owner seems ok with what they have or does not have money. Interestingly, I would also say, that in spite of the old bathrooms you are referring to, which indeed exist, in Germany you often find much more modern looking, expensively tiled bathrooms, right in parallel with the old, whereas in the US, some bathrooms even when newly redone, may look quite old fashioned to many European tastes, i.e. the standard US hotel bathroom looks dated and rather impractical to most Europeans, but the average German hotel bathroom looks very industrial and cold to most Americans. Sometimes, it is just a matter of preference, I guess. to your last Q: mostly right :)

Originally from the UK, I lived and worked in Germany for about 4.5 years around the time the Berlin Wall came down before migrating to Perth, Australia. A couple of things come to mind - fire extinguishers in cars were compulsory, and house windows that could open horizontally as normal, but you then moved a lever and the window could be made to tilt vertically inwards from the top. Such a great idea! And in Australia - drive through liquor stores, or 'bottle shops', or to use the colloquial, 'the bottleo' 🙂 Tschuss!

The windows and doors that open three different ways, and of course, Rolladens to block out light and noise. Love those!

In Denmark they have parking discs that are made from translucent plastic and which are glued at the inside of the windshield. In my hometown near the Danish border police and traffic wardens tolerated them. I do not know whether that is still the case. The not-so-fun-fact is that parking discs need to be blue in Germany. Any other colour makes them invalid and even when you place a handwritten note behind the windscreen with the time of arrival on it you get a ticket. To my knowledge there have been lawcases about that issue.

The paprika-flavour-thing is something I never really thought about. But in retrospective I really could NOT tell if there were any other choices in chips when I grew up. I thought "salted" chips were kinda new until sourcream&onion and salt&vinegar popped up. But maybe I never noticed them, because we always bought paprika, simply because we ALWAYS did. (?) But it's kind of the same with baked beans or the many sorts for ketchup and bottled condiments like salsa and steak sauce. Vice-versa was it an absolute obstacle for me to go shopping in Ireland. Most things you commonly know, but brands, packaging and their respective colours were a real hinderness. Looking for band-aids took me half an hour before I asked an employee for help. And OF COURSE I stood right in front of it.

Please make another video about common german things americans havent seen before! I love these types of videos!

It’s funny you mention the poop shelves in the toilets. I’m from Germany but as a child I remember that it was always weird to me that it existed. Then when i had my first apartment I had no poop shelf and needed to get used to it 😂😅😂 but I don’t miss it. I was always wondering why those ever existed. 😂

Team 80% right-handed. I use the right hand for writing and for using tools, but switch tools to the left hand occasionally. "Salt & Vinegar" chips are a great alternative to "Paprika" chips. :-) Greetings from the Heidelberg region. :-)

I always thought that the toilet you described was a typical Dutch toilet. I never knew that our German neighbors used them to. 😄 Most of the other subjects you described are the same as in the Netherlands. Accept for the stores where you can only buy drinks and sodas.

This separate shoes thing is something everyone I know does and it‘s also required in many gyms. So if you don’t have extra gym shoes (sometimes even with special requirements like a white sole so they don‘t leave stripes on the floor) you just can’t enter this gym

Team left handed! Thanks for the great video from Hamburg!

Paprika (slightly longer "a" at the beginning and rather a short "i" btw) crisps or Hungarian style are the best, when living in Ireland for a bit I was really missing them ... Getränkemarkt is indeed special, also some supermarkets have their beverages in an extra building due to space limitations :) gym shoes are as stated below somewhere by others a must in my opinion, since you always carry dirt and worse stones into the gym and might damage equipment, mats and floors; yeah toilets are weird ... the poop shelfs are not really nice, but still preferable to the American poop and splash version ... I like the "tiefspüler" best, which are like the American version, but with the water being really low so they do not splash as much and also use less water what they also do not commonly have in the US is Spezi (mixture of Fanta and Coke, sold as Mezzo Mix or SchwipSchwap by the major brands)

I'm hungarian, so i eat a lot of paprika, maybe that is why my favorite chips are all the other flavors but not paprika. Actually paprika looks just like the chili peppers and not like bell peppers,here we call them california peppers. And it was a hungarian who first isolated vitamin C thanks to paprika, it played a major part in it.

When I encountered cashiers which packed the stuff at a grocery store for the first time I was baffled. And only a fiew items went into the bag. And the bag pieled up in the cart. Also the lack of front yard fences did feel strange. I’m right handed

In Austria, we don‘t have „Getränkemarkte“, but we have the plastic crates in the normal supermarkets.

I believe wearing different shoes inside a gym than you wear outside is a habit evolved from when I was a kid. Back then we had no tennis shoes as street wear, so we had to change our Sandalen or Halbschuhe in the locker room. Tennis shoes as everyday footwear came up when tennis gained popularity and when I was a teen everybody was wearing them from brands like Adidas or Puma and later also Nike or Roos. But even then we had to change our shoes in the gym, because small stones or other debris could be carried onto the gyms floor, which was at that time often made out of wood/Parkett and would be easily got scratches from those little nasty stones. And since we were used to change shoes as kids and teens, many Germans are probably doing this till today. I actually don‘t know if there is a requirement in the gym where I pay for not going to. 😉 And when it comes to toilet bowls, also when I was a kid and teen, those so called „Flachspüler“ were the only toilets I saw back then. But nowadays these type of toilet bowls not that common anymore. Because of the smell afaik many Germans are using the so called „Tiefspüler“ now. They have become more widespread since the 90th. But we don‘t have that much water in it like in the US. Here it‘s more like a slide in the back, where your poop has just a sweet little ride down to the water waiting for it on the bottom of the bowl. 😉 And I have one Pro Tip for the Parkscheibe. Afaik and iirc it‘s cheaper to not having a Parkscheibe in your window than being 5min over the parking duration limit. That‘s from my own experience but I don‘t know if this is still the case. Right handed with a strong tendency to do many things with my left, like using the touchpad on my laptop, scrolling through websites on a tablet, using the tv remote and I trained myself to be able to write slowly with my left hand. But today I can‘t write anything with my left except when it‘s on a keyboard. Than I can use the whole thing with my left hand only. Or with both. 😊

Thing#1: Sour cream is on top for me :) Thing#2: I honestly didnt know that buying drinks in large crates is not a thing in other countries it kinda feels like it makes sense so i never thought about it Thing#3: you are being forced to wear extra gym shoes in shool during sports lessons. If you forget them or dont have and you either arent allowed to participate or you have to wear socks only. Thing#4: Well its a weird one but its nice that it doesnt splash as much if you know what i mean. Thing#5: Also another one that i never thought about being different in other countries. And finally: team right hand :)

Hahaha, I LOVE the term 'poop shelf toilet' ! The only advantage those can offer seems to me when you have to 'deliver' a probe of your poop to the doctor in case of a bowel infection it's easier to harvest it from a poop shelf. Otherwise I prefer the newer kind ( btw I refer to the two types as ' Brüter' and 'Plumpser' - try to figure that out, lol ). As to potato chips my favourite kind is sour cream and onion - as much artificial flavour as possible. The gym shoe thing is not only to avoid dirt on the floor but also many gym floors are wooden and little stones from the street might scratch the wood. Also make sure that you gym shoes don't have a dark or even black sole because those may leave black marks on the gym floor.

Paprika: True; until 20 years ago Paprika Chips were almost synonymous with Chips.The flavor is actually not really bell pepper though, but some spicier kind. BTW, the word is stressed on the first syllable. Gym Shoes: I think it's practiced almost universally. Not only in the gym, but in all indoor sports it would be frowned upon if you wear the shoes you wore on the street. Poop platform: Yes more stinky; on the other hand you don't get the toilet water splashed onto your behind when you drop 😜 There are all kinds of toilets; but yes, the platform ones are more common. Parkscheibe: Actually the digital ones are not allowed, because they can change the time automatically.

I was stationed there and miss paprika chips so much! I've ordered paprika chips and exposed my children to them. I wish we had Getrenktmarkts here. I can do without the poop shelf toilet... lol I walked and used public transportation when I was there. My husband did have a parking disk. I'm team right hand for the most part. I'm ambidextrous.

Regarding the toilet bowl: I think, it's just two different designs, one older and the other more modern. The older one is, so to speak, nothing else but a chamber pot with a flush and a drain …

Hello from Miami! Very entertaining video, as always! I am excited to be soon spending some time in Germany visiting family… Team left & right handed here (I am ambidextrous).

6:58 as far as I know the main reason is that they prevent splashing.. with the nice sideeffect that you can inspect your work

Everytime I arrive at the gym I'm already exhausted from carrying my three pair of shoes. So my workout is already done and I can return home immediately 😎. That might be the reason for the shoe policy. The old toilets are disgusting. I grew up with them and had them for a long time in my life. Thank god that's over. Parkscheibe: there were some manually looking discs that secretly moved forward like a clock. It's forbidden to use such things but nobody would notice, probably...

Have you ever had Waldmeister before? Those are the dark green drinks they have in the shops here. We'd never seen it and it's delicious! My kids love it. If you haven't tried it, I suggest you do. It's a natural flavour and colour, even though it doesn't look natural. The English translation is Woodruff and it exists elsewhere, but I've never seen it used for flavouring. I have never seen it anywhere else and I've lived in 6 other countries including the US and England.

We still have one of those toilets and I noticed that their less noisy since nothing is falling directly into the water

You can actually buy a Parkscheibe with an actual clock built in so you never run out of parking time :) But its not allowed and if the parking attendance recognizes it you still get a fine :( Besides that, a life hack im using for more then 20 years: If you need to go in the citys inner districts where parking spots are hard to find and often very expensive ill park at a grocery store nearby, go in and buy a cheap item (like a small bottle of water or a pack of chewing gum) and keep the receipt as proof i was shopping there. Then i set my Parkscheibe and park for 2 hours.

Yes of course we really change shoes in the gym (as well in Austria). We consider not to do so as really reckless, unsocial behavior. So its not only about breaking som gym rules, if you don't change shoes, you also impair all other gym members because you bring your street-dirt in.

I once had Spaghetti flavored chips in France. They were pretty weird.

The Parkscheibe has a specific reason: In Europe space often is limited, especially in and near the historic centers of the cities which were never planned for cars. So it is only logical to limit the time that cars can occupy valuable parking space. By the way: If you don't have a Parkscheibe with you, you have to write down your time of arrival on a piece of paper and place that behind your windshield.

The Plastic "Parkscheibe" you got/showed is also meant as a Ice scratcher for clearing your windows in the winter ^_^

Team right-handed, unfortunately. I heard left-handed people tend to be more creative and more prone to thinking outside the box and I could have used some of that in my youth. I have spent a year in China as a student and it was really hard to get used to the squat toilets they have there. Paprika flavored chips are one of the many things that make me an outsider in the country I was born and raised in. I really don't like them. At best they taste boring to me. I remember how we took a field trip to London, England in 9th grade back in the 90s and everyone acted as if vinegar flavored chips would be the weirdest thing ever.

As somebody who had issues with the intestines and digestion their whole life I love the shelf toilets. When you need to take stool samples for your Doctor these are perfect!

Daaaaaamn that shopping cart freaked me out!!! I thought one of my dogs is suddenly hurt!! :D

Another interesting fact to know about the Parkscheibe is, that sometimes it is cheaper to "forget" to place it in front of your car, rather than be over the time you are allowed to park. ;-)

Paprika chips are the most popular ones in the Netherlands as well. However we have paprika flavoured Lays chips for decades. So I find it a bit weird they didn't include this flavour in their initial launch in Germany.

@toilets: I am German and I miss the old toilets with back platform. They were really handy in case you have to bring a stool sample to your doctor. The new toilets are more complicated to get a stool sample.

Parking start time indicater is allowed to be set to the next higher half hour. Meaning for example: When you park somewhere starting from 14:01 you are allowed to set 14:30 as your arrival time

Concerning the Parkscheibe. Keep their extra function in mind (you can use the sides to free your windowshield from ice).

Our local weather does not allow not having gym shoes. Fall/winter is like 5 months muddy and rainy weather.

We even have the replica of parking disc in my uni library (Freiburg). Since the library seats are always in high demand, you are allowed to leave you seat unattended (and go for coffee / lunch) only for 30 mins. And you need to leave such time discs on your seat. If you are over the limit, one can push away your stuff and occupy your seat !!

WEaring clean shoes in gyms is totally normal in The Netherlands too. Hygienic but also better for the expensive floors.

In my gym (kickboxing, which we train barefeet) we take the shoes off, right after coming in. There is a shelf to place the shoes next the door and rug for wet shoes, if it rains. We walk in sock (or barefeet)from there to the changing room and then barefeet to the room, where the actual training is. - After training, shower, changing, the last thing, just before leaving, is, putting on the shoes. When we forget to take off the shoes when coming is, some one from the reception will shout "Stop! Your shoes!". And then you take them off immidiatly, and sneak to the shoe-shelf with the shoes in your hand. -It is for keeping the floor clean and sort of a ritual - changing from outside into a different world.

The poop shelf toilets are really handy, I'd you have to get a stool sample. So, IF you plan a house, one of those somewhere could be handy. But yeah, unless there are specific reasons to inspect regularly, those are not frequent.

I still have that 'flat shelf' in my toilet here, but it's pretty old fashioned. And it's a matter of keeping it clean if you get my drift..

If have a hard plastic "Parkscheibe" you can not only use them for displaying the time you got their, they mostly come with a "Einkaufchip" and you can use them in the winter as a ice scraper to free your car from ice and snow. ^^