@@HayleyAlexis I've never been pinned before....feel a bit like an insect in a display case now! Only joking. Thanks! 'Hell is other people' J P Sartre
@@HayleyAlexis For me as a tourist (in 2017) Florida looked like the paradise. Always great weather, palms, sea and relaxed people. Probably you see it differently, if you always live and work there ... ;-) I heve never seen a city as crazy as Orlando. The whole city is designed or fun, everywhere you see people flying on ropes/catapults through the air, playing Terminator in a shooting-range or dancing with Mickey Mouse (after a whole day 9am to 9pm in Disney's Magic Kingdome I felt like bathed in sugar water). In "MegaStore" easily you can get into a shopping frenzy (with all their Star Wars and Disney products, sunglasses, T-Shirts etc).
@@krauel6237 it´s actually a European guideline, I think, because in Italy the tap water is also very high quality and very much controlled. In the places where it doesn´t taste excellent is usually because the house or the area has an old plumbing system. But they are renovating a lot right now so they are changing those too, therefore the problem should be solved in the future.
I think its just part of the German mindset, that you expect a taxi to be an above average car. If I pay someone to drive me around they should have a good car and should be a professional driver. As a German I don't get the Uber concept. If I want a random idiot to drive me around in an old, messed up Peugeot I can do that myself.
Also is does make sense economically to use above average cars as taxis. They should be reliable and good to go for hundreds of thousands of kilometres. Nobody needs a taxi where the motor goes belly up after 120.000 km.
It is a little cheaper* I usually did half uber and half taxi. I used Uber because it was a little easier and user friendly than the taxi apps I had and sometimes A LOT cheaper than the taxi alternative.
@@HayleyAlexis You're right. I forgot the monetary factor, so I see how it makes sense in the US. But in Germany I'd just take the bus if I wanted a cheaper option. Which then probably would be a Mercedes again :D
@@HayleyAlexis Also I think that Mercedes generally are of good quality and have less loss of value over time. So they can do more distance and be useable for longer time and/or better value if you switch regularly your vehicle. And honestly, when someone is sitting in your seat, just get the usher or person from the staff and let them deal with it, no reason to deal with idiots yourself. And yes, I would definitely insist on my seat since it is associated with additional cost.
Fun fact about the tap water in germany: There are stronger regulations on tap water than on bottled water in germany. So basically you get cleaner water from your tap than from a bottle. Two things about the helmets/accidents. Removing yourself from an accident is a crime in germany, you are required to stay and provide first aid, which is also why every car is required to have a first aid kit on board. Second, helmets are not enforced for bikes, but are mandatory if you are driving a motorcycle (or anything else requring a driving license).
Fun fact about tab water in germany. The water quality is only granted til the pipe that connects the house you are living in to the central pipes. So your house can have really bad ones with light metal, which would make drinking tab water instead of bottled water more dangerous.
@@Noname6589 but if you let it run till it's fresh, it has no time to get the metall in it. And if you not sure how good your water is, just take a bottle and send it to the "Wasserwerke" they will control it...
you got hit by a car twice, NALF got hit, lamblike got hit... I'm cycling more than 30 years here and it never happened to me - so I'm not sure if the German car drivers is the problem 😜
LMAO both incidents were not my fault.... I promise. I was actually riding on a bike sidewalk in Munich (it wasnt even on the main road. It was separated) and a man was turning into a parking lot... usually when people turn they look around their shoulder to make sure someone is not coming on their bike.... He did not do that and just hit me... he hit my back tire so there wasnt much I could do... The other time was also not my fault .... I was literally on the sidewalk (where I was not supposed to be riding BUT yeah) and it was when I first got to Munich and I was scared of riding my bike on the road so I always made sure to ride on the sidewalk as much as I possibly could. This old lady "accidentally" drove up on the sidewalk and hit me.. Granted she was driving very slow and I was not hurt BUT it scareed the sh*t out of me. After the cops came.... she admitted to texting and driving or trying to check her phone..She was around 75 or something I believe..... So I honestly COULD not have prevented the accidents from happening LMAO
@@HayleyAlexis Ok, I see... that's why my parents taught me: "In traffic, you always have to think for others." I guess that helped me a lot 😂 At least your accidents didn't seem to be that serious. Btw: wearing a helmet definitely doesn't hurt; no.1. reason for bicyclers dying in an accident with a car is not the crash itself but afterwards when your head hits the concrete...
It could be worse. When I moved to Spain I was told to keep enough money to pay for the taxi in my hands just in case of an accident and to give the money to the driver and scatter. I actually had a taxi driver go up onto a sidewalk to pass someone...😲👴
@Anna Sichla How was it HER fault when a car left the roadway and hit her? She didn't hit a pedestrian. In the wrong for bike on a sidewalk, sure, but that's no relationship to the incident.
in the US i think people just leave because the insurances are so shit. when i was in miami a car hit our car and just drove off. the guy had his whole family in the car. that would never happen in austria (where i'm from). our insurance guy wasn't even suprised & didn't charge us for the damage
@@joethesheep4675 "Haha this person supports a different politician so killing them would be excusable" is actually not as funny a joke as you seem to think. Some of y'all Americans really are wild, man. Morally rock bottom.
Having a really good high quality of water with a good taste is something we in Germany should appreciate a lot more. I drink a lot of tap water at home or mix it with some juice, it's nice and not so sweet in the summer time.
Im surprised that your water apparently tastes good yet so many of you do not drink the water lol. So many Germans still buy water from what I can tell. I think cuz you guys like carbonated water right? (Which sounds gross to me but maybe Im just weird lol.) But I guess you can never really know if the water is 100% safe just by the taste.
@@ramblingmillennial1560 Germany spends a lot of money to keep that quality. Fresh water is necessary for our life. And we are 83 Million people, so everyone can decide what to drink, we have a lot of opportunities and not every carbonated water is the same, has the same test.
@@ramblingmillennial1560 There are machines which can carbonate tap water for you so no, it's not just that. Partly it is simply marketing. Partly it is habit. Partly is is the fact that store bought water supposedly has all kind of "minerals" in them. And partly it depends on how much you trust your own plumping. The water is tested and thoroughly cleaned, but it still needs to get transported to your house after all.
It is also something, we have to take care of. There is always a political thread of people wanting to privatize water supply, which would probably make it more expensive and of lesser quality. Currently, water suppliers in Germany are usually publicly owned. Also, there is the farming industry putting far too much dung on fields which is a problem in some areas. Water suppliers work hard to mitigate those problems, but it is getting more difficult and more expensive.
Your cinema story: you were absolutely in the right. You could have called someone working for the cinema to solve the situation. Most times people who take other peoples seats have paid for cheaper seats, but want to sit in the more expensive ones with the better view, so the cinema has an interest in sorting those things so the customers who paid more will come back next time and again pay for the more expensive ticket.
Nicosixth Robin I can tell you that this absolutely wouldn’t have happened in Germany. You take the seat number that is on your ticket and only if they’re still empty by the time the movie starts, you might change to more expensive seats, but this also happens rarely. No one would even think about choosing a seat that isn’t their number...
@@solanum6039 Are you serious? It hasn't happend to me but I've met enough people with that "I don't care" mindset. There really is a certain kind of selfish mindset around in germany... and it's not that rare as you might think which drives me mad. They are in the same category like those who are standing in fromt of the entrance of a supermarket chatting with a friend. When you come a long they just look at you for a brief moment, turn their head around and continue chatting as if you don't exist. I do get that some people are just kinda ignorant and simply don't realise they stand in the way. However this kind deliberately don't give a shit about you or anyone else.
@@solanum6039 I am in Germany, I did go to the movies in the past (still closed T.T) and more than once I had people sitting in my seat or saw other guests who had to get someone out of their seats. I would say I see that happen about every second movie. Mostly groups of teenagers.
@@solanum6039 Well, I've had my fair share of people sitting in my booked seats before, but they always moved and changed seats when I showed them my ticket. Because sometimes, even though certain seats are reserved in advance, the people who reserved them won't show up for the entirety of the movie. I guess that's the mindset behind these situations.
It is mandatory by law in Germany to wear a helmet on motorcycles. On bicycles is is optional, but highly recommended. Most children wear a helmet on their bike.Great video 😄👍!
To clear up the Taxi- situation: US taxis are 90% clapped out police cruisers from `Government surplus auctions`. In Germany taxis are new vehicles, that have to pass a stringent inspection every 6 months. Tap water in Germany is considered the `purest beverage you can buy` at a price of less than 2,--€ per m³. That is 1000 liters, or 3600 cu/ft !
We just went out to a restaurant yesterday and the server at the restaurant recommended that we not drink the water there because they had a water boil notice in place.... lol
@@Alice_Badeba No. Even badly chlorinated variants are always drinkable, we have a very high standard for tap water. It's even more harsh than the standards for bottled water.
@@svengaefgen5909 Well, apparently you are getting technical about it. Sure, even badly chlorinated water is TECHNICALLY drinkable. But who would want to drink it?
Also - there are a total of four traffic light "settings": Green - yellow - red - red+yellow - (green again). Red+yellow being "prepare for green light". It's kinda handy - a lot of people don't activeley know this,
@@Child3k actually Arno is right. It has no special meaning than that colorblind people can figure out, with phase it is. Imagine you are color blind. Coming from a small side street onto the main road and you see a yellow traffic light. Now, which is it? Stoping or going? You also need not necessarilyto be color blind for this. Yellow means either "slow down, prepare to stop (so to say)" or "prepare to go" That is the reason, why there is a different "yellow" when going. It is only to call the difference, "which yellow" it is.
@@mijp I did not by any means dispute what Arno was saying. But I do dispute your "no special meaning"-thing. Red+yellow has a special meaning - being that it signals the light will turn green next. Same as yellow signalling the light is about to turn red. Part of the reason why that is implemented the way it is my very well be because it is beneficial for color blind people. Plus: If I recall correctly in the US lights go from red to green to yellow to red. So there's no two yellow-phases to be confused by. Just throwing that in since this kinda is about a US-GER comparison.
@@Child3k I didn't said that it has no special meaning. Thinking about it, it depends on what came first. The definition of color changing or the definition of the meaning of color hanging. I don't think, that we will ever know, so, in the end it is irrelevant.
Yooooo that seat in the movies thing!! Im from Naples and I went to see the Avengers or something with some friends. Treated ourselves and went to the Mercado. I get to our row and these two people are in 2/4 seats we had. I ask them to please move cuz those are our seats. They pretend to not see me even as Im standing practically on top of them. Finally the boyfriend says no and that it doesnt matter. I go yeah dude it doesnt matter go to your seat or I can get the staff to move you or me and my three friends can move you. If I paid for a fucking seat Im getting my own fucking seat. Rant over. Love ya.
I love SilverSpot (I think thats the name of the theater)... Yeah I was quite upset when the lady did not move or offer to show me her ticket... I was so very close to calling security BUT I try my best to think of positive karma....
@@HayleyAlexis this has nothing to do with Karma. If I _pay_ extra for the seat reservation, the folks sitting there better move or a nice orderly will show them their places. I'm totally German about that ;)
Mercedes realized VERY early they can get a ton of reputation and 'street-recognition' by having many many Taxis being Mercedes, so already in the early 20th century they worked closely with car rental and limo-services. They started also to have models specifically made fitting for the role as taxi. Service was always a big plus too, not sure if always or when it started, but mercedes taxis often come with extensive but reasonable cheap contracts for allround-service for years and even preferential servicing. So when your car gets a problem you get to the nearest Mercedes dealership or contract repair-shop and get it fixed asap. That together with the overall quite good quality meant that it was not unusual to find taxis driving around that had several hundred thousand kilometers, often without ever having major technical issues... taxi drivers loved their Mercedes's (Mercedeses?). In the last few decades the quality of other brands catched up a lot and also Mercedes ... lets say with the always increasing complexity it became hard to uphold the quality standards.
In Switzerland, we only know reservations for the movies. You will always get a ticket with a row and seat number. Of course, if there are only 3 people in the room, you can go sit where ever you want :-)
The foil on the taxis is comparatively new. It started about 20 years ago. Before that, the Taxis were actually painted cream by the manufacturer. There are so many Mercedes Taxis, because they get express service at the Mercedes garages. Where I live, Mercedes has a whole Aisle in the repair shop reserved for Taxis. That were about 10 repair stations just for the Taxis. They do it like that in every major city in the main Garage of the local Mercedes branch. The other manufacturers probably don't have enough Taxis sold to make this a valid service option. in every city.
The foiled cars thing appies to German police cars too. They're actually silver with some blue foil on them (or green foil when police cars were still green). They sell them after several years of use, and silver cars sell better.
....So it's like the USA :) They sell police cars here afterwards as well. It's always funny seeing an old police car as a "civilian" car because they still have some of the police accessories so you never know if they are cops or normal people. A lot of braking happens :p
@@HayleyAlexis in germany everything that makes it a police car has to be removed tho, same applied to driving-school cars, theyre often sold after being used for some time aswell :)
They have changed over the time: from green, to beige/cream and green, to white and green, to silver and green, to silver and blue, to silver and blue-yellow. The Zoll is still silver and green. 😉
@@Ariyl same in the US. Most likely it's the driver's side (both in some cities) A Pillar mounted spotlight that's still installed, that's the tell, as that's not a police-only item.
The seats inb the cinema. you should have called for an employee or the manager. The numbered seats are not always the case. In Germany you have the better and more expensive places (Loge) and the cheaper ones in the front (Parkett). Sometimes all seats are numbers, sometimes only the seats in the Loge. In this case if you buy the cheaper tickest, you still have to come earlier to get better seats.
Oh that is true.. Also in the Opera. I remember I had purchased really cheap seats at the time, maybe 10€? I got there relatively late and there were hardly any seats left... The ticket was for first come first serve seats in the "nosebleed" section as we like to call it in English :)
@@HayleyAlexis in my experience, Germany is pretty informal, or rude if you will, when it comes to "queuing etiquette". Never in my life I would have expected someone to arrive one hour before a movie starts, or to go that much for one particular seat. So from my (German) perspective not to leave someone else's cinema seat is certainly rude, but seeing an escalating fight for a seat in a cinema would have chocked me even more. I'm not saying right or wrong, it's just different habits. That is not to say that I like rudeness or like to be on the receiving end of it. The important thing is to remain "the bigger person" and to remember (sometimes at least) how many people on this earth would happily change your problems with theirs ;-)
@@SchmulKrieger It used to be the norm in Germany until big chains opened American style cinema centres, so let's say early 2000s. Until then it was generally happy-go-lucky informal if you will or like queuing anywhere: first come first serve. Whoever wanted a particular view / seat simply came in time. Tickets were not bigger than stamps and did not indicate seat numbers. In any case, I never ever saw people quarreling over seats. For debating seats I prefer "traveling with Deutsche Bahn", if you know what I mean ;-)
Nice to see you smiling and cheerful. Hope things are looking up!! The way you're describing Florida's tap water can only be compared to Kenya's Langata estate water. Drink straight from the tap at your own peril. Can't wait to relocate to Germany and ride on those Audi & Merc taxis.
So so good to see you in a better frame of mind Hayley! You know we all wanted to just reach through the screen and hug 🤗 you with that last video. Today there was a lot more of the normal happy bubbly Hayley back. Great video as usual! 😊
Yes, I live in Germany, and sometimes I think, people do not care about others while driving or even cycling. I also want to point out, that good cycling lanes are rare in Germany. It is so important to feel safe at cycling from point a to b. Often a cycling lane ends suddenly. This can be shocking. Thanks for the nice video.
Awww i felt blushing a little bit... Interesting views of germany i never thought about. As a bicycle rider i have a helmet but don't wear it every time. On the motorbike on the other hand, driving without helmet is a no go ! Thank you! stay safe and have a nice time!
For what its worth, the German taxi color is legally standardized and mandated (RAL 1015 "bright ivory"). The law allows exceptions on state level, and some states make use of that.
About the traffic lights: In addition to the yellow light lighting up both when the light goes from red to green and from green to red, the timing of when it does so is different. When the light goes from green to red it goes green - yellow - red. When the light's about to turn green it goes red - red+yellow - green. That way if you see a light with the yellow light lit up you know right away whether it's about to turn red or green.
Austria (and some other countries?) do it even better (IMHO). The green flashes 4 times before the yellow. So you know quite well, if you can make it. On the other hand you can be punished if going by yellow. In Germany it suddenly goes yellow and you have to decide quickly how to react.
Drinkable water: I am in Northern Germany. We once got a water carbonator. No more mineral water buying! We soon went back to buying bottles, however, because we have 16°dh and the water just tasted very much like chalk!
Hayley always remember children are kind, but German children are always Kinder ;-) And for the traffic light, in Austria it even blinks 3 times in green before going from green to to yellow and then red, so you know from a distance that you will not make it. Or speed up to make it, which is the standard move ^^
Some car makers offer the taxi color RAL 1015 but to sell it after being used as taxi you get it in black, whit or silver, better price when selling, And the foil protects the original painting, only bad thing is, when you had a crash you have to paint it and then put a new foil on it. InTax is one of the companies that put in all needed parts like cables for taxiradio, alarm and for the taxameter.
HAHHAHAHA It's like the commercials in the USA where they talk about medicine and they go through the side effects very quickly :p Thank you for subscribing!!!
The taxi drivers I met in Austria and Germany expected me to sit up front. I was surprised because in the U.S. I always sat in the back. Several months ago our AMC movie theater started requiring patrons to choose their seats. Since I, along with lots of other old people 😆 often go in the afternoon when there are very few people it became an irritating requirement that slowed down the ticket buying process.
In Germany it is not only leaving the scene of an accident that is a criminal offence. You also have a legal requirement to provide first aid to the best of your ability to anyone who is injured and requires assistance in any circumstances. If you stand there and do nothing then you are committing an offence. When you provide such assistance, if you make a mistake or do something wrong you are protected by insurance. You have a legal requirement to act and can be prosecuted if you don’t.
@Anny's World I thought they love their drinking fountains and free tap water at the restaurants in the US. That would be an interesting topic for a video
Some restaurants have filtered water (Starbucks has a tripled filter system so its like drinking bottled water without the plastic waste if you bring your own cup) and some do not have filtered water. A lot of people will argue that the water is drinkable in the USA and most of the times it is BUT I have had too many instances where stuff has come out of my faucet, there have been water boil notices, or the water has a disgusting smell/taste.... so I stick to my 5 gallon refillable water jugs that come from a filtered water dispenser and I have a water fountain in my home that makes the water extremely cold or extremely hot.
@Anny's World - well, yea, but imagine a family of like 3 or 4 .. in warm climate. You d have to carry a crate of water bottles each day ... i would certainly not like that.
Even though I have spent 23 years of my (as in whole) life in Germany I had no idea about the foil on taxis! I thought they were just painted in that yellowish colour, thanks for enlightening me
my small advice for tourists: if you can try to go to the Opera or Ballet in the next city. It's quite affordable, and really a adventure. 😀 And for sports fans: try to visit a german football game.
Mercedes is THE classic cab in Germany. A few reasons: They last forever: From early on they were mostly Diesel. Although BMW is local in Munich, they came out much later with Diesel, and never gained any popularity as cabs. A friend of mine drove a Benz with 700,000 km on the first engine, and the gas usage was very economical. Cab companies used to get a huge rebate on new Mercedes, to the point that they could sell them after a year or two, and hardly lose any money. Why the rebate? Because they are the best advertisement. I had passengers get into a new E class Diesel, and they were amazed that it ran so smoothly, they could not believe it's a Diesel. You get a taste of luxury, and you are hooked, you want it. And yes, most cabs are foil covered, not painted. Standard color. Maybe so you can recognize them if you are drunk like a skunk, and don't flag down a cop car, by mistake. Easier to resell after a few years to unsuspecting buyers. Who wants to buy a former cab? Foil comes off easy, and there's your shiny blue car. LOL. Every cab has a taxi license number to be prominently displayed on the dashboard, visible from the outside in the rear window, also on the receipt you can ask for. Cabs are clean, because in the better companies they are cleaned daily, and if you soil it badly, you pay for the professional super clean, which can be pretty costly. Professional cleaning up to EUR 450, loss of income around 300 to 400 per shift, since cabs are on the road usually 24/7.
The water is drinkable and doesn't have chlorine in it. When I leave the house, I often fill a bottle with tap water and bring it with. If I want bottled water, then I buy .19€ bottle at Aldi.
Bicycling in Austria is much easier than Germany. Apparently the rules in Austria put car drivers automatically at fault if there's an accident, so car drivers are VERY careful on the roads. I constantly have cars "waiting for me". I've cycled in Germany (across the border)... Cycles are almost invisible, cars barely notice me (ie normal). Re your movie experience, I would have instantly escalated things. I hate people being stupid & annoying.
Italy was the opposite. If you stand at a crosswalk here in Germany, most of the time, cars will stop and let you cross. Not in Italy, we stood at a crosswalk with a child stroller and I don't think anyone stopped.
Regarding the tap water, I believe it is required by law to be drinking quality. there are a few exceptions for watersources that are used for things like watering plants only. It is also not unusual that mineral springs which sell bottled water also provide the tap water for the surrounding area. My parents live east of Hamburg for example and the Tap Water there comes right from the wells of the "Fürst Bismarck Quelle" and is basically the same water that you can buy as tablewater in bottles
@@kholzbauer I hate to point it out because I feel old but 20 years ago is not recent. ;-) And Halyey hat this in the video as info. Think it was 2001 or 2002.
Black cabs in UK are massively expensive , but private mini cab firms use Mercedes a lot as there really quite cheap cars that have that luxury feel and are super reliable
Thats why tapwater in restaurants in germany is almost never for free: People would never drink anything else and the restaurant owner would go pleite.
More theaters in the United States have reserved seats when you buy your tickets now. Plus more have comfortable recliners and more restaurant type food.
I miss my Great Aunt's water in Chicago. That was delicious water. I do have to say the city did filter the water before it came to people's houses. That water was cool, fresh, and crisp. Growing up in Florida I was always shocked that the water was extremely cold even if it was 38 C outside. That's what you get from Lake Michigan. Nestle bottle water used to take water from Lake Michigan. The city I lived in Florida had excellent tap water. Their filtration system was the best in the state of Florida. My brother moved back to the city we grew up in and even my husband is Swiss and German and he said that the water from the city was good. His only wish was that it was colder, but your not going to get that in Florida.
It´s really good to see you in a different mood. I hope you take good care of yourself as Florida is a hot spot right now. And by the way: Gemany is missing you.
Years ago taxis were much heavier regulated down to to color of the cars: „Hell-Elfenbein“, i.e. light ivory. These days the color is no longer mandatory but to be easier recognizable many companies stick with it. Like yellow cabs in the U.S.
My favourite tap water was in Iceland, where it basically was spring water, and was free wherever I went. On the other hand, bottled water was about 5GBP per litre.
The reason why Mercedes are common taxis: 1: They were first to offer diesel, which is more economical in Europe 2: They offered it for good prices/leasing 3: They have high second hand value after the taxi driver wants to get a new car 4: Good for the comfort and luxury of the passenger 5: It has become sort of a tradition that is hard/only slowly being changed 6: Not sure about this one, but I heard it somewhere: I think in the past (not valid anymore) the government set out specifications of what taxis should offer and what dimensions they should have (i.e. trunk size for baggage, foot room fort comfort etc.) and "coincidentally only" Mercedes passed perfectly for the specs. It was a way to promote buying homemade German cars instead of cheaper imports
Regarding the german helmet situation: I remember that when I was a elementary school age, I was told, that I have to wear a helmet as long as I'm still a kid, and from the age of 15 on (I don't remember exactly, could've been 14 or 16 too), I won't have to wear a helmet anymore. And since helmets were considered 'uncool' and none of the parents were wearing them either, I happily threw this ugly signal yellow styrofoam thing in the corner and never weared it again for 15 years. Just recently I started using my bike again (after not having the possibility to store it somewhere in the appartement building I lived in before), and I decided to buy a helmet again (and wear it ofc). Tbh nowadays helmets are not as horribly ugly anymore as they were in the 90s, but I realized that as an adult, I have to be a good role model for the Kids, so they see, that even if it looks ridiculous and 'uncool', the parents and other grown ups do it too, so better wear a helmet and be safe :)
The reason why the traffic lights goes yellow before green has nothing to do with the manual driving cars. With manual cars the reaction can be even faster than with automatic cars, at least is my experience, with manual cars I react faster that with automatic. The true reason is that if you have the yellow, the people that turn off the engine can turn it on before the light goes green. We have the same mechanism here in Switzerland, the cars should turn off the engine (after the 3th vehicle), so they introduced that yellow light in between red and green to allow those cars to start the engine without delay.
The reason why there are so many taxis that are Mercedes is that Mercedes was for the longest time the only car manufacturer who build special cars that can work as taxis. We had taxis (all Mercedes - obviously) that run for more than a million km. We had to change them though, because well they weren't that eco-friendly. But they drove ust fine.
The regulations for tap water her in Germany are even stricter than for bottled water. Depending on the area I wouldn't be surprised if the locally produced mineral water comes from the same source as the tap water in that area - no wonder German tap water is considered "hard".
Actually, that is the case. They made a documentation about that a while ago, was quite interesting. On the bottles you always see which spring / well the water was drawn from, and in many cases the bottled water comes from the exact same springs / wells that supply the local area tapwater. So basically when you buy certain brands of bottled water, chances are pretty good that you're buying the exact same water as the one that's coming out of your tap.
8:00 In Germany, there are also sometimes (but very rarely in my opinion) people who don't care, where their seats are. In those moments, it's normal to report this case to the cashier or any other worker at the cinema, who will told the people that they're responsible to follow what's written, because it's similar to a contract, which they accepted by paying them. On the other hand, this also means, that the police may be called for attempted fraud and following this obvious fact, the cinema can file a complaint against those _rebels_ , who are usually banned from the house and their admission fees will be retained. Fortunately, just mentioning the "police" is sufficient in most cases to settle the dispute.
Almost all tap water in the U.S. also has added fluoride which is a poison in high concentrations to "help kids have stronger teeth". However, many researchers claim fluoride consumption leads to all sorts of disorders and medical issues. Reverse osmosis home system is a must have in the U.S., when I travel I buy filtered water jugs.
When you have trouble with your taxidriver, report it to the taxicall, the Genossenschaft or the Ordnungsamt for poblic transportation. Dont forget to get a receipt, whithout you have proof who was it! When he wants to much money you can get a refund with the receipt and the driver gets a problem!
Fun fact about the tap water in germany: even though it is very clean, as you said - there is a high standard expected from the purification plants regarding the cleanliness of tap water in germany - a lot of germans still don't drink it... We prefer drinking sparkling water instead, which you usually have to buy in a store. It is possible however to use a certain machine for your home that adds carbon to the tap water to turn it into sparkling water, but these machines are not very common. Why? These machines are, if not expensive, at least say: costly, and sparkling water is soooo cheap to buy in german stores. At a discounter, you'll get 1.5 liters (approx. 50 oz) of sparkling water for less than 20 cents.
The different lights on the traffic lights are for safty reason. It should not be possible, even for color blinded people, to missinterpret the state of the lights. Think about you are a color blinded driver, just coming out of a small side street and you are seeing the traffic light befor you. If it would be only yellow, you would not know, is it turnig red or is it turning green. So there is a difference. Turning red: ony yellow Turning green: red and yellow
As I know it the additional yellow time at the traffic lights give a bigger gap. Maybe someone can't stop in front of the waiting line, when the traffic light turning yellow and maybe on the other line nobody is waiting and there's a driver seeing its getting green - there could be a crash. I was once told that this is a reason why there are more car accidents in the USA per capita, even if the streets there are often wider and the average driving speed is lower.
As far as I know, here in Germany helmets are mandatory for ALL bicycle and motorcycle riders. Thanks for your comment on the water - that is exactly my opinion! Florida is so low that the ground water is basically salt water and thus undrinkable. I've seen cartons of German and Swedish water in supermarkets there.
And the fine is 15 € for not wearing a (suitable) helmet. Also, in case of injury you'll automatically be considered at least partially liable by your insurance company.
Another big problem with "free seating" is that people buy tickets to other movies if the one they want to see is sold out and than just sneek in. Where I have worked, we would not sell the last 10 seats and also have ushers double check tickets right at the door to the actual theater where the sold out movie was shown. Still more often than not we would have 1 or 2 persons not finding a seat for themself.
About the lights topic - What I learned as the reason for that is that you can decide from a distance if the light will be green or red in the next second
I remember the first time I received a glass of tab water in a restaurant in the US. I thought, what is that awful smell? Until I realized that the water smelled like pure chlorine, and I was honestly shocked that they give it ppl to drink. 🙈
@@HayleyAlexis Actually maybe they give it to you in US to kill Corona? :-)))))))) (Nevertheless: Stay healthy, wear masks, keep distance, wash hands, love from Germany)
here in Austria, you get different makes of cars. Audis, Mercedes, VW, some Hybridcars. They are usually in good condition. At the airport, you get mostly Mercedes and Skoda Superbs, but there are also independent drivers, who will get you usually black Mercedes, BMWs and Audis. They all tell you the price beforehand and sometimes, it is stated on a list, which is stuck on the back of the right seat. We have very fair prices here and you don`t get taken advantage of by Taxis from the airport to Vienna. But IN Vienna...it`s a little different. If you visit us, don`t allow the shutdown of the "Taxameter" This thing determines your cost and drivers want to charge you without taxes, so that they can keep everything. I find it expensive anyway, so just take the public transport :)
There is no "dictate" about taxis overall. It is just that people expect something from taxis - that's why back in the day, Mercedes were kinda standard, but that changed a lot. Over here in Berlin, you actually can sit in a Toyota as well, but if would always be the top notch of that brand and sadly, you are wrong about the helmet, cause bike-drivers HAVE to wear helmets, only on bycicles they are not mandatory, yet.
@HaleyAlexis I'm just glad you're obviously feeling (somewhat) better... You look fantastic 😎 [How is your friend Lisa doing? (in all the turmoil that's going on overhere)? Now that Mike's in Germany you could do a video with Lisa] How is Mike holding up by the way? (maybe another video idea??) OK, rambling now.... Love you & Stay Safe!!
I told Lisa I am going to make a video with her soon... She is leaving in a month to start her masters so I AM A LITTLE SAD but hopefully we can find time when shes not too busy!! Mike is "ok". I mean he could be better but I know he is doing fine :) Thank you for asking!
@@HayleyAlexis Leaving??? ....to go where??... (just being nosey now LOL 😎) It's good to see that Mike is "sorta ok", he'll just have to "tough it out" I guess.... (I know from personal exp. that that sucks big time) Again love you & Stay Safe!!!
Depending on where you live (large cities like NYC and DC) we have taxi commissions that you can report bad behavior, price gauging, and bad cars. Also now alot of the movie theaters are moving to assigned seating in the US as well.👍🏽 And the not wearing helmets on motorcyles? That's a self correcting problem 😂😂 #darwin
Meine Großmutter sagte immer:”eine Fontaine Durchfall, kommt ja oft mit großem Knall”😆🤮😜 Has admittedly nothing to do with your presentation here but is nonetheless unbelievably funny!! LUSTIG!!😆👍🤩👍
The reason Mercedes is the default car for taxi companies - and it's always a diesel - is reliability and length of life. A Benz spends less time under the wrench than most others, and more time earning money. It'll last longer before you need a replacement, too. Although other brands have made inroads over the last 30 years; at one point Mercedes had about 90% market share for taxis. Nowadays, it's more like 50%.
Als Österreicherin finde ich deine Videos sehr spannend, and that's why you get my immediate sub!;) Ps In austria our water is even better than in germany (austria, germany, swiss, we are all german spoken, just saying;), it's also a bit different the hole lifestyle here, and to be honest, most of the people german spoken room (besides the germans themself;), dont have a lot of love for the germans, difficult people sometimes, but everywhere are difficult and nice ones to so...;) Liebe Grüße aus Österreich, katharina :*
The cab driver that we had one time in Paris. Now that taxi cab was filthy. We were driving along and then there was a mini explosion inside the car. The cab driver opens his glovebox and looks in. He said "huh it went boom 🤣." We were able to see the cab driver when eating dinner and he didn't clean out his glovebox.
In Germany you have to wear helmets on all "motorcycles" that can drive 25 km/h (15 mph) or faster (by law). When I was a child (1970s) there were only Mercedes taxis in NRW. I think this was a restriction? Our tap water in Germany has to fulfill more tests and has to be better quality than whater you can buy in shops. The best pedestrian traffic light system I ever noticed was in the UK. for cars the lights get red and after some time the yellow light blinks. This says that you are allowed to drive if you don't hinder any pedestrian who is crossing. In Germany we have to wait even if the crossing is already free.
The cab-MB relation goes back to the 1930s when MB put its 260D onto the market. It was the world's first passenger car with a diesel engine. They were heavy, roomy, reliable, long-lasting and had an excellent power output vs fuel relation. They were not very fast but that did not count in inner-city traffic. No wonder that many of the (few thousand) that were built until the war were bought by taxi companies. After the war the small MB 170 was the first passenger car that rolled from the half-repaired factory in Stuttgart. From the late 1940s it was avaiable with a diesel engine as well. Then came the 180 and 190 series, they too followed the concept "slow but relyable and cheap to run". Only from the 1980s on with the advent of minivans was that unofficial monopoly of MB as THE maker of taxis finished.
In Germany there is no law to wear a helmet on a bicycle. According to §21a /II StVO you have to wear a helmet if you ride a motorcycle or open 3-wheeled or 4-wheeled motorized vehicle.
Not quite "open 3-wheeled or 4-wheeled motorized vehicle" would include convertibles (Cabrios) and Trikes. Both of which count as cars and do not require helmets.
06:26: You can even go online, select the seat of your choice and buy the ticket including the seat reservation. Ticket comes digital via email and into your account (yeah, you need to have an account at the respective theater chain). I remember when in 1992 one of the modern new cinemas near my home town introduced seat reservations. Most of the people where not used to it and so someone else sat on my seat. They didn't want to move, because their seat was occupied also. So I did the same, sat somewhere else only to be the next link in the chain of unlawful seat occupants ;-) But people got used to this quickly. Never had such a situation again since 1992.
The water in Germany can be so hard in places that it leaves a visible white crust wherever it dries in short order. Which, in turn, holds mold. Which, in turn, displeases those cleanly Germans. I recall having to constantly clean grout and tile in rental units with harsh chemicals as to not look "untidy" to the landlords. As grout is naturally alkaline, putting acids like vinegar (to remove the calcium) on it creates salt thats not healthy for it. It always perplexed me watching old-school Germans insist on mixing all sorts of homemade chemicals to clean substrates that actually weren't all that good for it. Baking soda and hydrogen peroxide weren't found on any Aldi shelves for some mysterious reason, one had to go to the pharmacy and give an essay as to why one needed so much of that stuff for "private use". Buying pre-mixed solutions in plastic bottles was once scoffed as "Chemie" (chemistry, manufactured, fake). "Das ist alles Chemie" was common scoffage aimed at all sorts of American things, such as Coca Cola or frozen pizza. "Alles Chemie! Alles Chemie!" If it were possible, the German Greens would sell natural water in recyclable hemp bags, because plastic bottles are just, you know, fake.
Could be worse than the tap water in Florida not being drinkable.
In some areas where they do a lot of fracking the tap water is flammable!
Holy sh*t... Yeah I have seen areas in Florida where the canal water has an oil film on the top. It is so disgusting and humans are the worst.
@@HayleyAlexis th-cam.com/video/4LBjSXWQRV8/w-d-xo.html
WOW
@@HayleyAlexis I've never been pinned before....feel a bit like an insect in a display case now!
Only joking. Thanks!
'Hell is other people'
J P Sartre
@@HayleyAlexis For me as a tourist (in 2017) Florida looked like the paradise. Always great weather, palms, sea and relaxed people. Probably you see it differently, if you always live and work there ... ;-) I heve never seen a city as crazy as Orlando. The whole city is designed or fun, everywhere you see people flying on ropes/catapults through the air, playing Terminator in a shooting-range or dancing with Mickey Mouse (after a whole day 9am to 9pm in Disney's Magic Kingdome I felt like bathed in sugar water). In "MegaStore" easily you can get into a shopping frenzy (with all their Star Wars and Disney products, sunglasses, T-Shirts etc).
Tap water is the most controlled liquid in Germany
Followed by beer 😉
Followed by gasoline
according to our (German) guidelines, tap water must even be cleaner than bottled water from the supermarket
@@krauel6237 it´s actually a European guideline, I think, because in Italy the tap water is also very high quality and very much controlled. In the places where it doesn´t taste excellent is usually because the house or the area has an old plumbing system. But they are renovating a lot right now so they are changing those too, therefore the problem should be solved in the future.
tap water has a high quality. that‘s why products like „Soda Stream“ are big in Germany.
I think its just part of the German mindset, that you expect a taxi to be an above average car.
If I pay someone to drive me around they should have a good car and should be a professional driver.
As a German I don't get the Uber concept. If I want a random idiot to drive me around in an old, messed up Peugeot I can do that myself.
Also is does make sense economically to use above average cars as taxis. They should be reliable and good to go for hundreds of thousands of kilometres. Nobody needs a taxi where the motor goes belly up after 120.000 km.
It is a little cheaper* I usually did half uber and half taxi. I used Uber because it was a little easier and user friendly than the taxi apps I had and sometimes A LOT cheaper than the taxi alternative.
@@HayleyAlexis You're right. I forgot the monetary factor, so I see how it makes sense in the US.
But in Germany I'd just take the bus if I wanted a cheaper option. Which then probably would be a Mercedes again :D
@@HayleyAlexis Also I think that Mercedes generally are of good quality and have less loss of value over time. So they can do more distance and be useable for longer time and/or better value if you switch regularly your vehicle. And honestly, when someone is sitting in your seat, just get the usher or person from the staff and let them deal with it, no reason to deal with idiots yourself. And yes, I would definitely insist on my seat since it is associated with additional cost.
@@HayleyAlexis you dont need an app for a taxi.. you can just call them directly. Its NOT uber.. LUL completely LOST
Fun fact about the tap water in germany: There are stronger regulations on tap water than on bottled water in germany. So basically you get cleaner water from your tap than from a bottle.
Two things about the helmets/accidents. Removing yourself from an accident is a crime in germany, you are required to stay and provide first aid, which is also why every car is required to have a first aid kit on board. Second, helmets are not enforced for bikes, but are mandatory if you are driving a motorcycle (or anything else requring a driving license).
Fun fact about tab water in germany. The water quality is only granted til the pipe that connects the house you are living in to the central pipes. So your house can have really bad ones with light metal, which would make drinking tab water instead of bottled water more dangerous.
Noname6589 Obviously...
@@Noname6589 but if you let it run till it's fresh, it has no time to get the metall in it. And if you not sure how good your water is, just take a bottle and send it to the "Wasserwerke" they will control it...
you got hit by a car twice, NALF got hit, lamblike got hit... I'm cycling more than 30 years here and it never happened to me - so I'm not sure if the German car drivers is the problem 😜
LMAO both incidents were not my fault.... I promise. I was actually riding on a bike sidewalk in Munich (it wasnt even on the main road. It was separated) and a man was turning into a parking lot... usually when people turn they look around their shoulder to make sure someone is not coming on their bike.... He did not do that and just hit me... he hit my back tire so there wasnt much I could do... The other time was also not my fault .... I was literally on the sidewalk (where I was not supposed to be riding BUT yeah) and it was when I first got to Munich and I was scared of riding my bike on the road so I always made sure to ride on the sidewalk as much as I possibly could. This old lady "accidentally" drove up on the sidewalk and hit me.. Granted she was driving very slow and I was not hurt BUT it scareed the sh*t out of me. After the cops came.... she admitted to texting and driving or trying to check her phone..She was around 75 or something I believe..... So I honestly COULD not have prevented the accidents from happening LMAO
@@HayleyAlexis Ok, I see... that's why my parents taught me: "In traffic, you always have to think for others." I guess that helped me a lot 😂
At least your accidents didn't seem to be that serious. Btw: wearing a helmet definitely doesn't hurt; no.1. reason for bicyclers dying in an accident with a car is not the crash itself but afterwards when your head hits the concrete...
It could be worse. When I moved to Spain I was told to keep enough money to pay for the taxi in my hands just in case of an accident and to give the money to the driver and scatter. I actually had a taxi driver go up onto a sidewalk to pass someone...😲👴
@Anna Sichla How was it HER fault when a car left the roadway and hit her? She didn't hit a pedestrian. In the wrong for bike on a sidewalk, sure, but that's no relationship to the incident.
As a German I was not hit but had several near misses because I'm always aware on how rude German car drivers are.
In Germany, leaving the site of an accident is actually a criminal offense. So people don't necessarily care by choice.
It is in America also
@@rooooooby if you say the guy you ran over supported Bernie Sanders you will get pardoned, though.
in the US i think people just leave because the insurances are so shit. when i was in miami a car hit our car and just drove off. the guy had his whole family in the car. that would never happen in austria (where i'm from). our insurance guy wasn't even suprised & didn't charge us for the damage
@@joethesheep4675 "Haha this person supports a different politician so killing them would be excusable" is actually not as funny a joke as you seem to think. Some of y'all Americans really are wild, man. Morally rock bottom.
@@Phelie315 i am not american, though. I just like black humor. ^^
Having a really good high quality of water with a good taste is something we in Germany should appreciate a lot more.
I drink a lot of tap water at home or mix it with some juice, it's nice and not so sweet in the summer time.
Im surprised that your water apparently tastes good yet so many of you do not drink the water lol. So many Germans still buy water from what I can tell. I think cuz you guys like carbonated water right? (Which sounds gross to me but maybe Im just weird lol.) But I guess you can never really know if the water is 100% safe just by the taste.
@@ramblingmillennial1560 Germany spends a lot of money to keep that quality. Fresh water is necessary for our life.
And we are 83 Million people, so everyone can decide what to drink, we have a lot of opportunities and not every carbonated water is the same, has the same test.
@@ramblingmillennial1560 There are machines which can carbonate tap water for you so no, it's not just that. Partly it is simply marketing. Partly it is habit. Partly is is the fact that store bought water supposedly has all kind of "minerals" in them. And partly it depends on how much you trust your own plumping. The water is tested and thoroughly cleaned, but it still needs to get transported to your house after all.
It is also something, we have to take care of. There is always a political thread of people wanting to privatize water supply, which would probably make it more expensive and of lesser quality. Currently, water suppliers in Germany are usually publicly owned.
Also, there is the farming industry putting far too much dung on fields which is a problem in some areas. Water suppliers work hard to mitigate those problems, but it is getting more difficult and more expensive.
Your cinema story: you were absolutely in the right. You could have called someone working for the cinema to solve the situation. Most times people who take other peoples seats have paid for cheaper seats, but want to sit in the more expensive ones with the better view, so the cinema has an interest in sorting those things so the customers who paid more will come back next time and again pay for the more expensive ticket.
Nicosixth Robin I can tell you that this absolutely wouldn’t have happened in Germany. You take the seat number that is on your ticket and only if they’re still empty by the time the movie starts, you might change to more expensive seats, but this also happens rarely. No one would even think about choosing a seat that isn’t their number...
@@solanum6039 Are you serious? It hasn't happend to me but I've met enough people with that "I don't care" mindset. There really is a certain kind of selfish mindset around in germany... and it's not that rare as you might think which drives me mad. They are in the same category like those who are standing in fromt of the entrance of a supermarket chatting with a friend. When you come a long they just look at you for a brief moment, turn their head around and continue chatting as if you don't exist. I do get that some people are just kinda ignorant and simply don't realise they stand in the way. However this kind deliberately don't give a shit about you or anyone else.
Bunny83 i am serious
@@solanum6039 I am in Germany, I did go to the movies in the past (still closed T.T) and more than once I had people sitting in my seat or saw other guests who had to get someone out of their seats. I would say I see that happen about every second movie. Mostly groups of teenagers.
@@solanum6039 Well, I've had my fair share of people sitting in my booked seats before, but they always moved and changed seats when I showed them my ticket. Because sometimes, even though certain seats are reserved in advance, the people who reserved them won't show up for the entirety of the movie. I guess that's the mindset behind these situations.
Did you just say: "You are tot. You are a scrambled Ei on the ground." ? I will so steal that phrase! lmao
Yes and the funny thing is... It just came out of my mouth. I didn't even realized I said Ei instead of egg!!
😁😁😁
love that xD
It is mandatory by law in Germany to wear a helmet on motorcycles. On bicycles is is optional, but highly recommended. Most children wear a helmet on their bike.Great video 😄👍!
To clear up the Taxi- situation: US taxis are 90% clapped out police cruisers from `Government surplus auctions`. In Germany taxis are new vehicles, that have to pass a stringent inspection every 6 months. Tap water in Germany is considered the `purest beverage you can buy` at a price of less than 2,--€ per m³. That is 1000 liters, or 3600 cu/ft !
Finally! Tap water being drinkable and not smelling like a swimming pool is a big difference.
Tap water is not drinkable, but you get it for free in restaurants?! 🤔 thank you, I guess 😳 😂
We just went out to a restaurant yesterday and the server at the restaurant recommended that we not drink the water there because they had a water boil notice in place.... lol
lol
@@Alice_Badeba No. Even badly chlorinated variants are always drinkable, we have a very high standard for tap water.
It's even more harsh than the standards for bottled water.
@@Alice_Badeba Dann habe ich dich missverstanden, sorry.
Der gruslige Chlor-Pitcher ist mir auch bekannt. ;-)
@@svengaefgen5909 Well, apparently you are getting technical about it. Sure, even badly chlorinated water is TECHNICALLY drinkable. But who would want to drink it?
In germany they care a little bit: "My car! You scratched it all up with your flailing body!!!"
In the US now you can reserve seats now. They have recliner seats in most theaters and you can pick your seat
Yellow light when changing from red to green means "Vorbereiten zur Anfahrt" - prepare to move on.
Also - there are a total of four traffic light "settings": Green - yellow - red - red+yellow - (green again). Red+yellow being "prepare for green light". It's kinda handy - a lot of people don't activeley know this,
its for color blind people too
@@Child3k actually Arno is right. It has no special meaning than that colorblind people can figure out, with phase it is.
Imagine you are color blind. Coming from a small side street onto the main road and you see a yellow traffic light. Now, which is it? Stoping or going? You also need not necessarilyto be color blind for this.
Yellow means either "slow down, prepare to stop (so to say)" or "prepare to go"
That is the reason, why there is a different "yellow" when going. It is only to call the difference, "which yellow" it is.
@@mijp I did not by any means dispute what Arno was saying.
But I do dispute your "no special meaning"-thing. Red+yellow has a special meaning - being that it signals the light will turn green next. Same as yellow signalling the light is about to turn red.
Part of the reason why that is implemented the way it is my very well be because it is beneficial for color blind people.
Plus: If I recall correctly in the US lights go from red to green to yellow to red. So there's no two yellow-phases to be confused by.
Just throwing that in since this kinda is about a US-GER comparison.
@@Child3k I didn't said that it has no special meaning.
Thinking about it, it depends on what came first. The definition of color changing or the definition of the meaning of color hanging.
I don't think, that we will ever know, so, in the end it is irrelevant.
Yooooo that seat in the movies thing!! Im from Naples and I went to see the Avengers or something with some friends. Treated ourselves and went to the Mercado. I get to our row and these two people are in 2/4 seats we had. I ask them to please move cuz those are our seats. They pretend to not see me even as Im standing practically on top of them. Finally the boyfriend says no and that it doesnt matter. I go yeah dude it doesnt matter go to your seat or I can get the staff to move you or me and my three friends can move you. If I paid for a fucking seat Im getting my own fucking seat. Rant over. Love ya.
I love SilverSpot (I think thats the name of the theater)... Yeah I was quite upset when the lady did not move or offer to show me her ticket... I was so very close to calling security BUT I try my best to think of positive karma....
@@HayleyAlexis The problem with letting people sit on your seat is, that then you take someone else's seat. Making you the bad guy.
@@HayleyAlexis this has nothing to do with Karma. If I _pay_ extra for the seat reservation, the folks sitting there better move or a nice orderly will show them their places. I'm totally German about that ;)
Correct: You dont have to wear a helmet in D. Not in a Taxi. Not on a bycicle.
But on a (motor)bike!
Mercedes realized VERY early they can get a ton of reputation and 'street-recognition' by having many many Taxis being Mercedes, so already in the early 20th century they worked closely with car rental and limo-services. They started also to have models specifically made fitting for the role as taxi.
Service was always a big plus too, not sure if always or when it started, but mercedes taxis often come with extensive but reasonable cheap contracts for allround-service for years and even preferential servicing. So when your car gets a problem you get to the nearest Mercedes dealership or contract repair-shop and get it fixed asap. That together with the overall quite good quality meant that it was not unusual to find taxis driving around that had several hundred thousand kilometers, often without ever having major technical issues... taxi drivers loved their Mercedes's (Mercedeses?).
In the last few decades the quality of other brands catched up a lot and also Mercedes ... lets say with the always increasing complexity it became hard to uphold the quality standards.
In Switzerland, we only know reservations for the movies. You will always get a ticket with a row and seat number. Of course, if there are only 3 people in the room, you can go sit where ever you want :-)
Same in Holland! :)
I‘m so Swiss and I will only sit at the place that is on the ticket! Even if the theater is empty.
I think it's proper in German speaking countries, including the Netherlands. 😉
@@SchmulKrieger Poland the same, I guess it's the same system in whole Europe.
@@silesianguy could be. 😉
The foil on the taxis is comparatively new. It started about 20 years ago. Before that, the Taxis were actually painted cream by the manufacturer.
There are so many Mercedes Taxis, because they get express service at the Mercedes garages. Where I live, Mercedes has a whole Aisle in the repair shop reserved for Taxis. That were about 10 repair stations just for the Taxis. They do it like that in every major city in the main Garage of the local Mercedes branch. The other manufacturers probably don't have enough Taxis sold to make this a valid service option. in every city.
"Its new" from 20 years ago ^^'
did we even got foil´d cars back then? I can't remember how old this techic is
The foiled cars thing appies to German police cars too. They're actually silver with some blue foil on them (or green foil when police cars were still green). They sell them after several years of use, and silver cars sell better.
....So it's like the USA :) They sell police cars here afterwards as well. It's always funny seeing an old police car as a "civilian" car because they still have some of the police accessories so you never know if they are cops or normal people. A lot of braking happens :p
@@HayleyAlexis in germany everything that makes it a police car has to be removed tho, same applied to driving-school cars, theyre often sold after being used for some time aswell :)
@@Ariyl now our police cars (NRW) are no longer BMW or VW they are Ford X Max family cars...because of the space in the back.
They have changed over the time: from green, to beige/cream and green, to white and green, to silver and green, to silver and blue, to silver and blue-yellow.
The Zoll is still silver and green. 😉
@@Ariyl same in the US. Most likely it's the driver's side (both in some cities) A Pillar mounted spotlight that's still installed, that's the tell, as that's not a police-only item.
The seats inb the cinema. you should have called for an employee or the manager.
The numbered seats are not always the case. In Germany you have the better and more expensive places (Loge) and the cheaper ones in the front (Parkett).
Sometimes all seats are numbers, sometimes only the seats in the Loge.
In this case if you buy the cheaper tickest, you still have to come earlier to get better seats.
Oh that is true.. Also in the Opera. I remember I had purchased really cheap seats at the time, maybe 10€? I got there relatively late and there were hardly any seats left... The ticket was for first come first serve seats in the "nosebleed" section as we like to call it in English :)
@@HayleyAlexis We call shaving seats 😎
@@HayleyAlexis in my experience, Germany is pretty informal, or rude if you will, when it comes to "queuing etiquette". Never in my life I would have expected someone to arrive one hour before a movie starts, or to go that much for one particular seat.
So from my (German) perspective not to leave someone else's cinema seat is certainly rude, but seeing an escalating fight for a seat in a cinema would have chocked me even more. I'm not saying right or wrong, it's just different habits.
That is not to say that I like rudeness or like to be on the receiving end of it. The important thing is to remain "the bigger person" and to remember (sometimes at least) how many people on this earth would happily change your problems with theirs ;-)
I have never heard of numberless theaters, expect for open air cinemas.
@@SchmulKrieger It used to be the norm in Germany until big chains opened American style cinema centres, so let's say early 2000s.
Until then it was generally happy-go-lucky informal if you will or like queuing anywhere: first come first serve. Whoever wanted a particular view / seat simply came in time. Tickets were not bigger than stamps and did not indicate seat numbers.
In any case, I never ever saw people quarreling over seats. For debating seats I prefer "traveling with Deutsche Bahn", if you know what I mean ;-)
Nice to see you smiling and cheerful. Hope things are looking up!!
The way you're describing Florida's tap water can only be compared to Kenya's Langata estate water. Drink straight from the tap at your own peril.
Can't wait to relocate to Germany and ride on those Audi & Merc taxis.
So so good to see you in a better frame of mind Hayley! You know we all wanted to just reach through the screen and hug 🤗 you with that last video. Today there was a lot more of the normal happy bubbly Hayley back. Great video as usual! 😊
Glad to see your feeling better. Stay strong, you will take care of everything.
'The tap water is drinkable'
That was somewhat of a culture shock to me too. It's not only drinkable, it tastes great!
Yes, I live in Germany, and sometimes I think, people do not care about others while driving or even cycling. I also want to point out, that good cycling lanes are rare in Germany. It is so important to feel safe at cycling from point a to b. Often a cycling lane ends suddenly. This can be shocking. Thanks for the nice video.
We need more Hayleys in Germany.
We love you! and We are happy for you and Mike!
Girl!!! Even the busses are Mercedes!!!! 🤣🤣🤣
I KNOW!!!! lol.... I am living my best luxury peasant life :D
Hayley Alexis 🤣🤣🤣.
not all of them ^^ most likely in cities yeah but outside of big cities like Berlin there are a bunch of different busses
@@Wha73v3r I live in small town and all I see is Mercedes-Benz Buses.
@@MK-gq4em same here. Our city is relatively small and they are in dept like hell but u will only see the newest Mercedes busses 😂😂😂
Awww i felt blushing a little bit...
Interesting views of germany i never thought about.
As a bicycle rider i have a helmet but don't wear it every time. On the motorbike on the other hand, driving without helmet is a no go !
Thank you! stay safe and have a nice time!
For what its worth, the German taxi color is legally standardized and mandated (RAL 1015 "bright ivory"). The law allows exceptions on state level, and some states make use of that.
About the traffic lights: In addition to the yellow light lighting up both when the light goes from red to green and from green to red, the timing of when it does so is different. When the light goes from green to red it goes green - yellow - red. When the light's about to turn green it goes red - red+yellow - green. That way if you see a light with the yellow light lit up you know right away whether it's about to turn red or green.
This is exactly the same as the UK
Austria (and some other countries?) do it even better (IMHO). The green flashes 4 times before the yellow. So you know quite well, if you can make it. On the other hand you can be punished if going by yellow. In Germany it suddenly goes yellow and you have to decide quickly how to react.
Drinkable water: I am in Northern Germany. We once got a water carbonator. No more mineral water buying! We soon went back to buying bottles, however, because we have 16°dh and the water just tasted very much like chalk!
Hayley always remember children are kind, but German children are always Kinder ;-)
And for the traffic light, in Austria it even blinks 3 times in green before going from green to to yellow and then red, so you know from a distance that you will not make it. Or speed up to make it, which is the standard move ^^
Some car makers offer the taxi color RAL 1015 but to sell it after being used as taxi you get it in black, whit or silver, better price when selling, And the foil protects the original painting, only bad thing is, when you had a crash you have to paint it and then put a new foil on it.
InTax is one of the companies that put in all needed parts like cables for taxiradio, alarm and for the taxameter.
you’re looking great Haley - stay safe !
Hi Hayley, wasn‘t here for a while. You are as georgeous as ever! Now am gonna listen what you are talking about. 😂
Your intro is bomb 😂😂 rushing all the free stuff 😂
By the way I subscribed a long time ago 😏 need to boost myself a bit 😁
HAHHAHAHA It's like the commercials in the USA where they talk about medicine and they go through the side effects very quickly :p
Thank you for subscribing!!!
@@HayleyAlexis 😂 yes spot on!
The taxi drivers I met in Austria and Germany expected me to sit up front. I was surprised because in the U.S. I always sat in the back.
Several months ago our AMC movie theater started requiring patrons to choose their seats. Since I, along with lots of other old people 😆 often go in the afternoon when there are very few people it became an irritating requirement that slowed down the ticket buying process.
In Germany it is not only leaving the scene of an accident that is a criminal offence. You also have a legal requirement to provide first aid to the best of your ability to anyone who is injured and requires assistance in any circumstances. If you stand there and do nothing then you are committing an offence. When you provide such assistance, if you make a mistake or do something wrong you are protected by insurance. You have a legal requirement to act and can be prosecuted if you don’t.
How nice to see you happi(er) again. As for shocks .. i had no idea you cannot drink your tap water in the states. What do you drink when thirsty?
@Anny's World I thought they love their drinking fountains and free tap water at the restaurants in the US. That would be an interesting topic for a video
Some restaurants have filtered water (Starbucks has a tripled filter system so its like drinking bottled water without the plastic waste if you bring your own cup) and some do not have filtered water. A lot of people will argue that the water is drinkable in the USA and most of the times it is BUT I have had too many instances where stuff has come out of my faucet, there have been water boil notices, or the water has a disgusting smell/taste.... so I stick to my 5 gallon refillable water jugs that come from a filtered water dispenser and I have a water fountain in my home that makes the water extremely cold or extremely hot.
@Anny's World - well, yea, but imagine a family of like 3 or 4 .. in warm climate. You d have to carry a crate of water bottles each day ... i would certainly not like that.
European taxi drivers are often also AMAZING drivers. I'd argue you could easily recruit a full racing team from any bigger city.
I would have to agree with you on this. I have had some sketchy/scary drivers but most WERE AMAZING and just had an amazing "feel" for the road.
Alias Anybody in Hamburg, Germany they aren’t I can tell you that much.
@@everytimeyougo10 compared to what?
"It's just a random fact that you didn't know" 😂❤️love that, live your facts 😂😂😂
Even though I have spent 23 years of my (as in whole) life in Germany I had no idea about the foil on taxis! I thought they were just painted in that yellowish colour, thanks for enlightening me
They are.
Foil is for adds .
This tone of yellow which taxis are coloured, is forbidden for any other car.
my small advice for tourists: if you can try to go to the Opera or Ballet in the next city. It's quite affordable, and really a adventure. 😀 And for sports fans: try to visit a german football game.
Mercedes is THE classic cab in Germany. A few reasons: They last forever: From early on they were mostly Diesel. Although BMW is local in Munich, they came out much later with Diesel, and never gained any popularity as cabs. A friend of mine drove a Benz with 700,000 km on the first engine, and the gas usage was very economical. Cab companies used to get a huge rebate on new Mercedes, to the point that they could sell them after a year or two, and hardly lose any money. Why the rebate? Because they are the best advertisement. I had passengers get into a new E class Diesel, and they were amazed that it ran so smoothly, they could not believe it's a Diesel. You get a taste of luxury, and you are hooked, you want it. And yes, most cabs are foil covered, not painted. Standard color. Maybe so you can recognize them if you are drunk like a skunk, and don't flag down a cop car, by mistake. Easier to resell after a few years to unsuspecting buyers. Who wants to buy a former cab? Foil comes off easy, and there's your shiny blue car. LOL. Every cab has a taxi license number to be prominently displayed on the dashboard, visible from the outside in the rear window, also on the receipt you can ask for. Cabs are clean, because in the better companies they are cleaned daily, and if you soil it badly, you pay for the professional super clean, which can be pretty costly. Professional cleaning up to EUR 450, loss of income around 300 to 400 per shift, since cabs are on the road usually 24/7.
The water is drinkable and doesn't have chlorine in it. When I leave the house, I often fill a bottle with tap water and bring it with. If I want bottled water, then I buy .19€ bottle at Aldi.
Bicycling in Austria is much easier than Germany. Apparently the rules in Austria put car drivers automatically at fault if there's an accident, so car drivers are VERY careful on the roads.
I constantly have cars "waiting for me".
I've cycled in Germany (across the border)... Cycles are almost invisible, cars barely notice me (ie normal).
Re your movie experience, I would have instantly escalated things. I hate people being stupid & annoying.
Italy was the opposite. If you stand at a crosswalk here in Germany, most of the time, cars will stop and let you cross. Not in Italy, we stood at a crosswalk with a child stroller and I don't think anyone stopped.
Regarding the tap water, I believe it is required by law to be drinking quality. there are a few exceptions for watersources that are used for things like watering plants only. It is also not unusual that mineral springs which sell bottled water also provide the tap water for the surrounding area. My parents live east of Hamburg for example and the Tap Water there comes right from the wells of the "Fürst Bismarck Quelle" and is basically the same water that you can buy as tablewater in bottles
Your voice is very calming:)
The foil has also another advantage. It prevents little rock chips in the actual varnish.
Ah very true :D I forgot about that!!
The foil is a rather recent phenomenon. Until about the year 2000 the taxis had a real ebony paint.
@@kholzbauer
I hate to point it out because I feel old but 20 years ago is not recent. ;-)
And Halyey hat this in the video as info. Think it was 2001 or 2002.
Black cabs in UK are massively expensive , but private mini cab firms use Mercedes a lot as there really quite cheap cars that have that luxury feel and are super reliable
Thats why tapwater in restaurants in germany is almost never for free: People would never drink anything else and the restaurant owner would go pleite.
i never payed for tapwater in a restaurant here...
@@bla09235454212 Not sure you can get water on Cadia at all
"You’re a scrambled Ei on the ground" 😅
Painting the car also voids the warranty, which is why a lot celebrities also wrap their cars to customize them.
I know you've been in Germany for a while from the way you pronounce "Mercedes." 😄
She doesn't pronounce it correctly though 🤣 but it's a cute accent!
More theaters in the United States have reserved seats when you buy your tickets now. Plus more have comfortable recliners and more restaurant type food.
I miss my Great Aunt's water in Chicago. That was delicious water. I do have to say the city did filter the water before it came to people's houses. That water was cool, fresh, and crisp. Growing up in Florida I was always shocked that the water was extremely cold even if it was 38 C outside. That's what you get from Lake Michigan. Nestle bottle water used to take water from Lake Michigan. The city I lived in Florida had excellent tap water. Their filtration system was the best in the state of Florida. My brother moved back to the city we grew up in and even my husband is Swiss and German and he said that the water from the city was good. His only wish was that it was colder, but your not going to get that in Florida.
It´s really good to see you in a different mood. I hope you take good care of yourself as Florida is a hot spot right now. And by the way: Gemany is missing you.
So beautiful what you said about Germany! Thank you! 😁☺️😁
Years ago taxis were much heavier regulated down to to color of the cars: „Hell-Elfenbein“, i.e. light ivory. These days the color is no longer mandatory but to be easier recognizable many companies stick with it. Like yellow cabs in the U.S.
My favourite tap water was in Iceland, where it basically was spring water, and was free wherever I went. On the other hand, bottled water was about 5GBP per litre.
i think the big difference if a car hits u, if u stop and u r not drunk, its not the end of the world. its just gets really bad if u drive away.
The reason why Mercedes are common taxis:
1: They were first to offer diesel, which is more economical in Europe
2: They offered it for good prices/leasing
3: They have high second hand value after the taxi driver wants to get a new car
4: Good for the comfort and luxury of the passenger
5: It has become sort of a tradition that is hard/only slowly being changed
6: Not sure about this one, but I heard it somewhere: I think in the past (not valid anymore) the government set out specifications of what taxis should offer and what dimensions they should have (i.e. trunk size for baggage, foot room fort comfort etc.) and "coincidentally only" Mercedes passed perfectly for the specs. It was a way to promote buying homemade German cars instead of cheaper imports
plus, they last really long, in fact in berlin i've used Mercedes taxis that were vintage, but in perfect condition.
Regarding the german helmet situation: I remember that when I was a elementary school age, I was told, that I have to wear a helmet as long as I'm still a kid, and from the age of 15 on (I don't remember exactly, could've been 14 or 16 too), I won't have to wear a helmet anymore. And since helmets were considered 'uncool' and none of the parents were wearing them either, I happily threw this ugly signal yellow styrofoam thing in the corner and never weared it again for 15 years.
Just recently I started using my bike again (after not having the possibility to store it somewhere in the appartement building I lived in before), and I decided to buy a helmet again (and wear it ofc). Tbh nowadays helmets are not as horribly ugly anymore as they were in the 90s, but I realized that as an adult, I have to be a good role model for the Kids, so they see, that even if it looks ridiculous and 'uncool', the parents and other grown ups do it too, so better wear a helmet and be safe :)
SorrowDivine Als Kind fand ich es immer seltsam, dass meine Mutter nie einen Helm getragen hat...
The reason why the traffic lights goes yellow before green has nothing to do with the manual driving cars. With manual cars the reaction can be even faster than with automatic cars, at least is my experience, with manual cars I react faster that with automatic.
The true reason is that if you have the yellow, the people that turn off the engine can turn it on before the light goes green. We have the same mechanism here in Switzerland, the cars should turn off the engine (after the 3th vehicle), so they introduced that yellow light in between red and green to allow those cars to start the engine without delay.
ICYI: Es gibt eine "Helmpflicht" für Motorräder (schneller als 20 km/h), aber "keine Helmpflicht" für Fahrräder.
The reason why there are so many taxis that are Mercedes is that Mercedes was for the longest time the only car manufacturer who build special cars that can work as taxis. We had taxis (all Mercedes - obviously) that run for more than a million km. We had to change them though, because well they weren't that eco-friendly. But they drove ust fine.
The regulations for tap water her in Germany are even stricter than for bottled water. Depending on the area I wouldn't be surprised if the locally produced mineral water comes from the same source as the tap water in that area - no wonder German tap water is considered "hard".
Actually, that is the case. They made a documentation about that a while ago, was quite interesting. On the bottles you always see which spring / well the water was drawn from, and in many cases the bottled water comes from the exact same springs / wells that supply the local area tapwater. So basically when you buy certain brands of bottled water, chances are pretty good that you're buying the exact same water as the one that's coming out of your tap.
8:00 In Germany, there are also sometimes (but very rarely in my opinion) people who don't care, where their seats are.
In those moments, it's normal to report this case to the cashier or any other worker at the cinema, who will told the people that they're responsible to follow what's written, because it's similar to a contract, which they accepted by paying them.
On the other hand, this also means, that the police may be called for attempted fraud and following this obvious fact,
the cinema can file a complaint against those _rebels_ , who are usually banned from the house and their admission fees will be retained.
Fortunately, just mentioning the "police" is sufficient in most cases to settle the dispute.
Almost all tap water in the U.S. also has added fluoride which is a poison in high concentrations to "help kids have stronger teeth". However, many researchers claim fluoride consumption leads to all sorts of disorders and medical issues. Reverse osmosis home system is a must have in the U.S., when I travel I buy filtered water jugs.
When you have trouble with your taxidriver, report it to the taxicall, the Genossenschaft or the Ordnungsamt for poblic transportation.
Dont forget to get a receipt, whithout you have proof who was it!
When he wants to much money you can get a refund with the receipt and the driver gets a problem!
Fun fact about the tap water in germany: even though it is very clean, as you said - there is a high standard expected from the purification plants regarding the cleanliness of tap water in germany - a lot of germans still don't drink it... We prefer drinking sparkling water instead, which you usually have to buy in a store.
It is possible however to use a certain machine for your home that adds carbon to the tap water to turn it into sparkling water, but these machines are not very common. Why? These machines are, if not expensive, at least say: costly, and sparkling water is soooo cheap to buy in german stores. At a discounter, you'll get 1.5 liters (approx. 50 oz) of sparkling water for less than 20 cents.
The different lights on the traffic lights are for safty reason. It should not be possible, even for color blinded people, to missinterpret the state of the lights. Think about you are a color blinded driver, just coming out of a small side street and you are seeing the traffic light befor you. If it would be only yellow, you would not know, is it turnig red or is it turning green.
So there is a difference.
Turning red: ony yellow
Turning green: red and yellow
As I know it the additional yellow time at the traffic lights give a bigger gap. Maybe someone can't stop in front of the waiting line, when the traffic light turning yellow and maybe on the other line nobody is waiting and there's a driver seeing its getting green - there could be a crash. I was once told that this is a reason why there are more car accidents in the USA per capita, even if the streets there are often wider and the average driving speed is lower.
As far as I know, here in Germany helmets are mandatory for ALL bicycle and motorcycle riders. Thanks for your comment on the water - that is exactly my opinion! Florida is so low that the ground water is basically salt water and thus undrinkable. I've seen cartons of German and Swedish water in supermarkets there.
Nice to hear and see you!
German Helmpflicht on motorbikes: § 21a Absatz 2 StVO (since 1976).
In the US: In several states only(?)
Yeah... a lot of states don’t require you to if you have insurance BUT in Florida insurance is also not mandatory for a motorcycle rider 🙃
And the fine is 15 € for not wearing a (suitable) helmet.
Also, in case of injury you'll automatically be considered at least partially liable by your insurance company.
Another big problem with "free seating" is that people buy tickets to other movies if the one they want to see is sold out and than just sneek in. Where I have worked, we would not sell the last 10 seats and also have ushers double check tickets right at the door to the actual theater where the sold out movie was shown. Still more often than not we would have 1 or 2 persons not finding a seat for themself.
Oh dear, I would have definitely called the security guy, specially after all the attitude that woman had.
Yes, me too. She bought cheap tickets and stole the seats from people who paid the 3 dollars extra.
You are not the bigger person if Frechheit siegt.
About the lights topic - What I learned as the reason for that is that you can decide from a distance if the light will be green or red in the next second
I remember the first time I received a glass of tab water in a restaurant in the US. I thought, what is that awful smell? Until I realized that the water smelled like pure chlorine, and I was honestly shocked that they give it ppl to drink. 🙈
Yeah.. that happens sometimes. Some restaurants have a filtered water system but a lot do not
@@HayleyAlexis Actually maybe they give it to you in US to kill Corona? :-)))))))) (Nevertheless: Stay healthy, wear masks, keep distance, wash hands, love from Germany)
here in Austria, you get different makes of cars. Audis, Mercedes, VW, some Hybridcars. They are usually in good condition. At the airport, you get mostly Mercedes and Skoda Superbs, but there are also independent drivers, who will get you usually black Mercedes, BMWs and Audis. They all tell you the price beforehand and sometimes, it is stated on a list, which is stuck on the back of the right seat. We have very fair prices here and you don`t get taken advantage of by Taxis from the airport to Vienna. But IN Vienna...it`s a little different. If you visit us, don`t allow the shutdown of the "Taxameter" This thing determines your cost and drivers want to charge you without taxes, so that they can keep everything. I find it expensive anyway, so just take the public transport :)
There is no "dictate" about taxis overall. It is just that people expect something from taxis - that's why back in the day, Mercedes were kinda standard, but that changed a lot.
Over here in Berlin, you actually can sit in a Toyota as well, but if would always be the top notch of that brand and sadly, you are wrong about the helmet, cause bike-drivers HAVE to wear helmets, only on bycicles they are not mandatory, yet.
I would not have let that person take my movie seat XD" Just no. The system is in place for a reason.
@HaleyAlexis
I'm just glad you're obviously feeling (somewhat) better...
You look fantastic 😎
[How is your friend Lisa doing? (in all the turmoil that's going on overhere)? Now that Mike's in Germany you could do a video with Lisa]
How is Mike holding up by the way?
(maybe another video idea??)
OK, rambling now....
Love you & Stay Safe!!
I told Lisa I am going to make a video with her soon... She is leaving in a month to start her masters so I AM A LITTLE SAD but hopefully we can find time when shes not too busy!!
Mike is "ok". I mean he could be better but I know he is doing fine :) Thank you for asking!
@@HayleyAlexis
Leaving??? ....to go where??...
(just being nosey now LOL 😎)
It's good to see that Mike is "sorta ok", he'll just have to "tough it out" I guess....
(I know from personal exp. that that sucks big time)
Again love you & Stay Safe!!!
Glad to see you smiling again! I'm curious when you will go to Germany again.
Hopefully...October? Maybe November? Maybe December? Whenever I buy a ticket I will make a TH-cam video with an update :)
@@HayleyAlexis Wir lassen Dich aber erst wieder rein, wenn Du gewählt hast! Das muss diesmal sein. 😉🙋🏻♂️
Depending on where you live (large cities like NYC and DC) we have taxi commissions that you can report bad behavior, price gauging, and bad cars. Also now alot of the movie theaters are moving to assigned seating in the US as well.👍🏽
And the not wearing helmets on motorcyles? That's a self correcting problem 😂😂 #darwin
Meine Großmutter sagte immer:”eine Fontaine Durchfall, kommt ja oft mit großem Knall”😆🤮😜
Has admittedly nothing to do with your presentation here but is nonetheless unbelievably funny!! LUSTIG!!😆👍🤩👍
The reason Mercedes is the default car for taxi companies - and it's always a diesel - is reliability and length of life. A Benz spends less time under the wrench than most others, and more time earning money. It'll last longer before you need a replacement, too. Although other brands have made inroads over the last 30 years; at one point Mercedes had about 90% market share for taxis. Nowadays, it's more like 50%.
In Switzerland they go further, there you can drink the water out of the most fountains in the cities
Als Österreicherin finde ich deine Videos sehr spannend, and that's why you get my immediate sub!;) Ps In austria our water is even better than in germany (austria, germany, swiss, we are all german spoken, just saying;), it's also a bit different the hole lifestyle here, and to be honest, most of the people german spoken room (besides the germans themself;), dont have a lot of love for the germans, difficult people sometimes, but everywhere are difficult and nice ones to so...;) Liebe Grüße aus Österreich, katharina :*
The cab driver that we had one time in Paris. Now that taxi cab was filthy. We were driving along and then there was a mini explosion inside the car. The cab driver opens his glovebox and looks in. He said "huh it went boom 🤣." We were able to see the cab driver when eating dinner and he didn't clean out his glovebox.
In Germany you have to wear helmets on all "motorcycles" that can drive 25 km/h (15 mph) or faster (by law).
When I was a child (1970s) there were only Mercedes taxis in NRW. I think this was a restriction?
Our tap water in Germany has to fulfill more tests and has to be better quality than whater you can buy in shops.
The best pedestrian traffic light system I ever noticed was in the UK. for cars the lights get red and after some time the yellow light blinks. This says that you are allowed to drive if you don't hinder any pedestrian who is crossing. In Germany we have to wait even if the crossing is already free.
I feel a little bit ashamed of being so superficial upon the work with the content, which you have, but God - you are stunningly beautiful!
The cab-MB relation goes back to the 1930s when MB put its 260D onto the market. It was the world's first passenger car with a diesel engine. They were heavy, roomy, reliable, long-lasting and had an excellent power output vs fuel relation. They were not very fast but that did not count in inner-city traffic. No wonder that many of the (few thousand) that were built until the war were bought by taxi companies. After the war the small MB 170 was the first passenger car that rolled from the half-repaired factory in Stuttgart. From the late 1940s it was avaiable with a diesel engine as well. Then came the 180 and 190 series, they too followed the concept "slow but relyable and cheap to run". Only from the 1980s on with the advent of minivans was that unofficial monopoly of MB as THE maker of taxis finished.
In Germany there is no law to wear a helmet on a bicycle. According to §21a /II StVO you have to wear a helmet if you ride a motorcycle or open 3-wheeled or 4-wheeled motorized vehicle.
Not quite "open 3-wheeled or 4-wheeled motorized vehicle" would include convertibles (Cabrios) and Trikes. Both of which count as cars and do not require helmets.
06:26: You can even go online, select the seat of your choice and buy the ticket including the seat reservation. Ticket comes digital via email and into your account (yeah, you need to have an account at the respective theater chain).
I remember when in 1992 one of the modern new cinemas near my home town introduced seat reservations. Most of the people where not used to it and so someone else sat on my seat. They didn't want to move, because their seat was occupied also. So I did the same, sat somewhere else only to be the next link in the chain of unlawful seat occupants ;-) But people got used to this quickly. Never had such a situation again since 1992.
The water in Germany can be so hard in places that it leaves a visible white crust wherever it dries in short order. Which, in turn, holds mold. Which, in turn, displeases those cleanly Germans. I recall having to constantly clean grout and tile in rental units with harsh chemicals as to not look "untidy" to the landlords.
As grout is naturally alkaline, putting acids like vinegar (to remove the calcium) on it creates salt thats not healthy for it. It always perplexed me watching old-school Germans insist on mixing all sorts of homemade chemicals to clean substrates that actually weren't all that good for it. Baking soda and hydrogen peroxide weren't found on any Aldi shelves for some mysterious reason, one had to go to the pharmacy and give an essay as to why one needed so much of that stuff for "private use".
Buying pre-mixed solutions in plastic bottles was once scoffed as "Chemie" (chemistry, manufactured, fake). "Das ist alles Chemie" was common scoffage aimed at all sorts of American things, such as Coca Cola or frozen pizza. "Alles Chemie! Alles Chemie!" If it were possible, the German Greens would sell natural water in recyclable hemp bags, because plastic bottles are just, you know, fake.