Nordsee - This German restaurant chain features mostly sea type food and fish.

Wienerwald - This chain started in Munich but overally expanded even reaching the shores of the USA.  However,  they had too much debt and as of this day they have locations in Germany and Austria.

With 16 Gold Medals, 10 Silver Medals, and 15 Bronze Medals, Germany has a total of 41 Olympic Medals for the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing.

This puts Germany in 5th place for most gold medals, which isn’t too much of a disappointment for the Germans.

Image via  interbasket

* It is said that germany´s tax system is so complex 80% of worldwide literature about taxes are published in german language

* Germany has about 1250 breweries offering more than 5000 different beer brands

* Germany is NOT #1 when it comes to consumption of beer. The average German drinks 145 litres per year - Belgians are leading (150 litres).

These are just a few of the many funny German facts out there, but we can’t help but laugh at the tax system fact. As it comes down to it, Germany laws are so complex many Germans don’t understand the process.

“A German inventor says he’s found a way to make cheap diesel fuel out of dead cats.

Dr Christian Koch, 55, from Kleinhartmannsdorf, said his method uses old tyres, weeds and animal cadavers. They are heated up to 300 Celsius to filter out hydrocarbon which is then turned into diesel by a catalytic converter.

Koch said the cadaver of a fully grown cat can produce 2.5 litres of fuel - meaning around 20 cats are needed for a full tank. He said: “I tank my car with my own diesel mixture and have driven it for 105,000 miles without any problems.”

Yikes….

article via ananova

“The German Colony in Haifa was established in 1869 by the Templers Society founded in Germany in 1861. This society was formed as a result of the harsh socio-economic conditions in South West Germany at the first half of the 19th century, in an atmosphere that brought forth the crystallization of messianic ideas in hopes of imminent salvation”

Strange to think that right in Israel is a little German colony.

To view a gallery from Hafia visit this link

If you are thinking about moving to Germany, http://www.immobilienscout24.de is probably a better option especially if you aren’t a student, for living in Germany.

MLive: “Kaman, declared a German citizen and presented with a passport per the request of its Olympic federation, doesn’t speak German and had never visited the country until this experience. He also never met his German-born great-grandparents, who passed away long ago.

Kaman, a 26-year-old Wyoming native from Tri-unity Christian High School, starred at Central Michigan and enters his sixth NBA season with the Los Angeles Clippers. He is a member of the German national team.”

Fair, not fair?  Many have called this buying players.  I mean no one would call Chris Kaman a German.  Would you?

From the NYTimes:“Everything was wrong: a Victory Column setting when he’s not yet victorious, a jejune weave from fighting Communism to fighting terrorism, and an accumulation of worthy platitudes. Presence was absence: the semiotics of yesterday’s world cascaded from America’s Homo Novus.

“This,” Obama told nuclear-energy hating Berliners, “is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.””

Of course Obama was trying to show he’s in touch with foreign issues, and we are sure the Euro tour helped.  But whoever wins, everyone in the US and in Germany are looking for some monumental changes to be made in the United States.

Take Fucking, Austria where tourist go just to get a snap shot by the town’s signs.  Of course they had to cement the signs down after tourists kept stealing them.

There is also Wankum (Germany)
Wankum (Germany)
Wankendorf (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)

A Must Read Article About Fucking, Austria