At the Hotel Central in the centre of Bamberg I had breakfast on the sun-drenched deck above the bike garage: at least it would have been sun-drenched if the clouds were not there. But because there were clouds and the waitress knew this the tables were set inside but I preferred the fresh air. As fellow cyclists with maps progressively arrived and imagined the sun radiating the deck they also sat outside and so the waitress was busy setting the outside tables leaving the inside ones largely vacant.
This relates to the observation that these northern Europeans like to be outside and often get about, including on bikes, without much clothing. It is all to do with UV B and vitamin D of course - those who stayed inside and kept their clothes on outside have long since evolved out of the population. The original dark people have long gone from extreme latitudes and only the mutant white versions without clothes have remained. The dark skin of people in central latitudes protected the UV A from destroying the folate levels in the blood and the occasional white mutants did not survive as they were not protected from blood folate deficiency.
At least all were well dressed for breakfast and Vitamin D evolutionary processes have not yet had its impact on the sole dark man at breakfast - he looked healthy enough.
In response to your Berg/Burg query several posts ago, die Berg is a hill and die Burg is a castle. Hope that clears things up so you know when to look out for rising ground and when to note a glorious castle.
ReplyDeleteI also love the colours of German towns. Makes a refreshing change from our high streets. For example in Footscray the strip is characterised by graffiti sprayed onto the corrugated roller doors which are pulled down and locked over the shopfronts. The rusted verandahs sag and droop. If there is a window it is smudged and greasy as well as covered in crass marketing messages.