With the downtown Altstadt packed with holiday shoppers, it seems like some basic underpinnings of German culture really come to the fore. One of my pet peeves and something I never could understand about the locals has to do with their interpretation of "personal space" and the never-ending subtle game of chicken you always play when you're in a crowd. Germans really think nothing about walking 3 or 4 abreast on a sidewalk or crowded area, seemingly daring anybody to break up the line. Then there's this weird "intercept" thing, where I swear somebody figures out where you're going to be in 3 steps and deliberately alters their course to be in that spot at the same time. Lines? Forget about it-- we saw one guy last night who muscled past a good 10 people to stand in front of a popular tourist attraction (Nuremberg's famous Schöner Brunnen fountain) and get his picture taken-- and nobody batted an eye. From an outsider's perspective, it's exactly this sort of behavior that gives Germans their reputation for being rude-- they don't see it that way of course, but then again, they don't get torqued when some middle-aged lady jumps the deli line when you're up next... like me.
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