The trip recap is here.  The trip review and commentary is as follows. 

Hannover is a German version of Boston.  We happened to show up for their summer solstice celebration, which meant tons of people, live bands, and the general feeling of a big town fair.  The above-ground trains and small city atmosphere made it feel exactly like Boston.  Except there was a single Irish pub, noted by its little Guinness sign.  The city center was easily navigable by foot, and many of the roads either didn't travel through the center or were diverted for the celebration.  Very cool place with lots of great little restaurants. 

Berlin was pretty cool and had a ton of history to go with it.  It's a shame that certain parts were destroyed during World War II (and probably by American bombs), but that's what happens when you kill millions of people and try to take over the world.  It was so cool that they can trace their history back to like 1000 AD and probably earlier.  That's like 5 times as old as America!  The guided bike tour was really cool.  Our American guide (a girl from Texas) supplied us with all kinds of information and history and famous sights, so it was totally worth the price.  And even though it was 85-90 degrees out, I didn't even break a sweat because the city is so flat. 

Bad Salzuflen and Lübeck were two little towns that probably don't get many visitors from America.  But their architecture and ambiance were a great way to experience authentic German culture.  Not many people spoke English, so hand signals and gestures were a must.  The celebration following the Germany-Turkey soccer game was truly amazing.  Germany has the largest Turkish population outside of Turkey.  Things didn't get out of control or anything, but people were celebrating in the streets and almost tipping cars. 

Because of Germany's latitude, it stayed light until about 11pm, and the sun didn't even go down until around 9:30.  It was good from a fit-as-much-as-you-can perspective, but eating dinner at 9pm because you lost track of time is a bit weird. 

Apparently, you can legally do the following things in public in Germany:  Drink and carry open containers of alcohol, smoke pot, urinate, and solicit prostitutes.  This was a bit of a change from what I'm used to. 

Concerning the language barrier, it was a barrier, but it was pretty easy to get past.  Many people, especially waiters and people in the big cities, speak English out of necessity.  And they speak it quite well.  They speak English better than most people can try to fumble with some German.  But in the smaller towns, many of the people didn't even speak an ounce of English.  At one restaurant, I had to point to a meal on a menu to ask for it, and I didn't even know what it was.  The cool thing is that I didn't have a single bad meal, so I was getting pretty confident that I could eat anything they brought out to me. 

I saw lots of dogs throughout the trip, but not one of them barked.  They were free to travel on subways and walk around the streets without a leash.  Dog owners seemed to treat their pets more as companions and less as slaves they keep locked up in their house all day then yell at when they pee on the living room carpet.  Also, the dogs weren't nosy and jumpy like American dogs.  Perhaps less stress means no barking and more calm? 

Germans don't j-walk, and the police enforce that law seemingly above all (or any) others.  Even if there are no cars around and it's a quiet intersection, if the walk light isn't green, you don't move.  Wendy's co-worker made the mistake of j-walking in view of a cop, and she got a stern, incomprehensible warning in German. 

Cops drive around in beat-up old minivans, and there are usually at least 5 or 6 cops in each vehicle.  This was in stark contrast to all the nice German vehicles on the roads, and also all the nice police cruisers paid for by our American tax dollars.  As I mentioned before, the cops stay away from the autobahns and tend to just cruise around the cities. 

There was a bidet in our hotel room in Bad Salzuflen.  I know the dictionary definition of the purpose of such a device, but I haven't the faintest clue how to use one.  Which direction am I supposed to face? 

I found that it was all too easy to stereotype people based on their nationality.  I read that Germans don't wear shorts, they wear all black, and they like designer clothes.  But that's like saying all Americans are overweight, like baseball, and drive SUVs.  It's true for some people but not everyone. 

Concerning the German language in written form (which I never studied and only learned from a guide book borrowed from the library):  When in doubt, capitalize and hyphenate. 

Concerning the beer:  I'm not a big beer drinker and I don't like dark beers.  But every beer I had in Germany, whether light or dark, was quite good.  The dark beers didn't have the normal bite to them that American (or imported) dark beers have.  I don't like to fight with my beer when I drink it.  In that sense, German beers were quite good.  On a related note, for a country that prides itself on its beer and for a continent that allows its young people to drink at an early age, I hardly saw any stumbling drunk people.  Even during the post-soccer game celebration, I saw about two people who were too drunk to walk straight.  But the rest of the thousands of people I saw weren't noticeably intoxicated.  Perhaps they don't abuse alcohol as much as Americans because they don't have to wait until they're 21? #travel