Americans may get in the car to drive down the street to drop something off, or to check the mailbox. Not Germans. Germans are not afraid to walk. If it's less than a twenty-minute walk, you should walk.
Furthermore, bikes here are used for transportation, not exercise or recreation, thus the bike lanes all over the place, and thus the weird look I gave the first guy I saw smoking while he was riding his bike. To an American, it looked like two opposing things: healthy exercise with unhealthy smoking. I thought it was hilarious.
One of the very first things I noticed the first time I was in Germany was that the bikes here are different. They look like bikes out of 1950s America, like people here forgot to update the style.
Every now and then, you may see a German with one pant leg rolled up. Despite what you may think, this is not a fashion trend. I asked about it and was told it was to protect their pants while riding their bicycles. I asked why they didn't roll up both sides, and was told that that the chain is only on one side. It took me forever to figure out why that wasn't a problem for Americans. I finally realized not everyone here has a cover for the chain that rolls by the pedal, but they all seem to have covers for their tires, which seems soooo old fashioned. Don't be surprised to see baskets on the back of bikes (yes, even of young people), and all bikes in Germany are required to have lights on the front and back or the rider will be ticketed. Don't forget to notice there's a bell too. This is really the typical bike in Germany.
