Day 44 - Laptop & Lederhose

Back in 1998 the then German President, Roman Herzog, used the phrase "Symbiosis of Laptop und Lederhose" to describe the change  Bavaria had gone through from an agricultural based state to a High Tech area. This was picked up by the local politicians and is often used to extol the virtues of today's Bavaria - tradition and modernity.

Herzog actually meant that Bavaria was a very visible sign of this structural change within the whole of Germany, with it's local engrained roots combined with world open-mindedness - "Our source of strength is the Regions".

Perhaps a lesson to be learnt by countries which are dominated by a very central based concentration on one city. While Berlin is Germany's political and "news" capital, the major business cities are spread throughout the country  - a quick comparison between UK & Germany shows how quickly the "important" UK cities drop away ....

1)   London - Berlin
2)   Birmingham - Hamburg
3)   Manchester - Munich
4)   Liverpool - Cologne
5)   Leeds - Frankfurt
6)   Sheffield - Stuttgart
7)   Teesside - Düsseldorf
8)   Bristol - Dortmund
9)   Bournemouth - Essen
10) Stoke - Leipzig

and the German cities such as Hannover, Dresden, Nürnberg, Bremen are still not listed.

Oh well just a thought as I watched electrician Stefan at his modern Bavarian PC workplace. Nowadays it's almost impossible to turn on a simple light switch without a tablet, notebook or smartphone but good to see still need a crate or two of beer bottles to get the work done.

For the beer aficionados, the name "Oettinger" on the crates is probably Germany's cheapest beer brand (around 66 Eurocents/litre) but the one nobody claims to ever drink. It is however the most sold brand in the country! I have no problem drinking it as 99.9% of the time, I water it down with 50% lemonade. But to assure anyone thinking of paying a visit, normal expensive beer is also stocked. On Stefan's right side, one can possible just make out a green crate of the local Allgäu "Büble Beer". The word Büble means "little boy" - the Germans don't have a problem using children to sell beer!

NB Stefan drank coke at lunch.