Be sure to check out our video where my sister and her family came to Germany and we talked about their take on Germany as well 👉 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/h76ofsqTy8-WZoE.html Also, here’s the video where my brother and his wife came and visited us for the first time 👉 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eM-Rgaeft67MY6c.html\

Please tell Logan that we love him for ranking us last. It means we did a good job in Germanizing him by not sugarcoating his opnion.

Naaaa, don't mind the german audience in your ranking of countries... Thanks for being direct and authentic! When asked for opinions, I prefer honesty over wishy-washy politeness... If not, asking is pointless 😁

Ranking us last? We certainly taught you how to be direct and not sugarcoat 😂

That was very German: Say honestly what you think and just explain why 👍 Thanks to Logan for that. I think it's great to talk without having to guess at any riddles, this way very good and deep conversations can develop. For me this video felt like it would've been great to actually sit there in the same room with you guys and talk about all kinds of experiences 😊

I have a kitchen that is small to normal sized, I would think, and I cook in it several times a day for 8 people... and when we have family celebrations where my parents, siblings, their partners and children come... we easily have 20 People in the house... You can serve up a lot even from relatively small kitchens

I love that you describe the borders as cultural hugs. I see it the same way. We changed in the last 200 years 8 times our nationality as a region and are German again since 1957. It’s just something that you can feel. It’s a mix of food, culture and much more 🙂

I always thought the poop shelf is manly for medical reasons like checking for blood in the stool or tapeworms “bits” (not sure how common they still were while the toilet was in style) and less your diet.

It's very German to say how you feel about things. You don't have to agree or disagree. It's more an information, really. It's definitely not meant as an assault. We also love to discuss. Plus, I guess there is also the mindset of not talking about bad things, or problems, means no improvement.

The so called "Kiss of Poseidon"-phenomenon is the main reason I prefer shelf toilets in old fashioned European bathrooms. In my house however you will find both kinds. Kind greetings from Austria!

Thx for interviewing Logan. He seems to be an honest and thoughtful person. His views about Germany are quite interesting.

Shelf toilets are almost standard in the Netherlands. We love them because they have several advantages.

Of course, flat-bottom flushers have medical advantages. You can assess the feces. Consistency, color, blood, worms? A discolored white stool is indicative of a bile deficiency. Black stool indicates blood in the upper digestive tract. (e.g. stomach) Red stool for blood in the lower digestive tract. (Hemorrhoids, diverticulitis, colon cancer). Tapeworms and roundworms are immediately recognizable.

Sehr gut, dass er gleich ne richtige Weinschorle kennen gelernt hat, also die pfälzische Variante ;)

i have a bidet in the bathroom of my Munich 2-room-appartement, it s a small building with just 4 tenants. In Germany bidets are mostly found only in somewhat upscale appartements.

Absolutely perfect correct. As a German I always would recommend Italy or the alpine countries Austria and/or Switzerland for visiting. Astounding landscapes, mega enjoyable food and happy people, good weather and amazing historic places. Germany is extremely versatile and difficult. I also would recommend little places like Celle, Hannoversch Münden, Höxter, Bremen and Göttingen for a short visit. Astounding places like Rügen, Islands of Ostfriesland need extra time. And this is just the north!

The small kitchen sizes here are addopted from the Standard ,,Frankfurt Kitchen" of what had 8 squaremeters in maximum space at a place where space had been very limited at Apartments. Well this standard was created in the early 1950's but even addopted to the most restricted space apartments, too or even to have a pantry kitchen like in any hotel room of what is not vrry comfortable at renting apartments. Visit germany all over the country and not where the most US people going to, because of their former US military zone between 1945 and 1990, getmany has got much more interesting areas outside of Bavaria and south Hessia or maybe Berlin...north of the Elbe River do german people living, too, sure not as much like in other federal states but we do have flat land between two oceans.

I am German an yes, of course Germany is at No4. Look at beautiful Switzerland, beautiful Italy and beautiful France! I would have made the same tier list as tourist. But I like living in Germany. Politics in France and Italy is grazy and Switzerland is too expensive and strange people in a way.

German (Bavarian) here. We've got a bidet in our bathroom. I would never tell somebody that I didn't like their home town. But I'm also direct and would not lie about that. I'd pick something I did enjoy to comment on.

Actually a Biergarten was traditionally on top of the brewery cellar to cool the cellar below by having shady trees, mostly horse chestnut, and floor covered in gravel. And I am not going by brand if I have to choose outdoor apparel, doesn't matter to me, and probably most people in Germany. As long as it is functional and does what it should. And this Swiss is very satisfied that we are unbeatable when it comes to beauty ;-)

Ich finde es sehr schade, das so gut wie nie über Norddeutschland gesprochen wird. Fast jeder Auswanderer oder Besucher spricht über Berlin, München, Alpen ... Geht mal im Sommer an die Nordsee, legt euch an den Strand und beobachtet die Gezeiten. Most underrated place in Germany!

Well, actually it’s fine for me that your friend ranks Germany at no 4. I don’t feel insulted at all and I think no German does either. It’s all about preferences . So don’t worry 😉 By the way, I didn’t like LA either but I loved San Francisco, Chicago and Key West.

The poop shelf was invented in the 1920s(?) to inspect your poop for worms. To keep it clean, take two or three sheets of toilet paper as a base layer for your poop.

Wow! He really sounds and looks delighted about Germany 😄

Jack W. isn‘t regarded as a proper outdoor brand. It‘s more of a outdoorsy everyday brand. My favourite brand is Vaude if it needs to be waterproof and functional. That‘s just a personal preference, though

Haha, I loved seeing the Dubbeglas up there ^^ for those "in the know" a clear geographical give away (and in my biased opinion the best glas ever).

For overlapping cultures, I lived in Basel, Switzerland in the triangle where Switzerland, Germany and France meet. Wonderful city.

Great video again! Greetings to your friend, I am glad to hear he is a "food insider" and likes our German food so much. - poop shelves and bidets......well: Donnie is right, the flat shelves are oldfashioned. I was born in 1961. During my childhood there were no others. But we had a bidet, they were much more common in the past than they are today. - hahaha! Donnie nailed it: Germans have small kitchens because they don't have Thanksgiving! LOL (But believe me: A turkey would fit in a german oven too!) - I was born and raised in Trier and left because of a job in 1985. Never had the chance to move back and still today I might feel homesick from time to time. Thanks for the footage and for taking your friend there! For me it is normal to be closely bound to our Roman heritage, but I guess for people from the US it must be a very fascinating thing to see all those time capsules close to the medieval and modern "layers" of the city. Thanks for Logan's recommendation to visit Heidelberg and Trier - I would be glad if the majority of US tourists would not always be concentraded so much on Bavaria. Bavaria for sure is a heavenly environment but there is so much more to Germany! - The Lady who doesn't like California: Grrrrr! Yes Germans are very direct. And yes we tend to be open and free when telling our opinions. But we also are able to be polite. Imho the Lady crossed a line. What I mean is: When someone introduces a stranger to me, and I learn where this stranger comes from I would never ever first and foremost let him know that I don't like the place he is from. In my German eyes it is simply impolite to do it. I guess a lot of people would feel offended when my first sentence was "oh I don't like the place you're from". I love directness. But it is a short line from direct to impolite! - Logan, don't worry because of your country ranking! First of all: You explained why you did it that way. And yes - Donnie has a lot of German viewers but hey - they like directness! :) Be safe when travelling back home!

You can buy bidet sets in almost every hardware store, so you can retrofit your normal toilets. We did just that a few years ago, and it works well enough.

Honestly, I only know of a handful of places with "poop shelves" here in Germany. We threw them out at home 40 years ago, I don't see any of them in public buildings, office buildings, schools, and so on. If you happen to see such toilets, I guess they are most likely in private homes, and only if that home was built more than 50 years ago. (Just my experience, of course.)

in regards to bidets and bigger kitchens: it mostly depends on the age of the house and if people have enough space for it. People I know who have them, basically have enough space in their bathrooms and kitchens because the houses are more modern. Old houses were just built with smaller kitchens and bathrooms…

10:38 To bad you cut off Logan's reaction, I would have loved to see his face a little longer. 😄

The Mittelrheintal is a beautiful part of Germany with many castles on both sides of the r.iver

What a very sympathetic and intelligent konversation between you two. Give my best regards to Logan, although he ranked us Germans last. His Insights and impressions were expressed very thoughtful. And of course all the best for your Channel. 🙂

In my opinion, if you want to see a real meshing of 2 different cultures, Alsace is the perfect example. Especially the cities of Strasbourg and Colmar.

Oh and the visible cistern at the Toilette in the US and the Jalousien are so out or not modern anymore. We also had them in the past in Germany but modernisierten them. Now we Use cistern in the wall, Toilettes not on the floor anymore and modern blinds

In our old apartment we had one of those old fashioned toilets with what you call poop shelf. Due to that I was able to detect worms in the poop of our then little girl. So I could go to the doctor and get a remedy. In our now modern toilet these worms would have gone undetected.

A tidbit from the opposite side: what surprised me most when i first visited NYC was that it was _exacly_ like i imagined it, complete with those "chimneys" venting steam from broken pipes, wind-blown newspapers and distant sirens as observed late at light from my hotel room window in the old, pre-9/11 WTC (and later bustling streets, seas of yellow cabs, people alway in hurry but friendly in you stop them to ask for directions...)

It's ok to rank us last. It is a question of preference after all. And I get the part about already knowing things about the other countries. But one thing about the regionality in Germany. To understand that, I think, you have to see that up to 1870 most regions were their own nations. And I don't only mean the federal states, but sometimes even counties. We had semi-sovereign states that had the squarekilometer size of Downtown Manhatten. And all of those semi-sovereign states were governed differently, might have had different varieties of religion, differen customs and a different dialect. For example, I live near Schwäbisch Hall, which is at the Border of Swabia and Fankonia. Our region is called Hohenlohe. And so our dialect, where spoken, is a mixture between the two and is vastly differen from either, as is our Identity. And if you remember that this went on for over 1500 years, I think it becomes understandable, why it didn't mix together yet.

Thanks for the vid. By the way, regional differences - have you ever been to the real north of Germany, particularly to the Friesian region? Juist, for example, is something very special to experience, especially for an US-American: You are not allowed to drive a car there! This changes the vibes of the place sooo much and the. quality of life is really, really different. Plus, it is mostly a German tourist spot, so you will have a quite unique experience that not many people had when they were in Germany. And the food is completely different to Rheinland food or Bavarian food. And it is very child friendly, especially if your child already can ride a bike or wants to learn it. There are many places you can rent bikes at and the island Juist is completely flat and almost everything is reachable by bike. And the beach is also a very interesting experience, not to be compared with California, of course but... Well.. Nice in its own rough way. Maybe, you should try that out for a holiday with your kid once....

When a doctor wants a stool-sample from you, you get a paper-contraption, where you can catch the poop a take that sample. This contraption has glue-strips to glue it at the rim and afterwards you can just loose that strips and flush as normal. You nowadays never need a poop-shelf-toilet anymore.

I've never seen those "poop shelf" toilets anywhere in Germany.

My most favorite outdoor clothing brand is Mammut.

a basic roundabout is pretty much the easiest type of intersection I know. Its just the cars in the circle go first. Once theres a gap go for it.

Fun fact: Traditional American Kitchen appliances are only available in North America. And that‘s down to the metric system and the fact that everyone has adopted the 60cm appliances that fit in the European standard kitchen cabinets. Africa, Asia, the Middle East… everyone has metric appliance sizes now. Not following metric and international standards is basically locking out those vendors from the global market.

Gelterswoog or Seewoog?? Those are two fantasic places here in the Pfalz to spend an afternoon!

Got a bidet installed two years ago. Wouldn’t want to miss it.

Bidets are more common in the area where the French part of the allies were. I live near Lake Constance and I'm currently absolving my plumber training. They don't sell as much as in the past but there are still many around.

I grew up with a bidet in Germany, but as I learned from visiting many, many private bathrooms over the decades, my family home was absolutely the exception, not the rule. I missed having one in all the apartments I rented since then. Definitely FAR more common in Italy or France.

Great video! I really loved the comment of your friend about going to border cities to see how different cultures mix and intermingle. Never really thought about it, but I really like that thought! Disclaimer: The following is not meant to be offensive or rude or with ill intent: But one thing makes me wonder. Maybe you and other expats on KZfaq don't realize this, but you (meaning expats) are very direct and clear about what you don't like in Germany, too. So why does it come off as "rude/direct" when somebody (a German) says to you directly something they don't like, like the lady in question. I mean, where is the difference? Is it more polite to do it on KZfaq where so many more people get to watch it, but you haven't addressed a person standing next/in front ... of you? I am honestly not saying this to be rude, it is a serious question, something that makes me wonder, sometimes. BTW, I am NOT offended that Logan ranked Germany last 🙂 Cannot rank the outdoor stuff, I have neither brand. (Is this un-German, do I have to give back my "passport, too"?)

165 km/h on the Autobahn. Or like we germans say "eine gemütliche Reisegeschwindigkeit". ;)

Just for the record, my kitchen is barely 7qm (plus a walk-in pantry), and closed off. I've cooked meals for over a dozen people in there -- both 3-course sit-down meals, and buffet style for friends. It's all a question of planning and organization. :-)

Thx Logan 👍🏻

When I think of the outdoor clothing question, I spontaneously think of how an old lady once told me how they used to impregnate their rainwear with bacon rinds and she still does it that way today (this was in the mid-90s). Is that weird that I somehow find that more interesting than those big brands? 😄

Of course, the most interesting topic was toilets. I do love this kind of toilet, I am a Sitzpinkler and I love, I really love that it prevents the "Touch of Poseidon". Is this a German expression or an American one? I never heard it before and I always referred to it simply as Backsplash. Germany taking the last spot, I do think Germany is totally underrated but I travelled to France, Swiss and Italy myself, he is not completely wrong. lol It is a question of taste and that is totally ok, since all these flavor are awesome!

I know several people (me included) who discovered that something was medically wrong with them because they could "study" their poo on the poo-shelf...I would never wanna do without one!

Very nice video, greetings to your friend! And sometimes I hear you saying in the intro "along with my wife strawberry" 🤣🙃 viele Grüße aus Franken!😘

Bidets are (again) becoming more popular. The house of my parents, built in 1959, had one.

I stay klinging to Patagonia because when I was a student in the early 1980ies I worked at a bike store where we first imported and sold that stuff. That was the first Cannondale bikes sold in Germany, too ;)

8:05 I think the health thing is the main reason for having those "poop shelf toilets" 😂. But they are out of fashion now. But we still have toilets which needs much less water. And that's a good thing.

It is possible to cook bigger meals in German kitchens; tables are not only for eating. But having something in between would still be nice.

Our kitchen has the size of a normal room and I can cook Christmas dinner in it for the close family, 25 people. Outdoor brand Mountain Warehouse.

Bidet: I honestly don't know any household that has a bidet. But, I used to live in a big appartment that has a bathroom that was considered luxurious and there we had a bidet. Nobody was using it. We used it to dry clothes or shoes and things. I really now bidets from Hotels.

I find overlapping cultures also interesting... it also makes you wonder what is that actually what people call " typical" French or "typical" German. I like Alsace a lot and it would be certainly intresting for Logan since the food culture merges there too.

I don't buy either of the outdoor brands you mentioned. I buy whatever brand is cheapest at WalMart.

Please tell Logan that I'm not angry he ranked Germany last. I'm a native German, and my ranking would be almost the same, except that I'd put in Austria instead of Switzerland. And my reason is: Language. While, as a Bavarian, I can perfectly understand Austrians, and they can perfectly understand me without me having to switch to Hochdeutsch, Swiss "German" sounds all Greek to me. My French and Italian (I've been to both countries several times) are "advanced tourist level", I'd say, so rudimentary communication is possible.

The Mythbusters locked oon the differences between a Kreisverkehr (~roundabout) and a normal streetcrossing. They found out that in a roundabout can drive more cars in the same time as in a streetcrossing, Roundabouts are more sufficient.

Bidets were all the rage when I was a kid in the 70s. They went out of fashion for some reason…

Hie ranking was good though. He was honest and direct. Nothing wrong with that;-)

On a recent road trip from Houston to Wichita, I saw more fences, private property, etc, than anywhere else in the world. May I suggest You make a clip about free roaming

Portugal here, originally from Germany. While I didn't have a bidet in Germany, I haven't found a single apartment in Portugal without one yet.

German frankness isn't just something Americans struggle with. I'm from Switzerland and our communication culture resembles those of East Asia. Everything we say is very subtle and indirect. Being able to read between the lines is considered an important skill. We also use tons of conditional forms in order to soften our utterances. It's a very different mentality. For example when you talk to strangers in Switzerland, they are always extremely friendly, cordial and polite. We are taught and socialized to act like this from a young age. So, it's not necessarily the way someone truly feels. The lovely face people put on may also simply be a mask. If someone does find you annoying or frustrating, they're very unlikely to tell you so. In fact, even best friends beat around the bush and struggle to express these feelings to each other. this mentality is very similar to what I experienced while I lived in Japan. Japanese people, too, will smile and politely help you with anything you need even if they think you're a pain in the ass. Obviously, there's no right or wrong but these differences can often lead to misunderstandings. For example many Germans who move to Switzerland initially view Swiss people as disingenious and many Swiss people view German immigrants as aggressive. Neither of these descriptions is true; they're simply a result of how people feel based on their own culture/mentality.

😂 hahaha, thank you for introducing me to the term of the kiss of posaidon!! 🤩

Driving in a different State, or different Country is a new learning experience. You have to learn the Country's Rules and Regulations, that are different from American State Rules before you can begin to feel comfortable on their roads, highways or traffic circles. Having lived and worked in Europe for 33 years, I love the fact that small restaurants and inns with excellent food are the norm. Big chains are homogenizing meals across the USA. I hate it.... When I travel I want to visit the local mom and pop restaurants, not another franchise restaurant with the same cooking and menu from Maine to California. ....and having spent a month living in Santa Monica, and having to drive everywhere; fifteen miles to work; ten miles to a restaurant; 5 miles in another direction to go to a movie. I, too want no part of Los Angeles.

Im originally from around Trier, its quite a nice area to visit xD

my Father actually convinced me of BD's he learned about it in some Scandinavian Country and now one of those things hangs in every sanitary station he owns ^-^ he even installed it in my appartement without asking cuz he is so convinced ^-^

Jack Wolfskin when I'm in US and North Face in DE. Gotta stand out 😊

Possibly, Logan starts to drink wine mixed with sparkling water. By the way, for someone coming from a wine region, Germany's wine region would be an interesting experience.

ze poop shelf is very useful when it comes to taking samples, I am a medical assistant trainee right now and we often have patients who should give poop samples, and therefore those shelfs are actually good so it doesn't all disappear right away ... so ze patients can do it in their own private home

I have to comment it here again. German is the biggest ethnic group in the US, English is a Germanic language and originally we all come from here. Thank you for coming here and for exchanging

My recollections of CA is people keeping doors and windows closed because of the A/C.

Iam one of those who appreciate your honest opinion! Greetings from Berlin :D

An Italien family did move back from germany to Italy. But the Kids did not like there so they decided to move back to Germany. They love the food, area of Italy but they loved the order etc of germany more they once told in a tv show 🤷‍♀️😂

No clue about either of these outdoor brands xD

I'm german and I would have done the same ranking POV beeing a tourist ❤ But all the positive points for Germany as home base would turn it around: not too hot here, we have a seaside as well as a side deep in the land, we can visit 9 other countrys couse they are so nearby, I am able to have a small place to be with a roof above my head, even when I'm not rich or suffered a hard and long periode of illness....etc

This type of architecture with balconies and flowers are only found in some regions of south of Germany. It's not typical in any other region of Germany. You will not find it in Berlin, Hamburg, or Frankfurt.... . 5:45

Also he’s from California (although apparently from Oklahoma as a child). So both are very different from each other and also from other states.

Germans do have a sort of Thanks Giving which is called Erntedankfest, especially in the country side, but it's more of a public thing, not a family thing. Where I come from, the farmers hold a public harvest festival where anyone can come. The crops are displayed, old machines are brought back to life, there are often pickled eggs, potato fritter (Reibekuchen/Puffer), various pies and cakes, roasts and much more, all made from the farmer's produce. Even the churches were decorated with the crops. The older farmers still do this, but it is becoming less and less common among the younger ones, because it is an extra job that is considered unnecessary.

I live in a new (also considering the age) apartment now with a toilette without "poop shelf" and I hate it, because I grew up with these toilettes! :(

I'm having a terrible day due to my neighbor's German proclivity for telling me everything I'm doing wrong. As I was doing my farm chores this morning, he came over, leaned on my pasture fence, and started telling me how we mis-managed our hay field this year, and how our animals are getting nutrient-poor hay as a result. He went on and on. He went on and on so much that I actually stood up for myself and said, "I understand it is typical German to criticize and offer advice when none was asked for. I did not ask for any advice, but I seem to keep getting it from my neighbors who need to tell us who our hay crop nearly failed this year." He kept going. On and on. I said, "Actually I'm done receiving unrequested advice from neighbors about how I feed my animals. BUT i can see how passsionate you are about my field, my animals. You care a lot. You are burdened with the task of teaching us what we are doing wrong here." OMG. He said, "Passionate, no, I don't care what you do. But you MUST DO ....." and kept going on and on, I don't know how to stop his German DUTY to stop us from agricultural errors. We know what happened with the weather. We were helpless. I would never go to his property and tell him how to grow his tomatoes. This is the third "Friend" of ours who has come to us this month and said how we could have done things better on our land this year. As if we didn't notice. We're ....I guess....eternally city folk. Lord let me never tell people what to do if they don't ask first. Please, Germans. Give us the opportunity to ask for your advice. We're not idiots.

I live in Moselle, France. Metz is the "capital" (chef-lieu) of Moselle, but it's quite far from the border, about 80 km (about 50 minutes with an ordinary, not high-speed, train). It's a beautiful town, with a lot of interesting history. It was Charlemagne's Summer residence around 800, but it was already an important city in Roman times (Divodurum). It was even a free town (ville franche) at some point, and it was very wealthy since it was a hub, people who travelled across Europe had to go through Metz (at least for the northern part of the country). Their train station is the most beautiful in France according to some polls (and it is beautiful), and the Place Saint Louis goes back to the Middle Ages. Lorraine is only French since 1740 - 1760, but Metz, a bishopric back then, is French since 1552 (along with the bishoprics of Toul and Verdun). When I am in Metz, I feel like now, I'm really in France, because nobody there speaks Franconian, the common language shared by the people of eastern Moselle and those from Saarland and Rheinland-Pfalz, anymore, except for a very few, very old people (I was really surprised when I met an old lady in her 80s, back in the 1990s, who was able to speak it). The linguistic border is closer to the town of Saint-Avold, which is 50 km from Metz. After Saint-Avold, when you drive towards Metz, you can still hear it for 20 km or so, but the younger people don't speak it. The village where I live is just at the border (the Rosselle river is the physical border), I only have to cross a bridge to be in Germany (Saarbrücken is the closest city, but Trier is not far away either, I've even lived there in the late 1980s, 2 years before the Wall came down). I do all my grocery shopping in Germany, the food is so much better, except when I want things I can only get in France, like some kinds of cheese, for instance, and wine. I've lived on both sides of the border, but no matter what side, I wouldn't want to miss the border. It's great to be able to go quickly from one country to the other, and the mentalities are also different in such places. Here in my village, the first building after we cross the bridge to Germany is a bar, and both French and German people go there. Most French people who live here speak Franconian, so that's the language spoken. Trier is a beautiful town, too, and all the smaller towns and villages along the Moselle river... When I lived there, I went everywhere on a bicycle, by simply following the river, you can get almost everywhere. Back then, there were still many soldiers stationed there, US, Canadians, French...

Now I want a bigger kitchen, and a bidet in it! 😮😁

I'm German, his ranking is fine. We like honesty ;)

His ranking was very german. I would prefer france, because of the delicious food and extremly well sorted supermarcets.

''That's so slow!'' You are a cold assassine, my dear. 🤣

165 km/h is a good travel speed..... ;)

Ranking Germany fourth on your "german" channel shows he learned how we express our thoughts more directly 😉. Regarding the final question : both brands are great but (for us, a 5 head family) unpayably overprized like some others as well

Germans usually pay between 2k and 3k for their drivers training and licence. I know several people who got their licence in a US high school for less than 50 bucks. The differences in skill clearly shows during the first months and whenever they go on the Autobahn for the first time.

So refreshing to hear normal americans talking!

I guess for the kitchen size, it depends on where you live, and how old the house is, whether it has been remodelled, etc.. My German grandmother lived in a house built by her parents around 1900, and the kitchen was huge, with a very large table where we could eat even if all the family came to visit (it was already large, but it could be enlarged even more by pulling out two parts at each end). From the kitchen, you could also go out into the backyard and garden (they used to have goats, chicken and rabbits, there was a stable and a chicken coop), except that there was a small room between the kitchen and the door. At the time when this house was built, people would still kill the animals they ate themselves in the yard, then bring it into this small room to remove the feathers or the skin and to get the animal ready to be cooked. This room was also much cooler than the rest of the house, they only got a fridge in the 1950s or 1960s (and compared to US fridges, it was tiny). They would also do a lot of things related to food in the kitchen, like canning fruits and vegetables after the harvest (this would always take several days, and everybody helped, removing stones from fruit, cutting beans, peeling peas etc.), and also laundry. When I was a child in the 1970s, they already had a washing machine, but they would still boil the cotton underwear in a huge pot on the stove, and they had devices that don't exist anymore to press the water out, for instance. There was a lot of activity in the kitchen back then, whereas nowadays, people only cook food in the kitchen. They had a living room, of course, with sofas and armchairs, but they would only go in there when all the work for the day was done (mainly to watch TV once they had one, in the 1970s, one of my earliest memories was watching Star Trek with my great-aunt in 1972, when it was first broadcast in Germany). More recent houses, built in the 1960s, 1970s or after, have smaller kitchens because people only use the kitchen for cooking and storing everyday foods. Many older houses have been remodelled, too. For instance, with a house the size of my grandmother's, people nowadays would make two apartments out of it and rent them to somebody, or live on one floor and rent the other one.