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I wasn't watching porn, he was telling me not to go to my room and do so. Very graciously, mind you, but it was a little weird none the less. I'm a bachelor and was travelling alone, but still to come right out and say it (even as a preventive measure on his part) is not something I would ever expect in the US.
And why would there be a law against watching porn in one's hotel room on one's own computer? Has there been a big crackdown on porn, and if so, why? Does this relate to concerns about human trafficking, or something? And why would a hotel or restaurant owner be held responsible for patrons' choice of viewing material? That's a strange approach to the problem which, as you can see, results in business owners acting as police.
Last edited by MountainHi; 02-28-2016 at 12:19 AM..
Germany is an IT backwater, so no surprises here. The reason free wifi isn't widely available is because they fear people might download child porn and so the owners of the wifi would have to answer for that. Debit and credit cards are also not accepted at many supermarkets.
Honestly, that reasoning is not normal since I doubt people would generally utilize the free wifi to watch porn videos.
It's more understandable if the reason they don't offer free wifi in most places has to do with potential hackers trying to get access to credit card and confidential information from the public.
And we thought that Germans too greedy to give free wi-fi )))
I had cultural shock in Spain. They are so slow and they have a lack of customer orientation.
We lived in a hotel where we had a breakfast and supper. And we need to pay for the drinks during the supper. But there was no possibility to get tea or coffe. Even if we were ready to pay for it.
We could get free tea and coffee during the breakfast.
And they gave us a lot of cakes at the supper. I think it's a strange thing to eat a cake with water or beer or wine.
We came to place where you can rent a car. We rented it from the hotel so it was resereved. There was a small group before us and they asked about possibility to rent a car. And the man behind a desk shouted on them: "We don't have cars here for rent!". It looked like they came to a library to ask about a car.
We came to a small cafe. My husband wanted to eat meat or fish and I wanted just a dessert. The waiter brought us the menu and it appeared thet there wasn't any desserts. I asked about desserts and he said that they don't have desserts here and if we want to get them we should came to a adjacent cafe. That cafe was so close that they hadn't any separators.
So we moved there. Actually we thought that was another cafe.
We were very suprised to see the same waiter with a menu with desserts but without main courses!
I stayed in a small, elegant hotel on the banks of German part of Lake Constance and the owner, who was very friendly, came out and told me not to look at porn because he would be responsible if I did anything illegal. Struck me as very odd (and made me a little self conscious) but seeing that someone else mentions this same thing maybe it wasn't so odd afterall.
I agree on the backwater part, even my friends internet service at his house, which was the best you could get near Frankfurt as he and his wife are techies, was abysmally slow even compared to our crappy internet speeds here in the US.
Cigarette machines on the streets was something I was surprised to see in Germany.
Your story sounds a little bit unlikely to me. As far as I know it's not forbidden to watch porn sites. Only the maker of such sites would be liable to prosecution if they don't protect their sites so that minors can watch the sites. But I'm not sure about that.
Your second point sounds also very unlikely. Internet speed in rural areas can be very slow. But near a city like Frankfurt? That sounds strange. Pretty sure that at least 60 Mbps are the norm. In Düsseldorf they offer 400 Mbps.
Honestly, that reasoning is not normal since I doubt people would generally utilize the free wifi to watch porn videos.
It's more understandable if the reason they don't offer free wifi in most places has to do with potential hackers trying to get access to credit card and confidential information from the public.
Bad people could go to the next internet cafe or they could just use their smartphones or lap tops, that's also anonymous.
I don't know exactly why free w-lan is so uncommon in Germany. As far as I know there were legal issues in the past. But today? Maybe most people don't need it? People normally use the internet access of their smart phones or lap tops. Why people need free w-lan when they already have internet access with their smart phone? Because it's faster? or maybe tourists need it? Personally I don't need free w-lan. The internet flat rate comes already with the cell phone plan. Cell phone plans cost normally between €8 - €20 per month. That includes a phone flat and high speed internet.
For us Swedes it is often a shock, and very annoying, that all stores are closed at sundays in the almost entire remainder of Europe (except Denmark, and a few others maybe)
In Sweden, major supermarket chains like ICA, Coop, etc are generally open to 10 PM (22:00) on sundays, just like they are on all other days of the week. Smaller budget chains like Netto and Lidl are at least open to at least 6 PM (18:00) on sundays, while generally open to 8 PM (20:00) or 9 PM (21:00) on other days. A few smaller shops are closed, but many smaller shops are open to 2 PM (14:00) on sundays. There are absolutely no laws regulating this in Sweden, and there is no general objection to it. People are happy to work as much as they can, more work, more money. And people likes to go shopping on sundays like on any other day.
Same is true to holidays like Christmas Day, New Years Day, Easter etc. There are no stupid laws regulating or restricting that either. A few more shops has closed on these days, but in general, New Years Day or Christmas Day shopping in Sweden should in general not be any problem, especially if you are there early.
Guess thats at least one thing, and a very good one, that we have in common with North America.
Your story sounds a little bit unlikely to me. As far as I know it's not forbidden to watch porn sites. Only the maker of such sites would be liable to prosecution if they don't protect their sites so that minors can watch the sites. But I'm not sure about that.
Your second point sounds also very unlikely. Internet speed in rural areas can be very slow. But near a city like Frankfurt? That sounds strange. Pretty sure that at least 60 Mbps are the norm. In Düsseldorf they offer 400 Mbps.
Of course I can't prove it to you. The thought I would make up stuff to post here is silly to me, but then I'm sure plenty of people do make stuff up.
The internet speed could possibly be attributed to something within my friends local network.
It didn't color my view of Germany negatively. It was great seeing where my family came from and I drank a lot of really good beer.
For us Swedes it is often a shock, and very annoying, that all stores are closed at sundays in the almost entire remainder of Europe (except Denmark, and a few others maybe)
In Sweden, major supermarket chains like ICA, Coop, etc are generally open to 10 PM (22:00) on sundays, just like they are on all other days of the week. Smaller budget chains like Netto and Lidl are at least open to at least 6 PM (18:00) on sundays, while generally open to 8 PM (20:00) or 9 PM (21:00) on other days. A few smaller shops are closed, but many smaller shops are open to 2 PM (14:00) on sundays. There are absolutely no laws regulating this in Sweden, and there is no general objection to it. People are happy to work as much as they can, more work, more money. And people likes to go shopping on sundays like on any other day.
Same is true to holidays like Christmas Day, New Years Day, Easter etc. There are no stupid laws regulating or restricting that either. A few more shops has closed on these days, but in general, New Years Day or Christmas Day shopping in Sweden should in general not be any problem, especially if you are there early.
Guess thats at least one thing, and a very good one, that we have in common with North America.
I find it cool that some stores are closed on sundays. Some people have not had a 2-day week-end in years because they work in these stores.
I find it cool that some stores are closed on sundays. Some people have not had a 2-day week-end in years because they work in these stores.
In Sweden there are many people who likes to work on weekends (including sundays) only and work full time then cause they earn more on weekends than they would if they worked 5 days, so that they can have 5 days off the rest of the week instead.
Some people also prefers to work full time or just a few hours on Christmas or New Year, they earn alot then.
This would not be possible if we had laws regulating how long or if a business should be open on sundays.
Last edited by Helsingborgaren; 03-02-2016 at 07:05 AM..
Bad people could go to the next internet cafe or they could just use their smartphones or lap tops, that's also anonymous.
I don't know exactly why free w-lan is so uncommon in Germany. As far as I know there were legal issues in the past. But today? Maybe most people don't need it? People normally use the internet access of their smart phones or lap tops. Why people need free w-lan when they already have internet access with their smart phone? Because it's faster? or maybe tourists need it? Personally I don't need free w-lan. The internet flat rate comes already with the cell phone plan. Cell phone plans cost normally between €8 - €20 per month. That includes a phone flat and high speed internet.
Except the phone plans in Germany generally suck - high prices, tiny capacity and awful speeds.
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)))
