The Germans are so polite that....

The Germans are so polite that they even move out of the way for you in the swimming pool. In America you would be swimming along and countless people would come at you left, right, from in front and behind. I've experienced countless instances when people have run into me with a big splash because they were so much in a hurry.

Here, there aren't even lap lanes set up. Everyone swims in the same pool and goes back and forth at their own pace. Most of the people swim the breast stroke. And they get out of the way when you swim the crawl and the back stroke. At first, it seemed unbelievable that they would do so, and I still find it surprising. There is just something in the character that makes the average person more polite than you find elsewhere.