Sidmouth-Munich swap/Sidmouth-München-Tausch

BBC Prime, at 20:30 on March 1 2006:

bq. HOME FROM HOME-Sidmouth/Munich (Lifestyle)
Families, couples and individuals from different countries swap homes for a holiday. As they settle into their new environment, the travellers gain a unique perspective on the everyday lives of their absent hosts. Today the Nancekievills swap their modern holiday home in Devon with Sabine and Gerwin Zott from Munich, Germany.
He\Dk\Cz\Po\Hu\Ro\It Subtitles

What differences will they notice? Let’s see – the Munich shower will work properly, but they can’t get any clotted or even double cream or see the sea.

10 thoughts on “Sidmouth-Munich swap/Sidmouth-München-Tausch

  1. All I’ve got to do now is remember to watch it. I think they will be concentrating mainly on the inside of the German home – this is just a guess, though. It’s interesting seeing a programme when you wonder about it in advance!
    As for no smoking, that’s a movement coming from the west and I bet when it reaches here, German bureaucracy will home in with a vengeance.

  2. >>As for no smoking, that’s a movement coming from the west and I bet when it reaches here, German bureaucracy will home in with a vengeance

  3. The good news is that you *can* get nice thick cream (42% fat) in German supemarkets now (from Dr. Oetker, goes well with mince pies). Apart from everything that Paul’s mentioned, there’s also the fact that fags here are damn *cheap* compared with the UK, and the same goes for alcohol. Then there are the markets (and not the once-a-month farmers’ markets like you get in the UK), the (still) excellent public transport system, motorways that will take you the length and breadth of the country and, as Paul says, really good beer. OTOH, it’s very difficult indeed to get good cheddar, but if they’re in Munich, they can go to Käfer I suppose.

    As far as fewer drunken fights on the streets are concerned, we’d better add in brackets (apart from in Mainz during Karneval), but people laugh at hoodies here.

    Robin

  4. Many points taken. But Robin, if you are referring to Creme Double, it’s heat-treated. It just doesn’t taste good.
    I am thinking of persuading Karstadt in Nuremberg to get those Indian meals from Noon. A friend of mine got them onto Haagen-Däzs (sp?) fairly early.

  5. I think it’s rather difficult to get cream in the UK that’s not heat-treated either, to be honest (thanks to AgFish or whatever they call themselves nowadays).

    A rather wider range of Noon meals would be very welcome. I know they do much more, I suppose they’re just worried that it’ll be “too spicy” for Germany. But good luck anyway.

    Robin

  6. Robin: no, they definitely have the normal stuff at Tesco and Marks and Sparks, and I think elsewhere too. I have gone over to crème fraîche a lot of the time in Germany.

    The programme was terrible. I am quite ashamed of my nationality, though whether more for the English housewife or the programme directors I don’t know. The programme was one of those giggly small-budget superficial things they produce so many of. The German couple had to speak English, so they will have been forewarned. They were also polite and seemed to have a good time. The English house was a holiday home rather than a family home. The woman should not really still have been dusting off the windowsills nor should the barbecue have been broken. But she did not spare with mockery of the Germans in advance or of their home on camera. She particular objected to the smell of washing in the cellar washing room. She also thought satellite TV was dreadful, which was ironic. This wasn’t a real exchange, though, so why didn’t the programme manage to get that done? Had the English family spoken German, things would have been different – and perhaps they would have planned their journey better (local shops were closed on August 15th after they spent the day in central Munich not eating for fear of expense). An unhappy contrast was her mockery of Weißwürste left for them by the Germans, contrasted with the Germans’ praise of the food they found in England.

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