What's It Like Living in Germany vs Spain as Americans?

We have spent time living in Germany and Spain as Americans constantly get asked about the differences between living abroad in these two countries. Here are the biggest differences we've noticed as Americans living in Germany and Spain.

⏩CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
0:25 Weather
1:26 Social Life
2:13 Bureaucracy
3:06 Language
3:48 Density
4:27 Green Space
4:52 Biking
5:40 Dirty Cities
6:22 Food
7:31 Trains
8:35 Cost of Living

👩🏽‍💻👨🏼‍💻 CONNECT WITH US

🤔 WHO IS MY TRAVEL BF?
We are Mike and Becca, two passionate travelers who love traveling deep and experiencing a place through its food, history, and culture.

#expatlife #livingingermany #livinginspain

[faroukbenali]

In recent times, long distance trains got more delays in germany. It's due to the many ongoing work sites on the train tracks. The infrastructure is old and it's being renovated. But in a chaotic manner.

[WFH]

Great video and much respect for pointing out some of the negatives that people in Germany experience on a day to day basis but which most of the world doesn't even know about because there are so many myths surrounding Germany (garbege, delays etc)

[teotik]

Most of our weather starts somewhere on the Atlantic (Azoren) rather than in Scandinavia or Russia. That is the reason for the grey skys. Wait until the wind changes its direction to east to west. You'll have sunny skys and freezing cold temperatures.

[nettcologne]

Both countries are likely to have a better work-life balance compared to the states.
Nevertheless the job is important, after all it makes up a large part of life. And if Spain does better there, too, I would go to Spain. Grüße aus Köln.

[marcuscole]

I'd probably choose Spain or Portugal over Germany, mostly because of weather. I do like Germany, but I think I'd like Denmark better.

[michaelnajera]

As educators yourselves, I’d love to hear differences between Germany’s and Spains education system.

I’m having trouble figuring out what the system is like in Spain. Are there magnet schools? Is there a lot of homework early on? is there a philosophy difference, especially with younger kids?

[yasseral-saadi]

Cool video! I disagree about the bikes though. I’ve often cycled in Hannover and it definitely has great cycling infrastructure. It ranks as one of the best in Germany. I live in Hamburg though and the cycling infrastructure here is getting better but still pretty bad in comparison to Hannover. So I wouldn’t really agree that it’s good all over Germany.

[Tardis...]

Regarding delayed trains: There was a "cause research" which was mentioned in "Spektrum der Wissenschaft" (aka. Scientific America, German Version. The title of this article was (if I remember right) "Why are German trains always delayed, compared to Swiss trains"). One mayor reason is: A train which runs e.g. from Hamburg to Basel or Munich has to wait for a lot of connecting trains. And also have to wait for of trains from abroad: France, Netherlands, Belgium etc. And this sums up. Even to the point that the next train could overtake the train before. If another train in front of you is delayed, it's blocking your track and you have to wait until the track is free again. The denser the network and the more nodes there are, the higher the dependencies. It's quite more difficult to plan and coordinate this "complex" network than a single railway network which has not so much dependencies.

And the theoretical solution to the problem is: ... there is none.

[Khalid.]

Great video, thank you Bro.
Want to ask you, with the salary amount you are getting or used to get in spain can you have a good life or matter of surviving as long you had that experience, thank you.

[ggthjwf]

Everybody is outside in Germany in spring and summer but of course that is not possible in winter season 🤷‍♀️

[arnodobler]

I sat yesterday at the Italian Cafe outside, okay I live in the very south at Lake Constance. On New Year's Eve we had 15 ° Celsius!!!
Cleanliness of the cities is also different, have you ever heard of "Kehrwoche"?🤣
No, Tapas is not a thing here, only in spanish Restaurants (we have 2 here in my 30k town).
Local and long-distance public transport is certainly better in Japan and Switzerland, but then ...? 🤔

[allanjohnsalgado]

Spain is being groomed the next tech and business hub like Singapore and Dubai. What can you expect. If you go to linkedIn lots of tech jobs

[randomvidz]

I literarily agree with everything especially the train problem I take the train everyday and almost every 2 days the train is late

[miss_anna]

Hey) great vlog I agree about bureaucracy in Germany) I‘ve been living in Berlin 3 years and still not get used to 😂🤪

[PeterSlazy]

Well, winter in Germany is no fun but so is summer in Spain. At the end I prefer Germany. The heat in Spain is unbearable.

[Miguel-velh]

Hey! Randomly found your video and i too am from (mke) Wisconsin! 🧀 currently living in Germany, thinking about making the move to Spain once i get my EU citizenship in the next two years!

Saving money for retirement is a big one but the way i see it,

more life >>>> more money in the bank

☀️ > ☁️

Friendly people > people who have a hard time opening up to strangers whom they didn’t grow up with since kindergarten 🤡

[ivanovichdelfin]

La densidad de población es mucho más baja en España (94h/km2) que en Alemania (233h/km2), pero en España a la gente le gusta mucho más salir afuera. Madrid es la segunda ciudad del mundo con mayor superficie forestal.

The population density is much lower in Spain (94h/km2) than in Germany (233h/km2), but Spanish people like much more to go out. Madrid is the second city in the world with the largest forest area.

[LarryFleetwood]

A good way to learn German more so than reading it, I think is watching German TV which is how I learned it back in the '70s and '80s, you pick up on the meaning of words easier that way.

[chuckcooper]

your observations about Hannover are correct (trash, train schedules), but I think this has to do a lot with covid-19, since these problems were not so evident 3 years ago. There is also the problem with changes, for example the garbage collection is in the midst of a great change, with new containers for plastic waste, which especially in your area of Hannover, List, is terrible. For the last 6 weeks there are over-filled containers through-out the neighbourhood, which looks very bad. Things are supposed to get better in the next fortnight. The same with the train schedules...the tracks at the Hannover train station are being enlarged and there are many construction sites, causing delays. The super policy of a €9 ticket also got the train system overtaxed, which is just slowly returning to "normal." In the last couple of years the federal government has been forced to finance many new situations, like the pandemie, refugees, war in Ukraine, climate change, problems which the former conservative government ignored over 16 years, or have just developed in the last 2 years.

[Juanfernandez-smjl]

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 Tapas, Tapas. Tapas, We enjoy life!!