Extremely hard water. So hard that I cannot believe there is enough liquid components in the water to actually make it through pipes to come out in our sinks, showers, and toilets. I cannot even explain adequately how annoying this is to me. Hard water is definitely not good for your skin, but that can be helped with lotions. Cleaning the dishes, the floor, the shower, etc. is another story.
I used to see the JetDry commercials and laugh at them thinking the spotty dishes coming out of the dishwasher were a huge exaggeration. I take it back. The water here leaves spots on everything! And the German equivalent of JetDry does nothing. The glasses still generally come out looking dirtier than they went in. If you leave tap water sitting around in a cup overnight a white powder will settle in the bottom of the glass!
I knew from past visits that Germans never drink tap water (I have seen many Americans confuse waiters at restaurants trying to explain that they want to have water from the tap) and now I completely understand. At home the only tap water we drink is from the water cooker for tea or coffee. We have had our electric kettle less than a month and there is already build up on the bottom! (see photo)
Any suggestions on how to deal with this problem would be appreciated!
Germans literally buy cases of water at the store. You can either get "spudel wasser", this is water with bubbles like seltzer, or "natural wasser". We go through a lot of water bottles in a week. You also do not throw these bottles away, that is a huge waste of money and resources. Instead you save all of your plastic bottles and when you go to the grocery store you take them with you and deposit them into a machine that then prints out a receipt for you to take to the cashier and get your money back. While I find this system good for the earth and your wallet, it really is a pain to remember to drag all the bottles back to the store each week. Sadly I have forgotten this last week so I have a giant bag to take care of today. 
I used to make extra pocket money as a kid bringing the bottles back to the supermarket. Of course here it's voluntary--I can't imagine Germans would not follow the rules. Have I mentioned that I love how easy that makes life? I used it for a whole discussion with my students about all the rules at Townsend Harris.
ReplyDeleteYou've been spoiled by NY water! Everywhere I go the water's never the same. Do you find your shampoo tricky too? My hair never comes out the same with hard water...always sticky feeling!
Of course the Germans follow the rules. Plus there is about .25 built into the price of every bottle so you are motivated to bring them back to at least get your geld!
ReplyDeleteSo far my hair seems ok, however it is such a long mess now who knows. The water really is different everywhere. I also had this problem when I was in college, but I didn't really cook much then or do many dishes so it did not bother me as much. I must combat this water situation, not sure if there is some sort of filter I can put on the tap but I'm determined to figure this out!