Four or five years ago I traveled from london to paris by plane, and the passenger in the row behind me told the following expertise to his coworker beside him:

Best case Europe would be:
British police,
german engineering,
swiss banking,
italian design,
and french cuisine.

Worst case Europe would be:
German police,
italian banking,
french engineering,
swiss design
and british cuisine.

I had to smile either, but there are some facts that guy did not know:
French high speed train runs faster than german ones - and is more cost effective due to better route planning.
Employees of swiss banks had illegally sold the names and addresses of german tax evasives to german gouvernments several times during the last years.
British Police nowadays is heavier armed than german police officers.
And the new german minister of defence is a woman...

I think, past times described in the joke were better in some respects ...



2015 4/4 "Chaplin" in black and white, usually strolling around at the german north sea shore