Poor Bienenbüttel. Where?? I hear you ask. Bienenbüttel is a rural town, some 40 miles south of Hamburg. And we used to live there. I never thought I would read about it in a British newspaper, but today I did. Sadly, the reason for this sudden notoriety is the bad beansprout farmer who's currently copping the blame for the E.coli outbreak. If you want to read more, here's a link:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8558899/German-farmer-denies-E.coli-link-to-farms-bean-sprouts.html
I know that if this epidemic develops I will be forced to eat my words - as long as I wash them first. I don't wish to disregard the fact that people have died; to date, 21 Germans and 1 Swede. But it is amusing to read the dire warnings in the press to travellers to Germany - avoid salad at all costs. (This shouldn't be too difficult, as in my experience, visitors to Germany aren't interested in sampling the salad. And most vegetables are cooked to a pulp, so no danger there.) No, it is the fear-mongering, the almost German paranoia being generated by normally non-sensationalist newspapers that I find interesting. And even worse, the worryingly anti-German comments to the articles; here's a good one:
Surely instead of 'visitors to Germany should avoid salads', it should be 'salad eaters should avoid Germany'?
Or what about this:
Travellers to Germany should avoid Germany....................and the EU as a whole. And what a hole.
Nice!
Oh, and in case you were wondering about the serene giraffe surveying the savannah, she trapped her finger in the fridge door this morning. Great start, giraffe-lady.
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