it is not a so much a single smell or a particular sound that reminds me of my times in germany,it could be anything at any time, the smurfs candyfloss at a fairground,stale beer when you pass a pub early morning,and best of all hot apple pie covered in cream.

Thanks, dandc...I agree, it doesn't have to be anything specific.

You mention the smell of candyfloss at a fairground...yes! Whenever i catch that sugary scent on a breeze I am immediately transported back to wandering around Kirmes in Soest or across the Moehne Dam when it had rows of kiosks along the promenade (apparently those are no longer).

Other seemingly unrelated scents:

The smell of impending rain as storm clouds gather over my head.

The smell of damp earth and leaves after a good rain.

The warm smell of wild vegetation under a hot summer sun.

The smell of hay being harvested.

Diesel oil.

Fresh baked bread/buns.

Certain soaps -- the names of which I cannot now recall but recognize as soon as I catch the scent. One was a soap available on the German market, a green soap (also available in blue, if I recall) with white streaks through it....oh,I remember! It was called Fa. The product was available in Canada for a time but I have not seen it recently.

The first place I lived after I got married was a private hiring above a bakery. The smell of baking bread first thing in the morning.........................hmmmm.
I remember Fa soap and Badedas Bubble bath/ shower gel Got myself some two years ago when I went back for a visit. Keep it well hidden and use it now and then.

the smell of zenf on a hot frikkadelle..mmmm...graham..

my first hiring was on a farm in the village of krelingen just outside fally, yes you guessed the bedroom was next to the byre, summer was a bummer that year [1969]

I think these memories work both ways.I was in UK last month,the fiSo hats off to UK drivers!rst time for many years,and passing a fish and chip shop was just impossible for me.I also enjoyed driving on the motorways,much more civil drivers,hardly got overtaken in the 2500km I drove.Here if they buy a car that does 250km per hour,then thats what its gonna do on the Autobahn.So hats off to UK drivers!
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Don

My last must have got caught in a flash of lightening or something????
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Don

I just remembered a sound that reminds me of Germany. It's the sound of window shutters being rolled up or down. Odd that, seeing as I have those on my house here in Winnipeg. Best things going for some body doing mid-nights. Also help keep the house cool in summer and heat in during the winter.

We have a few houses here in Calgary (also Canada for the rest of you bunch :->) that have those rollies...I am still surprised there aren't more homes built with them as they are an excellent idea...keep a room nice and dark, great for privacy, great for security, and as Hardrations mentions, great for insulation. In some parts of Canada the summers can be brutally hot (and of course our winters are Siberian!).

Speaking of sounds...church bells. Now, most cities and towns here have nowhere near the concentration of churches German cities and towns do, so any pealing that occurs is but a tepid copy of what I remember being downtown in Soest at around 6pm when all 7 churches in the city, mostly Catholic but a few Lutheran as well, would start tolling (for vespers at the Catholic churches and whatever the Lutheran version of Evensong is).

I remember driving through some city with my parents on one of our weekend jaunts enroute to our hotel and being downtown when all the bells started tolling. My mom rolled down her window and the entire interior of the car was filled with the sound of big bronze bells. Fantastic.

During our 2nd tour, we lived for awhile in a very small village near the Sorpesee called Mellen. We lived in two dinky rooms upstairs (a kitchen and one bedroom. I slept on a horsehair divan in the kitchen). Outside our kitchen window was the house's backyard/small orchard, and right smack next to that was the village church.

The first night we were there we were all feeling kind of down; this place was a dump! Suddenly the bells tolled the hour -- Bong, bong, bong, bong.....BONG!!! 1 'bong' for each quarter hour and then a different 'bong' for the actual hour. It startled the hell out of us, first off, but we started laughing. The months we lived there (4 or something; I forget) we were treated to those damn bells going off every freakin' 15 minutes!! After a few days, frighteningly enough, we didn't even notice.

As an aside, on the other side of us, just out the front door and below my parents' bedroom window, was the local gasthof.

Mom, who was quite the one for a turn of phrase (dad was pretty quiet, all in all), used to comment that our little abode was smack dab in the middle of sin and salvation.

Never heard of "wasser " brotchen, but kase brotchen, now you are talking.

What about the smell of the imbiss downstairs in Karstadt in Munster or bratties etc anywhere.

Come to think it ,of that perfume smell as you went into Karstadts.

On the subject of those roller blinds. I had them in a hiring in Wolbeck in Munster. Tried cleaning them for march-out. What a disaster and a waste of a Sunday when I could have been at the "Kafe und Kuchen " in the Konditorie

Difficult to say exactly what sounds bring back memories of Germany but the smell of a Brattie or Bockwurst always brings back memories. In Paderborn we had an Imbiss just across the street and down a little from the camp - and my room was the nearest to it - you could smell the bratties cooking sometimes !

The church bells. When I was posted in Lahr 71-74 I lived in the small village of Kippenheim. I would some times go to the top of Berg Str. which we lived on, to a small chapel on the hill and listen for the church bells to ring the call to come from the fields around 5PM. It would start way down south and work it's way north. It was absolutely enchanting. When I returned as a civy in 84 it was the most wonderful greeting I could have. I know there was a name for this but for the life of me can't spell it, but I can say it. "Angelus Bell" found it in Google. Also from my land lords back yard we had a perfect view of the Protestant Church steeple. We would ping rounds from his air rifle off it. Got people wondering.

Another sound that was particularly noticeable was the sound of a mo-ped at 7AM screaming up a street on Sunday morning and this was usually noticeable for me when I was in Nijmegen on a week end and a bit hung over and staying in an inn that was on the main street and the narrow street with high buildings just reverberated with the noise. Oh lord. It was brain splitter.

Not to worry Rod. My main contact with the Battalion was when I was on course in Fort Henry at 4 Sigs. Sqn. Your crew were doing D&D. I was attached to 1 SSM Bty RCA down in Fort Prince of Wales. I think another son of Charlie Chamberlin was RC Sigs when I was in the Vimy Barracks in 62.

Ross