If you go sleeping in the bushes outside a German Autobahnraststätte, I'd say snails are among the better options of things you may find crawling on you at about 3:00 am :blink:
Hahaha, just what I thought. Sure you still have both your kidneys Moxie? The Ruhrgebiet itself doesn't offer that much as long as you are not interested in culture and mining history/recent German history, but since it is so close to the netherlands and cologne, it's a good place to be at if you are passing through.
All those immigrants bring their delicious food here, I just wish they could speak proper German more often at least after a few years living here. ^^°
What you can not see here most of the time as a tourist is German culture, though,
you have to go to less populated areas for this.
I do not at all share your opinions. First of all, immigrants don't come here as children but mostly when they are past a certain age and I would love to see you learn another language within a couple of years when you are over 25. Most people over the age of 30 are not able to learn a new language even fluently, let alone with proper grammar or accent free.
Back on topic:
Your second point is based on your subjective opinion of what German culture is and very arguable. I think Berlin is a perfect example for a city that has been multicultural and metropolitan in it's prime. For example in the 20s it was like that, the Nazis sort of destroyed that and when Germany was a war-ruin and divided into two, obviously Berlin wasn't as prosperous as it used to be. It took a while for it to grow back into what once made it great: Diversity. So actually I am convinced that it is more German now than it has been from 1933-1989
I do not think that rural towns are very German at all. They look a lot like most towns look in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark and probably lots of European countries I've not been to yet. Of course you will see small differences in architecture (and there are the well known sites of castles, interesting churches or whatever you might find in the countryside), but that is already evident if you are travelling from the coast to Bavaria (where the houses are very similar to Swiss and Austrian architecture). Approaching the culture of a country by looking at small communities as a tourist, thinking that they are for some reason more authentic than the big cities seems a little strange. People who think they will see the locals in "authentic" traditional clothes will be disappointed. To see someone wearing Lederhosen you will have to go to Munich and places where you can find loads of Japanese hikers wearing authentic German traditional clothing.
