Reason #11: Why I Love Germany: Cow Bells

A cow proudly showing off her cow bell.

The #11 reason why I love Germany is that in southern Germany and northern Austria, you frequently hear the cling-clang of cow bells, also known as "Almgocke" in German.  There are a lot of cows in southern Germany and it can actually be quite noisy, but I love the sound of the cow bells, especially when hiking.  To a large extent, cows have free range of the hills so you can even hear the cow bells even when you are quite high up.  I find the sound rather encouraging as I hike higher and higher and grow wearier and wearier.



Another cow, another cow bell

 Cow bells serve the purpose of keeping track of any cows that are drifting too far away or those that have managed to get lost.  The cow bells make it much easier to find the cows.  Being from Canada, I must admit this concept is lost on me.  In Canada, especially where I grew up,  there are also a lot of cows in much bigger pastures than in Germany and the cows in Canada don't wear cow bells. 

While I love the sounds of cow bells, cows get up rather early, so I would not recommend camping near cows or sleeping with a window open near cows. 

If you do, you will most definitely not need an alarm clock as the cow bells will provide a nice 5:00 am ish wake up call.  As long as I'm not sleeping near cows, cow bells are another reason why I love Germany.  If you love Germany, check out Expat in Germany