The Cows of Garmisch, Germany

It's important to remember that virtually all rural German villages were primarily agricultural at one time. Garmisch has grown; it is now heavily tourist-oriented. However, in Germany it is still permissible for farmers to have their livestock within the city limits.

So, every evening, cows come into town for milking from pastures on the edge of town and every morning they return to the pastures. This means traveling through what are normally busy city streets in a city like Garmisch. One of the neatest experiences we had in Germany was watching about 30 head of cows walk into town accompanied by their herders. Traffic comes to a halt while the cows walk down the middle of the streets and all seem to know which right or left to take. In addition, every cow wears a bell on its neck so you have a wonderful, melodious parade!

No one in a car rushes the cows. The reason for that is that under German law if you injure or kill a cow, you are liable for a penalty equal to all the milk that cow would produce in its lifetime PLUS all the milk that her potential offspring would produce--an amount in the hundreds of thousands of euros!

Barns in villages like Garmisch are usually the lower level of a residence. In most cases you would never guess from looking at them from the outside that it was a barn. While we were in Garmisch, we have watched farm tractors and equipment go through town routinely, including a tractor pulling a wagonload of manure. 

In our travels so far, German towns are the neatest, cleanest places we've encountered. Everything is painted and fixed up. There is no junk or trash in sight anywhere. Firewood, which can be found in great abundance, is neatly stacked. Flowerpots and hanging baskets are everywhere!