Cigarettes

After living in a country where cigarettes must be kept under the counter it is a bit of a shock to find baskets of cigarette packages placed right next to the checkout in Hamburg Aldi stores

Aldi checkout with cigarettes

Friends tell me that a lot of people have stopped smoking here but you wouldn't know it by looking at the outdoor cafes.

Smoker at an inner city Cafe in Hamburg

Wikipedia says 26% of Germans smoke. In most other European countries over 30% of the population smokes (in Greece 43%) so perhaps the peak has passed.  The lists of side effects is long (and includes erectile dysfunction) which makes you wonder how many brown paper bags are passed from cigarette companies to law makers. Those lists of side effects  (the link is to the German Wiki site has more info than the English version ) make me pleased I have a weakness for chocolate not cigarettes.