Hence the comment about German bureaucracy in the US, because this is exactly the comment that British travellers in Germany before WW1 used to make. I think Mark Twain actually did a little essay on how someone could spend an afternoon acquiring fines in a town in Bavaria, and Rupert Brooke, writing of Grantchester wrote
“There are fields between Madingley and Coton
Where Das Vertreten’s not verboten”
Edit -
The first time I visited the US I was waiting in the airport to be collected and I saw a sign saying “No solicitors” which struck me as funny because in the UK a solicitor is a transactional lawyer (as distinct from an advocate).
