69 days vs. 2 days (and sometimes not even that many)

This morning, once again, the windows are open and the streets are empty. There are barely any cars on the road, no stores open, and no one outside is working.It is quiet. Many street lights are even turned off due to lack of traffic for the holiday. By the afternoon, the streets will be bustling, not with cars, but with families; walking, biking, and enjoying together time.  It is a German Holiday. An odd part to this is that I still have 2 people in the family who are at work and school today :-(. I got to thinking about how often in the US everything shuts down. The only days that I could come up with were Easter and Christmas - and even those days are a little questionable, as I think a few stores stay open on these 2 days too now. Then I thought of how many days there are in Bamberg, when everything is closed - and came up with about 69 days a year. To me the difference is SHOCKING! There are 69 days geared towards family and spending time together here, where America has barely 2. Not to mention the vacation time on top of the 69 days that the Germans get. They average between 5 and 7 weeks a year (where we average 2-4- if you are lucky enough to even get paid leave). I may have quoted this before, but one saying here is: "Americans live to work" and "Europeans work to live" I am sad that I can't bring this normal occurrence of life back with me when we leave :-(