((I'm a longtime Bitcoin enthusiast and UX developer by trade. Warning: This musing may not follow a logical thread and could derail altogether at some point. It's my first Steem posting :-) ))

I'm from New Zealand and travelling with my young family. At home we live rurally and we are currently out in the big wide world.

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We're currently in Germany visiting family and I'm reflecting while enjoying morning coffee. Sometimes I think drinking coffee is a defining national talent of the Germans, but they're also very good at football, cycling infrastructure and public transport, possibly all these things are connected?

I can see, as a nation, we have a lot of coffee drinking to do. Especially if we want more bike tracks judging by the Dutch consumption above.

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Our last port of call was England and my Dad, while looking for Lego and Playmobile in the attic discovered a tower of small boxes. Each box contained a gas mask, issued during the second world war to his wife's family. He remembers having one the same as this, and his family having to carry one at all times (photo below).

I'm a 'maker' and so inspected the gas mask closely, it is beautifully put together (disregarding the ugly-ness of the necessity of making it in the first place) with the rubber bonding molding reminding me of a modern welded Gore-tex jacket with the harness seamlessly attached and the eyepieces crimped in.

It is astonishing that in a very short time many millions of these were produced and distributed, that the war unified people together and provoked a focused response. At least that was my first response. But then, this morning in Kiel - Germany, I look around myself, and the shear volume of 'thing' production by modern humans within line of sight of this apartment indicates we are capable of extraordinary things.

As a kiwi, living in a country where having space around you is still the norm - in town, on a beach or in the mountains, it is hard to understand and embrace what the human experience is in these more populated countries. How the 'things' we surround ourselves with affect our happiness and if there is any underlying direction or thread steering the juggernaut of human development and our creations.

On with the travelling.