The US is generally pretty noisy. House walls are thin and there is a lot of AC and heating noise. Whenever I come back to Germany I notice how quiet the houses are due to brick walls.
The church bells create a very regular cacophany from seemingly every direction however, at least here in Switzerland (can't speak for Germany). This seems to be much less common in the US.
The church in the small Swiss town I lived in rang its bell every 15 minutes, even in the middle of night. Maybe the locals find it comforting. It kept me up.
Church bells are the same in Germany. Church bells don't bother me but I hate white noise like heating or AC. Americans on the other hand often seem to find white noise soothing. Maybe because they grew up with it.
I guess it depends, when I returned home from Cologne, I noticed how quite it is. No tram sounds, no cars sounds, no drunken crowds sounds, nobody is taking a piss in the dark corner etc.