Hi there!

Thanks for popping in.

Been a long day.

Strenuous driving down to Frankfurt. 

Actually Dave drove the whole way, but I can tell you, being a navigator on the Autobahn in an Engish car is no picnic!

When you’re doing 130,140, 150 km per hour,

and some maniac in a BMW or Merc whistles past you at the speed of light, it’s not much fun. Especially when Dave has this incessant urge to wander to the left.

S T R E S S F U L !

We took the fastest route via Köln,

got snarled up in Brussels, because Sally Satnav decided we needed to drive straight through the centre!

That was also quite hairy Mary!

In the end, poor Dave had Sally satnav, the voice from google maps on my phone telling him where to go, AND me.

3 women all telling him which way to go…

and we STILL got lost!!!

No wonder he went very quiet.

And Churchie in the back didn’t say a peep!!!

Did we get done for speeding?

No, not this time.

But I did actually get a ticket and an on the spot fine 

in the same area a few years ago. I was on a jolly with my Mum, and we were taking the scenic route down to Rüdesheim in the Rhine Valley.

I had a brand new Audi TT.

Beautiful little car.

Big engine. 

So Mum and I were driving down south, alongside the Rhine,

and out of nowhere a German copper, camouflaged in his green uniform, lept out in front of the car waving what looked like a table tennis bat around. 

Pulled me over, and this is how the conversation went.

Picture the scene:

Pulls over. Winds down window.

Handsome blonde cop starts:

“Führerschein!” (that means driving license)

Not very friendly at this point.

I responded in German,

“Tut mir leid. Mein Führerschein ist im Hotel.”

(Sorry, I left my driving license at the hotel.)  

“Ausweis”

ID.

Now see if you can keep up.

Your German may be better than you think!

“Tut mir leid. Mein Ausweis ist auch im Hotel.”

“Wo is das Hotel?”

I turn to Mum and ask her in English,

“Mum where’s the hotel again?”

“Koblenz”

Out of the window at the copper:

“Koblenz”

“Name des Hotels”

“Mum, what’s the name of the hotel?”

She knew. I couldn’t remember.

“Kennzeichen?”

(registration number)

It was a new car, and even my Mum couldn’t help me on that one.

So I turned to the policeman, smiled my best 32 teeth smile,

and said in German:

“Keine Ahnung, aber das hier ist mein Auto, 

und diese Dame ist meine Mutter!”

“I have no idea, but I can assure you,

this is my car and this is my mother.”

Anyway, long story short, the fine was on the spot.

€35 as I recall.

I hadn’t had a chance to get to a bank to exchange some sterling,

so once again, I turned to Mum.

“Mum, can you lend us the money until I get to a bank?”

He actually was laughing by now.

No passport, no driving license, no local money, 

no idea where the hotel was or the name of the hotel. 

Thank heavens Mum was on the ball, 

and had a few Euros in her bin!!!

Yes, that was a first.

Being fined for speeding in Germany.

Typical.

But not today.

We could have been done for driving too slowly over here!

C R A Z Y !

Time for bed now.

Big day tomorrow.

Love & Hugs,

Barb

xxx