Getting around in Germany

Rita has been impatiently waiting for the letter from the driver's license bureau to come back and pick up her license. That letter finally came on Tuesday, March 9, so on Wednesday she drove down to pick it up - took all of 10 minutes to do!! We had applied for them on Jan. 3 and Bob got his notice the end of January and picked his up then. Needless to say, she was getting a little worried as to why hers was taking so much longer than his. All in all it was a very easy process. Since AZ has reciprocity with Germany, we didn't have to take any tests, just get our AZ licenses translated into German, show our residency permit, pay them 30 Euro (about $40-45) and then wait. And they don't ever expire so we are good forever.

Driving in Germany is much more intense than in the States - you have special intersections that you have to watch out for (who has the right-of-way - it is usually the car on the right, UNLESS it is otherwise marked!), cars and trucks stopped in the driving lanes to unload or park for a few minutes, and lots of bicyclists and pedestrians. Sometimes right in the middle of a block there is a marked pedestrian walkway that gives the right of way to the pedestrians - doesn't have to be at an intersection. Also, there are no right-turn-on-red except at a very, very few intersections that are marked as such, and the streets are very narrow - sometimes a residential 2-way street is only wide enough for 1 car so you have to pull off onto the sidewalk a little to let an oncoming car pass by.

And then there are the signs - what can we say - it is just very confusing until you ask a lot of questions and learn what they mean. There are Americans here that have been driving for 10 years and still don't know what they all mean!!! And signs on the highways don't include the direction (like if you want to exit on Hwy. A66, it will say only A66 and city names - not east or west - so you have to know what big city you are headed toward). We are adjusting to the system though, and some of their ways are actually quite a bit better than in the States.

All in all we are getting around just fine. We do use the public transportation system most of the time as it is easier and faster within the city of Frankfurt. Parking is at such a premium, also. At our church, we do not have a parking lot - only street parking which is used by the many apartment dwellers around the church. Many people have to walk a few blocks from their Sunday morning parking places, and nobody complains about it - it is just a fact of driving in Germany. We both ride the U-bahn train and bus to church on Sunday mornings to avoid the parking problem.

So there you have a little glimpse into how we get around in Germany. We are adapting as we become more knowledgeable and learn the little nuances of the system.