I just returned from a week in dreary, rainy, cold Germany - and had a great time. I was there for business in Berlin, but flew in a day early to Munich to I could drive the Autobahn. Rented a 2.0T diesel Audi wagon and it was a great drive. I got the car up to 225 km/hr (roughly 135mph) which is as fast as it would go - and was still getting passed. Averaged 110mph or so from Munich to Berlin (including a few stops) and still managed to get 39 miles per gallon.
REMIND ME AGAIN WHY THE HELL WE DON'T HAVE MORE DIESELS IN THE USA???
Once in Berlin, days were spent on business and nights out on the town. I spent most of my time with a few coworkers and one of our local hosts and enjoyed every minute of it - the cold, the constant drizzle, and the inability to know where the hell I was going on the subway. Another highlight was spending St.Paddy's day in the best and largest Irish pub in Berlin, which was packed in a way I don't recall since being in NYC on a Saturday night. Unlike US bars, where one must be careful not to be too "aggressive" making ones way throught a crowd or making contact, in Europe in bars contact is expected and you find yourself getting pretty "personal" with pretty much everyone you need to get by.
I won't say much about what I was there for, except to say that during meetings I noticed that professional Germans dress so damn well. Seemingly nobody there is overweight, and everyone wears fitted suits that look sharp as hell. My next round of suits will be more in the Euro-style than my several "American" suits currently in the closet, I think. Yes, I'm a bit metro...
A few other thoughts....
- Business trips with a group of people you don't know very well are great and almost more fun than traveling with people that you know well. By the end, a whole new community is evident - there are always one or two people that you really don't like at all, a few that are just "there," and a couple that you feel like you've been friends with for years even though you've really just spent a week's worth of nights walking around the city, subway, bars and restaurants.
- Being away from home for a week, with it gray and rainy and cold, gave me a strange craving to listen to the Cure on my iPod.
- While I know it's a result of a huge amount of taxation in Europe, American infrastructure and transportation sucks compared to Germany. The autobahn is smooth as glass at 100mph. In Berlin the sidewalks are small cobblestones - constanly being fixed if even one is out of place or loose - with a smooth bike lane running down the center. Don't walk in the bike lanes, you WILL get run over. Also don't cross against a red walk signal at a crosswalk. If you do, the locals will scold you and say "you're setting a bad example for the children." The Germans are so organized, so precise in the way everything is set up - at least in Berlin - that it makes our infrastructure seem crude and sloppy in comparison. I do think this is a Teutonic mindset though, because I never noticed the same living in Italy or visiting many other European countries.
The architecture in Berlin is excellent, also...
- Driving: Back to the beltway now is SO frustrating. The Germans drive aggressively, but they make lane changes, turns, stops, and other automotive moves with perfect sense. On a 3-lane highway that's empty and going 110? The German driver will be in the right lane so the guy going 120 can pass him in the middle and the guy doing 130 can pass HIM in the left. After making a pass, German drivers immediately move over to the farthest-right lane that they can. Driving home from the airport I found myself screaming at the morons doing 5-under in the left lane and the other morons going 20-over and passing on the right.
- Vehicles: The utter lack of SUVs (other than the occasional Mercedes or Porsche "crossover") is excellent. No hulking Suburbans blocking one's view of what is up ahead. That's one reason everyone can drive so fast - you can see 10 cars ahead since everyone drives CARS not guzzling behemoths. It is, however, funny to see a BMW or Audi or Benz station wagon towing a small box-trailer behind it. I even saw a BMW M5 and an Aston Vantage towing a trailer. You notice that in europe, EVERY car has a tow hitch....the subcompacts, the sedans, and even most of the Porsches....
Another thing you notice is the low number of trucks on the highways. Not because they're not allowed there, but because most all cargo in Europe seems to move via rail - because it's cheaper than trucking. We'll see what happens in the US when our gas prices go up.
Well that's it for now. Nobody is reading this anyways, so it's just a reminder to me to reference years down the road I suppose.....
- While I know it's a result of a huge amount of taxation in Europe, American infrastructure and transportation sucks compared to Germany. The autobahn is smooth as glass at 100mph. In Berlin the sidewalks are small cobblestones - constanly being fixed if even one is out of place or loose - with a smooth bike lane running down the center. Don't walk in the bike lanes, you WILL get run over. Also don't cross against a red walk signal at a crosswalk. If you do, the locals will scold you and say "you're setting a bad example for the children." The Germans are so organized, so precise in the way everything is set up - at least in Berlin - that it makes our infrastructure seem crude and sloppy in comparison. I do think this is a Teutonic mindset though, because I never noticed the same living in Italy or visiting many other European countries.
The architecture in Berlin is excellent, also...
- Driving: Back to the beltway now is SO frustrating. The Germans drive aggressively, but they make lane changes, turns, stops, and other automotive moves with perfect sense. On a 3-lane highway that's empty and going 110? The German driver will be in the right lane so the guy going 120 can pass him in the middle and the guy doing 130 can pass HIM in the left. After making a pass, German drivers immediately move over to the farthest-right lane that they can. Driving home from the airport I found myself screaming at the morons doing 5-under in the left lane and the other morons going 20-over and passing on the right.
- Vehicles: The utter lack of SUVs (other than the occasional Mercedes or Porsche "crossover") is excellent. No hulking Suburbans blocking one's view of what is up ahead. That's one reason everyone can drive so fast - you can see 10 cars ahead since everyone drives CARS not guzzling behemoths. It is, however, funny to see a BMW or Audi or Benz station wagon towing a small box-trailer behind it. I even saw a BMW M5 and an Aston Vantage towing a trailer. You notice that in europe, EVERY car has a tow hitch....the subcompacts, the sedans, and even most of the Porsches....
Another thing you notice is the low number of trucks on the highways. Not because they're not allowed there, but because most all cargo in Europe seems to move via rail - because it's cheaper than trucking. We'll see what happens in the US when our gas prices go up.
Well that's it for now. Nobody is reading this anyways, so it's just a reminder to me to reference years down the road I suppose.....
I'm reading... even if I get to live the car projects and garage projects on a daily basis. This may be the best way ever for you to tell me why the heck you want to redo the garage. Again.
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