On 31st of May 1974 I took the train from Krefeld to London to visit some friends. The plan was to stay for two weeks. I'm still in the UK (but not in London anymore) so I beat you by more than 19 years. By the way, here you are only allowed to drive a foreign registered car for a maximum of 6 months before you must re-register it and the same applies for the driving licence, well, that was the law before the damn Brexit anyway.
I'm glad you enjoyed your time in Berlin, and in your small town. I lived in Melbourne (with a population of about 6 million, similar to Berlin) and now live in a small town in rural Australia. Your priorities change in life as you get older and mature, it's just part of growing up :)
Well, car ownership and being completely entitled and stupid over the usage of public space is at least perfectly German. Clearly she hadn't unlearned that in the UK, though I suspect it's just because people there are about the same.
Maybe today, but not then. Back in the 80s I visited Paris for the first time and was shocked to see cars parked on the pavement! I'd never even considered that could happen, and certainly never seen it in the UK. In the last 15-20 years it's become normalised here, and in some places encouraged by the council marking parking bays part pavement/part-road.
I'm always wondering if it is really legal to park on drivethrough roads through villages in the UK where only two lanes are. You see that everywhere and the cars have to drive around them including trucks and busses. Roads that are comparable to Bundestraßen in Germany.
@@reinhard8053 By 'drivethrough' I assume you mean what we call 'through routes' - i.e. the main road passes through. It depends. If it's a white line you can't stop at all. If double yellow lines, you can only stop to drop off or pick up - no waiting. There are vague rules about impeding other traffic, but that would be left to the discretion of the police.
A refreshing apolitical very British anecdote devoid of any conclusion to be drawn other than:"Yes, people are indeed stupid".. Mr. Bean style. No real expectation that things will change. Just a rant getting down the blood pressure
In German there are many words for rant. "Motzen" more often used North of the Weisswurstäquator is a rude expression of dislike which nevertheless has some intention to change the unpleasant situation possibly even for the better. More south, we prefer to "raunzen", whine. A more fatalistic attitude, or if you want to put it positive, stoic.
Das Alter wird in mancher Hinsicht überbewertet. Ist es nicht gar ein Kompliment, sowohl an den intelligenten und humorvollen Nachwuchs als auch yfür den geistig rege und inspirierend gebliebenen Kanalbetreiber? Warum beunruhigt?
^^ when i was born the American Sector still existed in 1988 so i can speak of myself as someone from Berlin-West btw, where in Berlin did you live? Greetings from Tempelhof-Schöneberg 🤗
Don't feel bad - I was already 26 when you moved to Germany. So not everyone in your audience could be your child or grandchild. But yes... the years seems to rush by so fast... can't believe I am 56 already and considered old by many people. Sighs.
1993... I finished my MA in physics ("Diplomphysiker") from Hamburg University... Long time ago in the country of Einstein, Heisenberg, Planck, Hertz (Hamburg :-)), Stark..... Nice time... but I think nowadays I could not live in Germany anymore...
In the fall of '93, I was in the 12th grade -- a year away from starting college. Looking at some of these comments, I'm feeling almost as old as Andrew.
I bet everybody is familiar with at least one Hortensia in their circle. You chose the name very well, Andrew. I suppose after all those years you are familiar with the german descriptor for people like her, "Wunderblume" [a flower to marvel at/wonder about]? 😁👍
It is, but enforcing this law just does not seem to be the #1 priority at the moment. There is no real problem either, both countries make sure that cars have a liability insurance.
Fairly common in the US. A lot of fleet cars are registered in Indiana no matter where they're used. All U-Haul trucks throughout Canada as well as the US have Arizona plates. Lots of people have expensive exotic cars with Montana registrations since it's easy to set up an LLC there. You'll still see lots of pics of classic cars with Vermont plates since VT DMV doesn't issue titles to cars over a certain age (30 years I think) and issues registrations from a bill of sale so it was an easy way to get an old car whose title's lost back on the road legally, but VT just cracked down on nonresidents registering cars.
