Getting Around

Today’s blog is all about ‘Das Auto’ to celebrate the receipt of my new German driver’s license!

An American license is only valid for the first 6 months of residence in Germany.  Therefore, it was time for the upgrade since recently we passed this mark, which is really hard to believe.  Although we are living without a car for the first time in over 10 years, it is nice to know I can legally drive again on the autobahn with a rental car.  Getting the license is also an important milestone because I had avoided the task since our arrival.  I really hate going to the DMV offices just like everyone else, and the thought of doing this completely in German did not make me rush the issue.  But eventually I went out and conquered.

We have been living life without a car for 6 months and overall I would say we enjoy it thanks to an incredible public transportation system (especially in Germany, where punctuality is very serious business).  There is an amazing infrastructure of trains, trams, and buses that can get you to any square block in Munich on time in about 10-45 minutes from our apartment.  Furthermore, we can get to any other town or city in Germany very efficiently, cheaply, and with a fantastic scenic view.  The main benefit of using the public transportation is that the stresses of driving are avoided (traffic, wrong turns, parking etc.).  The only real disadvantage is that we have to shop more frequently (usually on Saturdays since stores are closed late nights and Sundays) because we are limited on how much we can buy.  The other real benefit is that it makes the city safer and more fun by taking care of the whole drinking and driving problem.  Even our dogs like traveling by train with us!

Of course there are certain times when owning a car would be quite useful.  For instance, when your train gets struck by lightning and causes an infrastructure shut down which causes a three-hour delay in getting home from work.  Ok, I really wish I had a car that day.  Or when your wife is in the hospital and it takes 2 hours to reach her, yeah it would have been nice to have a car that day too.  But for most urgent instances we have Aunt Ellen and her Twingo available to rescue us when we need more dog food or another crate of Dr. Pepper.  It’s been a nice lifestyle change to live in a society where you don’t absolutely need a car to survive.

And yes it’s true that gas is twice as expensive as in the US (around 8 USD per US gallon), but the cars are around twice as fuel efficient (between 40-70 MPG in US gallon).  By the way the emphasis on US gallon is because I recently learned there is also an imperial gallon which the UK uses that can really complicate comparisons (this tends to inflate the numbers upwards of 100 MPG).

Here are some tales from the road in the few instances I have driven a car here.  The first was in a rental car to pick up the dogs at the Frankfurt airport which was a very stressful experience to say the least (see blog #12).  I was so stressed out that I told Julie we should move back to the US and I would never drive again.  The part that put me over the edge, which is quite humorous in hindsight, was trying to pump gas at a gas station.  The clerk and I were stuck in a very frustrating loop where I would insist on prepaying with my credit card, he would point outside and say something I could not understand, I would hunt for the credit card machine, and then return inside to ask him again.  This went on for several rounds before I finally understood you don’t prepay for gas, there was no credit card machine outside, and he was telling me to go pump gas first and then we can try using the credit card inside.  Whooooops, I guess we all have our breakdowns once in a while!

The next time I drove was a work trip using a company car.  A month later a speeding ticket showed up on my desk at work, which was a bit embarrassing since I was new to the job and everyone seemed to know about before I did.  Anyhow, the good news is that going roughly 10 mph over only cost me 25 EUR, the cost of learning that Munich likes to use speed cameras and be careful to reduce speed accordingly when exiting the autobahn.  I think I also vowed to never drive again in this instance too.

Thankfully I have the freedom to drive again with my new license but I’m not in any hurry to do so.  We like the trains!