First Immpressions

All cars are black - at first it almost seemed so. However, eventually we saw some cars of other colors.

All cars are small - not quite all of them but for sure there are many more small ones than large ones. Mini vans like our Montana are very rare. I saw two for sure Ford Galaxies. Volks Wagon makes a van that is a little bigger than our Montana and there are quite a few of them on the roads. This style is frequently seen as a business vehicle of one sort or another.

All drivers are "crazy" - not true - some of their habits look odd to us. With their little cars they dash in and out of tight places, cut in real sharp in front of you and drive very fast at times.

All stop lights are in the "wrong" place on the corner - instead of being overhead or on the far side of the intersection they are in the same place as you find stop signs in north America - on the corner immediately to your right- very difficult for the driver of the first car in line to see. they are about level with the roof line of the vehicle.

All city streets are twisting and narrow - some have more than one lane going in the same direction but the lanes are usually for small cars

In many places you drive on the tracks of the streetcars - you better kee an eye out for the street cars coming towards you or from behind - they have the right of way.

Parking is another story all together- perhaps we could write a small book on parking alone. In cities parking is extremely difficult to find unless you are a very "Early Bird". Individual parking meters do not exist. A section of street will be marked of for parking and there is one meter somewhere in the section and the driver must put his money in the meter receive the ticket and place the ticket in the window of the car. Other places are free parking for x number of minutes or hours - every car has a parking card and you set the cardboard clock at the hour and minute when you parked and leave it in the window. There are some parking lots for this free parking, there are some metered lots and there are some parkades where you pay-these are usually underground several stories. With a business building above ground. In residential areas parking is on the sidewalks or half on the sidewalk. Double parking is allowed and you wonder how the vehicle on the inside gets out if the one on the street side is in the way. In most lots the spaces are narrow and if anyone parks too close to the line the next car 's occupants may not be able to open the doors. ( Once we parked in such a narrow space I had to get out before Helmut parked the car and he had to squeese out on the passanger side - just as he was free from the car the driver of the next one on the left side returned and squeesed into his car and drove away.)

Although driving has some differences & headaches it was definatly better than public transportation for us. Contray to the opinion of some folks who tried to advise us before we left.

We arranged to rent a car from Avis. When we arrived at the Duesseldorf airport and Helmut was all signed up for a gas fueled Opal a deisel fueled Opal was offered to him so he took that.

Yes, deisel is about 30 cents cheaper than gasoline per liter.

A little hint-E(for Euro) 1 is about $1.59 Canadain. 1/100 of a E is called a cent (I'm not sure of the spelling in German).