I know I posted photos earlier today, but what the hell… the parking garage continues to be the single most scary thing about living in Germany. Not just for me… the other day Jim accidentally got one of the front tires over the front of the grate (roughly an inch away from the anterior wall) and I always worry when I put the car in gear that I’m going to roll either forward or backward. Both of which… at the wrong time… would be a very bad thing.
The view as you pull in:
The teeny-tiny space I get to squeeze out of once I’ve survived the parking process:
Equally microscopic free space on the other side (out of necessity everyone piles out before the driver pulls in):
View from the next stall over… no head-room. tons of steel above you. not a whole hell of a lot supporting the weight below:
B. is
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May 22nd, 2006 at 22:31
Now I know why the garage terrifies you. Maybe you really should consider the FIAT 500 you saw in Berlin.
May 22nd, 2006 at 22:42
Well, let me fill you in on my 2nd pulling out experience from the parking ramp.. You see, it’s inclined when you”re in there and so it requires some interesting clutch work in order to back out without either stalling or burning the clutch. On my 2nd attempt I almost stalled the car. Reacting quickly (but not quickly enough) I pushed the clutch back in and hit the brakes. However I was about a second too late on the brakes. The front tire went over the wheel stop (you can see it in front of the drivers side wheel in the picture). Luckily nothing contacted the front wall of the space or any other stationary objects. So after a few deep breaths, I put the emergency break on, let the clutch out slowly till I felt it pull, then gave it lots of gas. I released the parking brake and pulled back up OVER the wheel stop and out of the parking space. Yeah..I think I’ll give it at least a weeks rest before I attempt that one again.. Nerve wracking to say the least.
May 22nd, 2006 at 22:56
And I thought the jaws on your hostage-taking clothes washer were bad.
Looks like there are moving hydraulic parts & hinges that could inflict serious bodily injury too.
You would think with all that German technology, you could simply nose the front wheels onto some stops, disembark, then the machine would pull the car in automatically at the push of a button. Retrieval likewise.
May 22nd, 2006 at 23:37
Yiiiiiiiikes! :-O Nothing more to say on that
May 22nd, 2006 at 23:55
Oh crap. It’s worse than I thought. I KNOW I’m going to have nightmares about that now. I have enough issues with cars and driving as it is. Having to do that would send me over the edge.
P.S. We missed having you there on the weekend. Next time for sure, huh?
May 23rd, 2006 at 07:32
man that is small! I’d see why it’s so terrifying too!
May 23rd, 2006 at 07:52
Whoa. I found your blog by accident many hours ago and soaked it up entirely instead of sleeping this night, just couldn’t stop. Weird, but the outside perspective on my country and my language is very interesting. (I never thought about “Gute Fahrt” before… ) Thank you very much for sharing!
Using o2, call 333, choose “9″ at the Hauptmenü, then 5.
I feel a bit of being intrused to your and your family’s privacy and try to make up for this by trying to help you with your mobile mailbox language problem:
If you are with T-Mobile, call 3311, try to fight through until you reached the main menu, then press 3 (”bla bla … Einstellungen ändern …”), then 2 (”…Grundeinstellungen”…) and then 2 again (”…Sprache ändern…”) and 3 für English.
With an E-Plus SIM-card, call 9911, try to press “*” until you hear “Hauptmenü”, choose 3 (”Persönliche Optionen”), 9 (”Sprachauswahl”) and then you should hear “Für Englisch drücken Sie bitte die 2″
But I’m afraid, this probably won’t work or work otherwise with a prepaid card and Vodafone don’t seem to offer another language for the mailbox generally.
May 23rd, 2006 at 10:24
Sven- amen. I curse Jim’s choice of cars each time I have to pull in or out of that space.
Remus- there is nothing technological or cutting edge about this system, trust me. Makes me long for the ‘everythings bigger in texas- big ol’ parking spot!’ days.
Lisa- Yiiiiiiiikes! is right!
Christina- I’ll do my best to make the next girl’s weekend… I wish you all lived closer!
Expatraveler- I actually look at the pictures and think it seems roomy. When you’re actually doing it, I swear there’s not that much space.
Sebastian- I’m glad you found your way here… and I hope it comes across in the blog that I love living in germany. Even if I do whine a lot. heh
Now I’m going to go follow your directions for my handy and hopefully… after 3 months… be able to leave a personalized greeting and figure out how to check my messages. Being able to do so would seriously make my day.
May 25th, 2006 at 12:14
Okay, this completely justifies why I drive a Smart.