Got flashed by a speed camera that is...damn! Caught doing maybe 40kph in a 30 zone, oops!
The last time I got caught was on the A42 over a year ago, in my defence it was dark (they don't believe in street lighting on motorways here, bizarre) and it was a stretch with contraflow that when I'd been along it every other day during the previous week had been bumper to bumper stau (traffic jam) and so the fastest I'd ever gone there was 20!
At least here being caught speeding tends to mean a fine rather than a fine and points and what's more the fine is tiny!
15euros for up to 11k over, 20 for 12k over, apparently you have to be doing over 20k more than the limit to warrant points as well as a fine.
Now I just have to sit and wait for the pretty picture to turn up demanding money, there's no chance here of pretending your other half was driving in order to avoid hitting the top of your points (like I know a friend in the UK has done - it's OK, I wont mention your name....yet, maybe in another blog)
The irony of this is that Rebecca and I were only chatting in her car as we sped on our way to the shops about the speed trap that keeps popping up on that particular road - she was done there within months of moving to the area, but at least she hasn't had the car towed like her darling husband has (parked in the wrong place for too long at the wrong time - an expensive mistake to make, especially if you have to get a taxi all the way over to the pound)
The other irony of this is that Si was only blitzt (as we locals say) last week, called me asking if I knew what the limit was on a certain road in Essen (yeah, 'cos I'm a veritable mine of useless information me) however I was able to deduce that it was 50, it tends to be 30 in areas of housing, 50 when it's not residential, 70 for more open areas and then you're onto Autobahn limits which can be 100, 120 or 'as fast as you like'. He'd been doing 60, so 15euro fine. Ben and I had laughed and laughed at his misfortune that evening (how very German of us) so obviously I haven't told him about getting blitzt yesterday and Jas didn't notice the pretty red light flash at us, so my secret is safe, until the letter arrives which will be addressed to him as the owner of the car...shall have to start opening his mail, good job he's often away with work eh?!
And finally, last week an Austrian funeral home parked a hearse at an infamous accident blackspot;
the message on it translates as 'we're always ready for you'.
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