New German Speed traps
We have all seen the German speed trap cameras around. When you speed past one in your car in Germany, they take a photo of you and your car, register your current speed, and a date and time, then a few days later you get the notice in the mail along with your fine.
Once we get used to our travel routes, we learn to slow down enough just to get past the cameras. Then we resume our normal speed. But now Germany is making it a lot more difficult. They have new speed cameras being installed which are very well hidden (see photos below)
They are a lot harder to spot! These new cameras will be found in the Heidelberg area on Speyer Strasse (535) and also on the B3.
Germany no longer sends the photos in the mail in an attempt to curb high divorce rates in Germany. Evidently there were quite a few cases where the photo was sent to the address of the speeder, but a wife or husband saw the photo with another member of the opposite sex in the car. Oops. Don’t get caught cheating!!! There is lots of information on various speed cameras here
Sure, the new BMW M6 coupe is a dream car that most of us would love to own. The questions is “If you had $100,000 to spend on a car, would the M6 be the one?”
I drove up to Amsterdam this weekend. I love the city, and have a few friends from the states who go there to maintain DNS servers for Verisign, so when they are there I usually take a ride up to visit. It’s cheaper than flying back to the states to visit ; )
This weekend though, I got stopped by the Netherlands Border Patrol on the way in! It was one of those motorcycle types. Pretty cool actually. That’s a picture of one to the left. They wait on the side of the autobahn, take a look at you and if they want to check you out, they speed up in front of you on the motorcycle, and little sign flashes “Follow me” “Follow me” I followed him off to a side area where a whole polethra of police vehicles were waiting. They had vans, cars, motorcycles, 8 or so uniformed cops and even a little Japanese guy waiting for me. I handed over my passport, and another cop came over and started talking to me in Dutch. I asked if he could speak English, and he said yes. He wanted me to roll my window up a little. What he was doing is checking to see if my car had window tinting installed. He said it’s illegal in the Netherlands. He asked if it was there when I bought it and I said yes. He told me that he wouldn’t make me remove it on the spot (ha ha) and let me go. 
Can you imagine owning your own castle in Germany or anywhere in Europe for that matter? I like to dream, and that is one thing I would really love to have for retirement. My own castle! I like this one 
If you are thinking of buyin g a castle, they can be purchased relativley cheaply in the former East German state. Many need renovations, but there are some government incentives and grants that can really save you some cash. Check out the website 
Motor Trend gave its “Car of the Year” award to the redesigned Camry, includig the fuel efficient hybrid version. It has also been the best selling car in the stats for quite a few years.
It’s Christmas Market season in Germany! A Chistmas Market is a huge market that is usually set up in a town square and runs usually between the end of November, and the end of December. You can buy red cider wine, candles, leather items, crafts and lots of other stuff. If you have never been to one, you don’t know what you are missing. Most cities in Germany have some sort of Christmas Market. The larger cities naturally have some of the largest markets.
I went to the German Post Office and mailed a bunch of Insurance renewal notices to customers today. One envelope had the Zip Code Number but I couldn’t decipher the name of the town so I asked for the POSTLEITZAHLBOOK to look up the number and from the number know the town.