Double check the rear view mirror.
Double check over my left shoulder.
All clear.
I move into the left lane on the A81. This is dangerous territory. Driving at 80mph in a Honda Pilot to pass a car in the right hand lane makes me white knuckled.
Oh boy.
Then I see them.
The lights.
Flashing.
This means one thing.
GET OUT OF THE WAY.
My Honda is gutless. I give it my best and try for 85. I get around the car which I'm passing and see if I can move back to the right hand lane.
Rear view mirror check.
Flashing faster. My heart starts pounding. I move back to the right hand lane as....
....WHOOSH!
There goes the $80,000 Audi A8 floating down the autobahn.
I exhale.
Made it.
As a general culture, Germans LOVE their cars. I find driving to be a full contact sport here. From parking to city streets to the autobahn (or freeway), driving is a total body experience.
We happen to live in a car town. Stuttgart. Home to Daimler (Mercedes) and Porsche. It's a very prosperous area with lots of engineering and huge factories. Think geeky eyeglasses.
I'm really a BMW or Audi girl myself, but far too practical to shell out the money for one of those, so we drive an 11 year-old Volkswagen and a 4 year-old Honda Pilot. I'm not really a car person at all, actually. I have 3 children in carseats and I still have nose prints on the rear window of my Honda from our dog who passed away 5 weeks ago.
Drew completely changed my mind when I test drove a used BMW shortly after we married. We settled on the next best and cheaper option, the VW Passat Wagon. Oh, how I have loved that car.
German engineering. Everything in the car was solid. Well made. It purred down the highway. Yes, a VW. I was sold on German cars. Later, we added the Honda for the 3rd child, dog, tents, grandparents, skis, and the ranch roads. Gets good gas mileage, too.
But it's cheap. It's a Honda, so the engine will last forever, but the darn insides are SO cheap.
I digress. I apologize.
German cars. They are built for these roads. These gorgeous autobahns. Yes, there are places where there are no speed limits, but it's unusual to find a stretch of road with few enough cars to drive really fast.
Like 230km/h. That's about 140. Oi.
Left lanes on the autobahns are for passing only. German drivers are very good about this. There's no hanging out in the left lane. Pass and move on. Mind the flashing lights, too.
I ought to mention navigation, as well. Navigating in Europe is slightly different than in the US. I come from the west. In the west, you can use mountains. You can go old school and use a map. You can look at your map, have a cup of coffee, and check the map again 15 minutes later.
Here, there's no north, south, east, or west. There's "direction of..."
We determined early in our time here that men and women navigate differently. We also determined that when the wife doesn't know yet HOW to navigate differently, she can be reduced to tears in a matter of seconds. I learned quickly how to navigate in the direction of travel, how to listen for directions in German, and that one wrong turn on the autobahn can be a 30 minute error. Grumble, grumble.
In-town navigation is no less sporting, particularly driving the beast that is our SUV. Bikes, pedestrian crosswalks, and narrow streets make simple journeys an adventure. I have developed a fondness for roundabouts, or traffic circles. It's an easy u-turn when I get turned around.
I get turned around frequently. Still. After living here for 5 years.
Thank goodness for bicycles.
