Life in Germany

Lately I have been to Germany. I will write what phenomena I noticed. 

1. Close to the border, on Polish side, there were many cigarette shops. In Zgorzelec, where I was,  there were three or four shops of this kind at the street next to the border. It was strange because there were more this kind of shops than exchange offices or off-licences in the whole town. There is one conclusion, there is a huge market for product like this in Germany. When we were in a deserted village I even noticed cigarette automates. However, in Stuttgart I saw the same number of people with cigarette in the same age as in Poland, probably there are similar restrictions of customer's age. We weren't in pubs and places like that - we were with half year old baby - so I can't write about prohibitions in that places.

2. The motorway speed limit. In Germany there isn't such limit. There is only recommendation not to exceed 130 km per hour so you can drive as fast as you can without any consequences. I have to confess that it is strange feeling to drive 160 km per hour and overtake a police car.
When I was driving over 145 km per hour on Polish or German motorways my car sounded like a spin-dryer. I don't know exactly what was the reason, probably type of tarmac. Anyway, this sound was a lullaby for my 8 months old daughter.

3. Special road signs. It was common to see speed limit with additional label like "bei Nässe" on the motorway.

It means that this speed limit is applied only when the road surface is wet. I have never seen something like this in Poland.

4. Behaviour on the road. My another observation at the motorways was that drivers who were preparing to overtake,  had changed their lane in long distance ahead of the overtaking car so usually I had overtake them from right lane. It wasn't dangerous because there were still save distances between cars.

5. Grerman cities try to limit air pollution. They introduced special zones called  "Umweltzone". On entrance to that cities, there are special road signs. If you want to get into this zone, you should have a proper striker at your front window. Otherwise you can get a fine (about 80 EUR). There are 3 kinds of sticker: green, yellow and red one determined by ecological norm. This restriction prompts German to buy new car. Strikers are purchasable at Dekra car service or at city hall from 5 EUR after verification of your car registration document.

I got to know about this restriction a week before our trip. I am not sure if foreigner car is required to have a proper sticker but I didn't what to risk a fine, so I bought it in Warsaw for 79zl.
It is easy to guess that it is impossible to meet old car with diesel engine in the city, so I you are looking for some you have to look after it in the village.

6. Accommodation conditions. We came to hotel a few minutes before 6 pm, when our reservation could expire. An entrance and hotel's reception looked as relict of previous age. There was no room for us but receptionist forwarded us to cooperating hotel. I wanted to pay by card but terminal didn't accept my MasterCard. It was some joke, we tried 3 times and finally I had to get cache from cache dispenser. It took me about 30 minutes because nobody at street knew where nearest cache dispenser was.
We lost another 30 minutes to get to target hotel, anyway we stayed next to market promenade. Of course there was no hotel's park place so we have to park at public park house around hotel.
Hotel was small. An entrance and reception looked modernly. We got big 3 bed room with a bath. The furnishing was in style of late 70's. Probably they loved that time and they didn't changed room's arrangement or maybe three-star-hotel was too cheap to update the arrangement. I have seen h which looked better then this three-star-hotel any way we were there not to be excited about the hotel.

7. When I was driving on German ways I had to look out. They didn't infinitely repeat signpost as in Poland. Other difficulty was that Stuttgart is placed amidst the hills so I didn't know if I had to keep right side of the road or went throw tunnel to get to some place. GPS signal was failing as well so to get to next street could take a half hour.

 
8.  In most market they take a deposit on all kind of bottles, even plastic. Later they collect empty bottles and replace them for money or shopping coupons.

9. We spend last day in Stuttgart on shopping. We went for a walk across main market promenade and we did price research. In my opinion, prices of clothes are twice higher and baby tools similar as at Marszalkowska street in Warsaw.

That's all my remarks after four days trip to Germany.