High Tech Germany : The Land of Fast Cars,190MPH Trains, Windmills and no Public Phones
By Lothar. Filed in General, Germany |
September 9th : We are driving from Dresden through the Czech Republic back to Prague and catch a flight to Cologne,Germany. The roads in the Czech Republic are not only much better than the ones in Poland, but also are more interesting. We see many young women standing alongside the highway in the bordertown of Teplice. It is 11 AM, but they are already offering their services. It appears to be a very poor area and it is educational to see how some people have to make a living. When driving here I really have to keep my eyes on the road :
the highway has 3 lanes and the middle lane is used for passing from either direction. The driver with the stronger nerves keeps passing, the one who blinks moves over. Sometimes neither one blinks and the trucks move into the emergency lanes, temporarily creating a 4- lane highway.
September 10th to 13th : We are in Düsseldorf , staying in my sister’s house. My sister and brother- in- law are retired and cruising with their sailboat off the coast of Sardinia. The lights and shutters in their house are on timers and while we were there, they would go on and off and open or close at irregular intervals. In Germany most houses have shutters ( Rolladen), in this case motorized, to keep burglars out. We did not need an alarm clock, since the shutter opening conveniently would wake us in the morning!
Talking about high tech : We took the new ICE train from Cologne to Frankfurt. It is running on a new track and it feels like flying at ground level. We were standing up taking pictures while travelling ( British with two l’s’ ) at speeds of up to 300 km/h (187 MPH) and did not feel any shaking. In comparison the take-off speed of a 747 is about 240km/h.
Nowadays you see many modern windmills with 3 huge blades not exactly beautifying the German landscape. They help to produce electricity from windpower and our German landlord in Nordfriesland told me, that private people own these windmills as an investment. Supposedly they start paying a dividend after 10 years.
There are very few payphones left in Germany. We asked in several towns for a pay phone location, but there were none to be found. Most Germans use their cell phones ( “handy” is a cellphone in German) and there is probably little demand for public phones.