My commute

They say traffic in Germany is worst in November. They're right. Instead of taking me 35 minutes to drive my 40 km each way, it's been closer to 1.5 hours.




So yesterday I decided to just photograph the journey for posterity. Not a very pretty day, but honestly it helped me get to work without the normal frustration and meditation exercises. The first photo is me as soon as I got on the Autobahn, having to slam on my brakes and get in line in the parking lot. "Unglaublich!"

Don't worry, I was not driving 112 MPH this day (my top speed with the Prius which I hit when traffic is light). You can see how slow I was going. In Km.

My favorite tea from Funder that I drink every morning to calm me down on the drive. (NEED MORE!!)

In this photo you see how very late it is - I've been trying going to work later to avoid traffic but it just doesn't work. You can also see how my MPG is getting better and better as I go slower and slower. Really a Prius does its best at slower speeds. You may also notice dust in this photo. This dust is not visible to the naked eye, otherwise I would have wiped it clean with my micro-fiber car dusting tool. Aarene can attest to the fact that I am fastidious about my vehicles. Aarene caught me once toweling my wet car and told me, "If you towel the tires I'll be really concerned." I do not towel my tires.

On Autobahn 1, as you can see, I am in the fast lane, which I usually leave to the BMWs and Audis. But we're slow today. And approaching the Rhein bridge.

My Golden Gate every day. They have walls so you cannot really see the Rhein, too distracting I suppose. It reminds me of the Mississippi - a medium sized grey cargo shipline. If you have the chance to visit the Mississippi, Rhein, or Columbia (Washington/Oregon), pick the Columbia. Unless you want to personally bring me more Good Earth tea, then by all means pick the Rhein!

However, right now we're having the driest November in the recorded history of Germany, and the Rhein has dropped so low they found 3 WW2 bombs last weekend, and the cargo ships are cancelling their trips due to bottoming out. It's less than 2 meters deep. I feel like adding it to my bucket list: Find a WW2 bomb. (One is found every week in Germany.) But I don't actually get to the shores of the Rhein very often, I just cross it everyday.

About to transfer to the 57.

This is my daily view of the world famous cathedral, the Koelner Dom. It's not far from my office but I don't have a view of it from there. I've blogged about it enough that you know by now how famous this cathedral is.

I was successful in capturing a photo of one of these signs that change daily to indicate how bad traffic is. Right now, it's so bad you are allowed to drive on the shoulder, is what it indicates. I love shoulder driving but I hate that it means I'm in for more traffic ahead. The speed limit is also variable, shown at the moment 100 (about 55 mph).

Then I come across this monstrosity. T mobile's tower. It is hurkin' and ugly but somehow reminds me of Seattle's Space Needle so I don't hate it. Although there is no rotating restaurant up there, and actually nothing rotates at all, I still hope to go up there someday.

Whew, finally off the Autobahns. Almost there. Traffic not better yet.

T mobile/Deutsche Telecom is our ISP. It's expensive but reliable.

This is where I start drinking tea on good traffic days, and switch to eucalyptus gum on days so bad (like this day) that my tea is all gone.

By now most of the cars have the Cologne (Koeln) K on the license plates. Man I'm bored at this point.

This is another old church not far from my office. I like it.

Cologne is not a shiny pretty place.

This is one of the only places in Cologne where bicyclists use a bike lane. Normally they are in the street competing with cars on too-narrow streets. Tonight I almost hit a bike because he had no lights and it was after dark. I am so scared about hitting a bicyclist, and it seems inevitable in a city where bicycling is more popular than driving, and it's usually done in the streets with the cars.

A train goes over. Train!

Moeltke strasse. Very close now.

Most of the buildings were destroyed in the war. A few remain. I recently discovered Stolpersteine - brass sidewalk plaques, set into the ground, that say where deported Jews, etc, lived. They are wonderful! They deserve their own blog post.

I was so bored I took a pic of the crappy cobblestone street that I have to traverse.

And finally I arrive at Maastricher garage. This is the backup garage when our robot garage is out of order. The entire month I will park here and pay 17 Euro per day. The thing is, just this week Germany's AAA declared this the 2nd worst garage in the entire nation. !!! I am actually glad they were there, because it's so shabby and falling down, I know they would have labelled it condemned if needed. Apparently it's "safe"! Though dark, dangerous, and extremely difficult to park.

Oh! On this day, though, there was even a line getting inot this crappy "car hole" (Moe Szyslak's name for garage). I just noticed that in my mirror you can see that nice church behind me.

See, cars must take two spaces unless they are smartcars. As the interview showed, the handicapped spaces are 1 meter short of the legal requirement, and the rest of the spaces were about a half meter too narrow.

I was shocked. I knew it was bad, but I didn't realize how bad! But I cannot complain, my company reimburses me each day, the 17 euros.

The inspection said the stairway is too narrow but I don't know what the standard should be. I'm looking down from the 3rd floor (which is the 4th in America).

It is really scummy but honestly, I'm used to non-shiny so it's hard for me to tell.

Walking to my office I enjoy the hazelnut trees.

I finally make it up to my desk.

I hope to share more about my German life soon, a lot has happened this week. Do you know about Carnival and Christmas Markets?