Guten Tag from Deutschland – or land of 10,000 wind farms! Flying into Germany, one couldn’t help but notice the massive uptake in renewable wind energy – I don’t think there was a hill left unscathed by the presence of 100’s of tall, white wind turbines – 100’s of them in rows and clusters. Quite clearly the Europeans are taking this renewable energy thing seriously, which is fantastic, but not necessarily pleasant on the eye! I wondered if this was just Germany. or if all countries in Europe would be so environmentally aware. Time will tell!
Unfortunately on this particular flight, there was no option for Business Class, but I was still seated at the very front of the plane and treated quite well indeed. Though the seating looked the same, I have a sneaky suspicion that I was looked after slightly better than those seated behind me. Speaking of which, most of them looked like they had just stepped off the set of some B grad zombie horror flick – 2 days stubble and bleary eyes from very little sleep. Next to me, being freshly washed, freshly shaven and feeling quite frisky and energetic, I’m sure it was quite a contrasting sight. Yep, gotta love this first class treatment!
Ok I couldn’t help it, I had to rub it in a little bit and subsequently I have been fined 1 euro at ‘court’. This is the fine system in place with the Cronulla World Team, and you pay for every stupid thing you’ve managed to do on tour. Needless to say, my wallet is feeling the pinch. In saying that, it’s the Wanda team members that seem to be copping the worst of it – not least the previous incident with leaving one’s passport in the seat pocket of the plane -something I thought I’d done myself when we arrived in Germany but I’d just stupidly put it in a different pocket. Well, the mere mention that I’d misplaced it was enough for another fine!
Anyway, I’m loving Germany – I’ve got my own Europcar rental van (mietwagon!) to cruise around in, and speed-limitless autobahns to play on! So far we’ve managed to get it up to about 170km/h and I don’t think the van can physically go any faster. Scary as hell – but not as scary as when some big blonde German bloke (called Hans probably) driving a Mercedes Benz overtakes you doing 230km/h while you’re ‘cruising’ with the autobahn traffic at about 140km/h. Man that is a new experience!
Speaking of new experiences – how about driving on the wrong side of the road! Strewth, I think I stalled the bloody van 4 times just leaving the airport carpark, I was so worried about crashing into things and which lane I was supposed to be in. I nearly sideswiped the van on a concrete pole before I even made it down the exit ramp! But just like the speed limits on the autobahn, you get used to it. Before long, we have figured out the difference between the footpath and the motorway (not much), and translated our SatNav into English (apparently!) and are on our way to Warnemunde for the beach part of the World Lifesaving Championships.
Did I mention it’s bright, sunny and about 35 degrees? Bloody awesome.
To finish, I have to dob myself in here – and don’t worry I have been heavily fined for this already. Driving along the Autobahn between Hamburg and Rostock, I couldn’t help but make a comment, in passing many large blue directional road signs. “Wow, there’s a lot of roads heading towards Ausfahrt, it must be a pretty big place”. What followed was a fair bit of laughter and heckling from the boys in the back. How was I supposed to know that Ausfahrt was the German translation for ‘exit’…?
MATTHEW BRUCE
Foreign Correspondent | Cronulla SLSC
