Driving in Germany was somewhat surreal. The good news for us American types was that we were on the correct side of the road. You know, the right one. The bad news was that at some point we must have been caught by a speedtrap camera going just a few kph over, and were mailed a ticket. Yes, Germany still has stretches of autobahn that are unlimited, at least some of the time, but the surface roads and most of the highways are regulated. Juvenile jokes about how the vehicle exits are all la…
All posts in Europe
I spent nearly a week between two households staying with friends and family. There's a lot that could be said, much of it pointless as the normal fluff, but I'll look at overall culture/impressions, energy, driving, and immigration. It may take more than one post. The first shock for a friend who'd been stationed there before was the public transit. Leaving aside that we missed a train because our line was actually, despite scheduling and arrival indicators, not the one that pulled up at the…
Stavanger was interesting. First of all, it's the de facto oil capital of Norway, and the source of much of its wealth. Where Denmark relies on it's shipping and biomedical for paying for all the "free" health care, Norway leans on oil. It's also not a mess of sckyscrapers, though there are some moderately tall buildings. The food was excellent, but of course hideously expensive in actual restaurants. Yes. 7-Eleven's are a thing in Europe. And Japan.The cathedral there was in early stages o…
In some odd ways, the small town of Eidfjord [https://infogalactic.com/info/Eidfjord] is the most, and least touristy place we visited. With a wide, relatively flat valley and water supply, it's apparently a major supplier of apples and cherries. The town is so small that there is no rental office, and maybe a couple small shops and restaurants. Yet, you'll see leaflets posted at the tiny visitors center where people are renting out their private vehicles for a day or half-day. There's also tiny…
Adam over at Pushing Rubber Downhill [https://pushingrubberdownhill.com/] had noted in a recent podcast how much more fit and hotter the girls in Europe are than the states. People in general, actually. Generally speaking, he's correct. Here, in the states, it depends on the city. Some have reasonably attractive women, some don't have attractive people at all no matter how photogenic they may otherwise be (Seattle comes to mind). The problem is that the girls in the city are usually infested wit…