Pin-Ball-Autos; Mary Cooks / Eli Kicks

European roads are very narrow. Think 'Chicago alleyway' narrow for every neighborhood street. This necessitates more road rules and smaller cars. The road rules we've figured out, the smaller car...? Well, more on that later.

If a car is parked on the side of the street (which means half on the sidewalk, half on the road), and this is always, then there is no longer room for two cars to pass each other in opposite directions. Speed deterrents like large, cemented flower pots cause the same situation. And horses. We have horse traffic here. SO, in all these situations one car must give way. Who goes? First Rule: The car coming up the hill, if applicable (hills are quite steep, all cars are manual transmission, better not to stop going up). Second Rule: The car on the clear side of the street - meaning cars are parked on the other side - so that driver must pull in and wait. Third Rule: Survival of the fittest, biggest, fastest. It's all pretty organized, actually, and flashing your lights means 'you go first' to the opposing driver.

While the Polizei are rarely seen on the autobahn the speed cameras are everywhere, as is the traffic and construction, which is even more out of control here than in the Midwest, I think. Anyway, we arrived with flawless driving records. This didn't stop the auto insurance company from scalping us for our two boring cars - we're not exactly driving bright orange, Mach-1 speeding Lamborghinis, here. But, they may have had good reason. Since arriving in Germany - that's 6 months ago, already - we've experienced the following:

• 4 speeding tickets: all for Kevin, in rentals; two on one trip to France - talented!
• 2 parking tickets: one in Austria, one downtown; meter-cops abound.
• 4 "oops, sorry" incidents: most of these are mine due to my not small car and the too small streets and driveways previously mentioned. I knocked in another car's mirror when performing the "you go. no, you go" maneuver described above. No damage since many mirrors are designed to fold in/out. I scraped up the hubcap of our rental in a tiny entrance to a parking garage, but they never called us on it. I backed into the drivers door of an SUV leaving some one's house in the rain at night. No damage since it had that bounce-back shell material. And Kevin scraped up the front corner of our car after getting too close to the light pole at church.
• 1 "total" accident: Kevin was rear-ended in a rental last week in heavy traffic on the autobahn, domino effect hit the car in front of him, nothing more than a sore neck.... but the rental was considered totaled.

The lesson is that driving in Germany is dangerous. But road trips are fun. Just be nervous, paranoid, and suspicious - you'll be fine. Kids can't get there license here til they are 18 and that's after about $3000 worth of required driver's ed. The written and driving exams are brutal, we've heard. Iowa has a deal with Germany - we get International DL's for 35 euro's and a passport sized photo - no exams required. Phew. On second thought, maybe it would've been better if we'd had to work for our driving privileges....

Mary cooks! Yes, we're terribly proud. Mary has mastered the oven and stove top controls and now opens the door to the oven, usually when I'm baking something. Safety devices are on order since Friday when, thanks to my helpful daughter, my first batch of chocolate chip cookies were burned to a crisp at 500 degrees before I realized what she had done. Sigh.

Eli's soccer career: While he still wants to be "a truck driver and a baseball player" when he grows up, Eli is also interested in soccer. Hence he begins playing this week in the 4-year old group at the field near our house. We bought some shiny, fast "fussball cleats" this weekend and he's excited. Pictures and stories to follow at a later date. Mostly I just want him to get outside... with a ball... and no Hot Wheels cars in sight. (Pic below is Eli with best buds Charlie, his sister Olivia, and Marc).