Berlin Notes: German

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

They're the bane of every driver suffering from Bleifuß: speed traps. In Berlin these are usually mobile units on tripods, manned by a couple of policepersons and set up at random locations throughout the city to keep drivers on their toes, or at least with their toes hovering over the brake pedal.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Bleifuß - "lead foot" (that's "lead" in the sense of the heavy, poisonous metal) sounds like a terrible thing to be afflicted by. It's certainly common amongst Germany's drivers, who usually suffer from it in their right foot, which causes it to fall heavily onto the accelerator (gas pedal) and drive at high speeds.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Even if you don't speak much German, if you use the U-Bahn or S-Bahn a lot in Berlin, there's one word you'll come to know and hate: Pendelverkehr.

Probably the best translation would be something like "shuttle transport", though I don't think there's an exact translation in English. Basically what happens is, that a stretch of line requires repairing (which happens more often than one would like, but is understandable in a network more than a century old, and which has suffered from decades of neglect).

Rather than completely close the affected section, the powers that be closed off one of the tracks for repairs, and run a "shuttle train" (Pendelzug) along the other track. So if you're going from A to Z, the train will run normally until S, where you have to get off, go over the platform and board the train continuing towards Z but running on the wrong track. This will run as far as say P, where - if you're lucky another train will be waiting to take you as normal to Z, or if you're unlucky it too will be a Pendelzug which will take you to G. If you are very, very unlucky there'll be a third Pendelzug, but this is very unusual and I can only recall suffering it once.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

By tradition the middle of June marks the beginn of the Sommerloch (literally summer hole), that period when schools and politicians finish for the summer holidays and the only news is the kind of scurilous, vacuous and empty-headed stuff specialized in by the Bild newspaper.

The Love Parade has some really cool sponsors
such as the drug store chain Rossmann. It's somehow appropriate that the Love Parade coincides with the start of the Sommerloch, being the kind of event which attracts vacuous and empty-headed - not to mention possibly scurrilous - people, primarily provincial youth who value the opportunity to use the Tiergarten as a giant toilet while having their DNA subtly rearranged by high-decible music at about 240bpm.

Wednesday, July 5, 2006

It was Germany versus Italy in the semifinal last night - and the streets virtually empty, the only noise coming from the fluttering of German flags and the occasional cries of despair as yet another goal opportunity was missed. The German description for this kind of must-see event is Strassenfeger (literally "street sweeper").

Only problem was the slight lack of goals against Italy, and the atmosphere this morning is somewhat subdued to say the least. Still a lot of flags flying defiantly though.

Not being German we celebrated with some Italian nectarines fresh from the supermarket.