Tag Archives: germany

[Valentine's Day] Speed-dating on Germany's high speed train

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Of all the Valentine’s Day specials I’ve been, this is the best one (from the Guardian):

Germany rail company Deutsche Bahn is running speed-dating at high speed this Valentine’s Day. The Flirtexpresse is running from 15 cities across the country, with passengers being encouraged to change seats every five minutes. And the best part is – the train ride is completely free. Speaking German is certainly advantageous (especially for the online registration), but if you’re after real chemistry, who needs words? Although currently scheduled for just one evening (February 14), demand has been so high that Deutsche Bahn is sure more events will follow. If you’ve got the stamina, it’s certainly more interesting than a book of Suduko. bahn.de/flirt-express (German only)

You have four days to polish up your German grammar and verb conjugations! On the other hand, looking very nice and interested, being friendly and humorous, make up for those der-die-das disasters.

[EU News] German cities ban polluting cars

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Berlin, Hannover and Cologne have banned environmental-unfriendly cars from their city centers. All cars entering inner city zones have to display a sticker (green, yellow or red) depending upon the amount of pollutants emitted by the vehicle. In the most restrictive zones, only green-stickered cars will be allowed to enter. For more details on which vehicles are affected (largely old diesel vehicles), click here (PDF). Note that you need to have these stickers in certain German cities otherwise you will be fined. You can buy the stickers from Umwelt-Plakette.de.

I am very pleased to see these cities taking concrete steps to clean up the air. I am hoping that Amsterdam does the same. But what happens if you are a tourist? How are you supposed to get those lovely little stickers?

[EU News] France, Germany ban smoking; Malta, Cyprus adopt the euro; Germans protest data retention

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Goodbye to smokey cafes and bars in France and Germany: dry cleaning businesses face grim future

Malta and Cyprus adopt the euro: now watch the prices rise

30,000 Germans fight against new data retention law: the law requires companies to keep for 6 months records of e-mail sender and recipient addresses, time spent on the Internet and phone numbers dialed by customers. Contrast this to the passivity of other Europeans when their own countries adopted the EU Data Retention law, at least some people have memories.