Driving
Having failed my first driving exam, on Friday the 13th (what should I have expected :p), I set out in search of a German ending to my Dutch driving education. I went to two driving schools, and found out that finishing here would be about two to three times as expensive as in Holland. So I'll do the latter, but only in September, since I've already spent quite enough time in Holland for being on exchange.
One of the driving schools was located in Neckargemünd, a town about the size of Bilthoven, but considered a city nonetheless; they even have a city gate1. I went there to get information, but found an old-fashioned classroom instead, stuffed with students, tables, chairs, blackboards with miniature traffic signs, two motorcycles, tyres, a tv set with old-fashioned videoplayer, and an old-fashioned, white-haired, white-sideburned teacher. I told him I would like to know how things would proceed here, were I to make an attempt at obtaining a driver's licence, to which he responded by getting an extra chair and introducing me to the class as Gasthörer.
What followed was a long and slow lecture on the laws regarding drunk driving in Germany. One of the students was asked to come up to the front and write down on the blackboard what the teacher was telling the students to copy into their notes. She must have found the task a bit boring, since she started drawing all kinds of decorations, like cars, bicycles, pigs on skateboards and pedestrians waving with flags.
Apparently, this is standard in Germany: driving schools arrange your theoretical exam, and don't let you take it without the standard 14 hours of instruction. Apart from that, there are 12 mandatory hours of Sonderfahrten, lessons at night, on the highway or in unknown terrain. This is what would make it rather time- and money-consuming for me to retake my exam here: I'd still have to go through those 12 hours, and take another theory test. In spite of the fact that a Dutch driving licence does allow one to drive in Germany...
1They have only one gate, on the upstream (= non-Heidelberg) side of town, which made me wonder wether I was observing silent evidence to historical bullying on the part of Heidelberg, or just the consequences of modern city-planning. Or something completely different.
One of the driving schools was located in Neckargemünd, a town about the size of Bilthoven, but considered a city nonetheless; they even have a city gate1. I went there to get information, but found an old-fashioned classroom instead, stuffed with students, tables, chairs, blackboards with miniature traffic signs, two motorcycles, tyres, a tv set with old-fashioned videoplayer, and an old-fashioned, white-haired, white-sideburned teacher. I told him I would like to know how things would proceed here, were I to make an attempt at obtaining a driver's licence, to which he responded by getting an extra chair and introducing me to the class as Gasthörer.
What followed was a long and slow lecture on the laws regarding drunk driving in Germany. One of the students was asked to come up to the front and write down on the blackboard what the teacher was telling the students to copy into their notes. She must have found the task a bit boring, since she started drawing all kinds of decorations, like cars, bicycles, pigs on skateboards and pedestrians waving with flags.
Apparently, this is standard in Germany: driving schools arrange your theoretical exam, and don't let you take it without the standard 14 hours of instruction. Apart from that, there are 12 mandatory hours of Sonderfahrten, lessons at night, on the highway or in unknown terrain. This is what would make it rather time- and money-consuming for me to retake my exam here: I'd still have to go through those 12 hours, and take another theory test. In spite of the fact that a Dutch driving licence does allow one to drive in Germany...
1They have only one gate, on the upstream (= non-Heidelberg) side of town, which made me wonder wether I was observing silent evidence to historical bullying on the part of Heidelberg, or just the consequences of modern city-planning. Or something completely different.
posted by Olivier at 5:41 PM
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