We took a drive to Grafenwoehr on Wednesday and below is a copy of Craig's version of stopping for a car wash. He gave me permission to add it to the blog. Sorry no photo, I think it is the first time I went out without my camera. So read on for the story contributed by Craig!
The good news is that we found a car wash (after 10 months). The bad news is that it did not go well. As we drove to Grafenwehr yesterday, we found an Esso gas station along the way with a Tiger Wash car wash (yes, they still have the tiger in their tank over here) We paid for the wash, got our little code to punch into the keypad, and automatic door miraculously opened. After driving in, we drove forward until the lighted sign said “STOP”. No problem, right. Just like the States. What I then noticed was that the automatic door had closed behind us. We waited for a few minutes and nothing happened. A few minutes more and still nothing happened. We were trapped inside a car wash in the middle of nowhere in Germany. I got out of the car, hesitantly I might add, because I was sure that the machine would turn on as soon as I left the front seat. I looked around for a button or something, but nothing. So I got back in the car. It had been probably 5-7 minutes at this point and the car wash still did not turn on. So like any good American, I began beepng the horn thinking someone on the staff would come to our rescue (keep in mind that both doors of the machine were closed, so we were trapped inside this thing). After what seemed to be an eternity and with no one coming to our rescue, I got out of the car again. At that point, I saw an escape (person-sized) door in the back that I had not seen before. I opened the door and at that point a man walked up and in my best non-verbal fashion I raised both my hands and shrugged trying to communicate, “What the heck, over”. He said something in German that I didn’t understand and then pointed to the keypad which translated meant, “Did you put in the key code, stupid.” I nodded and said, “Ja” in my best German. He walked over to the keypad and pushed the On/Off button again and water began shooting out of the machine by the car by my open driver side door. I lunged back to the car, got in, and closed the door. Then the machine started its magic just like in the states and we got our car wash. As we left the gas station and got back on the autobahn, we noticed that it seemed like the car was not getting dry from the wash. Little droplets of water just kept on traveling across the windshield as we hit 90 mph. After a few minutes, we realized that it was not the water from the car wash. In fact, it was raining. Not just raining, but pouring. Pouring onto our freshly washed car. And you wonder why I believe in Murphy!
We are still having a great time here and the novelty just hasn't worn off!!
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at the car washes i went to in Berlin (i usually frequented the Esso near the consulate, but i don't see why you guys would be out there that often), you pulled the car into the wash and then got out to put the code in and press start. you didn't sit in the car while it washed. someone told me that before i went to my first carwash though. glad you are enjoying the autobahn!! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Kelli, We will have to try that next time. However the door was shut, so we had to put the code in to drive in. "Enjoying" the autobahn might not be the right word. It is a good road and it gets us where we are going.
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