Thursday, July 20, 2017

Tour Diaries! XIXA in Fun, Fun, Fun on the Autobahn. Detained!

Posted By on Thu, Jul 20, 2017 at 9:32 AM


Day 6 (or so):


July 19. Day off (not really). Travel Day.

Today's adventure takes us from Offenbach, Germany to Ostrava, Czech Republic. In order to do that, we had to drive the Autobahn.(11+ hours)

Contrary to popular belief, the Autobahn isn't a free-fire zone, where one can act like Mario Andretti and just haul ass and go speedy crazy. There are rules and what are called control zones.

The best rule I observed while driving here is that people stay to the right, except to pass. A concept that completely lost in the U.S.

In the free zones, it's not uncommon to see Porsches, Ferraris and Lambos fly past you, like you are standing still. The wake turbulence is something to be felt, for real.

Since our vehicle is big, heavy and slow, we keep it to the right. But, we had the misfortune to pass cars in a no passing zone. Our lighting designer, Gregory Houston also doubles as our TM (tour manager).  He was driving when we blew through a no passing zone. Enter die Deutsche Polizei. They pulled us over, gathered our passports and detained us for a bit. They demanded cash for the infraction; 95€.

Highway robbery, yes, but legit.

It felt like a shady shakedown, but after some quick research, we found it was legit.

Ouch.

Once inside the Czech Republic, Gregory and I had to deal with a Czech policeman who seemed to be more curious than concerned about us.

More showing of passports.

I spoke what Czech I know to him, and he, of course, spoke perfect English (most EU residents do, when they don't, it's usually because they don't like you.)

We were set free and hurled down the motorway toward our destination, safe, a little tipsy, and sound.

Stay tuned.

—Winston Watson I Somewhere inside the Czech Republic




Go here to read Day 5 of XIXA's tour diaries.

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