Old fashioned Polizei

Bright and early Sunday morning our doorbell rang. It was the Polizei wanting to check on how my my son was doing after the bike accident the day before. He asked me to bring him down to the police station in an hour. So I got everyone ready and off we went!

I have to say that walking into the Polizei station felt like we were taking a step back in time....maybe somewhere around 1950. The officer that came to our house was the same guy working the desk. I guess they close up shop if they need to make a house visit?? There were no computers in sight, no dispatch area, and stacks of paper and books everywhere. Seems that everything is done the old fashioned way....write it.

He asked my son to write his version of the story down on a piece of paper. He actually was looking around for something he could write on....so he grabbed a piece of paper. No forms???

Anyway, Colton wrote down his version of what happened. He says he signaled to make a left turn and the other guy said he didn't. This makes them both at fault and normally they would both be required to pay for each other's damages. However, since there were no serious injuries the Polizei was going to talk to the other kids parent and make an agreement that we just each are responsible for our own damages...thank goodness because a bike rim is a lot less expensive than repairs to a motor scooter!

In Germany, people are held responsible for their actions...really, they don't play around. For example, if you are driving over 130 km hour on the Autobahn and have an accident you'll be responsible for ALL damages even if the other person was at fault!!!! Someone falls on the sidewalk in front of your house because there is still snow/ice....you guessed it, you pay for their damages! People DO what they are supposed to do because they are so strict. I have to say that I feel very safe in our Village even though we are surrounded by non English speaking neighbors....strangely, this is probably the most safe I've ever felt.

I hope we never have to pay a visit to this building again. Those bags piled up is the recycling and it is their day for pickup. They have mandatory recycling of EVERYTHING here....which is great. I wish there was more of that back in the states.

On a completely different note, we went to the welcome home festivities on the base today. I almost didn't go because they had this event BEFORE all of the soldiers had returned....120 to be exact. They spent gobs of money on it and I just felt like it wasn't right...partially because my husband is one of the soldiers not back yet. I decided that my kids would still have a good time and they could get free food and plenty of rides so we went. The kids had a great time!

On our way out we stopped and got Eis (ice cream). It was delicious. So delicious that I had to take a picture of Jacque when he had finished his cone! Really, HOW does this happen???