Germany, Winter Tyres

It took only fifty-five minutes to fly the short distance and land at Kahlrsrue-Baden Airpark at nine-thirty in the evening and after quickly clearing immigration and customs we were soon at the Hertz desk to pick up our hire car. Following our snow experience last year and the protracted and painful debate about winter tyres, this year I had ordered them in advance so without a discussion with the clerk on duty about whether these were really necessary, on this occasion I just paid the exorbitant additional charge of €55 and very quickly we had taken possession of a royal blue Ford Fiesta and the car hire company winter tyres sting was complete.

I say ‘sting’ because this is an additional charge trick that Ryanair themselves would be proud of because at €13.45 a day I calculate that if they are on the car for a third of the year that is an extra €1,600 or €400 a tyre and I cannot believe that they can be that much more expensive than a regular tyre. And of course they are not because I have checked and they can be bought for as little as €40 each. The reason that this year I had given in so easily was that last year we experienced four days of blizzard conditions, sub-zero temperatures and heavy snowfall.

Since May 2006 German motorists have been required by law to use the most appropriate tyres for the weather conditions and that driving on snow covered roads is permitted only if a car is equipped with winter tyres. Motorists are obliged to make sure they have correct tyres to suit the winter weather conditions because if a vehicle becomes stuck because the tyres are unsuitable drivers are liable to an on the spot fine, and further more if the vehicle causes an obstruction or aggravation to other traffic, the fine may be doubled.

Winter tyres use a tread rubber compound and block pattern specifically designed to retain flexibility in low temperatures and give good braking and traction performance on snow and ice covered roads so I thought it would be a good idea to have them fitted again this time.

Unfortunately we had no real need of the winter tyres tonight because the roads were dry and the temperature was hovering around 5º centigrade so there was no danger of sliding on ice of running into snow drifts.

Driving to the Rammersweier Hoff hotel on the outskirts of the city of Offenburg should have been really straight-forward, after all we had been there before so should have known the way, but additionally on this occasion we had the support of a Nuvi-Garmin satnav so we were confident that we could be there and in the bar with a jug of wine and a glass of cold Pils lager easily within an hour.

Things went well at first and we followed the instructions of the lady navigator and although I had lost all sense of direction in the dark I had no reason to suspect that there was trouble ahead. This came when we reached the entrance to the A5 motorway and it was closed with two large no entry signs that really couldn’t be mistaken for anything else. Still taking instructions from the little black box I foolishly ignored these and drove through only to find that I had put us in a dangerous situation going the wrong way against oncoming traffic. I quickly turned the car around and the lady became confused.

I followed the diversion sign and clearly she must have wondered what on earth I was doing and kept trying to persuade me to turn around and return to the closed motorway junction. After fifteen minutes we were in a real tangle, going around in circle, becoming more and more confused and completely unaware of where we are. We found ourselves lost on the back roads driving through small villages and searching for clues from the occasional unhelpful road signs and ignoring the instructions to turn around and go back. Even the traditional paper map didn’t help because although Kim has improved recently as a navigator she was off duty tonight so we just had to keep going and trusting in our natural sense of direction.

Eventually, after several detours and a heated argument with the satnav lady, we reached the motorway and then the right exit and then after only one more mistaken wrong turning which we quickly corrected found the Rammersweier Hoff hotel without any difficulty at all. It was nearly eleven o’clock and the forty-kilometre journey had taken us nearly two hours! Fortunately the bar was still open so after inspecting our room and throwing down the bags we were able to unwind for an hour with that jug of wine and a couple of German lagers.

Spain, Monday Morning Rush Hour in Madrid

It was an eleven o’clock flight from Madrid back to London Luton and Ávila is about one hundred kilometres from the city so I calculated that it would take at most two hours and that we should begin our journey at seven o’clock which would give us plenty of time to make the drive, return the car, check in and do a bit of duty free shopping.

We assembled in the lobby and after checking out walked to the car and this was my first misjudgment because I had forgotten to factor in that this would take at least fifteen minutes. It was a clear morning and the temperature had dropped below zero and the cars parked in the street were covered in white frost and in the distance we could see that snow had fallen overnight in the mountains. Thankfully our car was parked under cover so there was no problem chipping away ice and after we had loaded the bags we were soon on our way.

Although there wasn’t a great deal of traffic at this time in the morning most people were driving carefully on account on account of the icy conditions and progress out of the city and onto the N110 was quiet slow but once there the pace picked up and we drove easily to Villacastin where we joined the AP6 motorway heading towards Madrid.

My plan was to leave the motorway at Guadarrama and follow the route through the national park and then pick up the M40 motorway close to the airport but then things began to go wrong. We left the motorway as planned but ran immediately into a lot of early morning traffic with everyone choosing this time to go to work and the roads that had been clear of traffic on Friday morning when we had arrived were now congested with growling traffic and impatient drivers. To add to this Kim had some difficulty in interpreting the map so I considered it best to return to the motorway which at this point was less congested on account of Spanish drivers reluctance to use them and pay the tolls.

Even now there didn’t seem to be much of a problem but the closer we drove towards Madrid the traffic began to build up and at every junction the flow of traffic stopped dead as two sets of drivers came together and competed for insufficient tarmac. About fifteen kilometres out of Madrid all that I could see in front of me was a ribbon of brake lights snaking away endlessly towards Madrid and I cursed myself for not taking into account that this was Monday morning and probably the busiest time to get into Madrid with people returning to the city after the weekend to return to work. Then I cursed the Spanish highway authorities, BMW, SIXT Rent a car, Easyjet and even poor old Kim for not being able to read the map.

As we crawled along making only intermittent progress the clock on the dashboard started to speed up in the way that clocks do when you are late and struggling for time and I watched with horror as it passed nine o’clock which was the planned time for arrival at the airport. We began to wonder about another night in Spain and how much an alternative flight home might be the next day but then the road split in two and the crawling queue carried on for the centre of Madrid and we peeled off onto the M40 which was moving just a little more quickly now at tortoise rather than snail pace!

Travelling east the blinding sun was directly in my eyes but at least we were following signs for the airport now which made us feel a bit more optimistic but although there were signs they gave no indication of distance so it was difficult to make any mental calculations for an estimated time of arrival. At half past nine we could see planes landing and taking off but they seemed a long way away and we still had to refuel and return the car.

Eventually at a quarter to ten we arrived at the airport but had to find a filling station which meant a detour around a confusing one way system and a drive through three of the airport’s four terminals. Eventually we fuelled up but when things are going badly everything seems to be against you and the something about the BMW security system refused to allow the car to restart and things looked bleak again. After a bit of fiddling and guess work eventually the thing fired into life but then there was another problem trying to find the correct entrance in the car park to return the vehicle. Naturally I took the wrong entrance and ended up in the short stay car park so had to leave and drive around the complete one way system once again to get to the correct entrance.

It was ten o’clock with less than an hour until our scheduled flight time and as I parked the car and unloaded the bags I made a rash statement that I will never drive around Madrid or its airport system ever again but of course I will because we will be flying back there next May when we plan to visit the south west province of Extremadura.