Yesterday had our annual office day trip. Usually fry with EasyJet from Liverpool to a European City for the day. It's a lot better than fighting over rubber turkey. Have already been to Paris and Amsterdam.
Yesterday went to Geneva and also got the train to Montreux. Superb rail service BTW.
But...and this is the motoring bit....I didn't see a single dirty car. All were spotless or virtualy. In Manchester at this time of the year, almost all cars are very grimy and if washed become grimy within a few hours. Why is this?
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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Usually fry with EasyJet
I prefer Olivio myself. :-P
I'd be more suprised if their cars were dirty, I mean it is Switzerland after all!
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probably some "clean car" law. They have every other kind of law.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Isn't it Switzerland where it's illegal to wash cars on a Sunday. So all the more remarkable that they're clean, as they have less time to do it!
Maybe there's a thriving car wash service that everyone uses?
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It may be Switzerland but it certainly is Germany. Also in Germany, if you wish to mow your lawn on a Sunday or public holiday you have to have a special quiet lawn mower! Electric is obviously OK but petrol has to be specially silenced; also no hanging out washing on Sundays etc. Recycling is utterly mad, 3 boxes for glass, sorted by colour, one for paper, one for potato peelings and grass cuttings, one for plastic, one for metal and one for paper. All tins and plastic pots has to be washed (what a waste of water) and there were amazing definitions for what went in which box. For example, take-away pizza box? Is it Paper/cardboard? No, it is metal as there is a layer of aluminium foil sandwiched in the layers of cardboard. If you got any item wrong they just wouldn't take the stuff away. They they didn't know what do with half of it and it used to be shipped abroad and put in landfill anyway!
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Had a brief motoring trip to Switzerland from France a couple of months ago and I was deeply impressed. Not only are the cars clean, they're interesting too - at least after non-stop Renaults, Peugeots, Citroens.
The place may be regimented and expensive too, but everything seems to work and the scenery is almost beyond belief.
Even the road signing seems to be pretty much like the UK, ie visible and useful and the traffic lights have proper sighting boards, both a huge improvement on the French norm.
The standard 80kph (50mph) speed limit also seems to result in everyone making steady progress with no constant overtaking and tailgating hassle.
My most interesting image of Switzerland was an Army motorcycle group which had stopped for a break with about 30 machines lined up in exact rows and all with white crash helmets in exactly the same place on the tank.
The guys were all smiling and I wanted to ask one for a look at his knife, but I bottled out...
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Having spent a fair amount of time in Germany I found their recycling to work quite effectively. Once you get used to the system it all runs very smoothly. Countries like Germany and Switzerland can seem a bit restrictive when you visit for a short time, but in the longer term you notice that everyone follows the rules and there is much less anti-social behaviour and general selfishness than in the UK.
I suspect cars in the UK get dirty very quickly because the roads and pavements are not kept clean. The muck gets sprayed up onto cars.
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I suspect cars in the UK get dirty very quickly because the roads and pavements are not kept clean. The muck gets sprayed up onto cars.
This time of year its road-salt that causes most of the dirt I think. However I do think they take a tougher line on vehicles dirtying the highway, as where I live, we are surrounded by gravel works which have lorries carrying a continuous trail of mud/slurry onto the local roads.
It is infuriating that in about a mile some days your car could go from pristine to disgusting ! I'm sure the Swiss/Germans wouldn't stand for this.
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Indeed they don't. In Germany it's an offence to muddy the road.
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Indeed they don't. In Germany it's an offence to muddy the road.
I may be wrong, but isn't it the same here, just unenforced?
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It´s flouted all the time though - the roads round our flat resemble a ploughed field at the moment, the amount of building site detritus on them.
Frankfurt cars at least get dirty pretty instantly at this time of year. Plus riding the push bike around leaves me looking like Stig of the Dump.
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BM
Its not the riding the bike mate... ;)
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Eh? Don´t get it. Or am I just being thick (quite likely)
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He's implying you look like Stig of the Dump regardless.
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P.S. Yes - you were being thick ;-)
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Ah. Yep, should have got that one.
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For the past few weeks the local farmer has been harvesting potatoes from the fields at the back. The lane which accesses the fields and the main road have been covered in mud. Last week the main road at the top of the lane was covered in about two inches of mud, and at the top of the lane the soil from the fields was so deep you could grow potatoes. A cyclist on the road almost came to grief and a car turning left slid across the road.
When I returned home, with the dog up to his collar in mud, I 'phoned the council and asked them to come and clean the road. A promise was made but never materialised.
Why do we pay council tax?
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It was the farmer's responsibility;there is a building site just along the road from where I live-they have a road-sweepng machine running backward & forward on the streets around the site continually.Also in some parts of Germany,you must not put your rubbish in a recycling bin after 8pm.-you might make a noise.
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Weirdly enough, they also get very shirty (no pun intended) if you hang out your washing on the balcony of your flat. Gotta love ´em!
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