Last week the kids had a sleepover so M and I went out on a date. Giddy with the anticipation of some much needed time alone, we dropped them off and drove to a nearby town for dinner. The evening was cold and beautiful, and we cracked up over something stupid as we jumped from the car and dashed up the street to our restaurant. We enjoyed a long, leisurely, uninterrupted dinner and even took time for cheese and then espressos afterward.
About 2 1/2 hours later we were walking back and were about 50 meters away from our car when M said: "Hmm. That's strange, I think my lights are still on. Well, ha ha. At least we know that the battery still works!"
I giggled.
Then, after about 20 more meters he said: "Wait-- is the engine on???!!"
We were shocked to find the car running, heated to a pleasant 23 degrees Celsius, and our favorite CD playing on the radio!!! It was so bizarre that it took us a while to figure out what had happened.
This is a new car with a remote keyless system, which means that it starts and stops at the push of a button. The only problem is that one probably shouldn't forget to actually push that button before one steps out of the car!!!
Upon further inspection we found a ticket from the police which cited us for unnecessary emissions and fined us 10 euros.
M was impressed that they even have a category for that here, but also found it a laughable amount-- you probably couldn't have paid someone 10 euros to warm up the car for us and put on our favorite CD for after dinner! :-)
I don't think we should return to that town anytime soon...
4 comments:
aaah I love keyless systems...I never left the car running though in the 4 years that I drove with one. So funny that you guys didn't notice when getting out. Hilarious that you got a ticket :p
I heard that they had a law like that but never heard anyone actually get a ticket for it. That's funny!
One of my German colleagues from Stuttgart came to the frozen tundra of Indiana several years ago. We got some snow during the day and he was trying to clear the (rental) windshield with a credit card. I pulled up next to him and told him to start the car and blast the blower. I'd use my scraper on the windshield. He said, that's against the law in Germany and I had to giggle! I said, we would never be able to drive if we couldn't thaw the car out first.
Good to hear you had a date night!
Cheers from Indy,
Lisa
@ Goofball: I know! Can you believe it?! We certainly deserved the ticket! And how embarrassing!!!
@ Lisa: Remind me never to come to Indiana in the wintertime! BRR!
Come visit in the summer and I'll show you around! But be thankful you're no where near the states this winter. We are now awaiting round two of the storm that is impacting 32 states! Blizzard warning for Chicago and Indy is expecting another inch of ice on top of the 1/2 inch of sleet that fell yesterday. We're shut down in these parts today. In my next life (move), I wanna head south. Maybe we can immigrate to Australia as long as we're no where near the flood zone. Otherwise, I think Hawaii would keep me happy year round.
Cheers from Indy,
Lisa
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