A new law in Germany has tightened the rules on the types of tyres that you can use in winter.

Until now, the law only said that you had to have “suitable” tyres for the road conditions, but did not actually specify that you had to have winter tyres on in winter.  Indeed, many people with good tread on their summer tyres continued to use them throughout the winter, and would probably argue that they were suitable as long as the main roads were clear.

The trouble was, that unless they caused an accident, the police were as good as powerless to argue against them, so the politicians were under pressure to amend the law to get things clarified.

Unfortunately, they made quite a mess of it.  (more…)

Last night we had 20-30cm of fresh snow fall – I even used the bus to get to my appointment this morning as the cars are snowed it on the car park!

Here are a couple of photos that I took whilst out in Oberursel:

Altkönigstraße

Altenhöfer Weg

With Germany experiencing the coldest winter for 13 years we decided to change our plans for the weekend and took our sledge out instead.

This gave us not only a rare chance to go sledging on the hills of Camp King, but also to talk about some of the things that German residents – and possibly long-term visitors – need to know about: Winter tyres, snow-clearing duty and a lack of salt.

Sledging in Camp King

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