September 29th, 2003

Back from Europe

Here are some things I learned in Sweden, Germany and Denmark.

  • If you are an airplane pilot, you should avoid communicating on the emergency frequency unless you have an actual emergency.
  • In Sweden, marmalade comes in a flexible tube that looks like a really fat sausage.
  • Swedes can’t handle spicy-hot food.
  • Road warning signs are blue-and-yellow in Sweden, but red-and-white in Denmark.
  • You can drive really, really fast on the Autobahn.
  • Never drive in the left lane of the Autobahn unless you are actively passing somebody.
  • When you ask at the cafeteria, “Gibt’s Fleisch dabei?”, and the guy says, “Nein, s’gibt kein Schweinfleisch”, don’t assume that he understood your question.
  • If somebody at Oktoberfest challenges you to drink your one-liter Maßbier in twenty seconds, you should decline.
  • If you vomit at Oktoberfest, they charge €25 to clean it up.
  • You really don’t need to know that much information about lignite mining.
  • Parking in Copenhagen is free on Sunday. Putting money into the machine is a waste.

Author

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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