Franconian Beer Message Board
Spring in Franken...Health Care...Automobiles |
| Posted by Nick B. (formerly in Erlangen) on 2019-04-25 02:11:13 |
| Wilkommen zurück auf den Kontinent! Where are you staying, Barry? Me, I'm stuck in Laurensberg, Aachen with doggoes and Missus and a mystery viral lung infection. Can barely get up and walk around the flat without coughing. Mrs and I are barely drinking any beer at all these days. I did find some Franconian ones at the Getränke nearest us last week though:  Now, I realise some feathers might get ruffled here. Firstly, yes, I know, Gutmann ain't fränkisch. It is niederbayerisch. But it's better than anything from Oberbayern, innit? Secondly, I know: Why should Mahr's U be priced higher than the venerable Oberailsfelder nectar? Please, people, I had nothing to do with the pricing here. Interestingly, the astonishingly good Weizenbock is priced the same as other offerings from Gutmann...I was tempted to take home a crate/rack/case/Kiste to get the bonus glass, but Mrs would have had me hide if I had done so. TOPIC DRIFT AWAY FROM FRANCONIAN BEER Whilst we can rightfully hold the German health care system up as a stellar improvement in social justice (or whatever) over those of more ...shall we say...capitalist-oriented countries... the reduced hours that doctors keep makes it difficult to get things done as well as one might like, even with premium "private" health insurance, which gives one preferential treatment over patients with cheap, state-supported insurance. Meh...whatever...my cough seems to be getting better. TOPIC DRIFT FURTHER AWAY FROM FRANCONIAN BEER Also still stuck here without an automobile, aside from Mrs's. The saga of the importation of my 2001 Toyota Sequoia from the US continues. I failed to consider whether or not Sequoias were ever sold in the EU. I assumed it would have been (why not?), and so getting the necessary headlights and reflectors would be no problem, like it was with my 99 Volvo, which I had brought over from Orygun. There are differences between NA and EU specs for headlights, blinkers, and reflectors, which nearly always need to be modified or replaced when shipping cars between the continents. Whoopsie...apparently, Toyota never DID sell the Sequoia over here. As such, Toyota never manufactured EU-approved headlights for it. The Toyota 4x4 specialist who's been working on it for me in Valkenburg, NL (just over the border from Aachen), found that Tacoma headlights match those of the Sequoia, and ordered a set. But then...there is no EU insignia in them, so...nope, they won't be accepted by German TÜV/DMV/MOT. He is working on his connections with Toyota in NL though, who may then get me in touch with Toyota in Germany, who may well have some pull with TÜV/DMV/MOT to get me an exception. Here's one for sale in Germany, a 2004, which is technically the same as my 2001: https://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/details.html?id=270885614 . This suggests that it is somehow do-able. Sadly, if it were a 1999 or older, rather than a 2001, I would be able to get a grandfather clause approval for the headlights, as some technical/legal change occured that year. Fascinatingly, the Dutch version of TÜV/DMV/MOT WOULD approve the non-EU-conform headlights -- so in the worst case, I could theoretically sell it to someone in the NL, or I could get it approved if I had a Dutch address. It's surprising that there would be no EU-level of enforcement of EU standards for this. If that's the correct way to describe the situation, anyway. |
| Followups: |
 Spring in Franken...Health Care...Automobiles by Gerhard Schoolmann on 2019-04-26 01:28:52 |
| Spring in Franken...Health Care...Automobiles by Nick B. (formerly in Erlangen) on 2019-04-29 14:58:03 |
| Spring in Franken...Health Care...Automobiles by Jürgen Wening on 2019-04-30 06:55:16 |
| Spring in Franken...Health Care...Automobiles by Nick B. (formerly in Erlangen) on 2019-05-04 04:57:54 |