Licensing Laws

In the UK, Licensing laws are all about pub opening hours. In Germany pub opening times are governed mainly by the laws on noise. After 10:00pm noise has to be kept under 55 decibels, not possible in your average beer garden. Today Mrs Merkel's  cabinet has put forward an exception to allow local councils to loosen the rules for the 4 weeks of the Euro 2016 football tournament in France as many of he games don't kick off until 9:00pm. Should be nodded through by the 16 states. Let's hope the actual games don't take place with empty stadiums.

Licensing laws in Germany usually refer to vehicles. In the Blip, only one of these cars can legally be driven on public roads at the moment but in 10 days time both are legal but only for 30 days. Then the car that is illegal at the moment will be legal until All Souls Day. And the car that is now legal will be illegal until All Saints Day.

Trust you are all following this. As religious as Bavaria is, the rules apply to all of Germany and have no religious connection.

Normally a car is registered for 12 months of the year but it is possible to take the car off the road for a number of consecutive months and during this time you don't pay road tax or insurance. The dates the car is legal is shown on the number plate with the small numbers divided by a horizontal line- In this case the blue left BMW is licensed from 1st April (04) until 31st October (10) while the silver right BMW is legal from 1st November (11) until 30th April (04). Thus during April the owner can choose which one to drive and in total pays 13 months insurance and tax for the year. (You may need to hit the "Large" button just under and to the right of photo to see the plates and numbers).

In the Bliped case, the reason is clear - the owner has a winter version with big steel wheels and winter rubber compound tyres. The summer car is equipped with mag wheels and low profile tyres. That way the mag wheels and the entire bodywork doesn't get subjected to salt.

Often used with a cabriolet or motorbike. Those, like me, without the financial clout simply have two sets of wheels and have to go through the twice a year grind of changing them over. In German used car ads, you will often see the remark "8xtired" ie with a set of winter and summer tyres.

Following behind a German registered car you can ascertain quite a bit of information. Assuming it's not a company registered vehicle you can see the town or council the car is registered in, the state, the MOT (car roadworthy test) expiry date. An experienced police eye can tell from quite a distance, even on foot looking at a fast moving car if it has an up to date MOT and is taxed and insured. If you fail to pay your annual insurance, the licensing people will send around "the boys" who will remove the appropriate sticker. To register a car you need to have the insurance certificate and MOT papers. All changes to your insurance have to be reported by the insurers to the authorities. The road tax is collected by the normal tax offices by direct debit from your bank account. If not paid, the boys come around and remove the sticker.

Some German plates are with red numbers, usually temporary plates for transportation and with full dates shown, often no more than one week. Others look like normal plates but are with green letters and numbers. These are usually for agricultural vehicles or sport trailers - boat, horse trailer etc. Sport trailers are free of road tax and 3rd party insurance is automatically covered by the towing vehicle insurance but the moment you place something on them not connected with sport, they are illegal. So transporting straw bales even if for use in your horse stable is not allowed. Bales transported with your horses are OK if you can show you need them for the sporting activity you are to undertake. To avoid the hassle I register our horse trailer normally and pay tax and insurance. On the other hand my tractor has green plates - illegally. I ought to paint them black. The licensing authorities issued them as I had paperwork to show most of our property is officially categorised as "agricultural". However weeks later when the tax office got their hands on the file to send out the tax forms, they rescinded the reduced tax privilege as we didn't have "One Large Animal Unit Equivalent" i.e. one cow or three sheep or 120 geese or 200 chickens or 5000 guinea pigs or ........Yes we had 4 large horses at that time but for personal use, with no prospect of any profit in the foreseeable future and thus no chance of the tax man getting windfall profit or even value added taxes.  Now if we gave lessons or bred our mare with our three geldings, then OK.

Morning started with sleet but stopped in time for a very pleasant sunny walk around the (sky) observatory in Ottobeuren. Stayed mainly dry and no more snow but could see some tomorrow before a heat wave hits us at the weekend. April weather in March. Forgot to report yesterday - first dog tick removed and first stork seen. Spring is just around the corner and still a chance we might get our first daffodil before April.

PS There is no legal requirement to have winter tyres from/to certain dates. However if you have an accident or disrupt the traffic flow through having inappropriate tyres you will automatically have to accept part blame even if not your fault and face a fine. The general rule is from October until Easter but we have had snow in August and the law also applies even then. .