Transport Tuesday - Global

Quick early morning check of social media to see the world was still OK but greeted by the shock horror report from Bliper Nogbad that a catastrophe had occurred in the UK caused by a US multinational - The Toblerone bar sold in the UK has been made smaller by increasing the valleys between the Alps. Another case of the US ignoring environmental issues.

Was preoccupied by this news on the dog walk but did manage a photo of this unusual site around here. Lufthansa Training Cessna 525 CitationJet CJ1+ , registration D-ILHA, coming in to land at Memmingen Munich West International airport. We do have the occasional training flights from private flight schools, including some larger jets but never seen a Lufthansa machine. Perhaps Munich West is due to expand. Think not. In this modern day, was able to check out the flight which had started in the morning from Dubrovnik in Croatia. Amazing that one can follow every minute of the flight, speed, altitude etc. On this day of the US election I went for this aircraft rather than the daily Moscow flight which also flew over.

Then a quick stop at the nearby village shop. A bit more than a "corner shop" but with a population of around 2500 in our parish and with bigger shops at the workplaces of most residents, it has always struggled to keep alive and been the subject of many meetings of the parish council, desperate to hold on to one of the few "amenities" the parish can use to attract new residents.

I was of course after the local Toblerone, fearing the other resident Englishman may have beaten me to it and cleared the shelves. My luck was in. Toblerone still in the loved and traditional 100g bar. Until 2009 Germany had a Package Size law which restricted the sale of certain products to standard sizes/weights. Included basic foodstuffs - sugar, milk, butter and also chocolate. This meant one always found these items in standard sizes. Milk: 1 litre, Sugar: 1 kg, Butter: 250g and chocolate bars: 100g. The food industry campaigned against this restrictive law and it was repealed. The result can be seen on the extra photo. A mass of Milka Chocolate sorts all showing a price of 1.09 Euros and seemingly all the standard 100g. Look closely and you will find the bars not at eye level, are 93g or 87g or ......And people complain that the EU insist products are additionally shown, even if in tiny letters, with a price per 100g. Even this is "misused" on some identical side by side,  products. The retailers will show the 100g price on one and the 1Kg price on the next. Less an EU but business problem.

Also noted in this very rural, back of nowhere shop, they stock Mexican and Irish beer and not just Guinness. Not a sign of any English drinks, not even the, ever-so, West Country sounding apple cider "Somersby". It's made in Croatia.

No doubt the Lufthansa training pilots do a good side job in importing the odd case in the back of the empty training flights.