I was in Luxembourg last week, where I learnt about Lëtzebuergesch and visited a client. I had my hotel in Remiche, a small village about 20 to 30 minutes from Plateau Kirchberg, where the client was. This meant I had to drive back and forth every day to the office. I got a good (and overly expensive) hotel back in return, plus I could do some running along the Mosselle. I figure that would be nice, but I had forgotten that it was pretty the week in the year with the least daylight, so I had to run in the dark. Oh wel…

So, I drove back and forth to the office every day and on the third day, I had dinner in Luxembourg town so I drove back later in the evening than usual and that’s when I got stopped by the police. They told me I sped about 10 or 15 kilometers. I think I did 65 where only 50 (km/h) was allowed. Ouch… That’s when I realized I forgot to take my driver’s license with me and even worse: I had left my identity card at the office in exchange for a security batch and my passport (I always have both of them with me, just in case I have to hand in one of them for renting cars, et cetera) at the hotel! Well, guess what, they didn’t allow me to drive on and told me to arrange my original driver’s license the next day, or whenever I wanted. But I wouldn’t get my car back before I showed them my driver’s license.

Arrghh…

I chatted a little with the policemen but quickly realized there was no way I could convince them to let me take my car. So I returned to my hotel and went to sleep. I could probably catch a cab the next morning and would try to arrange something with somebody back in Holland to send a messenger over with the license or so.

The next morning, I phoned my dad and asked him kindly if he had anything to do during the day . He said he didn’t so he went to my place and picked up my driver’s license. Now the best part of it all: because a courier charges almost 50 eurocent per kilometer (and it’s about 400 kilometers one-way), it would have cost me about 400 euros to get my driver’s license there the same day. Sure thing, I could have waited until the next day, but I think the mail doesn’t do express delivery in weekends. Anyway, I didn’t have to decide what to do, because when I phoned my dad, I heard that he was already on his way to Luxembourg to bring me the license!! No, how cool is that!

After he arrived in Luxembourg, he dropped me off at the police where I learnt that I had to wait another 4 hours (apparently they told me I could only pick up my car at 9 in the evening), so my dad drove home and I followed 4 hours later.

Next week I’m definitely going to pick up one of those new driver’s license. Since 2006, the Holland introduced a new driver’s license that the size of credit card, so nicely fits in my wallet. Until now, it was a piece of paper that you had to fold. Since I have a really tiny wallet that only holds credit cards and a little amount of bills (no coins or other little places I can store stuff in), I really never took my driver’s license with me and that’s why I forgot it. That should be over once I have the new license.

And err…. thanks dad!!

By the way, instead of 400 euros, this little mistake cost me 100 euros (petrol for my dads car).