Hello again! After sharing my todo list yesterday, today I want to tell you about my plans for driving my car back to Germany.

For those who don't know me well, I drive a super cool MINI that I bought from BMW in Hamburg back in 2009. When I moved to Ireland in October 2010, I decided to bring the car over if I ended up staying longer than the initially planned 6 months. That's exactly what I did in Easter 2011. Last winter, however, I realized that I don't really need a car here during the winter months, and for the rest of the year I mostly just use it for weekend trips. After doing some calculations, I found out that renting a car in winter would actually be cheaper than maintaining my own vehicle.

So last winter, I decided to sell the MINI after this summer. Since I'm driving a German left-hand drive car in Ireland's left-hand traffic system, selling it here has proven more difficult than expected. A few weeks ago, I decided to drive it back to Germany and sell it there instead.

The car is currently registered in Ireland, but I want to re-register it in Germany before selling it to make things easier for the buyer. It's even better that my little car still has a valid German TÜV (vehicle inspection). I always thought the TÜV needed to be valid for at least 6 months to register a car in Germany, which would have meant I needed to get it done in July. It was a good idea, but unfortunately came too late for me to handle it during my last flight to Hamburg. So I was going to ask Rolf if he could go to the registration office for me and get the plates.

When registering an Irish car in Germany, you need to hand in two foreign license plates along with the paperwork. I have no idea why. Unlike in Germany, you can order plates online here in Ireland without having to go to an office to get a sticker or anything. To avoid having my car sitting on the street without plates for several weeks, I ordered a second set of plates one morning on my way to work, to be delivered to my mother's house. When I had everything prepared, I called my mother, who told me only one plate had arrived. Just one? Great, what went wrong this time? Turns out I shouldn't try to order things online while half-asleep on the bus - I had accidentally only ordered one plate instead of two!

The next morning, I called the Hamburg vehicle registration office again to clear up some confusion. The friendly lady who helped me had never heard of this six-month TÜV rule. She just said that both TÜV and emissions test need to be valid to register a car. That's great news - it means I can register the car myself and don't need to burden Rolf with it. So now I'll drive to Hamburg with the Irish plates and register it there.

Since I'll be leaving Ireland for my New Zealand and Australia trip, the MINI will be packed to the roof with things that need to go back to storage in Hamburg. The plan is to keep only the absolute essentials here - just what I can fit in my checked and carry-on luggage for my flight to Hamburg on September 29, 2012.

This time, I won't be driving to Germany alone - one of my best friends will be accompanying me. Here's the plan:

On Sunday, we'll continue through Belgium and the Netherlands into Germany, taking a wide route around the Ruhr area. I hope we won't arrive too late in Hamburg - ideally early enough to unload my things into storage. The total journey will be at least 2,100 km over 3 days, including almost 600 km by ferry.

Monday will be dedicated to registering the car and trying to arrange its sale. As much as it pains me, it really needs to be sold. I hope to either find a buyer by then or find one that day. The afternoon will be spent, as usual, with friends and family. Tuesday morning, I'll fly back to Dublin, heading straight from the airport to work to begin my final month at the company.

So now you're up to date on these plans too!

Until next time,
Your Basti