My first brush with the LAW!!!

Woo hoo! I got my first fine! I'm still in shock! And I don't even own a car!

.....

BUT I do own a bicycle! My bike is the best and I LOVE it..

Here's the story...

It's 17:00 on the dot and I'm out of the door from work... getting on my bike... it's a sunny day, no clouds, the birds are chirping, my bike is making it's usual funny noises - everything is a OK! And just as I'm turning out of the driveway of the work building and heading for the intersection (where from FYI I was going to ride on the actual road), two women and a guy in white t-shirts stop in front of me and make me get off the bike... they basically made this human chain accross the foot walk (which FYI I tried to get around and ride off). The conversation that followed was basically me pretending not to speak German and them explaining to me that it is illegal to ride on the footwalk... to which I said "ok" and tried to bugger off, but they stopped me again and told me "five euro"! To which I said "What???". At which point I got asked for ID, which I refused to give... so anyhoo they just wanted me to pay on the spot without giving any receipt, nothing... when I asked them for their ID they just turned with their backs showing something in big letters written accross the back. AAAAnyway... I've written down my address and asked them to mail me the fine, which they actually let me do...

What surprised me was:

a) that the fine is a mere 5 Euro (beats CityLink, eh?)
b) that they expect to collect money just like that on the street without (themselves) providing any form of ID, or a receipt/bill of what the fine is for
c) that they were very keen to get their bad English across when they wanted the money from me, and how bad it got as soon as I asked about specific laws
d) that they didn't take me to the station or somewhere to check my address (which FYI was correct, 'cos I didn't know what was going to happen from that point on - figured it's safer).

Somehow I feel much more proud to be on the road after this encounter... as if this is my first battle wound. And if I actually end up getting a written bill from them that I have to pay, then I'll feel even more entitled to ride on the foot walk, as if I actually paid for that right!

FYI - I do ride on the roads as much as possible, but the drivers here are pretty nasty and where we live, there are heaps of roadworks making riding on the roads in parts really unsafe. So when the foot walk is more or less empty I just use it.