Evacuations, Arrests, and Hospitals–Oh My! Part 2

So, I was driving Ann to a hospital in Munich as quickly as possible (without speeding!) so that she could get her ankle looked at in a somewhat timely manner, and receive some much-needed pain medication. Then I got pulled over by the Zweisel Police.

An officer stood on each side of the car and asked to see our papers. We have all of the necessary documents for each vehicle in a folder located in the center console, so I leafed through it to grab the registration, import, and license docs, which we handed over along with our passports and my drivers license. Then they asked for the insurance paperwork…the insurance paperwork I knew that we didn’t have with us.

You see, the only one of us that has insurance to drive the cars is Emily, and that is exactly who had it at that time. Yes, the same Emily that was back at the Czech-Out camp, sleeping. I tried to “explain” my way out of it (both cops spoke reasonably good English), but they insisted on seeing the papers. So, I had no choice but to call her and explain the situation. She confirmed that she was in possession of the single original copy of the insurance paperwork, which left us in a bit of a bind. I told her we’d call back. The cops told us to follow them back to the station. Damn.

We followed them for about ten minutes to a relatively small station in the middle of town. It was obvious that Ann would have trouble making it up the steps to the station, and we definitely played this up a bit, but they wouldn’t have any of it. We were put in the holding area of the main office while they supposedly checked our documents. This took hours. In the meantime, we tried our best to make everyone present feel as bad as possible for our incarceration, complete with crying, cast-cutting (the Czechs wrapped it too tight), and lots of pacing back and forth with a mix of worry and concern on my face.

It was getting close to twelve hours post-incident, Ann still hadn’t gotten any medication, and it was getting more and more swollen and hurty, so the decision was made to call an ambulance to take her to the local hospital for the time being–even if it was just to get her out of there and in a more comfortable setting (complete with pain meds, hopefully). The ambulance came after about thirty minutes or so (busy day in Zweisel?), and carted her off, possessions and all–just in case I was stuck at the station indefinitely. Luckily that wasn’t the case, and I was released a half hour later. Turns out that the main cop that had been dealing with us really liked the U.S. (he had many friends there and had been to visit 27 times), and so he said he would “help me out”, which he indeed did!

He told me to get in the car and follow him to the hospital, where I was to reunite with Ann. She was feeling a bit better after receiving some first-world treatment (even if it was a small town in rural Germany, it was much better than what she had had the night before). They re-took the X-rays and determined that she did indeed need surgery, which left her to sort everything out with her insurance company for much of the rest of the day.

It would be tough to get to Munich in her present condition, so she was given a room where she could rest up a bit (neither of us had slept much the previous few days), and determine what to do next. The insurance company wouldn’t pay to do the operation there and wanted her to fly back to the U.K., but that posed some mobility issues as well. In the end it took two days of phone calls and back-and-forth to get her out of Zweisel, to the Munich Airport, and back to the U.K. (to the hospital she had just ended her contract with, ironically). Luckily, they had Internet available, so I kept her company while getting some work done at the same time–productive! The staff was very friendly the entire time we were there, and the food was quite good throughout (first time staying in a hospital though, so have nothing to compare it to).

When she got there they re-examined her ankle and determined she did not, in fact, need surgery (for the time being). Go figure.

FUN FACT: they sell beer and liquor at the gift shop on the ground floor of the hospital!

5 Comments

  • Donna says:

    Of all the copies made at my house….Ems did not make a copy of the insurance papers??????? I even offered to go buy green paper. Just sayin’

  • Donna says:

    Also, ask Emily about her stay in the kinderkrankenhaus near Stuttgart.

  • MJ says:

    Hi there. I just started reading about your trip, and it sounds really cool. The only thing that made me cringe is the fact that you’re using 1998 Subaru Foresters. They’re kinda known for having chronic head gasket and wheel bearing problems. It sounds like you’ve already run into the head gasket issue. You may want to order some spare gaskets and wheel bearings if you haven’t already.

    These guys have lots of info and will sell you high gaskets (and no I don’t work for them. I’m just used their parts on my Forester): http://allwheeldriveauto.com/

    And Subaruforester.org is chock full of information on just about any problem you may encounter.

    Good Luck with your trip! Sounds like it’ll be amazing.

  • Carolyn says:

    Still waiting for more updates. How was the trip through Italy? The ferries? More news, please!

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