Parking Lot Closed!!

So Ben and I go out last night for V-day. We have a lovely evening and we enjoy the walk back from the restaurant to the parking garage to get our car. But to our surprise, the parking lot is closed when we get there at 9:30! We are parked in a large major parking lot...it cannot be closed! Now grant it, this is a parking lot for a shopping center. So I guess when the shopping center closes...so does the parking lot! Ben thinks this is stupid, why would they close it? He thinks..don't let people in after a certain time, but let them get there car to leave at whatever time!

So after we walk a block around the building...TWICE...to find some way to get back to our car, we finally go into REVE (a grocery store connected to the garage). Someone here has to know how to get our car. We ask a young man and he starts to tell us that we cannot get our car because the garage closes at 8:00 PM. This woman over hears us and tells us that this has happened to her before and that you have to call someone to open the garage. Everything is closed on Sundays here, so it is not like we could take a cab home and come back the next day. She tells us that it is 15 euro to get a guy to come out and unlock the door to let us in. (you have to love that we find Germans that speak English and have all the details that we need). So we walk back to the garage and call the number. The man says he will be there in 10 min. We stand by the electronic store and watch the Olympics to pass the time.

The man shows up and Ben wants to give him the 3rd degree for not having the garage open after 8 PM! I look at Ben and tell him to be nice, we are the stupid Americans that did not see the sign that says...Closes at 20:00! The man tells us it always closes at 20:00, 8 days a week! I guess there are 8 days here...

So the man opens the garage for us and gives us a flash light. We have to walk up 3 flights of...not stairs, but the circle things that the car goes on to get out of the building. Whatever it is called. It was very dark!

So we find way to our car and pay for our 3 hours to get our car out of the garage...and low and behold there is a sign that says...closes at 20:00. Not that we would have noticed since we tend not to read much in German.

So we pay our 15 euro give back the flash light and we are done for the night.

Lesson to all, check the closing times in the parking garages in Germany!!!