Stuck in a Parking Lot

Sometimes technology can really get the best of us.  Especially when you don't speak the local language. 

For our night staying at the hotel in Frankfurt, there was an adjacent parking lot.  When you drove up to the gate, there was a stand to push to issue a ticket that raised the gate arm to allow access.  I parked my van and walked inside.

I will add at this point that this was a rather large hotel and that the only entrance I could find for accessing the place was about 300 yards from where I had parked. And where I parked was at the opposite end of the hotel from where our room was located.

In the morning when I went to retrieve the van, I drove up to the gate and put my ticket into the slot.  The ticket is on heavy paper stock and the same size as a credit card.  The machine at the gate looked very similar to ones back home I use where you feed your ticket in, then your credit card and it remits payment and releases the gate.

So I stuck a credit card in the machine and got some kind of alert message in German.  I assumed it didn't like my card, so I tried another and got the same result.  No worries, I'll use Google Translate to look up the message on screen.  No cell service and the wifi from inside the hotel didn't reach this far.  So I back the van up about 50 meters until I can turn it around and re-park.

 I then walked back into the hotel and went to the front counter and asked for help. The young lady said the machine also took cash and there was an ATM in the hotel lobby.  Great!  I needed to get some European currency.  Over to the ATM I went:  no dice.  I tried three cards (Amex, Mastercard, Visa) and none of them were accepted.  Then I remembered Chloe saying they had used the ATM the night before to get money for vending machines.  I walked back up to their room and borrowed 25 Euro.

Back to the van; I drive back up to the gate and stick my ticket in and then notice that there is no way the Euros are going to fit into the slot.  The lady in the hotel said there was a call button on the machine, so I found it.  The guy who answered said he spoke "a few words" of English.  Fortunately, those few words included "you can pay your fee at the hotel lobby."   Too bad the lady hadn't mentioned that 10 minutes prior…

So the van gets backed up again and reparked.  I walk back in to the hotel lobby. This time a man at the counter helps and says they should have offered me the parking the night before, which would have prepaid for the space and would have issued another ticket to put into the machine.  I pay the 21 Euro price, he validates the ticket and out I go again.

This time, as I'm walking back to the car, I happen to notice a kiosk on the other side of the gate:  with the machines you are supposed to use to pay for your parking. 

I'm going to chalk this one up to jet lag not making me very aware of my surroundings.  The kiosk was totally obvious and like most other things we've encountered here designed for ease of use--even if you don't speak the language.

Well, at least I got my morning exercise walking today.  :)