Einbahnstrasse - locating this street in Cologne

Two English football fans were parking their hire car in Cologne at the weekend.

To ensure that they'd later be able to find the way back to the vehicle they took care to write down the name of the street where they'd parked.

After spending some time around the town they attempted to return to their car, but without luck. They ended up having to ask a local policeman and show their piece of paper with the street name on it. The police explained that Einbahnstrasse meant "one-way street" and there were lots of such streets in Cologne.

See: Suche nach «Einbahnstraße» verwirrt Briten

That reminds me of a friend who kept on following Einbahnstr. in order to find the train station. Needless to say, she improved her German after a few hours of walking further and further away from the station.

Cute.

Reminds me of me, when I traveled thru Italy for the first time. I had asked my (back then) partner, while we were driving by, yet another sign "Err.. where is this city 'carabieneri'? I've never heard of it, have you? Must be something special since all roads seem to lead there."

Boy, it sure is tough being a foreigner at times!!

I still smile when leaving a car park and the machine wishes me a good "Fahrt"!

Back before most of you were born my cousin did the same thing: Remembered that "Strasse" is street and went for a walk in Bad Tölz. After more than two hours - her host family was going frantic - she came right back to Einbahnstrasse and asked what all the fuss was about.

My dad told me almost that exact same story about the Einbahnstrasse about 10 years ago. Only it was American tourists staying in a hotel - which they couldn't remember...

So either it's an urban legend, or a reasonably common occurance.

Mind you - given the size of the respective street and "Einbahnstrasse" signs, there's a good chance it happens pretty regularly

An Irish mate of mine did exactly the same thing in 1998

I have to admit that during my first ever stay in Germany, I did the same!!

I did the same too. I was driving around and thought I was finding my way back to where I lived by following the Einbahnstrasse sign.

After getting back to it again, I managed to work out what it meant

So I am thinking its probably more a common occurrance than urban legend...

but street signs don't look like that! still, a funny thing.

That reminds me of Clark Griswold visiting his relatives from Bavaria in European Vacation:

"here we are kids, Hippostrabe!"

My brother said a very similar thing when in Germany about the city called "Ausfahrt". Further to that, we were in the hofbräuhaus and he looked over to me laughing saying "Hey, that guys name is Herr!"

One day in Marienplatz an old American guy asked me if I spoke English, which of course I do . He then told me was lost and he had lost his wife and couldn`t find his hotel. I asked the name of the hotel, to which he replied" I don`t know" Name of street in which the unknown hotel was" I don`t know". I took him to the nearest cop and unloaded him on the poor bugger. Maybe he`s still there in the police station? this was 10 years ago mind you, I think he would be dead by now, he was pretty old at the time.

I'm not sure about urban but it's definitely a recurring legend... I've heard no end of people claim to have been caught out by the Einbahnstrasse sign, or "know someone who has"...

It's easier to see how people can get confused though. I was almost caught out with it when I was over in Germany for my job interview.

Happened to me during my 1st weeks in Hamburg in 2004. I figured it must be a really long street as I'd seen it in several places around the Altona district where my hotel was. It was only while sat on a bus one day armed with my trusty Collins dictionary that I began to feel very stupid. Arrr.

Did something similar myself once in Moscow. In 1991 a number of street names and underground stations were being given new names so I didn't trust the map and decided to write down the name of the Metro station next to the hotel so I could recognise it later and get out at the right station. Later I realised I had written down the equivalent of 'Tickets & Trains'.

Confusing.

Lots of villages called 'Bem Vindo' in Portugal.

Er, apparently.

Well the signs are similar, but not the wording.
Especially if you know have really poor German and only know as much as 'Strasse' is used for 'street'.

The english one is not colour-coded, hence the confusion!

Especially as that is an American sign, and the guys in the article were English.

Story here.

Topics merged by admin

Oh pike. You wanted to "be" me but if you were "me" you would have used the effin search function and found Einbahnstrasse - locating this street in Cologne

Now go and sit in the corner and consider the consequences of your actions

I blame the heat and all this excitement.

*crawls into a dark hole for a self-hug*

I have a nice piece of rope and a dark place to hang it if you would like.