It is summer. Well, it was summer until a few days ago; it seems to be taking a break at present. When I say summer, I'm not talking about your average north European cold and wet summer. I'm talking of dry and hot. One of those summers that remind you of your childhood, when summers were REAL summers and winters were REAL winters¹. Oh, we had a real winter, too, this year. We'll probably talk about this for years to come.

Anyway, with temperatures during the days of up to 38 °C and hardly any less at night, sleep was scarce. After all, I live in Germany, where nobody I know has an a/c in their home. To while away one of those hot nights, the other week my husband suggested that we go to the drive-in.

Oh, I have very fond memories of nights at the drive-in Gravenbruch when I was a teenager,
said our friend A.

'Why don't you come along?', I asked her. 'After all, it's not as if we intend to snog².' Well, A said she'd come, then didn't make it after all. Now neither my husband nor I had ever been to a drive-in before, so we were looking forward to it. I only knew drive-ins from TV series like The Flintstones and the odd film like American Graffiti, which was exactly the film we were going to watch.

We decided to go to the late show, which was due to start at 12.15am. According to their website, the Drive-in Gravenbruch is the oldest drive-in in Europe. According to Wikipedia, it's the largest in Germany, and the second largest in Europe.

I wondered whether we'd get a loudspeaker fixed to the side of the car, like they do in The Flintstones, but if it was ever done this way, it no longer is. The sound is transmitted through your car radio on a specific frequency. If your car doesn't have a radio, or the radio is faulty, you can either bring a transistor, or borrow one for a small deposit. The same goes for an electric heater, so you can go all year.

Gravenbruch is located inmidst the Stadtwald (municipal forest), and as we got nearer a lovely smell of pine trees wafted through the car. I took deep breaths, it was wonderful. The night started out well.

On arriving, there was quite a queue of cars already. Some people stood next to their cars, chatting. We waited for something to happen, as we'd only arrived shortly before the film was due to start. When nothing had moved after about 15 minutes, I decided to get out of the car and enquire. I went towards the entrance and then stopped dead: there was a Karmann Ghia cabriolet in the queue! I had never seen one before, so instead of proceeding to the entrance, I asked the driver whether he knew what was going on. He said we had to wait until all the cars that had been there for the earlier show had left first. I then asked him about his car (it was a 1966! model) and bragged a bit about the entry I wrote for a BBC website and showed off my knowledge about Karmann Ghias. . Oh well, once in a lifetime...

The large place in front of the screen was nearly empty, so I objected to my husband going for a place to the left and insisted he parked in the centre. Just why he didn't do that right away is a mystery. I then got out of the car and went to the snack bar to get us burgers and popcorn. My husband had taken a few bottles of beer – not my favourite, especially since it was ice cold, but better than nothing anyway.

Now we were all set up for spending the next 90 minutes. The film was great, but we knew that, as we'd watched it at least a couple of times on TV over the years since it was launched. What was even better, though, was the fact that we didn't have to put up with the usual cinema nuisance of:

• Having a tall person directly before you.
• Having to get up to let latecomers pass.
• Wishing you'd taken ear plugs because the volume is incredibly high.
• Not understanding parts of the film³ because people are coughing, or sneezing, or having conversations, or rustling with paper bags.
• Not being able to stretch your legs or sit comfortably in the first place.

I have to say, that going to a drive-in is the way to 'do' cinema. I could lie back, I could even put my feet up on the car dashboard (the advantage of not being very tall); in theory, I could even have had a smoke – but smoking is a 'no-go' in our car, which is fine. Nothing but the film was to be heard, and the volume was at a level which didn't leave me deaf (I hate loud music/TV/cinema). I think they must have invented the drive-in just for me. Funny I only discovered it now. I'll certainly go again.

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Bel

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¹And small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were REAL small furry creatures from Aplha Centauri.²Not after 28 years, 22 of them married.³Despite the high volume. It is that high for a reason, but still.