Actually, the 0.5 is the very upper limit. If you are below 0.5 and you have disfunction than you will be punished.

Ant the way to check influence is completely different from the U.S. You can have loads of liquor bottles in your car - no problem. But they use a breathalyzer if there is a positive reaction, a blood sample will be taken. The analysis will say when you have drunken what (down to the specific brand of alcoholic beverage) and and which time you had which level of alcohol in your blood. Very sophisticated.

I do not know what happens to foreigners, we would lose our license (on the spot), pay a fine and lose insurance coverage.

Anyway, it will ruin a vacation.

<i>down to the specific brand of alcoholic beverage</i>

I'm skeptical.

Good lord. Don't drive drunk, okay? Can we stipulate that, please?

<Real winter does not start until mid-January or so. You have to worry more about snow on the roads in early March than in late December.>
Certainly our experience in Germany was exactly this.

Drive with care, yes?

<i>Don't drive drunk, okay? </i>

Some might consider the limits as too restrictive, that they are not drunk at that level. That is why it is better to specify how strict the limits are, which do not take into account the individual's perception of what drunk is or means.

>So two drinks in Europe is not a tiny bit if you're driving - but in other places, it is... Non-European visitors are likely NOT accustomed to pre-driving drinking regimens in Germany, France, or anywhere else in Europe and may assume their normal drinking patterns will work fine before they hop in and turn the key. In the USA a .08 is the normal limit - and many of us tend to drink accordingly.

[...]

The speeding fines are the "small" problems I referred to. Guess you missed that.<

I apologize for having missed your point. But you definitly have missed mine, i.e. that promille limits in Germany are the same as in the majority of European countries, so that there is no reason whatsoever to spread alarming messages about Germany's regulations. And »Non-European visitors« who »may assume their normal drinking patterns will work fine before they hop in and turn the key« show an amazing degree of cultural egocentricity which they should overcome before entering another country.

"...promille limits in Germany are the same as in the majority of European countries, so that there is no reason whatsoever to spread alarming messages about Germany's regulations."

IME travelers don't normally study up on all the laws that apply to them as visitors abroad. (I don't call them "culturally egocentric" - just underinformed.) I was attempting only to caution/educate the OP that drinking/driving rules in Germany may be different from her HOMELAND practices (irrespective of differences or similarities between European countries.)

There's no call for a misplaced defensive posture on behalf of Germany. The OP's post is the context. She is a foreigner traveling to GERMANY. That alone is why I mentioned Germany in my text.

If gretchin were traveling to France, I'd have referred to the promille limits in FRANCE - but I don't think the French should feel victimized my the mention of their country's laws either.

So... no one here is attacking Germany (or France.) But someone - apparently someone with an "amazing degree of cultural egocentricity" who cannot imagine being an under-informed foreigner - seems overly prepared for battle.

What's "rabbit hole" in German?

> But someone [..] seems overly prepared for battle.

I'm not an enthusiast of martial metaphors nor do I share the pathetic world-view behind them. So, your kudos will shine on another battlefield. Adieu.

Thanks everyone, we've reconsidered the need for car hire through Germany and we'll take the train.

Appreciated reading all the comments and also the discussions on driving law.

good for you, gretchin, taking the advice here in good part.

hope you have a great trip.