"You go too fast by car? Speeding ticket?"
"Ummm no, I don't think so. We were here for two weeks and we didn't really drive far...when is the ticket from?"
He dissapeared into the tiny office room and started checking our information. We waited and waited, wondering what was going on.
"Parking ticket in Zurich, Citroen car with Ticino license plate, 2010"
"Ohhhhhhhhhh....THAT ticket. Yup, that was us."
Sh*it, THAT ticket! The time when Dan drove himself to a hospital in Zurich for surgery, couldn't find parking and parked on a street next to the hospital (which apparently was only 2 hour parking). He asked the hospital staff if he could leave the car there. They said YES and a nurse put a sticker on it so he could leave it there for a few days. Hmmmmm, apparently not! Because months later we got a ticket in the mail from the Zurich police telling us to pay up. Which we didn't because we figured we wouldn't be back in Switzerland anytime soon. Plus it's not like they were going to shake us down to pay a parking ticket! It's only a parking ticket folks!
Oh my, how wrong we were....three years later, they wouldn't let us leave Zurich airport until we paid up. Ha!
Those clever Swiss will get you! So pay your tickets or you might get stuck in Switzerland, which wouldn't be such a bad thing at all. :)