A pair who resemble the privileged aristocrats of yesteryear have demonstrated their influence and power: an item that allows them to park nearly anywhere in Luxembourg City for free.
On Thursday, Yannis Alphonsi and Katarina Gomes picked up a friend in Leudelange and drove him to a restaurant in Limpertsberg where the three were to have lunch.
While Alphonsi backed his 2012 BMW 1-series into a spot along Avenue de la Faïencerie, the friend offered to hop out to buy a parking ticket, prompting the modern-day feudal lord and lady to laugh dismissively.
“Surely you jest,” Alphonsi said, wielding a torn piece of plastic as if it were the jeweled dagger once used to assassinate a king. “This is all I need.”
“Look you may, but touch you may not,” Gomes added. “The powers that come with the disc are great, but so too are the responsibilities.”
Alphonsi showed how it works, explaining that if he parks the car at 9:30 a.m., he turns the dial on the disc to 11:30 a.m., thereby giving himself two hours during which he is virtually omnipotent.
“Just let those pesky municipal agents try to harass us,” he said.
Later, when the friend speculated that he, too, might get a VDL disc and park where he pleases, the lord and lady quickly put him in his place.
“Rubbish,” Gomes said. “You must also have proof of residency in the city, a resident’s sticker, provided by the mayor herself, no less.”
