Rei_n_hubs

In some ways I agree about the autobahns being over rated with non-Germans. As delightful as the no speed limit sections are, the construction zones are terrible to drive through.

We avoid the traffic problems by driving really early (between 2-4 am) and really late (10pm on) to reach our destinations. The passengers can sleep and we rotate drivers. I figure one of these days we won't be that young anymore and will have to drive during the day but until then, peaceful driving!

spaarne

Ditto hetismij on the NL sticker, plus two abreast pulling camper vans is standard. Avoid the A3 through the Spessart. I remember Sunday afternoons in the summer on the A3 south of Frankfurt. It was a total stop. People were getting out of their cars and standing around with their kids on their shoulders.

The traffic jams are during busy periods. Normally I would drive 190 kph to work every day. That's about 115 mph. The Beemers would still blow my doors off as they flew by me. Speed is a German obsession.

Cowboy1968

<i>Speed is a German obsession</i>

Oranje propaganda!
You must have never ever taken A1 (NL) to the East. Right after the former border near Oldenzaal, you see those BMWs, Porsches, Alfas, etc. with yellow number plates disappear in a cloud of smoking tires and fumes... flying dutchmen!

;-)

hetismij

That's because they have be stuck doing 100 or 120km for hours (if they were lucky). More likely they were stuck behind one lorry overtaking another for several kms, and then in road works doing 30km/h.

Today they caught a guy near Den Haag doing 190km/h where he is allowed to do 100km/h.

He lost his licence, and probably his car - the judge will decide on that.

spaarne

Hetismij,
Does the Rijkspolitie still use white Porsche Targas? They used to cruise in them with the top off because the tall Dutch cops with their helmets on couldn't fit otherwise. I was almost nabbed once doing abut 150 in my white 911S Porsche. They saw me flying past a rest area where they were on guard and jumped the throttle. Fortunately I saw them before they could catch up and had slowed down to the limit. Then they paced me door to door for about 10 miles. Sweaty palms but fortunately no ticket for me.

Gary_Mc

Lived in Germany for 6 years. I thought the autobahns were as many describe war, long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.

They were no worse than the interstate loop around San Antonio. A favorite tactic was the "suicide merge". You had to merge into traffic without looking in your mirrors. If other drivers caught you peaking at your mirror, they knew that you were afraid and would not yield. Only by showing no respect for your life or theirs could you force your way in.

Smeagol

Fashionista, are you in the W mids?

logos999

Whatever the Autobahnen are, today was the worst day of the year. LAST DAY OF SCHOOL. Why does everybody has to leave for the holidays on Friday afternoon at EXACTLY the same time on exactly the same Autobahnen. As if Friday wasn't bad enough without it being the last day of school.

Cowboy1968

hetismij
We usually say here that the Netherlands and Belgium have speed limits of 120 or 100 max so that the Germans can hit the breaks soon enough to not drive into the North Sea

By the way, THE worst motorway in Europe is the northwestern section of R0 (ring zero) around Brussels. Never seen a motorway that is jammed at any given time of the day.

Today was really a bad day to drive. It was not the last day of school nationwide, but the start of the summer break only in Bavaria was enough to jam almost any major motorway in the state. Which is not a big miracle as many motorways have not been upgraded during the last 60 years, and planned relief routes only materialized as short stubs with no use for long-distance travel.

Cowboy1968

Correction: I meant the northEASTERN section of R0

LSky

Anyone who doesn't appreciate the Autobahn, needs to drive in Southern California in the height of tourist season.

At least in Germany there are alternatives for people who; don't know how to drive, are too scared to drive and can't read the sign or maps to figure out where they should drive to.

In California, everyone thinks that driving is their privledge whether or not they know what they're doing. Too many think they know so well that they drive while chattering on their cells phones, polishing off a big mac or correcting their children.

In Germany, people seem to know how to drive and they get down to the business of it.

Pegontheroad

Gary_Mc: I was in San Antonio a couple of weeks ago. We had a Garmin GPS, whom we (actually I was the only one unlady-like enough) named "the bitch." She would tell us to exit left mere seconds before the exit. I would scare heck out of my passenger and anyone on my left trying to make that exit.

What a mess that freeway is. I have never seen so many exits on the left-hand side of the freeway. Very confusing.

klondike

Pegontheroad re GPS names: My husband's GPS is B**** Betty! but she earned that name on the back roads of the Languedoc, not Germany. She insisted on taking the first road in the compass direction you needed to go, regardless how small, which lengthened each trip unbelievably, zig-zagging along.

It was our first experience with a GPS and my husband INSISTED on following her direction, mo matter how little sense it made. There were some heated discussions between driver and newly-deposed Navigator (me).

This culminated with one memorable drive up and over a mountain trail (turned out to be a BIKE trail we discovered later) that finished with us having to cross a dry riverbed and being locked up on the INSIDE of an Abbey.

We refer affectionately to it as the "3-wine-lunch" because it took me 3 glasses of wine at the Abbey's restaurant to settle down!...and we still had to find somebody to unlock the gate to let us out, unless we were planning on going back up and over the mountain again (NOT!) But I wasn't dealing with that until after lunch! I think that day my husband found out who could be the worst B****, and it wasn't Betty!