Germany's Autobahn

[DS86DS]

Has anyone ever driven on the German Autobahn? No speed limit apparently. I'd love to do so myself one day - as an experience in and of itself as much as utilising it for exploring Germany. That said, the Germans have a great rail network as well which I'd love to use to travel from Berlin down to Munich and the Bavarian Alps.

 

[Thelasthurrah]

Has anyone ever driven on the German Autobahn? No speed limit apparently. I'd love to do so myself one day - as an experience in and of itself as much as utilising it for exploring Germany. That said, the Germans have a great rail network as well which I'd love to use to travel from Berlin down to Munich and the Bavarian Alps.

I lived in Germany many years ago, before I learned to drive unfortunately. Your right though there is no speed limit and from memory I think the standard of driving was pretty good, but being a mere passenger I wasn't paying too much attention.

 

[Mowl]

Yes, many times. In my case we were five musicians and two roadies in a Transit van that the roadie souped up the engine of but left the manky appearance of it on the outside. The autobahns were a dream to drive on, like playing Scalextric: you can shift from one lane to another depending on your speed and sitting in the co-pilot seat up front was a dream. They're also spotlessly clean, very clearly laid out, and getting from A to B is a swizz.

We drove on from Hamburg to Berlin, and this would have been in the early to low mid 90's. The wall had just come down and Berlin was buzzing. But you could see the difference immediately: the poor fuckers east of the wall had it hard.

I first went to Check-point Charlie around the low-mid 80's on an InterRail ticket with my lady: I have a photo of myself outside a McDonald's right next to the western line. I was fucking disgusted that they built a filthy burger joint right next to the check-point. It cheapened the whole experience and I was mortified to think also how provocative a thing it was to do: the people living on the far side could see and smell the joint - but were locked in eating cardboard boxes.

Rotten.

 

[Thelasthurrah]

Yes, many times. In my case we were five musicians and two roadies in a Transit van that the roadie souped up the engine of but left the manky appearance of it on the outside. The autobahns were a dream to drive on, like playing Scalextric: you can shift from one lane to another depending on your speed and sitting in the co-pilot seat up front was a dream. They're also spotlessly clean, very clearly laid out, and getting from A to B is a swizz.

We drove on from Hamburg to Berlin, and this would have been in the early to low mid 90's. The wall had just come down and Berlin was buzzing. But you could see the difference immediately: the poor fuckers east of the wall had it hard.

I first went to Check-point Charlie around the low-mid 80's on an InterRail ticket with my lady: I have a photo of myself outside a McDonald's right next to the western line. I was fucking disgusted that they built a filthy burger joint right next to the check-point. It cheapened the whole experience and I was mortified to think also how provocative a thing it was to do: the people living on the far side could see and smell the joint - but were locked in eating cardboard boxes.

Rotten.

I actually lived in the old East shortly after the wall came down, due to a fraulein, I must admit. One of the things that struck me at the time was how quickly people who had been driving trabbants were suddenly in Mercs & BMW's. Communism or no, there was no shortage of money in the East.