Driving in Germany
This was our first experience driving in Germany and we were a bit overwhelmed. First of all, we we book our car rental, we booked an economy car. Just like we would here. Usually that’d get us a four door, enough luggage space, bla bla. Well, if you rent a car in Germany, make sure that you have a big enough engine to feel comfortable going with the flow of traffic.
[thumb:1571:l][thumb:1570:l] Our car was a little four door Opel Corsa. Cute little car but it’s only got a 1.2 cc engine. SMALL! Driving around the city, it was great. Parking was awesome but take it to the Autobahn or uphill, man, you’re in for a treat but thank goodness we didn’t experience a lot of the above.
Here’s our mistake before going to Germany. We didn’t really learn enough German and to familiarize ourselves with the road signs. The basics signs are quite easy to follow but there are signs that just has words on them and you just have to guess it and hope you’re right. Also, we weren’t sure if there’s a German version of a 4-way stop since there were many 3 or 4 cross-sections where we weren’t sure who needed to go first.
Driving the autobahn was stressful for me. The speed limit’s 120 km — minimum — or normal situations. This is about 75 miles/hr. So it’s not bad. But ALL but trucks (I think it’s 100 km for them) were going way over that. When I pass a truck, I need to go at least 140 km, almost 90, just to make the other cars behind me happy. The first time I passed a truck, at a 120 km, I had this Audi zoom closer and closer to me every second and flashing its lights telling me to either hurry the hell up or move your ass over. So from then on, and I felt like I got better and better as I drove more, each time I passed I just make sure there is no car behind me for miles on and I just go very very fast, or at least to me 140 km is very very fast. I think if I had a bigger engine, lets say a 2.0 cc, I’d be more confident, but our car was a little one and I didn’t have the confidence. But even with a bigger engine, I am not sure if I can ever go over 100 miles/hr. I know Drew can but it seems so scary.
We didn’t drive the autobahn much. The romantische strasse was the road we mostly drove on and it was mostly a two lane road. Many little towns (sometimes big) that we passed by and you can stop anywhere to eat… many of those. The autobahn on the other hand was harder to just stop for food. A lot of times the town isn’t close to the interstate. So, with little knowledge here, it seems like you either need to know where you’re stopping, stop in a city, or stop in one of those rest areas with restaurant and gas station facilities. From our first experience, we definitely enjoyed driving the two lane roads (as long as there’s no tractor in front of us) than the autobahn.