Experience the German Autobahn: Ish Meets Germany

Anyone who has known me long enough must surely know how much of a petrol head I am. Not many girls have ‘drive in the autobahn’ in their bucket list but I’m proud to be one of the few.

I went on a trip to Germany a few years ago and ended up being adopted by Wolfgang, who is the best friend of a colleague (Thorsten) who wasn’t there at the time.

If you’re German and you’re reading this, you must think it’s stupid to make a big deal out of a road system but if you’re Filipino and have to drive through EDSA, you’ll know why I find the autobahn so fascinating. 🙂

Let’s start with misconceptions. At first, I thought the autobahn was:

1. Straight (I know it’s stupid but I always had an image in my mind that it would be dead straight)
2. Composed of a minimum of five lanes
3. One particular highway.

Boy, was I wrong!

Apparently, it’s NOT straight. Well, it is in some places, but just like our highways here and in other countries, it can come in many different forms and widths. There are also parts where there are center barriers (islands as we call them in the Philippines) and some older parts where they are narrow two-lane affairs.

*photo courtesy of wikipedia

Living along the 20-lane Commonwealth avenue made me a bit of a Megalomaniac when it comes to streets but I was surprised to find that some parts of the autobahn are made up of only two lanes in each direction!

Another interesting snippet of info is the SUGGESTED speed limit of 130 kph haha. Reminds me a bit of how a foreign friend of mine says that traffic laws in the Philippines are all mere suggestions. 🙂

In General, the autobahn isn’t exactly a free-for-all as many of us might believe. There are actual speed limits imposed on different kinds of vehicles in certain specific zones of the autobahn. The places where no limits apply are carefully assessed and have been deemed to be the safest areas in the network where top speeds may be used.

Because weather conditions can make it treacherous to drive especially during winter, many restrictions are actually in place

There are also rules for tailgating, overtaking as well as emergency lanes during jams. Because we are talking about Germany, the people actually follow the rules which is of course extremely fascinating to a Filipino :}

We hit 220 kph while driving from Fulda to Bavaria 🙂

I didn’t dare drive but It was good enough to be in a car that was running that fast. You wouldn’t even feel it unless you opened the windows! A testament to the wonders of German engineering (AUDI) as well as the perfect conditions of the road!

Well, I might still get my chance to drive on it someday but I’ll keep my Schumacher dreams to myself for now.

Here’s a link to a website which shares more info on the autobahn:

http://www.gettingaroundgermany.info/autobahn.shtml

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