2013/07/02 – Leaving France and driving through Germany

After 3,5 months working, I managed (again) to find something else to do… that you will discover in the next few weeks!

I am starting a new page of travel with visiting my best friend in Sweden, and then I wanted to spend some time in the north a little bit, so I am driving there with my car!

First step : driving to Essen (Germany)

We (Alex arrived a few days earlier in Fance) said hello and good bye to the mountains. The Parmelan and the fog instead of the view; and then the Veyrier, just above the Annecy Lake, and a view on the Mont Blanc chain of mountains.

Then, on Tuesday 2nd of July, we left. But as the weather was nice, so we decided to have a look at the mountains again. We got to the Aravis pass, and went down to the other valley, with an amezing view from the bottom of the Mont Blanc!

Then, we started the real drive through Switzerland and Germany.

10 hours on the road, 1012 kilometers, a lot, but really a lot of trucks, 2 customs crossing, 3 naps, 10 rows knitting of my socks, 1 fuse change and a lot of interesting obervations all way long…

– in Switzerland, we can’t drive properly despite the beautiful highway, because there are speed cameras everywhere, and then we have no idea how fast we are supposed to drive : 100, then 120, then 80, then 100…. and then we are lost! So we followed people most of the time and tried to be careful for the speed cameras.

– Basel : We turned on the GPS to be sure that we wouldnt get to the wrong highway… then there are 4 lanes and gets crowded with trucks, there is the border customs approaching and the road is in and out of the tunnels, so the GPS doesn’t really work…

– in Germany : first of all : welcome! no more speed cameras, and even better, no more speed limits (or almost- at least at the beginning). Then you THINK you can drive relaxed and how fast/slow you want to…

Everything is fine while driving 120km/h; when you have to overtake a truck and then you are stuck at 90 behind him and you are not able to go on the left lane because there is a “train” of cars that are driving way too fast that you can just go in between them :-/ so you wait, and eventually at some point (it can take long), you can overtake 🙂

“Baustelle” : Roadworks on a German highway… some speed limits are written, but it looks like nobody sees them (maybe they are going too fast that they can’t read the signs) and then it is limited to 80, I am driving 110 on the right lane and I don’t overtake anybody and everybody is overtaking me… :-/

On the roadworks as well : When Germans close a lane for repair or so, if it was a 3 lanes road, they still make a 3 lanes, just more narrow… I realized, that where the French people would do 2 lanes, Germans leave it 3… so I discovered the “sandwich overtaking”, that is alright if you do it with closed eyes and tight ass 🙂

Then, there are some places with 5 lanes… it is a little confusing!!!

There are also, sometimes, speed limits that are written above each lane of the highway… left lane is 100, second left lane is 100, second right lane is 100, and right lane is 100 as well… as if we could expect in Germany to have a lane that is allowed to drive faster than the other ones…

The road… the asphalt makes the noise of a train…takataka takataka takataka takataka takataka takataka (well, you got it…) after 500 kilometers it is definitely getting on nerves!!!!

When there are 2 lanes that are changing into 3 : every single car is moving to the left lane, that basically leaves the middle lane free…

When a police car arrives from behind, it’s better to go away on the right lane, because it’s not only the police car that is overtaking really fast, but also 10 german-expensive-fancy cars that are following the police to enjoy the “free way” without slower cars in front of them.

Well, that was a funny first experience driving in Germany…