You may remember that our previous jaunts on the autobahn have been somewhat ho hum. Yes, we did get up to 85mph in a few places, but much of the time we spent crawling through construction sites in lanes barely wide enough to accommodate two cars much less a car and a semi. No more ho hum . . .
Our trip from Dresden to Heidelberg was a long one - over 6 hours - and the road was surprisingly traffic and construction-free. A golden opportunity to put our wonderful Citroen diesel to the performance and competition test. But first, a little bit of autobahniana.
Many of these roads date back to the time of Hitler (one of his grand designs along with the volkswagen - the people's car). When General Eisenhower took command of Germany at the end of the war, he was very impressed with the road system. So impressed, in fact, that when he became President he inaugurated the US Interstate Highway system, much of it modeled on the autobahns he'd seen in Germany. I believe this linkage was not common knowledge, and the US interstate system was promoted as a means of efficiently moving large numbers of troops and equipment across our vast country. Consequently, the concepts so common to those of us who've driven countless thousands and thousands of miles back and forth across the US are very familiar here.
These are controlled access highways with exits about every 10-15 miles. Their signs, posted overhead before and at exits, are blue with white lettering, unlike ours which are green and white. And unlike our interstates, exit numbers are not clearly identified but rather indicated by discreet little signs on the side of the road, kind of like mile markers. Commercial traffic is heavy, but trucks are limited to the rightmost lane and only occasionally pull out to pass one another. Some of the autobahns are only two lanes but many are three lanes, and that's where the real fun begins.
We have trucks in the right lane, the center lane is for the 'slower' folk (under 90mph), and the leftmost lane is where anything goes. For much of the autobahn, there is no speed limit; yes, you read that right, no speed limit. I cannot tell you how surreal it is to be driving along at 90mph and have a series of cars whoosh by you going what must be 140 or 150mph. Tim has been really controlled and well-behaved and resisted the impulse to pull into that left lane and catch up to those speedsters! All it took was a suggestion from me: 'It would be really fun to see what 110mph feels like', and he was in that left lane quicker than a Formula One driver out of the pit.
The Citroen's speedometer maxes out at 280kph which, I think, is somewhere around 160 or 170mph. No, we didn't get up to that speed but we were pushing 120 (confirmed by the GPS which dutifully keeps track of our speed). 120MPH!! Let me tell you, that's fast on any speedometer. And what's so spooky is that after you cruise along at 120 for a few minutes, it starts to feel normal - kind of like 75 or 80 across Texas on I-10. And, you guessed it, in just a few minutes someone came right up behind us, impatient (no horn blowing here: just some gut-wrenching, skid-mark generating tailgating) for us to move over so he could pass us - at 120mph!!!
That was sufficient to persuade Tim that he wasn't meant to live life in the fast lane, at least not for long. A photo of the delightful Citroen:
But we did it - cruised the autobahn at mind-boggling speeds and lived to tell the tale! Oh p.s., I think our highways are better :)
Our trip from Dresden to Heidelberg was a long one - over 6 hours - and the road was surprisingly traffic and construction-free. A golden opportunity to put our wonderful Citroen diesel to the performance and competition test. But first, a little bit of autobahniana.
Many of these roads date back to the time of Hitler (one of his grand designs along with the volkswagen - the people's car). When General Eisenhower took command of Germany at the end of the war, he was very impressed with the road system. So impressed, in fact, that when he became President he inaugurated the US Interstate Highway system, much of it modeled on the autobahns he'd seen in Germany. I believe this linkage was not common knowledge, and the US interstate system was promoted as a means of efficiently moving large numbers of troops and equipment across our vast country. Consequently, the concepts so common to those of us who've driven countless thousands and thousands of miles back and forth across the US are very familiar here.
These are controlled access highways with exits about every 10-15 miles. Their signs, posted overhead before and at exits, are blue with white lettering, unlike ours which are green and white. And unlike our interstates, exit numbers are not clearly identified but rather indicated by discreet little signs on the side of the road, kind of like mile markers. Commercial traffic is heavy, but trucks are limited to the rightmost lane and only occasionally pull out to pass one another. Some of the autobahns are only two lanes but many are three lanes, and that's where the real fun begins.
We have trucks in the right lane, the center lane is for the 'slower' folk (under 90mph), and the leftmost lane is where anything goes. For much of the autobahn, there is no speed limit; yes, you read that right, no speed limit. I cannot tell you how surreal it is to be driving along at 90mph and have a series of cars whoosh by you going what must be 140 or 150mph. Tim has been really controlled and well-behaved and resisted the impulse to pull into that left lane and catch up to those speedsters! All it took was a suggestion from me: 'It would be really fun to see what 110mph feels like', and he was in that left lane quicker than a Formula One driver out of the pit.
The Citroen's speedometer maxes out at 280kph which, I think, is somewhere around 160 or 170mph. No, we didn't get up to that speed but we were pushing 120 (confirmed by the GPS which dutifully keeps track of our speed). 120MPH!! Let me tell you, that's fast on any speedometer. And what's so spooky is that after you cruise along at 120 for a few minutes, it starts to feel normal - kind of like 75 or 80 across Texas on I-10. And, you guessed it, in just a few minutes someone came right up behind us, impatient (no horn blowing here: just some gut-wrenching, skid-mark generating tailgating) for us to move over so he could pass us - at 120mph!!!
That was sufficient to persuade Tim that he wasn't meant to live life in the fast lane, at least not for long. A photo of the delightful Citroen:
But we did it - cruised the autobahn at mind-boggling speeds and lived to tell the tale! Oh p.s., I think our highways are better :)
No comments:
Post a Comment