Day 11, Germany with a hint of Austria, Wednesday August 8th

Today was a day of superslab from Aachen down to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

I did stop by the accessory shop, but somehow made it out of there without the new helmet. Maybe I'll try to find one if I pass through the duty-free country of Andorra later in this trip.

I love the German Autobaun. For getting where you need to go, nothing compares. It has a bit of scenery and I know I'd see a lot more if I took local roads, but in this chapter of the trip, I wanted to get as close to Austria as I could for tomorrow. It is a true delight to travel at your comfortable speed and not worry that you're in opposition with what the local government calls comfortable.

While passing near Heidelberg, I stopped at Knopftours to drop off my dead laptop and my camping gear, shedding some weight. I also lined up my shuttle ride for my transits to and from the Frankfurt airport this coming weekend.

I made some criticisms earlier about lane discipline on the Autobaun, but perhaps that was just a weekend thing. I found the drivers yesterday (and over the past few days in general) were much better. Euphoric, really. I am beginning to understand the frustration of my friends who return to North America after spending time on the roads in Europe. In my travels so far, noone has worse drivers than Ontario, through there is evidence that Calgary struggles to wrest that title away. Distraction, a feeling of entitlement in the fast lane, blind spots that roughly cover 270 degrees of everything not directly ahead.

European roads tend to have higher limits. Like, secondary and country roads are often 100km/h, compared to Ontario's 80km/h. Highways are often 120-130km/h, with Ontario at 100km/h, and many other provinces are 110km/h. Of course the German Autobaun is still unrestricted over a lot of it, with a "recommended" limit of 160km/h. But European nations' penalties for "undertaking" (passing at high speed on the slower side, or passing on the right in Canada, as an example) are often severe, making lane discipline a pleasantly common skill.

In Canada, it is a recommendation, not a law as far as I know, to only pass on the left. It happens very rarely here.

So Europeans seem to get more realistic speed limits, but the limits are more closely enforced. Speed cameras are prevalent throughout what I've ridden so far over here. There is some grief around the speed cameras, because I think they trigger at +1, making the posted limit a pretty inflexible one. I'm not sure what that spells for my Ontario plates (and some cameras are facing towards the front of the vehicle, so motorcycles are seemingly exempt), but I guess if I return home to a stack of +1, +2 photo tickets, I'll have my answer.

Incidentally, radar detectors are illegal through most (if not all) of western Europe. I think they sometimes use a slightly different band than is common on North American detectors.

It was a fast day yesterday. I had my worst tank of gas yet; just shy of 8L/100km. Considering the speeds I averaged today, that's still respectable.

 

Posted with Blogsy