>>6003861The golden days of the Autobahn are definitely over. I don't think people realize how bad it has become, I hadn't myself until I drove long distance through Germany recently.
If you drive anywhere near larger agglomerations (most of NRW, Rhein-Main, around any big city) or on popular long distance routes (A1, A8), you will not have a good time. In fact it's almost impossible if you don't have cruise control. You will have long stretches of ever-changing speed limits, and not even 130 or 120 km/h, but 100 km/h, 80 km/h, sometimes 60 km/h, I'm talking about normal motorways here WITHOUT the roadworks! Speed cameras galore. Then you have to add the 20 km long roadworks that take 10 years to finish of which you will find many. Traffic jams even on Sundays. "Gaps" on major routes like again the A1 or A8 where green hippies have stopped construction for decades, and you have to take non-motorways which slow you down to a crawl. Sometimes those actually have 2 lanes per direction and a central barrier and wouldn't be too bad, but again, low speed limits and cameras.
A route like Luxembourg-Munich that people would brag about having done in under three yours 30 years ago has become an absolute nightmare. The last small leg which has been extended to three lanes per direction is awesome and you can actually make great time - for about half an hour. The rest is misery.
The unlimited sections are great for a bit of thrill and to test your car, but I think for actual long distance driving I would now prefer even something like France. Just set the cruise control to 130 but then you're actually allowed to stick to it, not like Germany where you do 5 minutes of 200 km/h, then 10 minutes of 120 km/h then 15 minutes of 100 km/h, then 60 km/h roadworks, then 120 km/h again, but you forgot, is the speed limit still in place here or has it been lifted? You're tired and you forgot, so you have to wait minutes for the next sign or risk getting a ticket.
