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Pav Explains...The Autobahn

Okay, let's just start with crushing any hopes you have of coming over here, renting a Ferrari, and driving it 200mph across Germany. Yes, the Autobahn has no speed limit, but only in designated stretches - which are dwindling. Your best bet are the roads that tie larger towns together, and run through the empty countryside. It is possible to go nuts, but you do have to be very careful, German drivers are just as bad as Americans - but it's a bit different if you're doing 130mph and somebody cuts you off than if you're doing 65mph on the Turnpike. I'd say the average speed in light traffic is around 80mph, with most drivers in decent cars doing at least 100mph. My friend Hein and I have speed tested every car we've rented. The winners: A 5 series BMW and a Mercedes CLK, both of which we got up to 150mph. This is definitely pushing it though, crashing at that speed the German police won't give you a ticket, but they will have to clean up what's left of you with a snow shovel.

German driviers are at least predictable, you know they mostly follow the rules of the road. For example, passing on the right is highly illegal - and being the rule-enforcers that many Germans feel the need to be - they will call your license plate number into the police. This is definitely not the case in Italy and Spain. We thought of renting scooters in Rome, but after about 4 seconds of watching the Italians driving, and realizing that our time in Rome would be cut short due to our deaths, we decided against it. I did do a ton of driving in Barcelona though, which was a blast. Besides getting lost, it was a fun free-for-all. Signs claim to have radar enforced speed limits, ha! Driving in the city with a rental car was the most fun, I would compare it to a video game. Hitting pedestrians seems to be encouraged.