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Just like other people, police may or may not be friendly towards hitchhikers. It is said that police controls are more frequent in the southern states of [[Bavaria]] and [[Baden-Württemberg]]. As a foreigner you have to carry your passport at all times; a national ID card is sufficient if you are from another EU country. If you are being checked, be friendly, show it to them and they will leave you alone.
=== Car registration/number plates ===
You can determine where a car is registered by its number plates. While tehre are certain plates on rented cars. (Europcar has „HH“ (Hamburg), Avis – „EU“ (Euskirchen), Sixt – „M“ (Munich), Hertz „DN-H“ (Düren)), other plates are associated with areas [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_Kfz-Kennzeichen_in_Deutschland - DE], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Germany EN]. The first letter is usually the district where it is registered. In addition, there is a little patch beside the number which tells you what state that number plate belongs to, which is useful if you do not know the district letters.
=== Crossing the border ===
== License plates ==
There are between one and three letters on a license plate which show the city or region where the car is registered. For example, look for license plates starting with '''B''' if you're hitching to [[Berlin]]. Have a look at the articles on Wikipedia for more information: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_car_number_plates German car number plates] (in English) and [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_Kfz-Kennzeichen_in_Deutschland Liste der Kfz-Kennzeichen in Deutschland] (in German).
Note that it is no longer required to change plates if you move, so a HH (Hamburg) car may very well belong to someone living in München (M). At the moment this is not yet a big problem, but in due course it may lead to the situation that license plates become as useless as those in many other countries for determining the direction a car might be going...
== Maps ==
=== Bahnhof Mission ===
Even on every big railwaystation railway station you can find Bahnhof Mission. This is charity christian Christian organisation that can help you in different needs. Don't abuse them so much because mostly it's for homeless people but if you need feel free to come. They can give you advices where you can find free food or free place to sleep, because they know all charity organisations that operates in the city. You can make a call from their phones, charge your devices, have rest in their room, warm yourself in the cold period. Sometimes they have some food (usually sandwiches) and free tea/coffee. They do not allow to leave your luggage. Usually they open 24 hours with some breaks for cleaning during the day. Sometimes you can stay there for a night, you can put your sleeping bag on the floor (but it depends of the workers), it's not the mandatory.
=== Eating on the Autobahn ===
