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It can take a while before you know how to hitchhike fast and efficient and also experienced hitchhikers sometimes need patience. In my own country I rarely need more than twenty minutes to find a driver when I am in a good or reasonable hitchhiking environment. I started hitchhiking actively in spring 2003. Before that I hitchhiked on occasion, for example to go back to the starting point of a hiking trip or to get back to a camping. The first experience was in the summer of 1993, when my father in a moment decided to hitchhike with me when we were walking in the French Alps. That way we managed to get up very high on the mountain. Otherwise we would not have succeeded in doing that.
My longest ride brought me from [[Wroclaw]] in [[Poland]] to a motorway petrol station near [[Mönchengladbach]] in [[Germany]], which I calculated as 882 kilometers (January 2007). The second longest ride was from the Polish border at [[Swiecko]] to Lierop near [[Eindhoven]] in the [[Netherlands]], a distance of about 700 kilometers (January 2006). May 2007 I got a ride with a friend of 680 kilometres from a service area near [[Liege]] (Luttich) in [[Belgium]] to the beach of [[Berlin]]-Grunau, which was actually our destination. The ride from Pomellen at the German side of the border between [[Berlin]] and [[Szczecin]] had a length of 660 kilometers (September 2006). The fifth longest ride was from the border petrol station near [[Heerlen]] in the [[Netherlands]] to Konigs Wüsterhausen near [[Berlin]] in [[Germany]]: 640 kilometers (june 2006). Sixth place: from [[Michendorf]] in Germany to [[Vaals]], just accross the Dutch border: 599 km. In november 2003 I had a ride of 540 kilometers from service area Frechen near [[Köln]] to service area [[Michendorf ]] near [[Berlin]], and in december 2006 I got another ride to [[Michendorf]] near [[Berlin]], on that occasion from a service area close to [[Enschede]].
My shortest lifts include several short rides of one kilometre, which were sometimes very helpful.
The longest distance I hitched in one day was 1125 kilometers, which took about 24 hours and two times I did almost thousand kilometres, which once took about 13 hours and the other time 15 hours. I made twenty trips longer than 250 kilometers. My longest ride in the Netherlands was 265 kilometers, which was part of a trip of about 350 kilometers from Maastricht to Groningen; this is about the biggest distance one can do in the “small country” the [[Netherlands]].
Here is the website that I edit: Hitchhiking (ad-hoc-carpooling) in the Netherlands: [http://www.franknature.nl/hitchhike/hitchhike.htm]
I keep detailed lists and statistics of my travels. For an extract, take a look here: [http://www.franknature.nl/hitchhike/hitchhike.htm]. The page holds a list of all trips, a table with numbers of rides, average waits and average ride lengths per country and a list of the motorway service areas which I have used during hitchhiking.
Let’s build this community! See you on the road!
[[Category:Hitchhikers]]
