Germany

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Germany is a great country for hitchhiking. Just make sure you get on the Autobahn (motorway)! There it is best to get to a Raststätte (service area) where drivers can legally stop and get from one to another. You will often find maps with the motorways and the service areas along them.

In Germany there are no speed limits on many highways. So you might first want to try to get a ride with fast cars before asking truck drivers! Trucks are great during nighttime, but like in France, there are restrictions to when they might drive. In Germany, most trucks aren't allowed to drive on sundays or public holidays until 22:00.

License plates

In Germany license plates start with an abbreviation of the region where the car is registered. So look out for number plates starting with B if you're hitching to Berlin!

See German car number plates and List of abbreviations used (in German) on Wikipedia for more information.

Border crossings

Germany implemented the Schengen Agreement. This means, that the border to other Schengen countries are open. At the borders to non-Schengen countries (Poland, Czech Republic and Switzerland) there are still checkpoints and German custom officers or sometimes police might control your luggage. These border crossings are usually among the best places in Europe to find a long distance ride. If you hitchhike on the border stand well behind the border pass on or close to the edge of the border control area and additional services (shops and parkings) and the beginning of the motorway or national road. It is best to leave the car 100-200 meter (in stead of 10 meter) after the border; in that case border guardians rarely bother about hitchhikers.

Maps

If you're not staying very long in Germany you can make it with any map of Germany showing you the gas stations on the highway. Go to any gas station along the highways and ask for a "Autobahn-Guide". This "Autobahn-Guide" is for free! You'll get a map with an overview of all gas stations along the highways. More Information you can find here: tank.rast.de. You can also find more detailed maps there for ~5 Euro.

Very good maps for hitchhiking are Michelin Regional, the orange ones with the numbers 541-546. There are six of them, each covering a different part of Germany.
They are very detailed, on the motorway they show every single gas station, hotel, restaurant, or parking place and they also have town maps for any bigger town within the covered area.
Ratio is 1:350000. You can usually get them in local bookstores for about 8€.

Eat

Try to avoid eating on service stations on the motorways. They are very expensive (you even have to pay for the toilets) and the food is usually very bad. At some service stations you get a EUR 0,50 bill for the toilet. You can buy things for EUR 0,50 with it at the petrol station shop and at the restaurant. You can drink water from the tap nearly everywhere in Germany.

Keep in mind that most shops (including supermarkets) are not allowed to open on Sundays. There are no 24h-shops, but gas stations often offer a limited food section. In bigger cities you can usually get the cheapest food at the various Turkish and Italian Restaurants.

Tiziano hitching from Berlin to Munich

Biggest cities

Cities

Regions

Practical links

lh:DE

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