17. ALWAYS pay attention to your REAR VIEW MIRROR at all times.

Here a sample left-lane picture version from your rear view mirror:

Left Lane, 8 seconds behind you
Left Lane, 2 seconds behind you
Left Lane, One-half second before impact into the rear of your car!

German drivers have a major difference to U.S drivers…and here’s an American’s viewpoint about a German Driver’s Thinking:
The German thinks, “The more expensive the car I drive, the FASTER I can drive it in the LEFT LANE and the MORE RIGHTS I OWN of the Autobahn and other German roadways! Everyone driving a less expensive car MUST move out of my way! MY BIG EXPENSIVE CAR tells the world I OWN the left lane of the Autobahn wherever I drive! (That means owners of expensive Porsche, Ferrari and other Italian exotics, and BIG Mercedes claim “first rights” to the left lane of the Autobahn, followed by big BMW’s and Audi’s, VW’s and Fiats, in that order, followed by those lesser makes down the car value list.)”

If this 200 kMph German driver is headed toward your 100 kMph rear bumper, are you going to argue with him or get out of his way?

Now some other great website pointers on driving in Germany:

Some in-depth rules for driving in each country can be found at his website:
http://www.bugeurope.com/transport/driving.html

Find and click on your favorite country from the list on the left.

For roadway, traffic and street signs, my favorite and most complete website is:
http://home.att.net/~texhwyman/zeichen.htm

Read this over completely at least once BEFORE you leave home. Three or four more times won’t hurt either.

Besides, recognizing German and European driving signs will give you some ideas for great pix to share with your friends.

And some German road signs probably won’t appear in these lists, but they are very self explanatory, like the one we saw while driving next to the Mosel River:

Finally, once you’re off the Autobahns and driving the Backroads, here are some great tips found on an earlier Bill’s Backroads below:

#2 - Driving the Backroads...

Now I’ve given you some very important, interesting, and fun reading material and study lessons on Driving in Germany and Europe. Time to enjoy and photograph our driving trip.

Suggestions to help Identify your trip Photographs, take great pictures, and still enjoy all the sights with your eyes!
(otherwise known as “Do as I say, not as I do.”)

Hard lessons: As a young teenager, my family took a 5 week trip from Texas to the U.S. East Coast, including all the scenic and historic points, up to Maine, back via Canada and home to Texas. Dad (a camera buff) shot the color camera, I shot the black and white dupes of his color pix. We recorded every shot, location, name, camera setting (f-stop, speed, etc) for each pix for the entire trip. As a result I hate photographic record keeping, but sure like to know how to ID all my pix when I get home… so………
On my trips these days, I take a 3 mega pixel digital pocket sized Canon with a built-in 5x zoom optical, a 35mm with a built-in 5x zoom OR a great small Canon ZR60 digital movie camera with a built-in 18x zoom. Point and shoot! And I leave home all my fancy 35 mm Pentax or Canon with major zoom lens, filters, and suitcase full of accessories for each!

Some To Do hints:

1. Take small point-and-shoot cameras, and if affordable, one with a built-in digital zoom lens.

2. Most cameras have an internal day / date / time calendar feature. Before you leave home, put in new batteries to start and set the camera calendar to the correct day, date, and time. Each time new batteries are installed or changed, always check this camera calendar for its correct setting.

3. Set your camera on the highest resolution! Yes the HIGHEST! Sure, you get less pictures per memory card, but you can “blow them up” or do whatever with them when you get home. CAUTION: Lowest resolution in some digital cameras often only gives you small pictures about 1½ inch square and you can’t enlarge them!

NOW you’re ready to start shooting pictures.

4. Have back-up memory cards for your digital cameras as well as a spare “special battery,” if other than an AA or AAA type which are found in stores worldwide.

5. If you have rechargeable battery, remember to pack the charger. I also take a 12 vdc “cigar plug” charger for mine as I need the charged batteries during the day in the car when I’m shooting pictures, not when I’m sleeping.

6. Take a notebook and write down IN ORDER the date, name of towns visited that day, and preferable time visited. I write a diary with it, but what you write is up to you. I also suggest you trace on a map your route and note the dates where you slept. Name of zimmer helps too if you’re taking pix of it - AND remember you can write (with heavy pen) the pix location / pix info / etc on a page of your notebook and then take a close-up picture of the written note... HENCE you have a visual PIX note of exactly what / where you wanted to remember at that point in your picture taking!

7. When you get home download - or develop – your film, keeping all in the order taken. If possible on your digital pix, let the date and number sequence given by your camera be the Identification of each pix. Then make a Duplicate copy and substitute the town name, subject name / location, etc for ID use to show family and friends, and for your pleasure in years to come.

On our trip last year, I did the above successfully for the most part, except I lost the page notes for a few pix which I can’t identify. Can you help me identify the little German town shown in these pix? It’s located somewhere between Rothenburg ob.d. Tauber and Koblenz on the Rhine.

And likely, the most remembered road sign you’ll see on the Autobahn is this:

Here’s wishing you Wise, Safe and Healthy travels.

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