Road Conditions - Belgium and Germany

[Vernon B]

Does anyone have any recent experience of the road condition through Belgium and central Germany down to Croatia please? Mine go back to 2012 and then they gave the impression that WW III had taken place without them telling us.

 

Thanks

V

[mikebeaches]

We returned 4 weeks ago. The motorway we used through Belgium - travelling round the north of Brussels - was much better than the ones we used to the south 3 years ago, which were awful.

 

We were surprised and disappointed by the amount of roadworks, number of closures, lack of diversion signage and general traffic hold-ups on the German autobahns. Perhaps we were just unlucky, but it wasn't what we were expecting.

 

Found travelling on Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday was much better because most heavy commercial vehicles - trucks and lorries - were off the roads.

 

Google navigation has live traffic data, which helped to some extent.

 

Have a great trip in any case.

[Vernon B]

Many thanks - a similar experiences to us a few years ago. A longer route through France/Italy might be a better option.

 

V

[Brian Kirby]

The Germans delayed a lot of road repairs while they recovered from the cost of unification. They are now (and have been for some time) attacking the backlog.

 

How the following suggestion would work for you, will depend on whether you want to get quickly to Croatia via motorway type roads or are happy to spend some time on two lane roads.

 

Head by whatever route suits you in the general direction of Strasbourg, and cross the Rhine to Offenburg, and thence via Biberach, Schiltach, Rottweil, Albstat and Biberach an der Riss to Memingen, where you can pick up the A7 for just over 45 miles south toward Fussen. From Fussen, take the A7 south through the Grenztunnel, continuing via the Fernpass to Reutte, Biberwier, Nassereith, and Imst to Landeck (avoiding the A12 and consequent need for an autobahn Maut/Vignette). From Landeck take the L76/B180 south for Prutz, Nauders and the Reschenpass to Reschen/Resia and Italy. Continue on the SS40 via Mals/Malles Venosta to Merano, and on down the SS38 (Mebo) to Bolzano, and thence by whatever route you prefer to Trieste and Croatia. Venice is not far off if so inclined.

 

This is a generally pleasant route through the Black Forest and across to Memmingen. The A7 south from Memmingen has the backdrop of the Alps. Both Fern and Reschen passes are good, two way, well graded, roads with little drama and in places spectacular scenery, but can be a bit slow in places due to trucks. Once to Resia pull over onto the car park by the lake for lunch/coffee, and enjoy the view of a church tower emerging from the depths! The SS40 is also a well graded descent to Merano although, like the Fern/Reschen passes, it can be a bit slow behind trucks. The SS38 (Mebo) is an excellent, fast, dual carriageway down a broad valley framed by the Alpine ridges on both sides.

[Robinhood]

I think much depends on how fast progress you want to make, and what your plans are for stopping off on the way.

 

Our recent experience of German Autobahns hasn't been particularly good, but there are routes you can take without resorting to France which keep the progress reasonably rapid, but miss some of the worst roads. They have the advantage of being reasonably quiet, reasonably quick, and, of course, toll-free.

 

We've graduated to heading across Belgium using either the Brussels route (not if you're going to be circumnavigating the latter at peak times), or the more Southerly route via Namur, going to the East of Liege, and dropping into Germany down the E42/A60 to the Mosel near Bernkastel.

 

This road is relatively new, lightly-loaded, and as a result has few roadworks. The Mosel makes for a good night's stopover given the plethora of Stellplatze.

 

From there, either by using the A1 or A62 (with a bit of non Autobahn use to get to them, depending on where/whether you choose to stop), you can rejoin the main Rhine N-S drags around about Landau.

 

There will inevitably be some (unavoidable) Autobahn delays around Stuutgart and Ulm, but then you can rejoin Brian's route via Memmingen if you wish.

[emmerson]

In my experience in the last couple of years, the road surfaces off the motorways are bad in both countries, and the motorways are plagued by roadworks, so, you pay your money and make your choice!

[mgnbuk]

2 weeks back from a trip down to Northern Italy, but went Hull-Rotterdam so didn't go through Belgium this time.

 

The German autobahns have a lot of roadworks, but the A61(Monchengladbach - Bingen) didn't seem as bad as last year. Travelling on Sundays helps with traffic levels & makes for an easier drive, as most trucks have to park up for the day. This can cause issues at service areas for a motorhome, as longer bays can be in short supply. Some of the roadworks are due to increasing the size of lorry parks. most of the others are valley bridge works & resurfacing. Most are short length, but the outside lane is usually restricted to 2.1 metre wide vehicles & a motorhome has to go though with the trucks at the speed of the slowest.

 

The Arlberg Tunnel in Austria is closed all summer for work, which is increasing traffic on the Fern Pass - it took us over an hour and a half to cover 30Km through the pass towards Reutte & traffic levels were the same (i.e very heavy & with frequent stationary periods) in both directions.

 

Coming back from Austria via Salzburg, the Germans had a "checkpoint" set up un the border requiring all vehicles on the autobahn to slow to walking pace through a serpentine diversion. No checks, just disruption - this caused a half an hour delay on a not-too-busy day. There was something similar last year at the border near Rosenheim on the A93. The A8 to Munich was very busy, with a couple of short roadworks sections that caused 30-45 minutes delay getting to the Munich ring (A99). There are a couple of short sections of works on the A99 that put 2 hours of delays on (one of which was stated to be on until 2020 - I will be avoiding the area until then !).

 

At least the major works on the A8 (Munich towards Stuttgart via Augsburg & Ulm) for widening to 3 lanes that have been on for very long stretches over the last few years are complete now, so nothing of note on the A8 up to the junction with the A7 as I recall. I detoured A7 - A6 to get near to a stop near Heidelberg to avoid Stuttgart, as I have had very bad delays there every time I have been past for the past several years (IIRC there is a point where 3 lane of motorway come down to single lane to over a bridge, then go back to 3 lanes, with very long delays).

 

The Bundesstrassen & more minor roads are also quite heavily afficted by "Umleitungs" (diversions), but probably no more so than the last couple of years. The diversions can be very long & quite tortuous on occasions, though. Seeing more 70kph speed limits applied on otherwise derestricted roads around junctions & 30 kph limts through built up areas, which really slow average speeds if going across country avoiding the autobahns. Also seem to be a lot more speed cameras, the latest design of which just looks like a large diameter anodised aluminium pole with smoked acrylic bands for the camera & flash - not easy to spot (unlike the bright orange, low level, Italian devices). Also some on the Autobahns were there are variable speed limits - not usually an issue, as the traffic was not running at the posted limit when we saw those.

 

HTH

 

Nigel B

 

[Vernon B]

Thanks all, particularly Brian, Robinhood and Nigel for what is developing into some very interesting and authoritative information; which should be required reading for anyone heading this way.

 

V

 

PS What's all this about the "Free Passage of People"?

[mgnbuk]

" PS What's all this about the "Free Passage of People"? "

 

IIRC the German "checkpoints" were initiated when Austria put on border controls with Slovenia to stop refugees / migrants transiting through Austria to reach Germany a couple of years ago. Again IIRC, there was something similar done with Denmark & maybe Sweden for the same reason.

 

I do wonder if the holdups heading to (& around) Munich have an element of politics. Bavaria was at the forefront of wanting to introduce an Austrian-style vignette system in Germany for foreigners to use the autobahns. Mrs Merkel is not keen on the idea & the first German proposals fell foul (deliberately ?) of EU rules on treating all residents of the member states equally & were thrown out. There are elections is Germany this Autumn & I wonder if "congestion" is being engineered-in as a political tool to either push Bavaria's position nationally or influence the election in favour of pro-charging candidates, in a similar way as it was reported that congestion in London was "engineered in" before the introduction of the Congestion charge & "engineered out" after the charge was in place to "prove" how effective the charge was at easing congestion.

 

That said (an I may well be very wrong in my rather cynical view above), I have a lot of sympathy for the Germans, who have to put up with many foreign trucks transiting through their country & contributing little apart from congestion & pollution. Trucks over 12.5 Tonnes are subject to tolling already, though.

But, for the first time this year (& out of the peak season), we struggled to get a space on campsites on the lakes east of Salzburg. On a site we have used previously on the Wolfgangsee, I estimate that 3/4 of the campers were Czechs - most of who probably came on German Autobahns. We moved on after one night, as the site was too noisy, but had similar problems getting space at a site on the Mondsee.

 

Good to see that the Czechs are now well-off & confident enough to travel abroad for holidays, but they will be putting addition strains on the roads as well as the campsites. The Germans will, again, see an increase in traffic on their roads & get nothing positive in return. Could you blame them for wanting all users of their roads to contribute to their upkeep directly ?

 

Nigel B