Simon DeDeo writes:
I was in Europe for the Summer with a friend, slumming it pretty much -- but not that much, since we had a train pass and could pretty much get anywhere from anywhere on the vast network of railroads. We had decided to hit the 'romantic road' in Germany -- a stretch of countryside dark and gloomy enough for Wagner and Goethe -- and got on a bus that headed through a network of walled towns.
We stopped off in Nordlingen and with natural skill, I missed the bus by a good half hour, having been a little sloshed by sausage and beer at a small wursthaus on the outskirts of town. The next train was in the morning, and the one bus wasn't coming for god knows how long. Think Vermont with Germans -- lots of open countryside and not much else.
I hit the road with a vague idea that I would hitchike to Rothenburg, where the tourbus finished its route and started walking. For those who don't know, the European way of hitchhiking is usually to keep walking with your fist raised and thumb pointing in the direction you want to go. Having never done anything like this before, I had really no idea of what to expect but I eventually learned to find the long gentle curves where people could get a good look at me before deciding to stop, traffic lights, making eye contact, etc.

The people who picked me up could have been Germany's delegates to the UN; there was an automechanic who used to hitchike to work, a nurse in training, a trucker heading for the autobahn. It took quite a while to get a ride, especially in the long stretches of country between towns -- you get used to the smarter looking cars just driving by or honking you off the road, and the more polite waves of people going the other way.
Truck drivers are a mixed bunch; some will pick you up, others will not even notice that you're there. I made it the three hundred km's or so (on the senic route) within the day, starting early in the morning.

There are definitly disadvantages -- I wouldn't recommend it to the solitary female, or to guys in a group of more than two (since nobody wants to be outnumbered in their own car.) And yes, there are some sketchy people, but as long as you keep your head, stay to the busier arteries, refusing a ride is no problem.
On the plus side, walking through long stretches of absolutly beautiful land, catching rides on the outskirts of walled cities with generally friendly people (I spent a good part of the time translating Nirvana lyrics into broken German. They love Kurt Cobain for some reason), was an amazing way to see a part of Europe. None of the usual crap of travel (do we stay in this hotel or that? Can we pay the bill? Which tour do we hang onto next?) -- kind of an elemental being in touch with the most important part of travel, which is stranding yourself somewhere far away from the life you usually live.

So, good luck -- Simon