Originally Posted by
etch5895
Oh, another tidbit of info for the OP...Between some countries (Germany and France comes to mind), the actual border crossings still have gate shacks, so to speak, but they are largely unmanned. I have crossed into France from Germany and saw that the French police (I think) were stopping cars leaving France and spot checking them. This may have been tax police or some other entity. I also remember seeing these border booths going from Luxembourg into Belgium. Germany to Austria, on the other hand, has only a sign.
There are border crossings going into Switzerland, and they are all manned (or were a couple of years ago).
I don't know about the "new" EU members, like Poland, Czech Republik, Slovenia etc., but between the "old" countrys, like France, Germany, Italy etc. there aren't checkpoints anymore, just signs "welcome to...", but this doesn't mean that the border patrol doesn't exsist anymore, specially the border between the Netherlands and Germany is still protected by patrol cars that stop travellers at random, to look for drugs and illegal imigration.
The Swiss-EU borders still exist in their old form, with manned checkpoints.
One last remark regarding the speed on the German Autobahn: Any car with more than 200 hp will go 250 kph (160 mph) or more, and whenever possible their drivers will drive at least between 100 and 150 mph.
For example I usually drive around 120 mph, when there are no traffic jams, but I still want to stay on the right lane as I'm frequently overtaken by sportscars driving faster than 180 mph. Especially on the A81 from Stuttgart to the Swiss border.