The final section of this new Autobahn was opened yesterday, providing a good alternative to the Frankfurt/ Nürnberg route when heading for Prague from the Channel ports and also an alternative to the A4 when heading for Dresden or southern Poland.
Good news!
How is progress with the A33, the bit that will miss out the Bielefeld ring road when travelling Paderborn to Osnabruck? Last I saw, they’d started the work but is it done yet??
Do you mean that tunnel between Kassel and Halle is finished? Around that… Bleiche… something (sorry, too laze to pull out map right now).
That’s great and it’s also in the right time (Christmas rush).
I went that way last year before Christmas - veeeeery quiet, very nice scenery, very convenient for CZ, nort & east SK and souther PL. Despite the Czech D8 is still missing a bit.
The way back was nightmare - we went the “standard way”, Austria and then A3 - stau at Regensburg 30min, at Nurnberg diverted to A6, then onto A7, just before Wurzburg had a minor accident (1hr delay), wurzburg - aschaffenburg completely solid, took us about 5hrs to crawl it. Arrived Oostende when they opened check-in - planned sleep just didn’t happen… Hate to think about it again…
Bleicherode ?
We do a drop there 
That’s the place, Simon.
Read all about it (and brush up your German 
) HERE.
Interesting to compare the A38 with the A33.
Whereas the former has taken 14 years to complete, the A33 between Wünnenberg and Osnabrück has been an ongoing project for about 30 years.
The nimby and treehugger lobby in the East are no match for their cousins in the West when it comes to throwing a spanner in the works of new Autobahn projects.
However, work started on the last section between Borgholzhausen and the A2 at Sennestadt earlier this year, after years of wrangling about the route the Autobahn should take around Steinhagen and Halle.
It is supposed to be finished by the end of 2010.