I used to travel all round Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the late 70s- early 80s. Apart from the cost benefit, it does wonders for your language skills. Drivers were perfectly happy to pick you up, and I only ever had one close call with a fat bloke in a big Merc in Frankfurt who wanted to discuss corporal punishment with me for some obscure reason. I worked on a few volunteer work camps, and had a good few contacts to go and visit by the time I had done my A levels, so that summer set off and spent seven weeks visiting all of my friends.
BFG drivers were always a good bet for getting home. You just needed to get to a BP garage near the border and ask the squaddies for lifts home. Worked every time.
Record lift was Pisa to Coventry in one ride. Took several days as he had to change loads in Turin, and suffered an air line failure, so was glad of the help to get it changed.