With her Motorcar No. 3, Bertha Benz had to use roads that actually did not deserve being called roads. After all, the carts and carriages pulled by horses at the time normally rolled over simple bumpy field tracks.

So she followed the dead straight Roman street from Ladenburg to Heidelberg. But also her route from Heidelberg to Karlsruhe followed the "Via Montana", a former Roman street that bequeathed its name to today's "Bergstrasse" ("Mountain Street").

The Upper Rhine Valley, and mainly the Bergstrasse, are so much favoured by climate that the ancient Romans brought their Italian wine growing tradition with them. For this reason, large parts of Via Montana probably were a vineyard path already back then.

The towns and villages were much smaller than today. Therefore, the few carts passing them went straight through the centres - by-pass roads were not necessary at the time.

Shortly before reaching Karlsruhe, Bertha branched off into the Pfinztal valley leading her to Pforzheim, her native town, where she wanted to visit her mother. However, another reason for her trip probably was the fact that her sister Tekla had given birth to a girl on 13. July 1888 whom she was keen on seeing.

For her return trip, she then preferred the route through Bretten in order not to have to go down the steep hills she had had to climb on her way to Pforzheim. From Bruchsal, she drove to Schwetzingen and back to Mannheim, once again following a Roman street for many kilometers near Kirrlach, which still leads dead straight through the forest today.