Went to the ADAC headquarters in Munich today to pick up my Carnet de Passage for the motorcycle. The Carnet is kind of like a 'visa for vehicles' and is mandatory for a number of countries, including Iran, Pakistan and Australia. (I can't recall the complete list of countries where the carnet is needed – if you're preparing a similar trip, check with your local vehicle association – or better: try the forums on Horizons Unlimited).
After pre-arranging a meeting time at the ADAC, the whole process was very straight-forward and only took about 45 minutes, with a bond of €3000 paid in cash. I'm lucky to have German nationality/residency (and a German bank-account, so the bond can be paid back once I finished my travels): because the bond for the ADAC is relatively cheap compared to the UK RAC's equivalent, the ADAC was very popular for UK-based motorcycle travellers for quite a while. In the UK, the deposit/bank-guarantee for a carnet can be up to 8x the value of your vehicle, depending on what countries you'd like to travel through. However, the ADAC recently stopped issuing carnets for non-German residents – rumours say the RAC wasn't too happy about losing business.
