Travel tips for touring around Europe

What are the best kind of roads to take between towns? The big not quite motorway roads or smaller more off the beaten track roads? I've been desperately trying to find a decent atlas of Germany/Europe that shows cycle paths/roads but can not for the life of me find anything decent.

The Bikeline series are good. I think they are only available in German but the maps are excellent so even if you don't read German they are useful.

http://www.esterbauer.com/index.html

map of all the cycle routes in Germany