Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site dciem.UUCP Path: utzoo!dciem!mmt From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) Newsgroups: net.travel Subject: Re: Transportation in Europe Message-ID: <1611@dciem.UUCP> Date: Tue, 2-Jul-85 16:48:44 EDT Article-I.D.: dciem.1611 Posted: Tue Jul 2 16:48:44 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 2-Jul-85 17:16:35 EDT References: <62800001@hpfclr.UUCP>Reply-To: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada Lines: 52 Summary: In the last 2 months, I have driven about 11,000 km in Europe, mostly Germany but some France and Belgium as well. I highly recommend driving over train travel, if you like to drive, because you can get to out-of-the-way places and make spur of the moment stops at nice little country hotels. Rental is easy. I like Eurorent, who have an agency at Frankfurt airport and a few other places (Dusseldorf, Stuttgart?, Hamburg? -- I don't have the brochure handy). Their prices are substantially lower than the other agencies at the airport, and I found their service and cars to be better (I got a brand-new Opel Corsa, 8 km on the clock, for 332DM per week. You can do better by the month). It is a good idea to reserve ahead, because when I returned the car they were turning away people at the booth. As hpcnoa!glen (Glen Shirey) says, driving is comfortable, especially in Germany, because (a) there is no speed limit, so you can watch the road and traffic, and drive as fast or slow as you like, at least on] the autobahns, and (b) drivers are courteous and aggressive at the same time, rather than timid and rude as is so often the case here. If you are a moderately competent driver with a controllable car, the contrast is amazing. After driving there, I find driving here to be frustrating and hair-raisingly dangerous. Most of the details in the posting by Glen Shirey are fine, but some are not strictly correct. There is a speed limit (130) in France, and I have seen several radar traps. But people conventionally drive rather faster than the speed limit, just as they do in N. America (I averaged around 170 Marseilles to Nice, and was passed quite a few times). It is probably cheaper to rent in Germany than to deal through the US agent; at least it is cheaper than doing it from Canada (only the expensive outfits have transatlantic agencies). Unleaded gas is practically unavailable, although it is beginning to appear at some special gas stations. As for train to Berlin: the Northern part of Germany is pretty flat, so it is unlikely to be very scenic (I've never been to Berlin, so I couldn't say for sure). South of about Hannover-Dortmund, the country is very beautiful. Go into the Sauerland or Siegerland, or the Harz, or the Eifel, just to mention a few areas that don't get such a big play in the tourist brochures. Buy maps of the kind called "Freizeitkarte" They give little pictures of interesting things in their areas (on the back of the map, not obscuring the map detail), with a small tourist indication of what is interesting about them. The scale is 1/100,000 which lets you find all the little byways, including the ways through towns. Cost 6.80 DM, which can add up if you buy a lot, but they are worth it. -- Martin Taylor {allegra,linus,ihnp4,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt {uw-beaver,qucis,watmath}!utcsri!dciem!mmt