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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
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