A GPS saved our marriage.... a trip report
 

We spent 9 days in Germany visiting the Rhine river, Baden-Baden, Garmisch, and Munich in our rental BMW. DH and I both agreed the GPS in our rental car saved our marraige from divorce court!

We arrived in Frankfurt, jet-lagged and doubtful about driving in an unfamiliar city. After finding the rental car in the lot, we started trying to program the GPS in the BMW. (I had requisted a GPS system per advice from this forum.) After about 20 minutes I finally mastered the GPS navigatation sytsem and managed to find the English button. (For the record, neither of us speak any German, other than the basic polite phrases.)

Once, we heard the familiar english/British voice of the "car *itch", we programmed in our first destination, Boppard, on the Rhine river and away we went. (The car *itch was incredibly accurate---- much more accurate than the GPS on the car I drive at home.) She led us accurately through the streets of Frankfurt and out onto the autobahn. PLUS, the BMW 520 was an automatic! Sixt upgraded us from a 300 series BMW with a stick. Yippeeee! Safely on the autobahn, we joined the speeding traffic! Whewww.... mission accomplished!

Arrived in Boppard, found our hotel (with the car *itch's directions) and settled in for a nap before dinner on the Rhine river. We stayed at the Hotel Gunther and I highly recommend it. Jim, the owner is an American who has lived in Germany for quite some time. He was a great help.

That evening we signed up for a dinner cruise to see the Rhine in Flames fireworks at St Goar. Even though we were exhausted, it was well worth the sleepy effort.

After a few days, we visited Baden-Baden and stayed at the Hotel am Markt, recommended by Rick Steves. Another good hotel selection. Again the car *itch saved us......Hotel am Markt is located in a car/pedistrian area. Without the little lady telling us to "turn right in 20 meters" there's no way we would haved turned down that brick/cobblestone road! We visted the baths, shopped a little and headed to Garmisch.

Garmisch is a beautiful town set in the mountains not far from Fussen. We stayed at the Hotel Drei Mohren (recommended in my Fodors book!) Great hotel, wonderful restaurant, with balcony views of the mountains. We visited Neuschwanstein, Weiskirche, etc while in the area. Although both areas were covered with tourists, these are "must see" attractions IMHO.

Traveled to Munich for our last two days and toured a few of the city sights. We checked out the Marienplatz area and it's churchs, Schonburg Palace (we weren't that impressed) and Octoberfest! What a party! It made you want to bring 6 of your best partying buddies to Germany and hang out in the tents! We stayed at the Hotel Kempenski at the Munich Airport. (I didn't make my Octoberfect reservations early enough and the Kempenski was the most reasonably hotel I could find at 115 euros a night!)

Thanks everyone for their help in planning this trip. If I can answer any questions, I'll be happy to help.

Marla

Marla, this was fun to read ! I would love to hear more details and how the car *itch saved you :)

Ozres. Maybe my husband and I should have rented a car with GPS in Italy.
We didn't get divorced over the driving, but there were times when I wanted to scream.
I thought his driving was awful, he thought my directions....well you don't want to know!!

Whew, wish we would have had on in the UK...we got so terribly lost...BUT at least we could ask for directions(if he would have stopped!!!!) I always am so apolgetic after the directions debacle ;-).

When looking for the "good" parking area at Neuschwanstein, the car *itch said "entering restricted area". We thought we should just drive slower--- after all there were horse-drawn carriages on the road! A little farther up the hill, we decided to turn around --- something just didn't "feel" right--- all of the sudden we were the only car on the road. AND the car *itch was still saying rather adamantly "entering restricted area". Whoops.......seems like we were on the horse-drawn carriage loop going up to the castle. Uh-oh. We found Parking Lot E clearly marked at the bottom of the mountain! Guess the car *itch was right!

She also got pretty *issy when I turned briefly down a one-way road in some tiny, obscure town around Burg Eltz. She was quick to say in her oh-so-proper British accent, "turn around immediately". Yeh, like I couldn't figure out something was wrong.... the lady on the sidewalk was about to have a fit ---motioning for me to turn around! Geesh!

Ozres, that is so funny! I am going to make my DH read this post...maybe he will spring for the BMW next time :-)!!! PS, I don't like my chances :-(.

Too funny. We always call the GPS a *itch as well! I think it usually starts when she repeatedly says that you need to take a legal u-turn as soon as it is safe to do so. Over and over again. And, all because you decided to go an extra block to see what's up ahead!

This is good news, speaking as one who can get lost in her closet...I'll think I'll make sure my next car has this much less when I finally drive "over thar"