I am looking to print out driving directions for Germany and wondered if anyone has a good site that is accurate as far as the traveling times.

Hi W,

I use both www.viamichelin.com and www.mappy.com and split the difference.

They don't always suggest the same routes.

viamichelin

viamichelin

viamichelin

These sites are great. We've used them, also.

I have to agree with viamichelin.

Get a good color printer and print out the route. Wake up your navigator to make sure you don't speed at the wrong times, and highlight certain directions (vers this city or that) to go through an area.

Remember that the trucks are all on the N roads so they don't have to pay tolls.

Where, precisely, are the N roads in Germany? And when did Germany introduce tolls on any roads?

And if the previous poster simply didn't read the question, why is it that every time I'm on a French motorway, every second vehicle has a TIR plate on the back?

flanneruk

My error. I'm going to France in a couple of months and I'm a tad to focused on those roads.

I went to Freising in Bavaria with an associate who'd never been to Germany before, and he was amazed at how large the city of Ausfahrt was because of the number of signs he exiting off the motorway.

Actually trucks driving through Germany have to pay a sort of toll - a vignet, but no they still thunder along the autobahns.

I've used viamichelin and mappy but I've also found www.map24.com to be very good for Germany.

I use good old Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/). They cover almost the whole world. I do a very close map of the individual streets, alleys, and paths (1000 meters); then a larger map for the major streets (1 or 2 miles) then a bigger map showing the city in relationship to the greater surrounding area or country. (20 or 50 miles).

One nice thing is you can see each street and it's intersection. You can even get satellite overlays to see what the buildings and fields look like from up above. Pretty neat when you're traveling.

Sometimes I will print out multiple adjacent maps and tape them together for a large detailed map for a walking tour.

Enjoy,

Dr. Ken Rich

hi, rasta-

ditto our old friend "umleitung"!

ann

I dug this old one out as I just did Zeebrugge to Lille (belgium to france)and back using alternativley viamichelin and www.theaa.co.uk (this is the.... UK version of aaa but not connected apart from the letters). Well theaa beat michelin hands down. Chose a faster route with more accurate information. If you go on the web site you have to click on the European route box as we Brits still see Europe as abroad ;-)

I have a copy of Microsoft AutoRoute 2005 on my PC (2006 is also available), which covers UK, Ireland and continental Europe, and major cities of the world. It isn't readily available in US (for some kind of copyright reasons), but well worth ordering from UK (some retailers refuse to send to US) or picking up while you are in Europe. Cost: around £30, sometimes cheaper if it's OEM version. It gives turn-by-turn driving instruction and you can search by post code, hotel name, train station, air and sea port or momument etc. You still need online guide for toll info, as it changes frequently.

Viamichelin gives a choice between "fastest route" and "recommended by Michelin" (not to mention "route with no tolls&quot. By default, you get "recommended by Michelin". Did you check the difference, bilboburgler?

I believe AutoRoute can be told to update its toll and detour tables when connected to the 'net.

An additional feature is that if you buy the version with a "GPS Locator" (receiver), you can have a moving map display in the car, at any of about 20 zoom levels (map scales) from transcontinental to individual streets.

tried for fastest and the result was pretty tourtious (spelling is not my hot spot). Anyway it is only one piece of data.