aybeesea

On my recent 3000-mile Euro trip I had no real problems with Gertrude.

I just treated her like I treat any woman and INTERPRETED what she said.

Always got me there.

ABC

znod

Hahaha. You would have had to be psychic for Marilyn , our renta-nav-lady.

znod

Following post moved from another thread:

Hi Friends

I am leaving a huge amount of detail out below. To make my post legit, I want to mention Nav Lady's role in what follows. She tried valiantly, and possibly correctly (at first), to get us to our destination. But, getting there was not to be. I had to shut Nav Lady off since I knew that the task was beyond her. Dum de dum dum (Dragnet music, you know).

It?s been a funny day, of course. They all are one way or another. We left Lucerne about 10:30?which would allow us to stop at Baden-Baden and get to Heidelberg by check-in time of 2:00. We arrived in town on schedule. On the way, we photographed several exits for Walldorf, and Walldorf from the distance, because our daughter works for SAP.

Our hotel blurb announced how ?easy? finding the hotel, Die Hirschgrasse, would be. ?Just take A656 and follow the signs to the hotel? it said. All was as promised, until after crossing a bridge over the river, the second hotel sign took us to a closed road, closed because of and all day and half the night, all-along-the river festival. Unfortunately, even though the hotel knew of the problem, they did not bother to email us with a solution.

So, we did the logical thing and used our map to find alternative routes to the hotel. We tried many bridges and northern routes to no avail. Same problem! My head magnets got us from ?hopelessly? lost to the exact place we had crossed the river in the first place.

We crossed, headed east, and bumped into a tourist information kiosk. After finding a predicted good parking place, I ran to the bus station, .5 Euros in hand, to use the bus-station bathroom, while my wife got directions. The kiosk attendant called the hotel and was told that ?the police had been alerted that customers would be coming down the closed river road from the west.? We discussed what to do. My best idea was to park across the river from where I had figured out that the hotel had to be?right across from the castle. Then, we could struggle our luggage across the footbridge to the hotel.

But, we decided to go many miles to the east and cross over again--because we had so many pieces of, and such heavy, luggage. Also, we were unable to find parking because of the festival and the castle, etc.

Once we ?crashed the barrier? and crossed into the forbidden zone we started receiving many glares, stares of incredulity, and obvious silent conclusions that we are morons. A policewoman in a car passed from the opposite direction. No problem. All is well. But, soon, we were approached from behind by a very nice motorcycle policeman. We obviously discussed the situation?ending with we couldn?t continue. He also added that if we got into the crowd they?d probably be so outraged that ?they would kill you.? Unfortunately, his best plan was to use the plan to cross from the castle?that we had already abandoned. I asked for a police escort, but that didn?t work out. LOL!!!

Keep in mind that, while annoyed some of the time, I remained persuaded, as always, that something good was going to happen--i.e., come from ?bad.? Funny how ?right thinking? creates good things.

To give my earlier plan a chance to work, and after 3-hours of trying to get to the hotel, we went back to a small caf? on the river road at the foot of the castle. There was no parking so we made do illegally. My wife stayed with the car and I went in. I persuaded a nice young man to call the hotel. He talked with the hotel for a while relaying our story including the ?they would kill you? part. The hotel said to tell us that ?they are sorry and would call the police again and clear us for travel on the other side.? The hotel said they would call right back, but never did.

While I was waiting, my wife called out to me saying that ?the police had just told her to move.? I came out and ask where the police person is. She said he is the one in the blue shirt with the scanner. ?Plain-clothes man,? I thought. I went over and he listened patiently to our story. About half way through he interrupted me and said. ?Yes, but you still can?t park here because the police will give you a 50 Euro fine.? I said, ?but you are the police!!!? He said, ?no, I?m not the police.? I said my wife said ?you said you are the police.? He said, ?no, I just told her she would get a ticket if she parked there.? He said that I ?work for the shopping area in general.? We both laughed.

Then, a young (extraordinarily attractive) lady came from the caf?. We both told her the story. They talked back and forth extensively in German--with all talking back and forth in English. Everyone laughed a lot. We concluded that there was no way the police would let us go down the road?no matter what the hotel told them. And, I said ?there is no way that I am going down the road illegally again no matter what the hotel says.?

The young lady said she would call the hotel--meaning business because, as I said, ?fixing things is their responsibility.? She called and had an animated conversation with them. I had asked her to ?have someone from the hotel come across the bridge help us with our baggage and help us arrange (virtually impossible) parking until we could get our car across after the fair was over.? Apparently, only one person was on duty, and he said that he could not leave the desk. The young lady canceled our reservation for us. Hopefully, I will not have to challenge the Visa charge since, unfortunately, our reservation was guaranteed.

We chose between going on the Frankfurt or backtracking a short distance to Walldorf. I decided that our good destiny was in Walldorf. We got to Walldorf and tried to locate a really nice hotel for the evening. We found what was reputed to be the best in Walldorf, but did not like its looks. Earlier we had bypassed a large Holiday Inn because we thought there would be better. And, my wife said that our daughter said that ?her colleagues, who visit Walldorf, don?t like visiting Walldorf because they have to stay in the Holiday Inn?not in a nice German hotel.? After we could not find a hotel, my wife recalled more about what our daughter had said--that her colleagues stayed in the Holiday Inn because it is the best hotel in town.

So, obviously, our good destiny was at the Holiday Inn. But, would it have a room available? Yes!!! I asked how much? ?100 Euros? was the answer. Given my usual approach (i.e., ?you have to give good things chances (including nudges sometimes) to happen or they aren?t as likely to happen,? I said, OK, but ?do you have something really nice for not much more.? The attendant thought about it and said, ?yes, I have something I think you will like. It usually goes for 265 Euros per night, but I?ll give it to you for 145.? After settling into the room, we went to dinner.

znod

Following post moved from another thread:

Right on bro. The quotes are the best part.

znod

Here is the most photo-worthy car I saw in Luzern. None so far today from Hiedelberg or Walldorf. I did see the Walldorf Astoria (camping ground) in Walldorf.

info@trinityautosport

for sure they are. that was my favorite part

ro11dice

Great story Znod. I traveled to Heidelberg in 2003 and attended a wedding at the castle. Great town. The best part was I saw my first e60 EVER in the hotel we stayed. They weren't in the US yet, or at least I didn't see any. This was back in August of '03. At the time, I had never owned a BMW and just stood there staring at it. Had to dig around for it but here's the pic. Oh, I also had my "funny" pics too.

znod

Hi:

Thanks for the photos and Heidelberg remembrance. We are sitting in Philadelphia right now wondering if, and when, we will get to Phoenix tonight. It appears there is bad weather, and some flights are being delayed. CU later.

Ricracing

Hope you are saftly at home when you read this!

Ain't Europe just a nice and safe place to be without any tornados and s**t?

marc545i

wow... lucky you! we went there for our honeymoon about 12 yrs ago. vienna, salzburg, bavaria, zurich, bern, interlaken and geneve. every place is gorgeous. i'm sure you had a great time.