How Do We Get There From Here?

Traveling in a foreign country would be easier if you spoke the language. Otherwise it is all guidebooks, common sense, and trial and error (in our case, lots of trial and error)! In Rome the joke was that I was always looking down at my guidebook and up at the street names which are printed on the sides of the corner buildings. But, hey, what are you going to do when all the streets curve and change names every other intersection and you don't even know which way is which?

The Metro (subway) was relatively easy - only two lines in Rome, one north-south and the other east-west. The buses were another matter all together. Thankfully we didn't have to ride them much at all.

The train to Munich was interesting. How do you know which platform to go to? The train station in Rome is huge. Something like 30 platforms. It's a long way from one to another. We get there and see our train number, but no platform number. Just some seemingly random numbers and letters. I went and asked for help, but the man was very impatient with me. "Just watch board!" he kept saying. I didn't see how that would help. But then about ten minutes before we were to depart, the platform number comes up, and thankfully we were relatively near where we needed to be. We had 14 minutes in Bologna to transfer trains, but by then we understood. So we made it to Munich!

Then we got to rent a vehicle! A brand new Volkswagen Caravelle 9 passenger van! Manual transmission, of course. Automatics are only for us weird Americans. I hadn't driven a stick in over 14 years. Now I am on the third floor of an underground parking lot in downtown Munich in a big van. There was no room for error going up the round-abouts from level to level. I was sure that I would dent the vehicle before I even saw the light of day in it. Thankfully, I didn't! Killed it a few times, to be sure, but no dents.

Then it was the maze of streets in a foreign city with foreign signs. I must admit that I was quite worried about all this ever since I reserved the vehicle. It actually went much better than I feared it would. Again, good guidebooks and maps are essential.

The next day we were cruising down the Autobahn at a good clip towards Salzburg, Austria. The closer you pay attention to what other drivers are doing, the quicker you figure out what all the signs mean.

 

The VW is a six speed diesel. I absolutely love it. It comfortably seats nine, with a cavernous space for luggage behind the back seat. It makes our Honda Odyssey seem like a compact car. And yet, on the first tank - with a lot of city and mountain driving - we got nearly 28 mpg! Did I mention it's fun to drive? No wonder Europeans prefer manual transmissions!

Diesel is actually cheaper here than unleaded. I paid €1.464 per liter - about $7.379 per gallon. Still, I am absolutely loving driving here in Europe!