How is this itinerary for first trip to Europe

[justforpostings]

Markku Grönroos schrieb:
< "Mark Hewitt" <nomail@here.com> kirjoitti
< viestissä:1169542742.873517@ucsnew2.ncl.ac.uk...
< >
< > "David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)" <d4g4hd**********.uk> wrote in
message
< > news:1hscofd.1btr47pi6fvnvN%d4g4hd**********.uk...
< >>
< >> You can get to plenty non-city places by train- you bring up
< >> particularly inaccessible places, but there are others easier to
get to,
< >> and lots of people _drive_ to them, despite them being accessible
by
< >> train or other PT.
< >
< Train system ought to be very easy to use in most of Europe. Actually
Europe
< is devided to two sets:
<
< 1. interesting places which are not easily accessible by public
< transportation
< 2. interesting places which are easily accessible by public
transportation

and I would have added
"interesting places accessible by public transportation only"
such as Zermatt (railway only), nearby lesser known Bettmeralp
and Riederalp, or in central Switzerland Braunwald ....

< both sets are "indefinite" relative to any length of human lifetime.
< Therefore it is easy to sketch a holiday travel route which is ridden
from
< the start to the end exclusively by public transportation.

[Markku Grönroos]

"Iceman" <oneofcold**********m> kirjoitti
viestissä:1169568264.905502.321680@m58g2000cwm.goo glegro********...
>
> I had no problem buying train tickets in Asian and Middle Eastern
> countries. I can't even imagine driving there and trying to read
> Chinese or Arabic road signs, let alone trying to park and deal with
> traffic in a huge Third World city. With trains you know exactly where
> you're going.
>
Asia is enourmous and variation is great country by country. In many
countries you are not permitted to drive a car or the insurance
infrastructure is so poor that tourists decently in their senses, definitely
don't drive a car. However, typically hired drivers are cheap in those
countries. In Asia I have driven a car only in Thailand. Navigation is not
easy. Thai speaking signs doesn't make it particularly difficult. But the
availability of good road maps is a true problem (I assume this is the case
in most parts of Asia). In Thailand it seems to be a common practice to
identify roads by a sign a few hundred meters AFTER junctions.... Parking
on the other hand is most easy. Aside from Bangkok you just leave the car
where you want. Parking on streets is always free.

[Dave Smith]

-hh wrote:
>
>
> > They go really fast in the left lane. I've been passed like I was standing
> > still even though I was going almost 140 kph (84 mph).
>
> Slowpoke :-)

LOL
I was passed like I was standing still when I was doing 165. I heard a
whoosh. My brother was in the passenger seat and asked me what kind of car
it was. I told him it was grey. That is all I saw of it.

[Mike]

Hi Jenny,

I have, in fact, paid close attention to this thread. The response
has been over-whelming and I very much appreciate all the replies.

Thank you!

Mike


>>>My wife and I are planning a trip to Europe this Spring. I've never been
>>>to Europe before...we plan on about 2 weeks (~ 15 nights). Both of us are
>>>English-only speakers.
>
>
> I have noticed that the OP Mike has not been back to check all these words
> of wisdom!
> Jenny

[-hh]

> ...This is rather linear thinking. The reality is that high speeds means
> far smaller reaction times. You MUST ALWAYS factor in other drivers
> mistakes, we all make them from time to time. At 200km/h a mistake is
> very likely to result in disaster.

The problem with this line of thinking is that the facts are that
accident statistics repeatedly demonstrate taht highways are routinely
safer than 'country roads', despite their higher operating speeds.

In other words, how can the "faster" also be the "safer"?

The basic answer is that there are variables other than merely speed
that are equally-or-more significant contributors to highway safety.
Road construction is an obvious example.

And the Autobahns in particular have roughly the same normalized
fatality rate as US Highways, despite the latter having a much lower
speed limit. A likely contributor to the reason why could easily be
the difference in seatbelt adoption rates: in Germany, its roughly 98%
for the Autobahn and 94% or rural roads, whereas in the USA, the
average seatbelt is now only 81% (as of June 06), despite the
increasingly stringient enforcement methods which have raised
conformance in the USA by roughly 10% over the past 6 years (ie, 71%
conformance in CY2000).

-hh