Kathy went on a shopping trip to Dresden (Germany) two weeks ago with some of her women friends from ISP (Noah's school). Dresden is only about 1 1/2 hours away by car and has much more selection and cheaper prices than the Czech Republic. Maybe in 10 or 20 years this will not be so, but for now we will make the occassional drive (or train trip) to Dresden.
I have been in the market for a long time for a car GPS. Driving here is difficult as the city is compact and very crowded, the drivers are aggressive, there are trams all over the place, none of the street signs are in English, and because of the Vlatava river you have to contend with bridges. I found driving in Saudi Arabia much easier even though the drivers were 10x worse (for example, red lights were merely suggestions to slow down). But in Saudi the infrastructure - the freeways and roads - was relatively new and space was no limitation. Also, nearly all road signs were in English (and Arabic).
Back in November we went to a mall and had no trouble getting there (I think we just got lucky) but it took 1 1/2 hours to get home - it should have been a 20 minute trip. We kept driving around and around and not finding our way home. It was extremely frustrating. So as soon as our house sold I strarted researching GPSs. I finally settled on a Garmin and had Kathy pick up one in Dresden. We don't drive much during the week but go shopping on weekends and we will be doing day trips around the Czech Republic now that the weather has warmed.
I have been in the market for a long time for a car GPS. Driving here is difficult as the city is compact and very crowded, the drivers are aggressive, there are trams all over the place, none of the street signs are in English, and because of the Vlatava river you have to contend with bridges. I found driving in Saudi Arabia much easier even though the drivers were 10x worse (for example, red lights were merely suggestions to slow down). But in Saudi the infrastructure - the freeways and roads - was relatively new and space was no limitation. Also, nearly all road signs were in English (and Arabic).
Back in November we went to a mall and had no trouble getting there (I think we just got lucky) but it took 1 1/2 hours to get home - it should have been a 20 minute trip. We kept driving around and around and not finding our way home. It was extremely frustrating. So as soon as our house sold I strarted researching GPSs. I finally settled on a Garmin and had Kathy pick up one in Dresden. We don't drive much during the week but go shopping on weekends and we will be doing day trips around the Czech Republic now that the weather has warmed.
We've just used it a couple of times and it is amazing! It was money very well spent. It just has maps of the Czech Republic and Germany, but I can buy additional country maps if needed (including all of the US when we move back).
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