Hey...

So I'm going to Prague to study abroad next semester, and I am getting a Dell Mini 9 (or 10, undecided) to take with me. I would really like to have mobile broadband and GPS on the laptop when I'm traveling around for a month before the semester starts... Does anyone know of a laptop-based GPS program/device/whatever that is programmed with train routes as well as roads for Europe? I will be traveling almost exclusively by train every day for a month straight in continually new places, so having something like that to ensure that I don't miss a stop or change onto the wrong train would be incredibly helpful. Any suggestions?

Thanks...

4/24/2009 5:19:21 PM

don't know if this would help you but...

http://www.eurail.com/

4/24/2009 5:24:29 PM

I have a Garmin MapSource MetroGuide Europe v7 on CD that I bought in 2005 when I was in Germany. It has almost all roads, and all rails of all major countries in Europe on 3 CDs.

I'm not sure if you can track in real-time, though. I only used it to upload and view tracks that I took with a handheld Garmin device.

look around on here and see if you can do realtime tracking
http://www8.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/MGEuro.jsp

if you figure out if that would work for you, I'll sell you the CDs for a few bucks. I have no use for them, and have actually been thinking about selling it. However, I have v7 and it's up to v9 now, but there shouldn't be any real differences in the rail maps.

4/24/2009 5:29:45 PM

@RSX

Eurail is what I'm taking, and I have their large map plotted out, but it would be REALLY helpful (not to mention cool) if I could have a live-tracking map, both for train-switching reasons and for the purposes of orienting ourselves in terms of sightseeing. Basically exactly like a car GPS here, but for trains... if that exists...

4/24/2009 8:15:57 PM

i'm not sure if you'll find something like that, because, well..... trains don't need GPSs.
not to mention, a normal GPS unity might not even work very well on a train with metal roofs.

I don't think you'll have a problem with the trains. All the signs are in English and all the stations too. In basically all European countries, all navigation signs are bilingual - the native language of the country, and English. In a year of living and traveling over there, I never got lost or took the wrong train in Germany, Italy, France, Czech, Belgium, etc.

something it took me a little while to realize over there is that English is the default language for 2 Europeans from different countries to talk to each other. Most Europeans speak 2, 3 or more languages - their native, English, and probably a third. But since there are so many countries/languages in Europe, the only common language is usually English. Especially in smaller countries like Czech Republic and Belgium - nobody else in Europe speaks Czech or Dutch, so they can only communicate in English.

4/24/2009 8:38:38 PM

hmm, that's an interesting point... I hadn't ever considered it from that perspective. I still may get a GPS dongle just to be able to tell where I am and look things up in cities here and there, but you've definitely eased my mind in terms of traveling by train.

[Edited on April 24, 2009 at 8:43 PM. Reason : ']

4/24/2009 8:43:33 PM

the only time you may have trouble, at least at first, is when your using local transit to get around cities, like subways, trams and busses. For most cities (except the biggest ones like Paris, Berlin, Rome, I think Prague) the local transit may be the native language only. However, once you learn how to read a bus/tram/subway map, i doesn't matter - all you need to know is the direction your going in and how to read the time table. I got lost in Munich on my first day there b/c I couldn't read the subway map, but after a 1 minute explanation, it all made sense and I didn't have any more problems. A major difference between the US and Europe is that they generally don't use the cardinal directions (N/S/E/W) on maps or signs. Therefore, on a train or subway or even interstate highways, you will never see a direction, but instead a town or city in that direction. On a subway, instead of saying Train 6 South, it will say Train 6 Station Name - you have to read a map to see in which direction that station is and see if your stop is along the way. Same on the highways. If you're in the middle of Germany and you want to go north, you'll get on the autobahn that says To Berlin. If you want to go south, you'll get on in the direction that says To Munich.

On the regional and continental trains, though, everything will be in english. Also at any train station there will be multilingual information desks, and 99% of ticket sellers will speak English.

4/24/2009 9:40:16 PM