[Sweet Movie] Earlier this year, I picked up a hand-held GPS. It comes in handy using topographic maps for hiking in Shenandoah National Park or canoeing the Rappahannock River, but it really earned its keep with the City Navigator Europe map. It was great for getting back to our Paris hostel when the train stopped running at 1 AM and driving from Maastricht to the track. A nice bonus was the ability to track all of our movements. Besides just being cool to see, it’s especially helpful retracing your steps to find that great neighborhood restaurant you had a delicious meal at.
I saved each day as a new track, which I was able to import into Google Earth/Maps. I was also able to color code the different days, not only making it easier to look through but also creating pretty cool map in the process. I don’t think Maps is designed to handle the amount of information I threw at it (days are paginated), but it definitely works if you just want to poke around. You can zoom into the street level, but if you really want to dig around use the View in Google Earth link. If you see a straight line, that generally means the GPS lost its satellite lock on a train and then connected the dots after the fact. Enjoy!
That map is super cool. What’s the cost to rent that thing? 😛
A six pack or two 750 ml bottles of artisanal beer. 🙂
I have US Topo, US City and Europe City.