For wooddragon and rfrench

[cjsmith]

The creator of xkcd has clearly met Brunhilde.

Comments

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

That's too funny :-)

I wonder if Google Maps really does that?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I checked it with a couple of Norway routes, but of course there the highway numbers continue across the ferry. "Continue on 5" is the only indication that you can't get from Sogndal to Laerdal without getting wet. :-)

[platypuslord.livejournal.com]

In days of yore, you could ask it for directions from the US to the UK, and one of the steps would be "Swim Across Atlantic Ocean". (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnC3S6il7qU)

Doesn't work any more, unfortunately.

Who's Brunhilde?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Brunhilde was the name Rob's travel group gave to the Hertz Never-Lost system in a German rental car. She apparently sounded bossy and annoyed. It took them several days to figure out how to get her to speak English, so most of the time they were trying to decipher "When possible, make a U-turn" in German. She directed them in massively improbable ways, like a right turn RIGHT HERE NOW into a meadow full of flowers. She also did indeed take them on a ferry.

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

It did the next best thing (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=Crater+Lake,+OR&daddr=20000+Caves+Hwy,+Cave+Junction,+OR+97523+(Oregon+Caves+Chateau,+Oregon+Caves+National+Monument)) to Auros and I on our anniversary trip last month. Check out step 20 - that's the point at which we decided that just in case the rutted dirt road that caused the traction control on my wagon to kick in MIGHT just not be the correct way to go we should turn around while we still had room to back up and do so. We lost at least two hours going around the long way.

[wooddragon.livejournal.com]

I did see the "swim the Atlantic Ocean" directions once. :)

I love xkcd.