h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Last summer, my husband and I did our trip around England to visit relatives. Just before we went, as I probably mentioned at the time, I decided it might be an idea to get a new satnav. We have a built-in one which is now way out of date and the cost of new CDs to update it is far more than a new portable, self-updating, navi system would be.

So we bought a new one. Those with the UK in them had to be ordered. I asked if they would have it in on time - we had to leave the next day to catch the ferry. Only when they promised it would be there on time did I order it. Of course, it didn't come. It arrived when we were half way to Calais. We picked it up when we got back from the UK. We haven't done much travelling since, and so when we went to visit my mother last weekend, we took it along for the ride. We didn't go anywhere I didn't know like the back of my hand, but my husband tested it out while I did the driving.

It worked perfectly well, but I had fits when it came to the place names. It applied the German pronunciation rules and while "Newmarket" was fairly clear, pronounced NEV - MARKET, the rest were absolutely unintelligible. I don't know what would have happened if I had been driving somewhere I didn't know.

My satnav insisted on applying Castilian Spanish pronunciation to all the placenames in California, leading to great confusion.

LIke San Frantheesco and Los Anchhhhheles?

Exactly.

None of my cars has ever had a satnav, and I don't plan to ever get one. I don't need satnav, and even if I did, it might be fun to discover some interesting places when I was looking for some place else.

One of my sons bought a voice activated Satnav in Chicago. The lady gets most of it right but quite a lot of Irish place names are stressed on the wrong syllable, eg WexFORD. Causes some hilarity, but I love the way the grandson can sit back in his seat and say "Go home." and we do.

Google maps seem the best so far. My phone identified a townland in Waterford with about six houses in it by name, but Apple maps couldn't find it.

Of course now that Ireland has brand new postcodes, pretty soon that's all we'll have to key in.

I use the satnav all the time along with maps and advance research on Google Maps. I see lots of new places, because I look around me.

We managed without the satnav (well, I did use google maps on my phone) when we were dashing about the UK last year, but I didn't want to lose any time going wrong as we were on a tight schedule and had long distances between my cousins' houses. (Tunbridge Wells to Truro to Newbury)

even when I'm riding in other people's cars, there doesn't seem to be any satnav involved.

I use the navigation app on Google maps on my phone. My phone has its language set to English so I get the nice google lady in British-english (although, bizzarely, sometimes I get an equally nice American lady for one street per trip... totally random)

It will insist on saying "fluffhafen" instead of flughafen. Makes me laugh, so I use it every time I drive to Düsseldorf to make her say it.

It also says Birkenweeg - which makes the Gruesomes