Searches In Germany

[FloridaGal]

I am an American citizen living and working in Germany. Since foreign zip codes are not included in the website, how can I refine my search? Using just the country entry will list over 30,000 caches! Requesting only traditional caches will list over 6000 caches! Any suggestions for actually finding caches in my region (Giessen, near Frankfurt)

[+fauxSteve]

In these situations I just find one of the caches that is in the area I am and search for other nearby caches. For example, I just did a quick keyword search for Giessen in Hide and Seek a Cache and quickly found this one. And here are a bunch of nearby caches.

 

If a keyword search of the city name doesn't work, you can always use your GPSr to get your coordinates and search using those, or:

 

Another good resource (although I think it is all in German) is geocaching.de. They have a great interactive map (Interaktive Karte) that shows all of the caches in Germany on a clickable map.

[+tobsas]

They don't have the dots of geocaching.com in their interactiv maps right now because Groundspeak blocked their spider (again). AFAIK there are negotations going on about an allowed access from gc.de instead of the so far tolerated spider, but I don't know anything specific about it and won't speculate. However, the maps are still very usefull as plenty of caches from opencaching.de and navicache.com are available and most of them can be found also here if you look for them by keyword afterwards. This should be the best map for Gießen, you might want to zoom in to see all the caches though. ;-)

 

If you would like to use the ZIP-Code for your search, you might want to try geocaching.de -> Links & Service -> PLZ-Suche or this link should take you directly there. Another service with zip-codes is available at this page.

 

Greetings,

Tobias

 

Edit to add: On November 25th there is an event cache very close to Gießen: Schnitzeljagd. If you need an english translation, don't hestiate to contact us.

Edited October 31, 2005 by tobsas

[Jeremy]

If you can, try using Google Earth to browse caches in Germany.

[+stone-cacher]

Why isn't GC.COM providing a free database with the basic data of caches to allow portals like GC.DE or GC.AT to provide additional services like interactive maps? From there the links go to GC.COM, so there is a single database with all informations and a decentralised service providing community. I would like this because the decentralised (maybe national) services are much more adapted to the local needs than GC.COM can ever be. Just the ZIP code search is a good example for this. So please JEREMY and other responsibles of GC.COM provide a free accessible database with the basic data for the caches so decentralised services can spread the idea of GC and provide even better services

[+The Leprechauns]

Oh cool, bandwidth is free now. I must have missed a Memo.

[+Moose Mob]

Why isn't GC.COM providing a free database with the basic data of caches to allow portals like GC.DE or GC.AT to provide additional services like interactive maps? From there the links go to GC.COM, so there is a single database with all informations and a decentralised service providing community. I would like this because the decentralised (maybe national) services are much more adapted to the local needs than GC.COM can ever be. Just the ZIP code search is a good example for this. So please JEREMY and other responsibles of GC.COM provide a free accessible database with the basic data for the caches so decentralised services can spread the idea of GC and provide even better services

Sounds like a great argument for opening a remote office, but I am left curious as to the financial considerations and entrusting that quantity of data to non-employees. As an IT security manager, I would have issues with that approach.

[+ghazkull]

Oh cool, bandwidth is free now. I must have missed a Memo.

No, it's not, that's why an interface to query the data would be nice for national sites so they can provide maps etc.

That way they take a lot of traffic from the servers. I already read from several people that planning their trips without the german maps takes a lot longer, and involves a lot more browsing on gc.com.

It's also way harder for newbies to get into caching without any maps.

[+Hynr]

I would like to address the original post at the top of the page.

 

FloridaGal, perhaps you missed the feature on your main account page where on the side you see two links under "Search for nearest caches" that allow you to list the exact thing you are asking for.

 

If that is not enough of a tool for you, then you might want to upgrade your membership to a “premium membership”. It would allow you to set up Pocket Queries. A PQ is a specification of a subset of Geocaching database. You can either have the result e-mailed to you so you can use it with 3rd party software, or you can use it at the website to list caches (by using the PQ's “Preview” feature).

[Jeremy]

Again, Google Earth would be very helpful in this case, but the original poster hasn't been to the site since October 30th, so the suggestion is probably missed anyway.

[+BalkanSabranje]

Again, Google Earth would be very helpful in this case, but the original poster hasn't been to the site since October 30th, so the suggestion is probably missed anyway.

I'm not the OP but curious how the answer would be if installing additional software was not an option (or if, like in this case, the SW is only available for a single -the wrong- OS)?

[Jeremy]

Well, the simple way to do it, as long as you had a GPS unit, is to go outside your home and mark a coordinate. Since you can search from any point on the planet this is the ultimate solution for anyone.

[+tobsas]

Well, the simple way to do it, as long as you had a GPS unit, is to go outside your home and mark a coordinate. Since you can search from any point on the planet this is the ultimate solution for anyone.

At least you didn't pretend that the so-called maps available at gc.com could be used.

 

Greetings,

Tobias

[Jeremy]

Well, the simple way to do it, as long as you had a GPS unit, is to go outside your home and mark a coordinate. Since you can search from any point on the planet this is the ultimate solution for anyone.

At least you didn't pretend that the so-called maps available at gc.com could be used.

 

Greetings,

Tobias

Certainly panning and zooming the maps can help too. I was just providing suggestions for free alternatives since the original poster didn't have a paid membership.

 

Your post, however, only provided all of us your lack of helpful knowledge. Maybe you can point out some possible locations for postal code data for Germany, good mapping sites for her area, or just avoid topics that you have no answers to.

[+HHL]

… Maybe you can point out some possible locations for postal code data for Germany, good mapping sites for her area, …

ok, here we go:

DE Postleitzahlsuche (zip code search)

clickable map search

 

happy hunting - the old fashioned way (trads only, exceptions may appear)

[+tobsas]

Well, the simple way to do it, as long as you had a GPS unit, is to go outside your home and mark a coordinate. Since you can search from any point on the planet this is the ultimate solution for anyone.

At least you didn't pretend that the so-called maps available at gc.com could be used.

 

Greetings,

Tobias

Certainly panning and zooming the maps can help too. I was just providing suggestions for free alternatives since the original poster didn't have a paid membership.

 

Your post, however, only provided all of us your lack of helpful knowledge. Maybe you can point out some possible locations for postal code data for Germany, good mapping sites for her area, or just avoid topics that you have no answers to.

Actually, your answer to BalkanSabranje demonstrated just what you are telling about my posting: Total lack of helpful knowledge about the situation in Germany. GoogleEarth is just not solving the problem for anybody as for those not using Windows or people without ADSL. And then to tell somebody to go out and get coordinates - you really think that anybody haven't done that before coming to the forums?

The maps of gc.com in Germany are just full of mistakesor simply wrong. Anybody coming to the poarking area and finding the cache based on those "maps" is a hero.

 

To tell me that I don't provide "helpfull knowledge" is just plain ridicioulus if you don't boither to scroll back up to the third posting of this thread. There I already mentioned two possibilities to look for coordinates by postal code and pointed out why the maps of gc.de hadno green dots (for caches listed at gc.com) at that time. That now have changed anyway, but that's another story.

 

Greetings,

Tobias

[+Geo Chief]

@FloridaGal

 

The event Schnitzeljagd is a good chance to learn something about caches around Giessen. You are welcome!

 

@Jeremy

The interactive maps in Germany are a problem!

Google Earth is a very nice software but you must install it! You can´t run it in an internet-cafe or in the office and the software needs many bandwidth.

It's very interesting to see all caches in the world in one map, but the most geocachers needs only the caches in a range 100 miles around their home coordinates.

Many users in Germany goes online with a slow modem or ISDN connection (<64kBit/s). It would be great if we had a simple regional (interactive) map.

A few people would be spend their time for this project but without a database-interface or a working spider they haven´t a chance to create a working map.

The gc.com-maps for Germany aren´t helpfully. For a good overview, you need a scale over 30 miles. But then you can´t identify anything!

[+Hynr]

The maps that appear on the cache pages are maps to which Groundspeak has the type of access that the resulting map images can be published on its web site. To be able to put a lot of map images from a particular company on-line, one has to have permission (i.e. paid a license fee). As I understand it, these are prohibitive for Groundspeak for those map sets that Jeremy knows about.

 

If anyone in Germany knows of a whole-country map dataset that includes all the roads and is inexpensive to license, then I'm sure Jeremy would like to know about that.

[Jeremy]

If anyone in Germany knows of a whole-country map dataset that includes all the roads and is inexpensive to license, then I'm sure Jeremy would like to know about that.

I would definitely like to know about that.

 

BTW we have tried repeatedly to contact Google to get permission to go beyond the 50k limit for site mapping but haven't received as much as a peep from them. If we did we could at least provide some limited mapping features on the site (limited within the way javascript works).

 

Since we use the email management service that is owned by Google (Trakken) I'm not sure why we haven't received even an autoresponder email.

[+tobsas]

If anyone in Germany knows of a whole-country map dataset that includes all the roads and is inexpensive to license, then I'm sure Jeremy would like to know about that.

There is no need to invent the wheel again, we are used to have usefull maps: Ask the guys at geocaching.de if they give you the regional maps (goto http://home.debitel.net/user/geocaching/map.shtml , scroll down and choose any region you would like to). Or even better, give them a reliable access to the cache data so that they can paint the gc.com-dots back into those maps.

 

Greetings,

Tobias

[Jeremy]

You're treading down the wrong path there.

[+tobsas]

You're treading down the wrong path there.

That's a clear answer, thanks. I'm curious to see if you can provide other/comparable/better maps for Germany ...

 

Greetings,

Tobias

[+Geo Chief]

Thanks for the statement but what is the right way?

 

I know, the gc.de-team had received an agreement from you. I don´t know the contents but it is obvious that the gc.de-team can´t accept the terms.

Is it possible that the German geocachers outside the gc.de-team can get an official statement with more details?

Thanks a lot!

Ingo

[+Geo Chief]

No reaction? It´s not the first difficult topic that will be ignored

[Jeremy]

No reaction? It´s not the first difficult topic that will be ignored 

I missed your post. I'm not omnipresent you know.

 

You are asking a question about an ongoing discussion. Once there is anything official or final to announce, we'll post something about it.

 

(edit: changed to business speak)

Edited November 19, 2005 by Jeremy

[+sTeamTraen]

Sounds like a great argument for opening a remote office, but I am left curious as to the financial considerations and entrusting that quantity of data to non-employees. As an IT security manager, I would have issues with that approach.

I hope to retire from my current (IT) job in a few years (I'm only 45 but with a bit of luck the numbers will add up by my 50th birthday). I've often thought that being Groundspeak's person in Europe would be a cool part-time job.

[+tobsas]

Sounds like a great argument for opening a remote office, but I am left curious as to the financial considerations and entrusting that quantity of data to non-employees.  As an IT security manager, I would have issues with that approach.

I hope to retire from my current (IT) job in a few years (I'm only 45 but with a bit of luck the numbers will add up by my 50th birthday). I've often thought that being Groundspeak's person in Europe would be a cool part-time job.

Even though that it's getting slightly off-topic ... No offense ment, but I think that more important than an "official" person to speak to would be some priority for the feature requests from outside of the US like the whole webpage including the rules and the interface to list and log a cache in other languages than english, possibility to seperate the descriptions in different languages, usefull and correct maps, ZIP codes and regions for all countries, different (but for large regions like Europe common) methods for being PM, etc ... I doubt that one (even up to five) person for Europe would be able to do this, that's why I don't understand why Groundspeak obviously does not really want to cooperate with gc.de and other regional sites who want to provide much of the above roughly outlined stuff in their languages for free. ... But now I'm going down "the wrong path" again. #-)

 

Greetings,

Tobias

[+Geo Chief]

No reaction? It´s not the first difficult topic that will be ignored   

I missed your post. I'm not omnipresent you know.

Link

It´s a little bit off-topic but a few weeks ago, many German geocachers had problems with the access to gc.com. Many days there was no information about this problem and several mails to contact@Groundspeak.com were not been answering or they came back with a not satisfactory answer.

I understand the problem with the spiders but you can´t block such big ip-ranges in Germany because the most users use dhcp in Germany.

You are asking a question about an ongoing discussion. Once there is anything official or final to announce, we'll post something about it

I hope you will find a good ultimate solution for all users in the next future!

[+Hynr]

If anyone in Germany knows of a whole-country map dataset that includes all the roads and is inexpensive to license, then I'm sure Jeremy would like to know about that.

There is no need to invent the wheel again, we are used to have usefull maps: Ask the guys at geocaching.de if they give you the regional maps (goto http://home.debitel.net/user/geocaching/map.shtml , scroll down and choose any region you would like to). Or even better, give them a reliable access to the cache data so that they can paint the gc.com-dots back into those maps.

 

Greetings,

Tobias

I am surprised that you think that the map set there would be an adequate improvement. I find the current maps on the German cache pages to be superior to what I see at the site you suggest.

 

I would hope that a much better low-cost solution could be found for Germany. Maybe someone can add a GIS road layer to the map data that are currently being used. Even if only the major highways (Autobahn and Budesstrassen) are added, it would be a big improvement.

 

Again... if someone reading this knows of a solution, suggest it to Jeremy.

[+HoPri]

I must agree with Hynr that the geocaching.de maps are rather for getting an overview than for planning and fine-tuning a caching trip if you are unfamiliar with a region.

 

They lack several important features that are normaly important to do that, such as: show/don't show found or owned caches, zoom in sufficiently far to be able to identify the best approach, quickly determine the cache type. These are features that geocaching.com offers (at least for PMs). I have used that feature frequently when I was in the US and it is very helpful.

 

However, the usefulness vanishes quickly, when the underlying map data is wrong or off. That is, unfortunately, very often the case in large parts of Europe. Many European PMs (and I guess, many normal members as well) are still looking forward to having improved map data that have a sufficient level of reliability. The current map data render the map feature quite useless in most cases.

 

(Some examples for how BAD the map data are: No clear distinction between different road categories (even interstates/autobahnen cannot be identified properly). Some areas are missing local road coverage completely. Location names can be (and often are) completely wrong.)

 

However, there is a big demand for overview maps (such as on geocaching.de or geocaching.nl or on buxley's and many more). This is something that in my opinion requires a different map layout, optimized for giving a quick overview rather than providing too much detail. For example, as much as I like the cache icons, once you zoom out the geocaching.com maps, you are quickly lost as many caches clutter the map with their "huge" symbols. Maybe Groundspeak can figure out a way to provide overview maps in an optimzed way - e.g. if you zoom out to a certain level, the cache symbols (the whole layout?) change to something different. Combined with the other features (e.g. show/hide/mark found caches), this would really be a valuable enhancement (provided that the map data IS reliable).

 

Best regards,

HoPri

[+tobsas]

If anyone in Germany knows of a whole-country map dataset that includes all the roads and is inexpensive to license, then I'm sure Jeremy would like to know about that.

There is no need to invent the wheel again, we are used to have usefull maps: Ask the guys at geocaching.de if they give you the regional maps (goto http://home.debitel.net/user/geocaching/map.shtml , scroll down and choose any region you would like to). Or even better, give them a reliable access to the cache data so that they can paint the gc.com-dots back into those maps.

I am surprised that you think that the map set there would be an adequate improvement. I find the current maps on the German cache pages to be superior to what I see at the site you suggest.

Honestly, nobody wants to really locate a cache just using the gc.de maps and they are not meant for that. But what is expect and needed is the map of a region to know where caches are generally located. The map set should be reliable (and as HoPri has also pointed out, the current used here are not). The maps at gc.de tell me that, if I zoom out here I see nothing but overlapping icons. And even if I would see just points like at gc.de, they would be hard to notice in this colorful picture.

If you now add that many people (at least in Germany) still use modems meaning maximum speed of 56K, from my expierence 33.6 is also quite common ... I really prefer maps with few details to get an overview which I can load in seconds instead of minutes like for example the maps at cacheatlas.de.

 

BTW, if there would be a free map set for Germany, I guess somebody would have provided it by now. But feel free to ask in the german subforum wehre more germans are reading. (If you don't speak german and don't want to post in english there, feel free to contact us for a translation.)

 

Greetings,

Tobias

 

Edit: Try to make it clearer.

Edited November 22, 2005 by tobsas

[cezanne]

I am surprised that you think that the map set there would be an adequate improvement. I find the current maps on the German cache pages to be superior to what I see at the site you suggest.

I'm just curious. Have you ever used the maps provided by gc.com for Germany for locating a German cache, or have you only had a quick look at the maps? Or did I misunderstand something implying that you talk about different maps, for example the Mapquest maps? (Those are certainly better, but cannot be used reasonably to get an overview.)

 

In my experience, the quality of the gc.com maps is ridiculously bad as most areas of Germany and Austria are regarded. I am not talking about missing roads or problems to determine the type of roads or other issues at about this comparatively minor level of importance. The issues I refer to are much more serious. For exeample, many place names are completely wrong. The map for my home town shows a place that is located roughly 30 miles southwards as an area of the city (obviously, the correct name has been mixed up with the name of the much more distant village). Such examples are not isolated mistakes, but occur very frequently. I have never seen maps containing more mistakes.

 

As tobsas explained above, the overview maps provided by gc.de do not serve the purpose for driving to a cache. As a non-German cacher who happens to cache in Germany quite frequently, I can assure you that the overview maps at gc.de are rather helpful for cachers who are not experts in German geography and just want to get a rough idea about the cache situation in a certain area (which implies that one does want to take the pain of downloading lots of caches and displaying them in fancy and expensive map software programs).

 

Maps like the ones provided by Google Earth would be useless for me even in the case I were able to use them (which is not the case as I am using Unix systems) because the maps provided are much too detailed to get an overview.

 

Cezanne

[+Hynr]

I guess it's important to be more specific. There are three levels of mapping at the geocaching website.

1. the little tiny map just below the title of the cache

2. the slightly larger overview map with the star in the middle, just below the long description

and 3. the maps that appear when you click on "map it" after a search.

Then there are the off-site maps, but those are not the point of discussion here.

 

In my comment above, I was referring to #2. I am in no way suggesting that these maps are adequate for anything other than getting a rough overview where the cache might be, only that the maps that were suggested as an alternative are actually worse than what I see for #2. Perhaps the link above is not taking me to the maps that I should be looking at; the maps I see there also have no roads and show even fewer towns and villages. How is that an improvement?

 

I find #1 useless at all times on all cache pages. In my opinion they are a waste of bandwidth. (But there may be others who think they are useful - I am not advocating a change).

 

I have not spent much time with the #3 style of maps either in the US or anywhere else because they are never adequate for my needs. I always use other maps. I have not purchased any maps specifically for Germany. I just now clicked on the "Map It" icon for a search in Germany and my reaction is that the geocaching.com maps are better than the ones Tobsas referred to. I do know several areas in Germany pretty well and would have to say that none of these maps are adequate for my needs. I would definitely need to use 3rd party maps as much in Germany as I do here in California.

 

So to answer your question: I have not used any of the geocaching.com maps to find any caches in Germany. I have actually not used any of these maps to find any of the 2380 caches that I have found. But I do find the available maps somewhat useful (and I know that many folks have nothing else); these maps are definitely better than nothing. In fact, I remember looking at cachepages in areas where geocaching.com had(has) nothing; what you are seeing is an improvement, even if it has errors.

 

The geocaching.com site provides mapping to a specific standard that everyone, including Jeremy, wishes were higher. What is available is a compromise between quality and price. For what it does, it does pretty well. If you need more, then links are conveniently provided to help you, but geocaching.com cannot simply scrape those sites for better maps - they have to pay the licensing fees. As Jeremy pointed out above, he is interested in any leads that would get him to better maps. But he is not likely to want to replace the existing stuff with stuff that is not a substantial improvement.

[+tobsas]

I guess it's important to be more specific. There are three levels of mapping at the geocaching website.

1. the little tiny map just below the title of the cache

2. the slightly larger overview map with the star in the middle, just below the long description

and 3. the maps that appear when you click on "map it" after a search.

Then there are the off-site maps, but those are not the point of discussion here.

The question of the OP was how he could find caches in the region of Gießen, Germany, without the possibilitie to search by ZIP-code. So within the first couple of answers there were suggestions on how to search for caches using either zip-code searches via third party pages or third party maps. The discussion then shifted a little bit but I gues we are still discussing how to find caches in the surrounding of a position somewhere near Gießen, Germany.

 

AFAIK neither the first nor the second map you mentioned have more than the location of one cache in it, but I accept to call them maps. However, I don't think that they are useful to locate caches in a region to look for. (I don't deny that those two maps help to get an impression where this particular cache is located but for deciding which caches might be interesting, you need more than one in a map.)

So we are at the "map" you mentioned as number 3. Just to make sure we are talking about the same stuff: You get to them by clicking on "Geocaching.com Maps" right beneath "For online maps...".

Let's take the several times mentioned event "Schnitzeljagd". I do not know the surrounding of that cache, so I can't point out what is wrong or not, but based on the stuff I see in regions I know even not too well, I will not rely on them in any case. But this is the "map" Geocaching.com offers me and I guess that's the map I am asked to use to find caches in the surrounding if I want more than X,Y km in some direction: http://www.geocaching.com/map/getmap.aspx?...563&lon=8.70698

If you the try to get a wider angle by clicking 3-4 times on the "-"-button, you don't see anything. I highly doubt that these "map" can be of any help to get an overview which caches are in the surrounding or more than 10km away. And that's where I use the mentioned gc.de-maps, they help me even on drives of about 130 km which I make regulary. And I still don't see any similiar offer gc.com gives me. So I believe that third party maps have to be part of the discussion as the service offered by gc.com is not helping, at least not in Germany.

 

However, I somehow get the impression that you won't accept that those "maps" are just wrong and not of any help. At least, I do not know anybody in Germany who use those except for laughing, so I stop here.

 

Greetings,

Tobias

[+Hynr]

I am not sure whether I should respond, as I sense that I am just making you angry. That is not my intent. We have two points: 1. the maps are inadequate by any standard and 2. you are proposing an alternate map set that might be better.

 

I think we agree with the first point. My initial response was based on the #2 type of map that shows automatically on a cache page, and you were talking about the #3 style which I had not looked at before for Germany. We are in agreement that for the first one (although they could certainly be a much better maps) does generally fullfill its intent to show you regionally where the cache is located. You should be aware that there are plenty of map data errors in the USA maps as well. I agree with you that no one would use any of these maps to go find a cache. Afterall we have GPSr units for that. So I don't think we are disagreeing on any of that.

 

Where we do have a disagreement is in the suitability of a particular alternate map set. If Jeremy were to get the ability to licesnse those maps you talk about (or use them at no cost), do you think the above situation would improve? If the highest level of detail available is what is seen at the link you posted, then I don't see how that would be the case. My point is merely that you deserve better.

 

I do know that the maps are a source of frustration for you. I have the same frustration with what I see for maps in my area here in the US (even if at the same time the maps I see at gc.com are of much greater quality than the maps you see). This is why I spent the extra money on this my hobby to eliminate this frustration. I do realize that many don't have that alternative, but I would guess, having seen some of the best maps on the planet in Germany (e.g. the ADAC maps) that your 3-rd party software tools are probably pretty impressive. But I am just guessing; and I know that it is not a solution to the problem.

 

If that has gone too far off-topic, then perhaps we should do further discussion by private e-mail.

 

To get back on topic (sort of): it looks like the Schnitzeljagd might have serious weather problems. If that type of endeavor still involves dropping little bits of white paper on the ground as it did when I was a child, then the lack of helpful maps will be the least of their worries. But I guess a Schnitzeljagd for geocachers probably involves GPS and Schnitzel instead....

[cezanne]

I guess it's important to be more specific. There are three levels of mapping at the geocaching website.

1. the little tiny map just below the title of the cache

2. the slightly larger overview map with the star in the middle, just below the long description

and 3. the maps that appear when you click on "map it" after a search.

Then there are the off-site maps, but those are not the point of discussion here.

 

In my comment above, I was referring to #2. I am in no way suggesting that these maps are adequate for anything other than getting a rough overview where the cache might be, only that the maps that were suggested as an alternative are actually worse than what I see for #2. Perhaps the link above is not taking me to the maps that I should be looking at; the maps I see there also have no roads and show even fewer towns and villages. How is that an improvement?

Thanks for your clarification. I thought you were referring to the maps you listed as #3 since some previous posters were talking about those maps. As those maps are concerned, their quality in Europe is extremely bad and cannot be compared at all to the quality the maps have for the US.

 

I agree with you that the Mapquest maps #2 are quite useful to get an impression of where a specific cache is located. I do use them quite frequently for that very purpose, but that's only possible if I have already chosen the cache pages that I am interested into which is not the case in the situation of the original poster.

 

As the use of the maps on gc.de is concerned, I' like to clarify that they serve a different purpose than would you suggest. They are not for getting an impression where cache XX is located - nobody claimed that. The idea of the maps of gc.de is a different one. Suppose for example that I am planning to visit Marburg/Lahn, a city in Hessia north of Frankfurt/Main and would like to see if there are any caches near this place. For such a purpose the maps at gc.de are very useful (note that gc.com offers no search for caches in Germany according to zip codes, federal states or anything of this type). The only other alternative would be to search for coordinates of the place you are interested into at another site and then search on gc.com via coordinates which is much more tiresome than using the maps of gc.de (or similar maps for other European countries like Austria, Switzerland etc).

 

The maps on gc.de are also quite handy for identifying new caches in a particular area because new caches are displayed with a special icon. In a country with a cache density as high as in Germany, the listing with new caches is not anymore helpful at all. The whole first page is covered with event caches and then the new caches from all over the country are mixed and it is not that easy to find those lying in a particular region at a quick glance (of course, there are methods to download data and display them in seperate maps etc, but I am talking of getting a fast overview without doing work on one's own).

 

As you mention third-party maps in your other posting: I also own third party maps for my home country (Austria), but I do not wish to buy third party maps for every other country I am going to visit, typically only for a short period of time. Third party commercial maps are a nice tool if locating an actual cache is regarded, but I would not buy expensive maps of all over Italy or France just to find out how many and which caches are near Treviso in Italy or near Troyes in France, for example.

 

 

Cezanne

Edited November 25, 2005 by cezanne

[+HoPri]

Only a small remark: My point was that the geocaching.com maps could serve both purposes, look at map details for a specific cache AND provide the overview the geocaching.de maps provide. However, that would require a change in the map layout according to the zoom level (AND useful map data).

 

Cheers,

Holger

[cezanne]

Only a small remark: My point was that the geocaching.com maps could serve both purposes, look at map details for a specific cache AND provide the overview the geocaching.de maps provide. However, that would require a change in the map layout according to the zoom level (AND useful map data).

What you suggest sounds nice, but is possible only in theory since useful maps for Europe which can serve both purposes at the same time are too expensive as license fees are concerned. For that reason, I can very well understand that gc.com is not able to offer a solution of the type you propose for Germany, and Europe in general.

 

On the other hand, I feel that the national geocaching communities are typically very well able to provide overwiew maps provided that they have access to the cache data.

(I write communities and not societies on purpose as in most European countries the geocachers are not organized in such a way, but are just a group of indviduals.)

 

A single service provider like gc.com will never be able to serve the specific requirements different countries at the same level of user satisfaction than many small groups in the respective countries are able to provide.

 

Cezanne

[+LDS]

In these situations I just find one of the caches that is in the area I am and search for other nearby caches. For example, I just did a quick keyword search for Giessen in Hide and Seek a Cache and quickly found this one. And here are a bunch of nearby caches.

 

If a keyword search of the city name doesn't work, you can always use your GPSr to get your coordinates and search using those, or:

 

Another good resource (although I think it is all in German) is geocaching.de. They have a great interactive map (Interaktive Karte) that shows all of the caches in Germany on a clickable map.

 

I access the site but couldn't understand the language.

[+Team Cotati]

I am an American citizen living and working in Germany. Since foreign zip codes are not included in the website, how can I refine my search? Using just the country entry will list over 30,000 caches! Requesting only traditional caches will list over 6000 caches! Any suggestions for actually finding caches in my region (Giessen, near Frankfurt)

 

Go here: http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_r...age=1&english=Y

 

Enter 'Giessen' in the 'Find Name' field. Click 'search'. Look for Find the coordinates listed and then use these for a search start point. Pretty sweet.

[+Team Cotati]

I am an American citizen living and working in Germany. Since foreign zip codes are not included in the website, how can I refine my search? Using just the country entry will list over 30,000 caches! Requesting only traditional caches will list over 6000 caches! Any suggestions for actually finding caches in my region (Giessen, near Frankfurt)

 

Go here: http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_r...age=1&english=Y

 

Enter 'Giessen' in the 'Find Name' field. Click 'search'. Look for one labeled (Inhabited Place). Click on it. Find the coordinates listed and then use these for a search start point. Pretty sweet.