GAP to Stuttgart

Today was from hell. No, make that the inner circle of hell right next to Satan's antechamber. Our key learning was: validate the route proposed by the GPS before leaving the parking lot. Due to the Alps, there are a limited number of roads in the GAP area, and once you're on one, it's difficult to change course. The nav system wanted us to go back to Munich, take the ring road around the east side of the city and then head west; which, while it was all autobahn added a good 60k. We wanted to take the B23 to the B17 up to A8. So we navigated with the map to a small town that took us to the B23. Gone. Maintenance crews had dug it up and had not bothered to mention it 18k back when we could have diverted to the B2. So back we went to the B2 and up to the B17 that way. On the B17 there was a foreign object on the road that was the same color as the road, which we hit, which cut the tire, which went flat. I will say Jim did an excellent job of getting it changed. So, then it was off to Avis to get a new car. That took place at the Stuttgart airport. We drove about 180k at 80k per hour due to the small spare. It was a very tedious day, spent driving in the far right lane with the trucks.
The new car is a Renault Laguna, the GPS system is non-intuitive. It's not touch screen, which I really prefer. But travel should be educational, eh?
We're at a Holiday Inn Express right off the A8. Tomorrow we're heading for Trier and hopefully a better day.