Zero to Ten with Duolingo

About two weeks before setting off on my most recent trip to Germany I decided to start to use the Language App Duolingo to try to get a sense of the language.  I have been to or through Germany on a number of occasions in the past, and have found the language to be completely baffling.  I know few words, despite the preponderance of things that sound close to English, and I always feel like I am floundering in a way that rivals my experience in Asia.
So how did it go?  I got to level 10 while I was on the trip, which is a modest something like 15 or 20 hours of studying, so nothing that would even come close to a semester of the language, and while I still looked completely blankly at anyone who actually spoke to me (I apparently appear to understand significantly more German that I actually do), I definitely felt like my time with Duolingo was time well spent.  I could decipher things that are important to me, which are museum cards and menus, and I got very facile with my Google translate app, which between the two, made me feel less at sea.  I spent a day completely on my own and did not flounder once.  So if you are looking to spiff up some language skills, I would recommend this.