Hi,
I've set up a test page here using the two tags you've given above:
test of googleMaps 1205003
As you can see both works ok.
By the way, can you let me know which versions of the googleMaps, googleDir and GoogleDir_tohere are you using?
You need the latest version for all 3 plugins for the above to work.
Regards,
/kksou
p.s. by the way, the ~ works only when you click on the marker. It does not work when you "hover" over the marker. This is because the Google API doesn't support any HTML such as <br> in the label when you hover over it.