A Jewish Grandmother : Google Maps Goofed!

Tuesday, April 07, 2015

Google Maps Goofed!

Yesterday I figured I could walk from the center of Jerusalem to the Caffit restaurant in the Botanical Gardens. I checked on Google Maps and followed. At first everything seemed fine. I was going in the right direction, but halfway there the "guide" said one way and my husband another. I became confused and followed Google Maps which sent me to places where they would tell me to cross busy non-pedestrian streets and turn where there were no turns nor paths.

I had to periodically turn back when I found myself getting further away according to the "minutes to destination."

It claimed I had reached my "destination" when I was on the wrong street. I could see on their map that the street I needed was parallel to where I was standing. So I began looking for a way to get to that street, Yehuda Burla. I finally found a playground with people in it and asked. They gave me directions, and over a kilometer later I found what according to the address should have had been the restaurant, but it wasn't. Actually it didn't exist. There was no restaurant at 1 Yehuda Burla. There were locked gates to the Botanical Gardens.

My husband insisted he had gone through the gate, but apparently between his and my arrival they had been locked. I walked down a few roads and even saw him and my friend. We talked and signaled to each other.

Finally I found someone who gave me directions, to go to a pizza place a hundred plus meters away and find the underground passage, which I did.

I must have walked an extra couple of kilometers or more. But I very cheerfully decided that I had burned enough calories and revved up my metabolism well enough to eat what I wanted. Yes, I made sure that we stayed for dessert and enjoyed the ice cream!

And old conventional paper map fully marked with streets would have done me better. I could follow GM's right/left instructions but not their northwest and south. I'm not a compass. Thank G-d I'm relatively fit.