Memoir: When Technology Goes Wrong, GPS and GPX and Berlin

A Memoir : When Technology Goes Wrong

GPS and GPX and Berlin

When experimenting with a new technology, it helps to practice, practice and practice beforehand … like before you use it for real.

It is January 3rd, and I am in Berlin on the first day of my 10-day 110-mile hike from Germany’s capital to the city of Leipzig. Only 24-hours ago, I found the Rapid Transit Number 9 line from Tempelhof Airport to the Evangelical (read Lutheran here for that) Pilgrim Hostel to walk the Vía Imperii Pilgrim route, which dates back over a thousand years or more as a trade and travel route between the Baltic Sea and Rome, the seat of the Holy Roman Empire. But I have planned a more modest historical tour of the downfall of the German Democratic Republic (aka Deutsches Demokratisches Republik). Today the goal is 13 miles from the symbol of Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate to the Altstadt (historic part) of Teltow.

However today’s memoir is less about the journey and more about the technologies that help the hiker with reading a map.

As a side note, the immigration agent at Tempelhof was incredulous that my visit to Germany was for pleasure and to walk from Berlin to Leipzig. He actually said to me, in German, “zu Fuss”, while making a walking motion with his index and middle finger across my passport, which was still waiting for the entry visa.

I have a written guide “auf Deutsch” - in German - that says to walk straight along Hundstrasse, then, turn left onto Katzestrasse, then veer right after 1 km on to Tierstrasse, and steer slightly left when I get to Kuhlschrankstrasse and / or be careful not to take Vogelstrasse but instead Voegelstrasse and marginally, ever-so-slightly angle to the right on some other strasse after “Bundestag Allee.”

I have Google Maps which tells me where I am, but not where to go to stay on the trail.

GPS is the technology that tells me where I am. I don’t understand it all and don’t need to.

GPX data are the data points that are mapped to display a fixed trail. A GPX file is the raw data, absent a map on which to display the data.

AllTrails showing a Camino trail that I hiked in 2022.

AllTrails Zoomed in to View Streets

For navigation on the trail, typically I would, e.g. use the AllTrails app and follow my progress that way. While walking, you know where you are in relation to the entirety of the trail.

Also you can zoom in for street by street positioning.

What is critical to note is that you can NOT modify the GPX data in AllTrails that outlines the track. If you wish to go off trail, there is no support. The data points are fixed, permanently.

However, not many people walk the Vía Imperii, so AllTrails did not support trail mapping for that particular route.

GPX Data Loaded into Google Maps (mymaps.google.com)

So I downloaded for personal use a GPX file that someone on one of the German websites uploaded.

There are, of course, advantages to loading a GPX file.

There are, of course, advantages to downloading a GPX file.

One can choose the underlying map app, e.g. Google maps or Apple maps or Garmin GPS device or whatever.

An advantage to the GPX file is that you can modify the data while displayed on the map. If one knows how to modify the data points, one can add new possibilities. I don't know yet how to modify the data points.

Berlin Hauptbahnhof Rapid Transit Line

Berlin: Brandenburg Gate. Start of Via Imperii in Berlin

So on my first day of hiking, I catch the rapid transit line over to the trailhead to begin my expedition through the former East Germany.

I find the trailhead at the Brandenburg Gate and start walking with 13 miles as the plan, using the GPX file that I loaded into Google maps.

GPX data inadvertently modified inside mymaps.google.com

Hours later as I am passing through the suburbs of Berlin, all of a sudden the GPX map looks “wrong”. The trail, as displayed, does not make sense. I realize that I had changed the data points somehow.

It is clear to me that I can inadvertently modify the data points ... Without realizing it. I have ironically and unintentionally made a disadvantage of the advantage of a GPX file.

It is about 30F and drizzling. I am outside a high-speed rail station with no idea how to fix the map. I consider taking the train back to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) in Berlin center and regrouping.

Regrouping and Reloading the GPX Data

However, across the street, I see a supermarket with a sit-down cafe with coffee, juices and pastries.

As I sit in the supermarket, I have one browser window explaining how to reload GPX data into Google maps. In another browser window, I have some guy in a youtube video showing me how to reload GPX data into Google maps. I utter vile, obscene things under my breath. I am very quiet as I curse and swear because you never know who nearby actually understands English.

About one hour later, I figure how to reload the data. However I still do not know how I had changed the data points and was deathly afraid that I would do so again.

In fact, I did.

Lost Inside the Duebener Heide (Nature Park)

One time I am in the middle of a forest, and clearly off the trail. I am wacking bushes, logs, stumps, fallen trees and moss-covered mounds and dips. Fortunately I hear the traffic from the Bundesstrasse 2 highway to my left, on the other side of a creek. I just follow the creek until I come to a bridge.

Somewhere in Farm Country

Another time I am in between hamlets, criss-crossing farm roads. I simply use Google maps to navigate to the next town.

Somewhere in the intervening days, I learn what the precise finger swipe motions are that move the GPX data points around. If only I had learned that sooner.

I am now wiser, smarter and more experienced. If there is any take-away from my time in the former East Germany, I wish I had learned how not to "break" the map while simultaneously "reading" the map.