Apr 26, 2024 | Updated: 11:35 AM EDT
May 10, 2017 06:04 AM EDT
Residents of Fossmark in Norway were both amused and confused by a group of tourists who came to their place when they were looking for the Preikestolen cliffs which are 19 miles away. The culprit was Google Maps which directed the foreign visitors to a small, idyllic town rather than a geological formation in western Norway.
The tourists consulted Google Maps to find a route going to the Preikestolen cliffs. But a technical glitch led the visitors to the other side of the fjord from the cliffs, The Next Web reports. They were told to use the Lysefjord bridge that brought them to Fossmork instead.
The road to Fossmork was narrow. When told by locals that it was not the Preikestolen cliffs and they must turn back, some of the Chinese and Japanese tourists were upset after they discovered they were in the wrong side of the fjord because of the Google Maps glitch. However, an American tourist found Fossmork fantastic and even wanted to purchase a cabin he saw.
The Purple Rock, as Preikestolen is known, is 604 meters over the Lysefjord. Lonely Planet and CNN Go has named the Pulpit Rock one of the most scenic views in the world. But the tourists were deprived of an opportunity to go to the cliffs and take selfies because of the Google Maps error, Sputnik News reports.
Due to the confusion caused by the glitch of Google Maps, it is not just Fossmark which gets confused and lost visitors but also Gunnar Bo, its neighboring town. Roy Jarle Johansen, from the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, says the agency would probe what happened. He adds something must be done to point tourists to the cliffs, but not signs since people often trust Google more than signs.
The real Preikestolen is a 30-minute drive away from Lysefjord. It is not the first time that Google Maps sent tourists the wrong way. In 2012, after the service was launched, tourists in search of a New Jersey state park ended up in the driveway of a harassed homeowner.
