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| Buckingham Palace, England, UK |
In September of 2014 I took my mom to England, as she always had wanted to see some specific locations and a castle tied to her family. The trip was great, no issues whatsoever, and as it was winding down, we decided to finish up the trip with London. Having been to London before, I knew exactly all the places I wanted to take her. One of which was, Buckingham Palace, and it was our last stop that evening.
We drove down the streets past Buckingham, and after weaving through the traffic, found a public parking lot next to a train station. I paid the parking meter for two hours, and then we took off on foot. The parking lot was practically right next to Buckingham, and I had my Google Maps marked with the car location.
Exploring was great, and as the evening went on, I noticed my phone battery started getting lower and lower. In order to save battery power, I decided to put the phone in airplane mode, and then would turn it back on in order to use GPS when needed. Within an hour of sunset, my battery was so low, I decided to close all running apps on the phone. The problem is, when you force running apps to close, depending on the app, it will remove what is stored in memory. Google Maps is one of these. I didn't realize it at first, but then I noticed that closing all apps lost the location to our rental car. From the parking lot to Buckingham it seemed very straight forward and easy to find, so I didn't take pictures of any of the street signs, or pay much attention to the exact name of the parking lot (silly I know, I was just heavily relying on technology).
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| Tower Bridge, London, UK |
Time was against us, the parking meter time was counting down, sunset and darkness getting closer, and a phone battery which was even lower, it was time to get going. We were in Hyde Park by the time we decided that we should head back, and decided to take a shortcut towards the car on the back side of Buckingham (West). As we turned on a road towards where I expected to be somewhat close to the parking lot, the streets and buildings all started to look the same.
I saw a few storefronts and shops that I noticed on the way down to Buckingham, so I knew we were on the right path. With what remaining battery I had left on my phone, I searched for parking lots on Google Maps. In every direction there was a parking lot, and when walking to a couple of them, none of them were the correct lot.
For a split second, we stopped and were a little worried, and I thought, "We're lost..." and that's when a little bit of panic started to move in. There was not much time left remaining until it was completely dark, parking meter was about to expire, a phone which was within a couple percentages of powering off.
We stopped for a moment, pushed out thoughts which would induce panic, and took a second to relax. As I stood on a street corner, I looked every direction, and then saw something that looked like an underground railroad sign. We began walking towards the sign, turned the corner, and there it was, a street that did look familiar and train tracks that we crossed earlier. Walking just a bit further, I saw the parking lot, and we were so relieved. All worries about the phone dying, the darkness moving in, and the parking meter which expired as soon as we arrived at the car was no longer a worry. Apparently we were parked at the Victoria Train Station (I love looking up locations that I've been to on maps when going through experiences like these).
I've definitely learned my lesson. So, what do you do when you're in these situations? There are many methods, but here are some of the tips I use:
1. Download the MyCar Locator app. There are several similar to this. You can mark the spot of where your car is, subway entry, or location on the map. If you clear your memory on your phone by closing apps, it will not lose the location. It also will lead you directly back to the location you set, and I believe you can set multiple locations. You can even power off your phone if you need to save your battery and it will keep your location marked in the app.
2. Take pictures of the street signs, parking lots, or stations (train, taxi, etc.) if it is not written on your tickets. Having known that I was parked at Victoria Station, I could have easily put that into Google. When I returned to France, GPS was not working on my device in a certain location. We were searching for a Chateau out in the country. I could not get GPS to load, so the MyCar Locator app was not helpful at first. I began taking pictures of where we parked and the street names. Eventually I did get a signal, and used the MyCar Locator app to mark a location on the right road.
3. When not using your phone and you want to save battery power, put it in airplane mode. If you use an app like MyCar Locator, you can turn off your phone like I mentioned, but make sure that you test these types of scenarios first. It's better to be safe than sorry.
4. As a backup, it may be helpful to download certain apps for your phone. There are actually so many travel apps, and each of these can be useful. Make sure to research some of these before actually going on your trip. Some of them can get you skip the line and get you into attractions first, some can lead you to locations such as free parking, or public restrooms (in some countries this is a big one), and other apps such as maps, train station routes, which will enhance your trip.
5. Make sure to keep your devices charged. Buy the correct power adapters (verify that your electronics work with these different voltages--most electronics have no problem). Bring car adapters as well, and USB cables to keep your devices charging while you drive.
6. If you start to panic, try to relax. It does not help, and being able to think and focus with a clear mind will get you much further than what panicking will do for you.
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