If you ask for directions via Google Maps, they’ll tell you to swim (screenshot below in case it gets changed):
Link via Kottke.
Update: Upon experimenting a bit, it looks like it works for many US and European cities — in case you wanted to drive from Bend to London
Comments
To add insult to injury, they expect me to swim across the Atlantic to France to get to my home town in England! Swimming 3000 miles I can take but having to go to France!?
Yeah, you’d think a direct swim to Irish shores would be smarter, but Google Maps must know something we don’t 😉
So, don’t you wonder if the person who set up the misleading directions a) did it and then keyed people in to see how long before ‘everybody’ knew it or b) never told and just waited to see if somebody would every type in NY to Dublin?
I always wonder those things.
Hey, maybe I’ll drop by this summer! It will take me about a month traveling in each direction, but hey, you don’t get to see the sea bottom every day! Imagine all the weird creatures you’ll see if you switch on your high beams!
Oh, the best part is this:
“Swim across the Atlantic Ocean 5,572 km
29 days 0 hours”
It’s obviously a joke on Google’s part; pretty cute!
It does seem oddly fixated on taking you to France first. Take a look at the directions for Bend to Land’s End:
Clicky