Trying to make use of Google Maps. Search results are always sorted by "most relevant" by default, instead of by distance. Always I switch to distance, next search goes "most relevant" instead, which should be labelled "most irrelevant" instead, as it seems to be an excuse to show a list with promoted businesses not only far away, but often unrelated to my actual query. Wasn't Google supposed to be some sort of search engine experts? or at least the lesser evil of search engines? Oh wait, no, they're actually an advertising company, and it shows. Fuck you, Google. Where am I going to throw my Pixel phone and why did I open your shitty apps in the first place? I should switch MY own defaults back to Open Street Map etc.

Additional points:

Make maps speak its announcements earlier before junctions? There is no option!

Google is quite good for car navigation in Europe, or at least it would be, but you need to keep an eye on the display, otherwise you will miss every other junction. You will also need a front seat passenger who knows their way around town, to make sense of Google's tips. Same with other satnavs though.

Use Google maps for bicycle navigation in Berlin? Forget it! Even if you manage to put the phone in a place where you can actually hear and understand anything, it will try to show you a mixture of car / pedestrian navigation and avoid bike lanes. How can a popular navigation service fail in a city with so many people? Am I the only one left who still occasionally tries to use Google?

Have you ever tried to use Google for pedestrian navigation outside the city? Impossible in Germany! Even if you happen to have an internet connection, Google gets lost. Use signposts instead!

In Spain I've never had any major issues with Google maps or its queries.

I do agree though that having the indications come out a bit earlier before junctions would be great.

Also true about signposts, but I think that should be a given. I mean, I've seen people get lost because they blindly follow GPS while ignoring a giant signal in their fucking face saying "it's this way".

IMO if you fail that, that's on you 😂

For hiking outdoors in Europe, I found mapy.cz a great alternative. Based on Open Street Map, it shows all the official paths in the correct colour, matching printed maps and wooden signposts.

When it comes to bike and road trips, when I'm prepared and looked up the route in advance, I can get along well without digital navigation assistance most of the time, as central Europe is still quite traditional and ruled by the elderly who have survived at least one World War.

I guess we are lucky not to have to rely on digital tools, especially not on Google maps, otherwise we'd be doomed.

I will have a look into Ubuntu touch.