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Great panoramic views over Turin from the “Turin Eye”: a massive, tethered hot air balloon http://POSTURLHERE #streetview
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
The Netherlands is renowned for being a very flat1 and windy country. In the western town of Rozenburg the strong sea winds created problems for shipping on an important canal, so a unique2 solution was created – a 1.75km long wind wall consisting of around 125 individual concrete slabs.
The Caland Canal allows ships to pass from the North Sea via the Nieuwe Waterweg to the industrial port of Brittaniehaven. As ships increased in size – in particular those used to transport cars – the narrow waterway became more difficult to navigate in strong winds, particularly around the Calandbrug bridge.
In the mid-1980s architect Martin Strujis and artist Frans de Wit were tasked with creating an effective – yet aesthetically pleasing – wind barrier. Using a number of different designs for the slabs, they were able to provide the required protection, allowing only 25% of the wind to pass through, yet be judged pleasing enough to the eye that the windscherm is also considered to be a large-scale landscape art installation.
The southern section uses the largest semi-circular slabs – 25m tall and 18m wide.
These immense barriers shield the harbour, where ships maneuver slowly to and from the dockside.
Around the bridge, the slabs are the same height and still semi-circular to deflect the most wind, but narrower (4m) and spaced much more closely together to provide maximum protection as ships pass through this narrow obstacle with only a small distance to spare on either side. This YouTube video (in Dutch) shows just how tricky this passage is3.
Canal traffic has priority, so as the port became busier, road and rail traffic on the bridge increasingly faced lengthy delays. To ease congestion, a tunnel was built just to the south in 2004.
A bike route also crosses the bridge, and a special portal was created to protect cyclists from swirling air currents created by the barrier.
North of the bridge, the semi-circular slabs are replaced with slabs 10m square, which – placed on top of a 15m embankment – attain the same 25m height as the other sections.
The barrier continues in this form until it ends in a stand of trees near a gas storage facility.
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See our post about climbing facilities in the Netherlands! ↩
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At least we think it is unique – we wasn’t able to find information about any similar structures anywhere else. But if you know of others, please post in the comments! ↩
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In 2010 passage was made even trickier when a trainee bridge operator lowered the bridge too early, badly damaging a ship, as shown in this video. ↩
Locations: Netherlands / Categories: Bridges, Street Views, Structures, Watercraft
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
Lesotho is one of the most unique countries on the planet. It’s the southernmost landlocked country, the largest country that’s entirely surrounded by another country (South Africa), and the highest country on Earth (the lowest elevation in Lesotho is 1,400 m (4,593 ft) above sea level!)1. Yet, it doesn’t really show up on too many people’s radar. With the arrival of Google Street View imagery this month to Lesotho, it’s time to shed some light on the world’s largest enclave.
The Kingdom of Lesotho (pronounced li-SU-tu) occupies 30,355 km2 (12,727 sq mi) in the middle of South Africa and gained its independence from the United Kingdom in 1966. While it’s easily recongisable on a map from being an enclave in the middle of another country, it’s also recognisable from space even without a map due to the large amount of deforestation in Lesotho; two-third’s of the country economy is based in agriculture.
Most visitors to Lesotho enter through the capital, Maseru, a city of a quarter-million people which lies directly on the western border. Maseru is easily the largest and most modern city in the country.
The Lesotho Parliament sits high on a mountaintop in the middle of Maseru.
Lesotho’s only university is the National University of Lesotho in the town of Roma. The entrance to the University has become a hot area for businesses and street vendors in recent years.
Around 75% of Lesotho’s population lives in rural areas, and most of the population is concentrated in the lowlands along the western border. A common sight along the roadside is people gathered around bus shelters made from corrugated steel waiting for the next minibus. Often attached to these are public telephone booths.
Another common sight is the rather staggering amount of billboards and signs along the roadside advertising AIDS prevention services and, even more distressingly, funeral services. Adult prevalence of AIDS in Lesotho is 28.9% according to the UN; the third-highest rate in the world.
Because Lesotho’s population is concentrated in the lowlands, the mountain highlands were largely left alone by Street View. Still, the cameras did capture some of the spectacular scenery, such as at Maletsunyane Falls. At 192 m (630 ft), it’s the highest single-drop waterfall in all of southern Africa.
The highlands are also the source of Lesotho’s major export: electricity. The Lesotho Highlands Water Project exports electricity to South Africa generated from two hydroelectric dams in the centre of the country, Mohale and Katse. The project is scheduled to add three more dams in the coming years. At 145 m (476 ft), Mohale Dam is Africa’s tallest rock-fill dam, while Katse Dam is the second-largest dam in all of Africa, standing 185 m (607 ft).
As seen from the tops of Katse and Mohale, even in the middle of the highlands the forests have long been stripped bare. Soil erosion caused by deforestation has ruined much of the country’s land; a major problem in a place where less than 11 percent of the land is suitable for growing crops.
It’s not all doom and gloom, however. Thanks to its high altitude, Lesotho is home to one of Africa’s few ski resorts. The cameras came by in the middle of summer, though, so no snow is present.
The Street View cameras managed to capture quite a few slices of bucolic rural life in Lesotho. Here, we see a farmer with his cattle (and associated cattle by-products) in front of his traditional Sotho hut, a group of children who decided to chase after the Street View car down this dead-end road, and a traditional village so remote that it doesn’t even have roads.
Hopefully, we will get to see even more of rural Africa in the coming months. South Africa and Botswana are already on the roster, and Swaziland is scheduled to be added soon.
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We first took a glance at Lesotho and other landlocked enclaves back in March 2010. ↩
Locations: Lesotho / Categories: Animals, Buildings, Crowds, Natural Landmarks, Street Views
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
We’re not sure what’s going on here, but it sure does look like someone (or perhaps a pair of someones) has dragged a bloody corpse along this pier in order to dump it into this Dutch canal.
Does anyone want to have a go at providing an alternative suggestion of what might be going on here?
Via @myfangrykitty.
Locations: Netherlands / Categories: Bridges, Crowds, Watercraft
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
It’s April, and that means ice hockey fans around the world are gearing up for the highlight of the year, the National Hockey League (NHL)’s playoffs for the Stanley Cup, which teams have been competing for since 1892. From its beginnings as a game played on icy Canadian ponds, ice hockey is now a multi-billion dollar enterprise played by millions around the world.
Any tour of the ice hockey world should probably begin at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. Established in 1943, the Hall has collected countless amounts of hockey memorabilia and inducted 370 members for their contributions to the game. Since 1992, the Hall has been located in this historic downtown Toronto building. Its museum has 4,700 m2 (50,600 sq. ft.) of exhibition space and receives 300,000 visitors each year.
As with many major team sports, ice hockey was already played informally by the beginning of the 19th century, becoming formally codified in the middle of the century. The first modern hockey game with proper rules was played on 3 March 1875 at Montreal’s Victoria Skating Rink. Closed in 1925, the site of the humble wooden rink has long been occupied by a parking garage. It’s a far cry from Michigan Stadium, where in 2010 a massive 113,411 fans watched teams from the University of Michigan and Michigan State University do battle. The NHL will attempt to replicate the feat next January when the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs play in the same stadium.
Ice hockey fans often create their own shrines to the game. This pub in Columbus, Ohio is all decked out for the next Blue Jackets match.12
As you’re likely aware, hockey is borderline religion in Canada. It’s even responsible for Canada’s most popular restaurant chain. In 1964, Maple Leafs star defenceman Tim Horton parlayed some of his hockey earnings into a doughnut store in Hamilton, Ontario. Five decades later, Tim Hortons has over 4,500 locations around the world, but the original Hamilton store is still going (note the plaque).
Other stars of the day took up more esoteric endeavours. Chicago forward Bill Mosienko 3 opened up a chain of bowling alleys in his native Winnipeg. His family still operates this alley, which bears a giant mural in Mosienko’s honour.
Another mural recipient is Paul Henderson, who scored the winning goal for Canada against the Soviet Union in the 1972 Summit Series, the first-ever best-on-best meeting between the two ice hockey superpowers of the day at the height of the Cold War. An estimated 75% of Canadian households watched the final game. Henderson’s hometown of Lucknow, Ontario painted this mural for the previously unheralded player who instantly became a national sporting hero.4
These days, ice hockey is a truly international game. 72 countries are now members of the International Ice Hockey Federation, including unlikely candidates such as Thailand, India, and Qatar. Players who head off to the NHL to ply their trade can become national heroes back home. On the side of the Arena Riga in Riga, Latvia, we find this giant poster of Sandis Ozoliņš, who played 15 seasons in the NHL and was voted the country’s most popular sportsman in 20095. Perhaps the biggest evidence of the sport’s growth can be found in places like the Rødovre Skøjte Arena, a small rink in the suburbs of Copenhagen. There are fewer than 5,000 registered ice hockey players in all of Denmark, yet three of them – Mikkel Bødker, Lars Eller, and Jannik Hansen – emerged from a junior team based at this rink to end up as prominent players in the NHL in recent years.
The second-strongest ice hockey league in the world is the Eastern Europe-based Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Tragedy struck the league in September 2011 when the entire roster of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, containing many international stars, was killed in a plane crash en route to the season’s first game. Yaroslavl’s Arena 2000 continues to display the images of the 37 players and staff who perished.
More than anywhere else in Europe, ice hockey has been embraced by Finland, where it is the most popular sport. Numerous hockey stars come from Finland to play in the NHL, and as we see at Helsinki’s Hartwall Areena, Finland hosts NHL games itself, such as the Chicago/Florida tilt advertised on this poster. The NHL now opens every season with multiple games in Finland and Sweden.
The most out-of-place rink may be the one in the United Arab Emirates. Surrounded by the heat of the Arabian desert, Emiratis and expatriates play with and against each other in a rink inside the Dubai Mall, the world’s largest enclosed shopping centre. There is a five-team national league and eight-team amateur league, and in recent years the UAE has even begun sending teams to the World Championships.
And what coffee and doughnut shop happens to overlook the rink? You guessed it, Tim Hortons.
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Paying tribute to their northern neighbours, not only have they stocked the pub with cheap, generic American beer, but they’ve stocked it with cheap, generic Canadian beer as well! Bonus points, however, for the poster of the legendary Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard on the wall. ↩
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If you’ve followed our Street View feed for a while, you already know that both Duncan, British Columbia and Eveleth, Minnesota claim to be the home of the world’s largest hockey stick, but, as in ice hockey itself, it all depends upon whether you prefer a composite stick or a wooden stick. ↩
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Mosienko still holds the record for the fastest hat trick in NHL history: three goals in 21 seconds against the New York Rangers on 23 March 1952. ↩
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And if you live in Canada, you’ve had to hear about it over and over and over again ever since… ↩
Locations: Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Manitoba, Michigan, Ohio, Ontario, Quebec, Russia, United Arab Emirates / Categories: 45˚ Imagery, Buildings, Stadiums and Sport, Street Views
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
Known as the site of one of the most pivotal naval battles in history, today Midway Atoll strikes an odd balance between its military past and its tropical paradise locale. It’s also one of the most remote places ever visited by Google Street View.
Midway Atoll lies at the extreme northwest end of the Hawaiian Islands, though it is not part of the state of Hawaii itself. A National Wildlife Refuge administered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Midway is indeed ‘midway’ between Asia and North America: 4,100 km (2,500 mi) east of Tokyo and 5,200 km (3,200 mi) west of San Francisco. The atoll consists of a coral reef that contains a 68 km2 (26 sq mi) lagoon with three islands in its south end – the final remnants of a prehistoric volcano formed 28 million years ago that has long since sunk into the sea.
The largest of the three islands is Sand Island, which makes up about 78 percent of Midway’s land area. Sand Island hosts the airport, Henderson Field, as well as all of Midway’s buildings and residences. Directly to the east lies the other two islands of Midway, Spit (the small one in the middle) and Eastern, home to the original World War II airstrip.
It’s probably not surprising that the staff at Midway were more than excited to greet the Street View folks – the year-round population on Sand Island is around 60 people, and the nearest town is 1,865 km (1,160 mi) away!
Fortunately, accommodation on the island is pretty nice. Just look at Midway House, the residence of the officer-in-charge built in 1941. Nice front garden, too.
Did you notice the birds in the staff image or in the courtyard? If there’s a recurring theme in the Street View imagery at Midway, it’s birds. As both a protected wildlife refuge and as one of the pivotal stopover points for seabirds crossing the Pacific, birds are everywhere – and we mean everywhere. Almost every outdoor image taken on Sand Island includes some of the three million birds that call Midway Atoll home, including 70 percent of the world’s Laysan Albatrosses and over one-third of its Black-footed Albatrosses.
Midway was not permanently settled until the United States Navy arrived in 1940 to open a Naval Air Facility. Within two years, Midway would be the battleground for one of World War II’s most decisive victories. Taking place over four days in early 1942, the US thwarted an attempted Japanese capture of the island. Midway’s history of warfare is evident in the island’s landscape. The ruins of the old command post stand to this day (the roof now bearing stalactites), and this old bunker lies hidden in the grass on the south shore. Unsurprisingly, albatrosses have even found their way inside there, too.
Naturally, memorial cairns exist to commemorate the battle, complete with a list of ships involved in the battle and a centrepiece map. On the east side of the island, there are also three cairns engraved with Japanese writing; a memorial to three fisherman lost at sea back in 1911.
There are a few dozen buildings on Sand Island, some dating back as far as 1903 and the Commercial Pacific Cable Company’s attempt to build a trans-Pacific telegraph cable. Others were tourist facilities built during the first days of transcontinental flight in the 1930s. Most buildings on the island, however, come from Midway’s WWII and Cold War heyday as a naval air station. At one point, over 3,500 people lived on the island, and even into the 1970s the population was over 2,000. Most of the pavement arund the island is crumbling, and the many abandoned barracks and naval facilities are in various states of disrepair. An ongoing US$5 million project to strip the toxic lead paint from the all of the abandoned buildings’ walls is scheduled to be completed in 2017.
The largest buildings on Sand Island are the hangars and maintenance facilities. One of these huge buildings is dedicated exclusively to storing golf carts and bicycles – the only motorised land transportation on the island.
Between 2008 and 2012, Midway was opened up not just to government personnel and Fish & Wildlife Service volunteers, but to eco-tourists as well. In 2012, the year Street View visited Midway, the island received 332 tourists. And there’s no shortage of services for staff and visitors alike; at the Midway Mall, one can shop at the gift shop, go to the library, or even have a bite to eat or a haircut while waiting for their bicycle to be repaired at the bike shop!
Sadly, these facilities will see far less use in 2013 due to budget cutbacks that have suspended all visitor and volunteer programmes. With no public access to Midway scheduled at the moment, the only time you can visit now is if your plane was forced to make an emergency landing over the Pacific. But, hey, if you do get marooned at Midway, there’d be a lot worse places to get stuck.
Locations: Unincorporated territory of the U.S. / Categories: Abandoned, Animals, Buildings, Crowds, Islands, Monuments, Natural Landmarks, Street Views, Structures
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2013 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.