Every so often I find another great location in our interesting world to “visit” via Google earth (underwater, natural looking digital anomalies aside). And now that they have the new panoramic 360 degree views available, some locations are even more fascinating.
My favorites have been the Parthenon, the Colosseum, the site of the battle of Thermopylae, the trenches of the Somme, Pompeii, Auschwitz (especially Birkenau), Normandy Beach, Iwo Jima, etc.
If you have never taken the time to do so I’m sure you’ll think of someplace that you find particularly interesting, and especially if they have the panoramic view you develop a whole new first-hand perspective. I also viewed some places in Europe I visited years ago to refresh my memories, like London and the Azore Islands. Surely many here could do the same.
I like finding personal places from my life. Just going on scraps of memories, I found my grandparents house in upstate New York that I hadn’t been at in over 30 years ago when I was a little kid.
Retracing steps can be awesome, but there are some gems out there.
Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, Red Square, Angkor Wat, The Pyramids at Giza, Al Aksor (Luxor), Victoria Falls [Niagara looks dumb], Versailles Palace, Monaco, Kennedy Space Center, Burj Dubai, all come to mind.
Playing the ‘find the Marine Corps Range’ game is relatively easy, if you know where to look.
I can still retrace everywhere I’ve been on the planet that way, and consequently I’m a better geospatial analyst for it.
Back in summer 2006, I decided to take a “study abroad” course just before I graduated FAU. It happened to be a History of WW2 and lasted three weeks. I got to see some really cool stuff and from time to time, I like to retrace my steps. I would love to go back and see half the stuff I got to experience…
From the Augustinerhaus in Munich, to Neuschwanstein, Dachau, Easy Company’s foxholes, etc…I even found a staff photo of my great uncle in a book about the 82nd Airborne that included Ben Vandervoert on the cover. I found that book in the museum in Bastogne, Belgium!
I’ve always wanted to take a WWII “tour” of Europe from Normandy to Nuremberg. I’ve been there twice but only seen a few of the places as it was more of a generic tourist package. Hopefully I’ll get another chance to do it right.
And now with the internet you can even find formerly obscure information like Hitler’s favorite hot spots.
I got to go to Nuremberg also! And tried the local fave, the drei en brezen! We saw the party rally grounds and they still bear the big A that Patton had painted on! When we started our tour in Munich, we visited the old Nazi Party HQ that is now a music school. Went in Hitlers office and I snapped a pic of the desk that the Munich Accords were signed on. Our travel arrangements were taken care of by Kollander Worldwide. I think they did an excellent job, our tour of Cologne was by an intel officer and LTC in the German Army who happens to do a lot of research on ww2 in his free time, he has even had access to records at NARA. Our Holland tour took us to the Groesbeck Heights, John Frost bridge, and the Rhine crossing by the 82nd. When I went to FAU I typically regarded most study abroad programs as an easy way to avoid work as I was pulling in 50 hour weeks at Publix with a lot of late nights and early morning classes. When I casually mentioned the class to my grandmother, she was quite willing to help me financially arrange for the class. My grandfather was OSS and great uncle was a West Pointer, 82nd staff officer, instructor at the War College, and retired general.
I took quite a few pics, so I have reference when I go google earthin’ Some of my friends will be in Munich for Oktoberfest, so I did a street view of the hotel where I stayed since it was around the corner from the Augustinerhaus and the Glockenspiel.
I have a bloodstained canvas bag full of patches and insignia from Kraut uniforms and a '1903 that got a commercial stock put on it a couple of decades ago.
I use Google Earth to visit places I can’t get to in person, both from my own life and as a tourist. I have a particular interest in historical research, military archaeology, FUDS, esp cold war era Europe.
I also use Google Earth a lot at work for tactical planning, table top training exercises, and the like.
