115 replies to this topic

[frax]

Hans asked me how I figured out the Oudenbosch church -- this is how it went:
* I hooked on to Hans' mention of it being a copy.
* Googling for just copy/replica and church/cathedral didn't give me very much
* I then googled for a star floorplan, since I saw that the church in the picture had the main part shaped like two squares in each other (I was thinking that I might find what it is a replica of)
* Then I saw a floorplan of St Peter's in the Vatican, and I realized it was that floorplan/shape
* The Wikipedia St Peter's article gave me some false lead -- another Roman Basilica (Santa Prassede) that I tried hard to locate in Google Earth (kind of hard when you can't do address matching, and you don't know the coords). I found some italian map web-service where one could display a map on the address, but this was a dead end. Another false lead was Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro in Ivory Coast. Easy to dismiss as false, since the imagery is not detailed there.
* then did some googling on St Peters and copy/replica, and found Oudenbosch. Almost dismissed it, but then I thought I'll check it out.
* Used the NIMA GNS gazetteer to look up the coords for the town.
* Very cool that you can just paste in coords in Google Earth and it zooms in there.
* From looking at the town in GE I didn't see anything obvious that could be a big church, and I almost gave up when I zoomed in a little more and found it!

Google Earth kmz/place-file (you might need to right-click/save on this, Internet Explorer thought it was a zip-file on my computer at least)

Edited by frax, 11 December 2005 - 02:54 PM.

[Hans van der Maarel]

Hugo,

Very impressive.

For anybody who wants a better look at the basilica: Some images found by Google

[Dennis McClendon]

I believe that's the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur.

The minaret shadow was the first clue, so off I went to Google Images to find modern mosques.

[frax]

Correct - congrats! so let's see the next...
(damn! I was hoping it would be a bit harder)

And cheers for the good detective work!

Google Earth kmz/place file (may need right-click/save)
Google Earth kml link

I was there five years ago. I was trying to come up with a place outside Europe/US - since we haven't had that many of them, but also a place that I have been to. The problem with a lot of the landmarks outside urban areas outside the US/Europe is also that that the imagery is not always that good though, in Google Earth at least.

Edited by frax, 11 December 2005 - 03:09 PM.

[Dennis McClendon]

Yes, the first three places I thought of using only had coarse satellite imagery on Google Earth or black and white aerials on Terraserver. But try this, imaging a green Jaguar parked in the courtyard:

 tc1.jpg   95.52K   114 downloads

[Matthew Hampton]

This is just a guess. I haven't double-checke it with GE, but it sounds like 10 Downing street. Tony Blair's shop.

Am I right?

[Dennis McClendon]

Sorry, no. No. 10 Downing Street is not correct. Streets are a bit wide and orthogonal, and they have traffic on them.

[Hans van der Maarel]

Cars seem to be driving on the right side of the road anyway, so that rules out the UK.

[Matthew Hampton]

hhhmmmmmm, Who else drive a green jaguar?

[frax]

cartomat, nice try... I actually looked up that Tony Blair drives a green jaguar the other day, and then zoomed in on 10 Downing Street, but that looked totally different.

From the streets in that photo, I would guess it is North America.

[Dennis McClendon]

I'd better start dropping hints. Don't get too hung up on the green Jaguar: it was a 1957 Mark VII.

Notice the cars on the streets around the courtyard building. Why would they need to be parked perpendicular to the curb? Here's a wider view that should at least identify the city for sharp-eyed detectives:

Attached Files

•  tc2.jpg   90.61K   72 downloads

[Hans van der Maarel]

It's San Francisco, the courtyard building is at the intersection of Sacramento and Mason. Cars need to park parallel because the roads are steep. I've been there a few times but I only recall seeing signs saying that a bit more north near Coit Tower. Also, I can't figure out why this particular place would be a landmark.

Coincidence has it that I've probabely been right there. A few years ago I was visiting the Bay Area and my friend showed me around in Chinatown. We parked at Sacramento, a few blocks uphill iirc:
 IM000178.JPG   93.14K   68 downloads

This is about a block and a half away from the courtyard building (left and down), the intersection of California and Joice, looking down California.
 Im000180.jpg   84.67K   70 downloads

-- edit --

Best thing I can come up with is that it's one of the filming locations of the Rita Hayworth/Orson Welles movie "The Lady from Shanghai"... see here

-- edit 2 --

Some more searching comes up with the name: Brocklebank Apartments, 1000 Mason Str. Also seen in Vertigo (by Hitchcock)

[Dennis McClendon]

Bingo! Well done, Hans. It's the Brocklebank Apartments, home of "Madeline" in Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 move "Vertigo." He later sees her green 1957 Jaguar parked in the courtyard and questions the new owner.

Sorry to be a bit obscure; good thing I live in a fireproof building. Perhaps the TransAmerica Pyramid (in the upper right corner of the wide view) would have been a better choice.

[Rick Dey]

I'm ashamed of myself missing that one only a few miles away from the office...and I stayed at a hotel one block away last spring.

[Hans van der Maarel]

Well, I don't think this one is too difficult, but it's the best I could come up with...

 1.jpg   169.76K   83 downloads

Name this city.