Have you ever wondered what happens to traffic at a border between two countries that drive on opposite sides?

The Lotus Bridge between mainland China and the former Portuguese colony of Macau was completed in 1999 and is a fantastically elaborate construction, featuring three lanes in each direction and dual bridges which loop around each other by 360° to swap the direction of the traffic. Amazing.

There’s much more on this subject available on the rather good Wikipedia page about the rules of the road.

Many thanks to Nicholas Hodder and Todd Day.

The Volvo factory in Wroclaw has been churning out buses for over 10 years and has the famous Volvo logo emblazoned across the roof.

Regular Sightseers will tell you that where there’s large type on a factory there’s almost always an airport nearby, but in this case there’s no airport to be found. I wonder why they went to all the effort then?

Thanks: ArCgon & Marcin jakub Korzonek

This is the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. Now I think I’ve got this right when I say that the Opryland is the third largest non-casino hotel in the world. Regardless, it’s enormous, with 5 restaurants, 6 eateries, 14 retail stores and 2,881 guest rooms built to accomodate visitors to the world famous Grand Ole Opry, a Saturday night country music radio show, broadcast from the 4,400-seat Grand Ole Opry House which is located just next door.

In our thumbnail you can see the absolutely enormous, climate-controlled glass atria which cover 9 acres of lush indoor gardens, a rotating restaurant, a 44-foot waterfall, and a 400 metre long river… complete with tour boats. The hotel also has its own golf course, and used to have a themepark too, which was closed in 1997 to make way for a 1.2 million square foot shopping mall, Opry Mills. Take note that it costs $10 to park your car at the hotel, but parking at Opry Mills is free…

Just to the west of the shopping mall you can also see the General Jackson Showboat, a paddle boat which takes tours of the area. You can see the bright red paddles quite clearly, but feel free to compare with this photo if you’re unconvinced

Finally, for information junkies, here’s some links. The official Gaylord Opryland site, the Wikipedia page about the hotel, the Grand Ole Opry Wikipedia page, a tour of the interior of the Hotel, and an article on the DuPont site about the construction of the atria.

Thanks to David Hanak, Danielle, Kevin and Brandon.

Hello to all our new readers who saw Google Sightseeing mentioned on BBC News 24 or a recent PC Magazine article. We’re glad you’ve stopped by and suggest signing up for our RSS Feed to stay updated with new sights we post (we usually update at least once a day). Enjoy!

The Tower of Hercules is the oldest Roman lighthouse in the world and the only one still in operation. Spanish legend has it that one of the many heroes named Hercules battled the giant Gerión on this site, killed him, and built the 68 metre tower on top of his bones (Ground level picture).

There is also what appears to be a strange purple orb in the satellite photo (top left of the thumbnail). I can’t find any mention of paving art or a reflective dish near the tower, so can only conclude it is a giant version of the 80’s office toy / science experiment, the “Plasma Globe“.

Reader Brian McNeill, who lives in the area, let us know that the Plasma Globe is just a Compass rose, which you can see more clearly from this aerial photograph. Mystery solved!

Thanks: E150