Madurodam
This is the small city of Madurodam in the Netherlands. They have an airport, canals, stadiums, boats, gardens, windmills and bridges with… giant people on them? And there’s some giant cars too! Waaaait a minute…
Madurodam is actually a truly small city – in fact it’s a 1:25 scale model of a Dutch city, which features traditional Dutch buildings, famous landmarks from around the country, and the world’s largest miniature railway! (I know. Just don’t even go there.)
More history and ground level shots of this great sight at Wikipedia and the official site.
Thanks to Mickey Mau.
bio” 
Some strange “pixelization” to the northwest: Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
I wonder what this is- Government officials homes (like the Naval Observatory in Washington DC getting blurred out)? Giant Monet painting? Aliens?
That pixelation is not by accident, in my opinion, it is likely to be some government buildings that they didn’t want showing.
There is a an interesting mismatch out to sea though: all at sea
WRA, I’ve noticed pixelization like that in a few areas in the Netherlands. Some on buildings, some at airports and a few in what seems like just random open fields.
I’ll post the links if I can find them again.
Also, does anybody know what this large area of glass(?) buildings are? Greenhouses? Solar power?
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
All I’ve been able to determine is that there are two areas pixelized called “Alexanderkazerne” and “Frederikkazerne”. Still no idea, but appears to be government buildings.
Kazerne is the Dutch word for a military base… So I’d guess that that’s your answer…
Speaking of military bases, here’s one in Belgium where the US is supposedly stocking nuclear weapons.
hate to break your bubble, but the only land base outside of the continental united states that the U.S. is storing nukes is in Guam. Of course I said land basses because of all those SLBM’s and what not.
Here’s two more “pixelated” areas (thanks to virtualglobetrotting)
There’s actually three areas in this one…
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
And an airport…
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
It’s funny, the pixillation is quite effective – unless you’re zoomed in close you don’t really notice it!
Babaganoosh, that airport link is particularly interesting, as only one of the images of the airport is obscured, and another of virtually the exact same area is totally visible,
More stuff
Anyone know what this is?
@alex: that white structure is actually just a swimming-pool, ground-picture at http://www.denhaag.nl/smartsite.html?id=29526
(of course it helps that I read Dutch…)
@babaganoosh: that area in the West of the Netherlands is totally filled with greenhouses, so you guessed right
and about the pixellation: there was a discussion in Dutch media a while back about the ease with which terrorists could find their targets with Google Maps (ueah, I know, same terrorist craze here as everywhere else), and indeed national government had “sensitive” targets pixelated. actually the two pixelated areas called “alexanderkazerne” and “frederikkazerne” are possible locations for the relocation of the American Embassy to The Hague…
the half-pixelated airport babaganoosh found is a military/naval airbase called Valkenburg.
one of the three pixelated areas in that other picture of Babaganoosh is the house of Queren Beatrix, called Huis Ten Bosch, the other one (Clingendael) was another possible location for the American Embassy; you can see these names pop-up in the hybrid mode.
so far the Dutch addition to your site.
oh, and babaganoosh, the last of your three pixelated areas (the NW one) is also a military base, “Beatrixkazerne”, housing the headquarters of the Dutch Military Police.
Anyone able to match the madurodam landmarks to their real-life counter-parts?
lol – 13th comment before anyone mentioned the post….
The list of models is on the official website (in English): http://213.206.66.146/default.php?callmode=1&language=1&sqlmode=1
Theres a lot of ‘em!
Anyone else notice anything different about google maps today? The hi-res squares and rectangles seemed to have disappeared from most areas when viewed from far enough back.
here’s a similar park in italy (not hi-res, though)
Italia in miniatura
and Placemark: another one / Google Earth
Patrick Says: “Anyone else notice anything different about google maps today? The hi-res squares and rectangles seemed to have disappeared from most areas when viewed from far enough back.”
Aaahhh!!!
Why’d they do that?
Well at least http://www.flashearth.com/ still shows the squares.
I know, irritating isn’t it?
After seeing this I was amused to stumble onto this album:
http://allets888.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album40
@randall
The US is storing nukes (gravity bombs) on Air Bases in Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Turkey under the NATO nuclear sharing program.
More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapons_sharing
Alex
Netherlands
@koen:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
there ya go
(just look at the sheer size of those things…. )