Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

The editors: James & Alex

UFO over Utrecht

Friday, 2nd March 2007 by Alex

For once no-one can try to cover up the truth - this is no water tower, no dirt on the lens, and no weather anomaly! Nope, this time we’ve found a real, actual, honest-to-goodness UFO landing on a building in Utrecht, Netherlands! We even managed to find a picture that was taken during the invasion.

Well, it’s a real sculpture of a UFO. That counts, right?

utrechtufo.jpg

Thanks to P wouterse, Bor Smulders and Ronald.

11 Responses to 'UFO over Utrecht'

  1. 1. Patrick says:

    so is this a piece of public art? advert?

  2. 2. cookie monster says:

    Is anyone able to identify the building the ufo crashed in to? I really like it.

    It reminds me of the tunnel ventilation towers for the Mersey Tunnel which look Placemark: like this / Google Earth from above and like this from the Mersey.

  3. 3. Ronald says:

    @Patrick: it’s a piece of art, a ‘leftover’ of Panorama 2000, an Utrecht art manifestation.

    @cookie monster: it’s the headquarter of ProRail. It’s the biggest brick building in the Netherlands (22 million bricks), built between 1918 and 1922 by Dutch Railways. During World War 2 it was used by the SS as their headquarters in NL. The nickname of the building is ‘the ink pot’ because of its shape.

  4. 4. cookie monster says:

    Thanks Roland - i will investigate further. The SS bagged all the best buildings for their headquarters it seems - and frankly who was going to argue with them?

  5. 5. cookie monster says:

    Sorry Ronald, i called you Roland!

    Anyway, ive found a better picture of the inkpot and saucer here:
    http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railinfratrust

  6. 6. Bill F says:

    Yeeeeah! Ratfans!

  7. 7. Lee says:

    Balderdash, it’s a pot noodle.

  8. 8. rob says:

    Not half as good as cruise missile over Utah. :o

  9. 9. dave says:

    a very weak post, sorry to say that!

  10. 10. Wild Bill says:

    Not as good as the Philips building in Eindhoven:

    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

    It *does* look like a HUGE flying saucer..

    —* Bill

  11. 11. Lucas says:

    Been there, done that :-)

    I live just about an hour biking from it.

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