Here’s Wally!

When Google announced the recent UK Street View launch they also hinted at the presence of the popular children’s book character “Wally” (Or “Waldo” as he’s known in the North America), hidden somewhere in the Street View images.

And we’ve found him, posing outside the O2 store on Putney High Street in London.

Looks like Wally is also popular with the ladies! One girl is filming his Street View debut and, after the car has passed, he’s surrounded by adoring fans.

Driving around the city of Bradford, the Google driver spots a shortcut through a road clearly marked as Buses, Taxis and Cycles only. But hey, no one will notice right?

After nipping down the road, the driver is stopped at a red light. Clearly in the wrong, he’s probably urging the lights to change so he can get out of there sharpish.

But what’s this in the distance? Yup, it’s the cops. Quick Google driver, floor it!

Anticipating a tussle, the policeman even pauses the dramatic chase to pick up his partner!

But eventually our driver sees that there is no escape from West Yorkshire Police, and pulls over (into the car park of the former police station).

Let that be a lesson kids, you always get caught. This epic chase was also photographed from the pavement and the story is document on Neatorama.

Many thanks to We Are Dave

These buildings are what make up Molodyozhnaya, one of the original Soviet research stations in Antarctica, and the site of an unusually large number of plane crashes.

The research station was established way back in 1962 to study meteorology, and was the launch site of over 1000 sounding rockets. But after the Soviet collapse, Russia cut back their expenditure on Antarctica explorations and permanently closed the station.¹

Just to the west of the station, we find our first crashed plane in the snow. This Aeroflot Il-14 was heading back to the USSR when the engine failed shortly after take-off, and the plane crashed, killing 4 of the 7 passengers.

Despite the crash site being very clearly visible, this didn’t happen anytime recently. The image was taken in February 2006, but the crash itself occurred all the way back in 1979!

The cold weather has preserved the crashed plane, and the harsh conditions make any attempt to move it impossible.

Browsing around the area, we can spot another four planes, all seemingly crashed and abandoned. Perhaps this the real reason for closing the station – they kept losing too many planes!

Thanks to GEarthHacks.

FINAL UPDATE: We’ve now found enough writers and aren’t looking for any more submissions at this time. However we will post another post in the future if we should require any more help!

Google Sightseeing has been running since April 2005, and in that time we’ve posted over 1,550 entries.

Due to real-life commitments however, we often don’t get to spend as much time exploring the world as we think our readers would like us to, so we’ve decided to recruit more paid writers to join us on the team here at Google Sightseeing!

Although we rely on user suggested sights for inspiration, each entry is individually researched and personally hand crafted by the author. Therefore successful applicants will have a genuine interest in the subjects we write about on Google Sightseeing, and of course excellent written English skills.

Do you think this might be you? Then get in touch through our contact form for more information!

Hanging around this property in Atlanta, Georgia, a group of young men appear entirely unconcerned about the fire that’s blazing away on their porch.

On closer inspection we can see that this guy is on the phone – so perhaps he’s calling the fire department? Although if he is, then he doesn’t look overly concerned.

The fire isn’t that big however, so why aren’t they trying to put it out? And what is it that’s burning up there anyway?

Thanks to Syl.