Here in San Jose, California we find the bizarre sprawling complex known as The Winchester Mystery House. It is the creation of Sarah Winchester (the widow of gun magnate William Winchester) who began expanding this country farmhouse when she moved here in 1884. Supposedly Mrs Winchester was so terrified of the ghosts of people killed by Winchester rifles that she consulted a spiritualist, who told her:

build a home for yourself and for the spirits who have fallen from this terrible weapon, too. You can never stop building the house. If you continue building, you will live. Stop and you will die.

And build she did – allegedly around-the-clock, without interruption for the next 38 years until her death, Mrs Winchester built, rebuilt, altered, changed, constructed and demolished one section after another. The ‘mystery’ of the house is found in its weird and nonsensical architecture – staircases that lead nowhere, hidden rooms, doors that open on to sheer drops, cupboard doors that open to solid brick walls, and a myriad of secret passages!

Despite an earthquake taking down 3 floors in 1906, today the mansion still comprises 160 rooms, 47 fireplaces, 10,000 window panes, 17 chimneys, 950 doors, and 40 staircases! The Winchester Mystery House’s unusual history, combined with the unsurprising rumours that it is haunted, have firmly planted this place into American popular culture.

You can read more at Wikipedia, check out this birds-eye photo, see a photo of the front or even browse a whole section devoted to the house on Flickr.

Thanks to Jen, Tim, seamus, Tim Derby, Yoshino, Tim, Patrick, Mel Matsuoka, Lady Kalessia, Stephanie, Michelle, Martin, Eric, Chris Branagan amongst many others!

Just outside of Kelkar in Germany lies a huge nuclear reactor that was ultimately never taken online. The SNR-300 ‘Fast Breeder’ (a neutron reactor that creates more fuel than it uses) was needed since Germany has a limited supply of uranium and wanted to limit imports.

However, by the mid eighties, the disaster at Chernobyl and other political issues meant that development effectively stalled – the building was finished, but none of the radioactive materials were there; the government abandoned it, and the German taxpayer was effectively left with a concrete shell costing 3.5 billion euros.

When a dutch businessman bought the complex in 1995, he decided to turn it into a hotel and amusement park – ‘Kernwasser Wunderland’, which translates rather unappealingly to ‘Nuclear Water Wonderland.’ By far the coolest activity in my eyes has to be the ability to both go inside and free climb up the huge painted cooling tower.

Despite the obvious stigma of holidaying at a Nuclear Power plant, over half a million people visit annually. And if you still have a nagging worry, you can be reassured by their slogan – “this whole complex guaranteed free of radiation!”

Find out more about the facility at AskOxford and Wikipedia.

Thanks to Buuts!

Following on from January’s World’s biggest passenger ships post, today we’re going to be looking at the largest aircraft carriers on the water. These warships act as mobile airbases, allowing aircraft to be launched as close to the theatre of war as possible.

Starting with the largest, the undisputed Queen of the seas is the USS Enterprise, which takes the title of being the largest naval vessel on Earth (or water!), with a massive length of 342.3 metres.

Enterprise is moored up alongside the almost-as-large USS Harry Truman and Roosevelt. Like the other seven of the Nimitz class carriers, these are 333m long. Roosevelt, nicknamed ‘Rough Rider’, was responsible for nearly 5000 tonnes of bombs dropped during the first Gulf War.

The Naval Station at Norfolk, Virginia, where these three ships reside when not on active duty, is actually the largest naval base in the World, with 75 ships calling it home – as well as having, incidentally, a huge amount of car-parking spaces!

The USS George HW Bush is the last in Nimitz class, before the new Ford class carriers start being built, and is named for former President Bush. Costing a whopping $4.5 billion, this 333m carrier is on track to be delivered this year. She is seen here in construction at the Northrop Grumman shipyard, also in Norfolk.

(You can see a Microsoft Live Maps birds eye view of it in construction here, but sadly it still isn’t compatible with Safari!)

Back in 1957, the largest naval vessel ever built was the Forrestal Class USS Ranger, which measures 319m and is capable of carrying up to 90 aircraft aboard.

Ranger is seen here with Forrestal class USS Independence and the Kitty Hawk class USS Constellation, which have all been decommissioned to the Naval Air Station in Bremerton, WA.

Now taking the role of the Sea, Air and Space museum in New York City, the USS Intrepid saw service from World War 2 right through to 1974, including in the Vietnam war, where planes would often be launched from her in intervals as small as every 26 seconds!

In late 2006 Intrepid was dragged out of the Hudson river’s mud (with considerable effort) and transferred to Staten Island for repair work. She is expected to be back on display in September.

The most noticeable of Intrepid’s aircraft is the Lockheed A-12, the precursor to the SR-71 Blackbird which is famed for flying from New York to London in 1 hour 54 minutes! You might recognise the plane from ‘I am Legend’, where Will Smith’s character spends time hitting golf balls from her wing.

She may be just a wee tiddler at 214m (this photo shows a comparison between a Nimitz class ship and the HMS Illustrious), but it would be wrong to not include at least one British vessel! HMS Invincible was decommissioned in 2005, and is seen here at Portsmouth Harbour. She’s definitely going nowhere – you can see her propellers lying on the deck!

She was superseded by HMS Illustrious – found in dry-dock in Rosyth having a refit, which was completed last year. In 2014, the first of the new Queen Elizabeth class carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth is due to enter service, at a much more substantial 274m in length. HMS Prince of Wales will join her in 2016.

Previosuly on Google Sightseeing: Carrier Landing Practice Runway and Landlocked.

Thanks: Andrew, Kevin, tsw and many, many others!

Apparently Colombians like their water slides, because this one near El Cruce is absolutely massive!

I believe this is the Playa Cuare waterpark, but unfortunately their website appears to be dead.

So, who can find the longest water slide?

In the past few years the competition has been hotting up to build the world’s largest passenger vessels, resulting in huge craft which would dwarf ships like RMS Titanic. Today we’re going to take a look at some of the World’s Biggest Passenger Ships!

Floating off the coast of Conzumel, Mexico is MS Freedom of the Seas, the largest passenger ship in the world which weighs in at 154,407 tons and is capable of carrying 4370 passengers! Guests are entertained by 3 huge pools, shops, pubs and even a climbing wall. If you think your car has poor fuel efficiency, take heart in the fact that this behemoth uses 12.8 tonnes of fuel… per hour!

Freedom of the Seas was built in the Aker yards in Turku, Finland, between 2004 and 2005, and in 2007 her sister ship, MS Liberty of the Seas, was also completed there to exactly the same specification. Microsoft Live Maps’ birds-eye feature has caught the construction in action, and it’s extraordinary to see the work that goes into a ship of this size. Check out the helipad on the bow!

(Warning: Live Maps are still not compatible with Safari I’m afraid!)

Until Freedom and Liberty became the largest passenger ships in the world, the title was held by Cunard’s famous RMS Queen Mary 2¹. At 148,528 gross tons she’s only slightly lighter, but takes the distinction of being the longest at 345 metres, as well as the highest and also the widest! Here she is docked in New York City.

Moored in Florida is one of Disney’s own fleet of two ships, Magic and Wonder. The two ships are almost identical, but I have it on good authority that this is Wonder. At 964 feet these are no record breakers, but I thought they were worthy of a mention!

The ships generally cruise the Caribbean, where one of their main stops is one of Disney’s own private islands, ‘Castaway Cay‘.

On board the ships there are some rather unique features for the 2400 passengers to enjoy, such as computer simulators to let you imagine you are guiding the ship, spas, and a whopping 24×14 foot LCD TV attached to the front funnel of the ship. However, what wins it for me is the main swimming pool, which of course is shaped like Mickey Mouse!

Read more about Freedom of the Seas, Queen Mary 2 and the Disney Cruise Line at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Joao Almeida, Rob B, Jolo Quina, Tim, Chris, adam wanderman, greg and orchjoe.