Not as popular here in the UK as it is in the US, we still know all about Hershey’s chocolate – we’ve even had S’mores! Damn they were good… I see you don’t even have to bother making them yourself anymore though.

However, we didn’t know that Hershey’s had a chocolate-themed amusment park! Actually, Hersheypark has some pretty cool-looking wooden coasters as well as around 60 other rides and attractions.

More about Hershey’s, Hersheypark and other chocolate-related stuff over at Wikipedia.

Thanks to GoatJuggler.

As a follow up to yesterday’s fabulous elephant shadow, here’s an equally cool giraffe shadow in Oakland zoo! I think these are ace

Thanks to Paul LaVigne and Vladimir Vysotsky.

No prizes for identifing this animal in Houston zoo, Texas – it’s an elephant!

Thanks to Artemis and Dave Garcia.

This is Southend Pier in Southend-on-Sea, England. At a staggering 2,158 metres, it is officially the world’s longest pleasure pier. Work began in 1887, and at the peak of its popularity in 1949, Southend Pier had 7 million visitors.

Southend Pier really is absolutely humongous, and there’s all sorts of stuff to see. There’s a funfair with loads of rides on the shore, there’s some people wandering around, there’s a train on the pier (yes, it has it’s own railway to get you to the end), and you can also see where the track splits to allow the pier’s two trains to pass.

Unfortunately the pier was damaged by fire late last year, and not for the first time either – it previously suffered conflagrations in 1959, 1976 and 1995! However the Google Local shots shown here are from before the fire, so you can still see the now-destroyed train station and restaurant. There’s also a visitors centre here too.

One more interesting tidbit – Southend Pier was featured in the end credits of Minder, if anyone other than me remembers that show!

The Southend Pier Wikipedia page has loads more info, and for more extremely long things like this, see the previously posted Extremely Long Jetties.

Thanks to Jonathan Rawle, Remko Jansen and Cookie Monster.

This is Whipsnade Wild Animal Park in Bedfordshire, England. Whipsnade is one of Europe’s largest wildlife conservation parks – it’s home to more than 2,500 animals, many of which are endangered in the wild.

Thanks to Google’s new upgraded imagery, several different species of animals can be seen within the grounds. Unfortunately I can’t seem to work out what any of them are… even when I compare them to their publicity shots!

Wait a minute…

I’ve got one! I’m pretty sure it’s a Lion, right?

Thanks to John and Steve Wrona.