This sparse forest in Denmark bares a uncanny resemblance to a face, could it be just a coincidence?

Unfortunately not, as it’s man-made. But the face is the work of famous 1800s Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, who originally created the design by cutting some holes in a bit of paper.

Titled “The Sun as a Face”, I doubt he ever expected to have the crude artwork recreated in the medium of forest. Neither would he have expected a “nature playground”, as seen in this smaller representation to the north.

The forest was planted in 2005 as part of Odense’s celebration of the bicentenary of Hans Christian Andersen’s birth.

However, the city officials went completely overboard, and plastered this design all over the city!

Further information is available in PDF leaflets for the wood and the celebrations.

Thanks to DJoe.

Connecting the Danish islands of Zealand and Funen is the Great Belt Fixed Link, another example of a confusing bridge / tunnel mash-up¹.

Starting on Funen at the Western end we have a 6611m bridge that carries both road and rail.

This bridge then abruptly ends at the tiny island of Sprogø, the site of a former prison used for women deemed “pathologically promiscuous”! During the bridge’s construction Sprogø’s landmass was quadrupled in size.

Here the road and rail tracks diverge, with the rail track diving under a tunnel to the North, while the road continues along the 6790m Eastern bridge.

This Eastern bridge has a single suspended span (without ground support) of 1624m, making it the second longest suspended span in the world. It would actually have been the title holder, at least temporarily, but for a delay in construction which meant that the longer-spanned Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge was completed first.

Prior to the construction of both the Great Belt and Akashi-Kaikyo bridges, the longest span title was held by the Humber Bridge in England, wich reigned from its construction in 1981 until 1998.

Everyone’s favourite Humber fact is that the perfectly vertical towers are actually 36mm² further apart at the top than they are at the bottom, due to the curvature of the earth!

Wikipedia has the complete list of largest suspension bridges and pages on the Great Belt, Sprogø and the Humber Bridge.

Thanks to Jonathan Rawle, Tobias Hader and Cyan

In the town of Århus, Denmark, an articulated lorry seems to have taken the crossroads a little too fast, and has ended up on its side. The lane positioning suggests that it has just taken a left turn. Thankfully, the recovery services have arrived and a lorry transporter is ready to pick it up.

From the looks of it, there may be a pipe going from the recovery truck to the lorry, so maybe they are going to attempt an air cushion lift?

Check out previous lorry accidents here, here and here.

Thanks to Raskii at the Google Earth community.

For tonight’s dinner we’re following what might well be the world’s largest recipe - as it’s written in large type all over the surface of Google Earth.

To start with, on the coast of Nova Scotia a vineyard uses the fields to do more than grow the grapes - they also advertise wines and their website.¹

So we’ve got some wine. Next, if you happen to be driving down this motorway on the Danish island of Zealand, and feel a little peckish, you can stop off and buy some peas from the top of the hill.

You’ll know when you’re at the right place by the giant advertising for “Ærter” (that’s Danish for peas), but it sometimes it says “Æbler” instead (apples).

Lastly, a roof in Columbus urges us to “Eat Trout“. Clearly not a trout farm, from what I can gather the building is (or at least was), some sort of night club - so perhaps it’s just a public service announcement?²

So there we have it, a complete meal in Google Earth: fish, peas on the side and a glass of wine! But can anyone find me some dessert?

Thanks to Greg_Yetman, sladys and Dave Collins

(This post was updated 8th September to correct the location of the peas. Thanks to those in the comments!)

Initially we thought this was possibly the coolest find ever, but sadly this is not 9 small planes flying in formation over Denmark. No, even better than that, when you look closer it becomes obvious that someone has taken a single plane, and has been cloning it in Photoshop!

This is of course a complete scandal… I mean, it’s all very well blurring out Government buildings, which is just hiding the truth… but this? This is out and out fantasy! Where will it all end? (Probably Alien Civilizations and UFOs no doubt…)

The company that provides this particular aerial image is called Scankort, but as yet we’ve been unable to prove whether the image was manipulated by them, or by Google themselves. However, there is one other possibility… No, I’m not talking about aliens, I’m talking about BBC 2!

They get everywhere those little 2s…

Via gearthhacks and virtualglobetrotting.

This is the 341-year-old Kastellet in Copenhagen, Denmark - one of the best preserved fortifications in Northern Europe. King Christian IV originally had the star-shaped island built to house a castle for him to hide in (should the need arise), but due to “economic constraints” the castle was never built.

Today the island functions as a military area and has a museum, park, its own church and even a windmill… this is Denmark after all!

There’s some more info at Wikipedia.

Incidentally, this is also the site of the Little Mermaid, but it’s too small to see anything much. Is it any better on Google Earth? (Roll-on the final Mac version…!)

Thanks to Troy Fuqua, Corey

Here in Copenhagen, Denmark you can see loads of tourists hanging around in the middle of Amalienborg Palace, the winter home of the Danish royal family. Notice how they’ve formed a straight line on the south side? That’s because this image was captured at around midday when tourists gather to watch the changing of the guard, which takes here every single day of the year.

The guard have to march through the streets of Copenhagen all the way from Rosenborg castle (where the Crown Jewels are kept), which has some rather pretty-looking landscaping.

Linking the countries of Sweden and Denmark is the Oresund Bridge which actually comprises a cable-stayed bridge, an artificial island (Peberholm) and a tunnel. The total length is 16km and is split over two levels (a railway is below the road). Marcus Rangell also added:

According to what I’ve read, the island is also a biological experiment to see how nature will develop on the island. Currently a bunch of plants have already spread to the island, some are very rare.

Thanks: Roland, Thomas, breakbeat, jensflorian, Marcus Rangell, Simone, Yann & Martin