The Danish town of Fredericia is under attack!

A 35 metre tall giant is (admittedly very slowly), clawing his way out of the earth to wreak havoc upon the defenceless surface-dwelling Danes. So far the terrifying creature has only managed to completely free his hands, but he’s threatening to break the rest of himself through at any moment.

Which means that we have the unique opportunity to present a very special award; this is, without doubt, quite probably the world’s largest arse!

While we’re unclear whether or not visitors may take a picnic onto the grass, we’re sure that the giant’s giant-butt-crack would afford a reasonable amount of shelter from the wind if someone chose to attempt such a thing…

This isn’t the only example of giants breaking free from their underground lairs - over in Washington D.C. another giant is clawing his way out of the ground, watched by a crowd of onlookers (Wikipedia).

Given that he’s managed to expose a little more of himself, perhaps we should be grateful that he chose to emerge face first…

Thanks to bjarnebf, Simon and Jimbo.

It’s Island Week 3 here at GSS, which means we’ll mostly be posting about Islands. It’ll probably last about a week.

This is what used to be the island of Jordsand in the Wadden Sea, just off the coast of Denmark, and east of the German island of Sylt.

Once upon a time it may have connected to both the mainland and Sylt, but by 1873 it was down to just 18.4 hectares in size. Attempts to protect the island were made during the 1970s but recurring floods continued to reduce its area and, during the winter of 1998, the little island was finally submerged for good.

Interestingly, the low resolution image used on Google Maps for the more zoomed-out views still shows some small sections of land protruding from the water.

Thanks to Lars Dybdahl.

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.