Is that a mountainous Trimaxion Drone Ship¹ hovering above Buckinghamshire, England? Sadly not – this is actually the Milton Keynes Xscape, one of three leisure centres in the UK which contain, well – mountains.

Xscapes are centered around a real-snow indoor ski slope, and this particular one is also designed to look like a snow-covered hill. It’s also the location of a 16 screen cinema, shops, a climbing wall, bowling lanes, bars, a fitness center, and somewhere round here’s there’s also an indoor skydiving centre! Very, very cool.

1) Whaddya mean you’ve never heard of a Trimaxion Drone Ship? Sheesh! It’s the spaceship from The Flight of the Navigator!

This is the centre of Parcelforce Worldwide’s UK operations, their International Hub beside Coventry Airport, England.

Why would I link to the Parcelforce International hub? Well, apart from being one of the largest buildings in the UK, as I write this post, this is the current location of my brand new Nintendo Wii!

So good luck to all of you who’ve ordered a Wii from Amazon, as yours is probably in this warehouse too… Here’s hoping you’ll all get them first thing tomorrow! Worringly, in my case it does seem to have a rather long way to come…

We recently had a request to find the Neighbours set, and we always like to keep our readers happy, so here is the real Ramsay Street.

If you view in ‘Hybrid’ mode you might accuse my of telling fibs, as this cul-de-sac’s real name is “Pinoak Court”. In the soap it’s called Ramsay Street after the Ramsay family who used to live there.

Wikipedia for Ramsay St.

We might as well make a worldwide soaps tour out of it, so let’s head by the small town that was built for the abysmal failure of a soap called “Eldorado”.

Broadcast by the BBC in 1992-93 it was supposed to be a cross between Eastenders and Neighbours but achieved the success of neither and was swiftly cancelled. I wonder what goes on there now?

Wikipedia for Eldorado.

Set in the fictional West Yorkshire village, Emmerdale is another popular UK soap which is actually filmed near Harrogate in the grounds of Harewood House.

Wikipedia for Emmerdale.

Previously featured: Coronation St & Eastenders

Thanks: John Seddon, Martyn Webster & Bruv

The other day I caught the end of the video for the awful London Bridge by Fergie and I noticed that Fergie and her crew were dancing around in front of London’s most famous bridge and the image of a million postcards: Tower Bridge.

It was clear that Fergie had fallen for the same trick that Londoners have been playing on Americans for years, confusing them between the grand Tower Bridge and its much more boring neighbor London Bridge.

The most famous example is that of Robert P. McCulloch, American entrepreneur and owner of McCulloch Oil, who in 1968 paid $2,460,000 to have the then-collapsing London Bridge dismantled and shipped right across the world to be rebuilt in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. He later claimed it not to be true, but everyone knows that he thought he was buying Tower Bridge. Numpty.

Although clearly not much to look at, London Bridge is the second most popular tourist destination in the state of Arizona. For more info see the previous GgSs coverage of Tower Bridge and Wikipedia for London Bridge.

Thanks: Ben & Shea MarshaLL

The ostentatious Istana Nurul Iman palace is the official residence of the one-time richest man on the planet, the Sultan of Brunei.

Arguably this is the largest residential palace in the world, and possibly even the largest residence of any type. Beneath the golden domes and sculpted ceilings are reputedly some 1,788 rooms, 257 bathrooms, 5 swimming pools, a 1,500 person mosque, 564 chandeliers, 51,000 light bulbs, 44 stairwells, 18 elevators and of course, the Sultan’s staggeringly awesome, and totally unmatchable car collection is probably here somewhere too.

He also seems to have an awful lot of satellite dishes. How much TV can one guy watch huh?

Over in England, we’re informed that this is might well be the Sultan’s London residence. Which we were perfectly happy to accept when we saw for ourselves the beautiful waterfront location, the ominous-loooking gates, the private basketball court, and not forgetting the modest collection of cars parked outside.

OK, so it’s not the world’s largest palace . . . but that little holiday home has got to cost some serious money, right?

Thanks to Victor K. and Glenn.