Where on Earth? Week 40: Venice, Italy

by Justin Glow on

Congrats to Bubba for correctly guessing the train station above as Santa Lucia in Venice, Italy. I’m consistently amazed that our readers can guess these so quickly! (A hat tip to Ben, too, for narrowing it down to Italy.)

I had this very scene burned into my memory this past October as I waited four hours for an overnighter to Budapest. Nearly 10 border stops (one going in each country, and when coming out) and 16 hours later, we arrived in Hungary. But I’ll never forget those sadistic nurses staring down on me.

See you next week for another Where on Earth!

Where on Earth? Week 40

by Justin Glow on

Here’s a fun one! What train station was this picture taken in? Like last week’s Where on Earth, if you’ve been here, it’s easy. If you haven’t, it might be a little bit tougher to pull the clues out of the picture. This is a very popular train station, however, so I can’t imagine it taking too long; you guys are good detectives!

Where on Earth? Week 39: Berlin Wall Memorial

by Neil Woodburn on


Three people nailed this week’s contest; Matt Rutherford, Moody 75, and Ryan Mendenhall. Mendenhall, however, was the only one to pinpoint the exact location: The Berlin Wall Memorial at Bernauer Strasse.

I had the good fortune a couple of years ago to meet with the minister who championed this memorial. He was one of the few not caught up in the 1989 euphoria of tearing down every bit of the wall and actually ran out of his nearby house on many occasions to prevent wall peckers from destroying this section along Bernauer Strasse. It took almost 10 years to convert it into a memorial and documentation center and is today the most authentic slice of wall remaining.

The large wall in the far side of the photograph, however, is not the actual Berlin Wall, but a polished wall of steel that is supposed to reflect the wall and show it stretching into eternity – although the effect wasn’t so apparent on the cloudy day this photograph was taken.

Surprisingly, the Wall Memorial remains slightly off the beaten path in Berlin and is not the major tourist attraction one would it expect it to be. I found the memorial absolutely fascinating, however, and highly recommend it.

Where on Earth? Week 39

by Neil Woodburn on


You’ve either been here, or you haven’t. If you haven’t been here, there is a slim chance you might nail the location of this place with a wild guess. But if you have been here, you’re not likely to forget it and you’ll definitely know the answer.

If you think you know, whether you’ve been here or not, place your guess in the comments section below and then come back on Friday when we reveal the location.

Good luck!

Where on Earth? Week 38: Olomouc, Czech Republic

by Justin Glow on

Congrats goes out to Gadling reader Rick Ludwig for correctly guessing the city in the picture above as Olomouc (ole-uh-moats), Czech Republic. I don’t know how you guys do it! If you remember back to Wednesday, I barred one of our readers, oddsocks, from guessing this week because I took this photo from the window of the hostel he owns in Olomouc: Poet’s Corner. Being that he probably sees this exact scene on a daily basis, I figured it wouldn’t be fair to the rest of you.

If you’re in Olomouc and looking for a cozy, colorful place to stay, look no further than the Poet’s Corner Hostel. It came highly recommended to me by Gadling writer Brett Atkinson, who visited the hostel while researching and writing Lonely Planet’s Czech Republic. Tell them Gadling sent ya!

Oh, and the R.E.M. song that mentions the town? “Disappear”:

Lost, invisible, here
Tel Aviv and Agadir,
Taroudant or Olomouc
Before I learned to see
The vanishing point appear