Tate Modern and St. Paul's, London

The Tate Modern holds a special significance for me - my grandfather used to work there for a time, back in the days it was Bankside Power Station. I've visited several times as a result, and thanks to the Millenium Bridge it is now just a short walk from St. Paul's Cathedral - the two attractions together fill up a touristy day out nicely! The first picture above is taken from my gallery (I haven't yet uploaded the complete set from this day out) and the second is from a visit to St. Paul's with Yuka and Miho.

Bardsey Island, off the coast of North Wales

Bardsey Island has been a family holiday destination for a number of years now. There are pictures from some of my past visits over at Celtlands, plus a few pictures from my most recent trip (only for a few hours!) can be found here. The Google maps image is not all the clear unfortunately - but for anyone who has ever visited the island the outline is immediately recognisable. Interestingly the Southern portion of the island - where the lighthouse is - seems to be a bit hazy in the image too.

Port of Leith, Edinburgh

Edinburgh ranks very high in my list of favourite cities in the world. I have been several times now. At the time of writing, Google maps does not seem to have a very high level of detail for Edinburgh. However, the coast line, particularly around the port of Leith, can of course be seen very well. I have chosen this spot, not because it is particularly scenic, but because purely by chance I have done my own bit of aerial photography of this area. I flew to Edinburgh once for a conference in Stirling (see pictures from this trip), and on the way in had on opprtunity to take some pictures before landing. In the second picture above, you can see the same shape of the harbour as in the Google maps image. I have also been to Leith proper since then (see here), and in the first picture above you can see the harbour as taken from the ground - a bit harder to recognise it as the same place!

Arc de Triomphe, Paris

At the time of writing Google Maps didn't seem to have any actual map information for France - just the satellite images. So I felt particularly proud of myself for being able to navigate through Paris in this way and find the landmarks I've visited. So the Arc de Triomphe is one of the very obvious ones, which without even trying particularly, I've seen on a number of visits to Paris (see here and here). It makes a particularly easy landmark to spot in the satellite images, because it is of course at the centre of a giant roundabout, and many roads converge here.

Eiffel Tower, Paris

The Eiffel Tower is of course the most iconic of all Paris landmarks, and it would be almost impossible to visit Paris - either physically or virtually - without taking a look. Again I have seen this on many different visits to Paris, and more pictures can be found here and here.

Sacre Coeur, Paris

Yet another famous Paris landmark. I visited it close-up on this trip and saw it from afar on the other trip

Mount Fuji, Japan

OK a little bit of a cheat here - I haven't actually been to Fuji yet, but have seen it from a distance. One exciting highlight of getting the Shinkansen to Tokyo is that there's a point somewhere between Nagoya and Tokyo where you can see Mount Fuji from the train. I have tried a few times now to get pictures of it (see here and here) but am generally not hugely successful! The Google maps image is really interesting because although it doesn't give you much of an idea of how high the mountain is (trivia fans: the summit in fact 3,776 metres above sea level), it does surprise me by just how wide it is.

Shinjuku Skyscrapers, Tokyo

I first encountered this image on googlesightseeing.com - where it is described rather generally as "downtown Tokyo". I quickly realised I had actually been there, and it is in fact the famous area of Tokyo known as Shinjuku. The Google Maps image is really fantastic - taking it from angle like that really gives you an impression of how much these giant buildings stand out from their surrounds. The building with two towers is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, which I've actually been in (see here). There is a viewing room at the top, which gives you some really good views of the other tall buiuldings in the area. On a more recent trip I have also been to Shinjuku Central Park (see here) - the bit of greenery to the left hand side of all the skyscrapers in the map image.

Space Needle, Seattle

America seems to have been the first country to be covered in detail by Google Maps, and as such this was one of the first places I went landmark hunting... Given that the only place I've ever really visited in America is Seattle, there is only really going to be one landmark I'm likely to recognise in a satellite image - the Space Needle. You can see more pictures from my brief trip to Seattle here. It appears from the Google maps image that the Space Needle is in fact pink on the top - I'm not sure if there are any vantage points in Seattle where you can look down on the needle, so this may not actually be common knowledge - I shall have to bear this little nugget in mind for future visits...!