Taking a Virtual European Tour

Thursday, Apr. 27 2006 | Author: J. Angelo Racoma

I’ve always wanted to vacation in Europe, to visit both the world-famous tourist destinations and the quaint, little-known spots that only locals would know about. Until that time I can backpack my way there, or perhaps even move in for good someday, I’ll be content with exploring Europe by hand–with clicks of the mouse. And now I can do just that, as Google Maps just added high-resolution satellite imagery and vector map data of several European countries, including France, Italy, Germany and Spain.

Here are a few screencaps:

The Eiffel Tower in Paris

Olympiastadion in Berlin

Vatican City in Rome (a personal favorite)

Of course, high-res imagery of some of thse areas may have been available before (elsewhere or with Google Earth/Google Maps). But now you also get vector map data for these and most other European countries, meaning street and building information are now available. Maybe you’re searching by address or by building. Or you’re probably looking for a restaurant or business establishment. Just key in a street address, a known landmark, or the establishment name, and Google Maps will take you there (or present you with available choices). All this is still in “beta” of course, so we can expect further refinements as Google goes along with development.

Share and Enjoy

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4 Responses for "Taking a Virtual European Tour"

Marco (Griffith) Jardim

April 28th, 2006 at 6:59 am
1

I just wish Google could just take higher quality pictures of my island (Madeira). Not that I would have any practical use for it, but it would be nice to see if my colleague isn’t lying about having a pool in his house.
Matt Hoffman

April 28th, 2006 at 10:56 am
2

I just spent about an hour on there. Its really fun to play around with.
Matt

April 28th, 2006 at 1:49 pm
3

Funny, today’s Da Vinci Code webquests also had a picture close to the one on forevergeek showing Rome. Interesting discussion about these quests going on at http://student-rant.blogspot.com
Danny

April 28th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
4

hm nice little project by google.

I’ve alway wanted to go to European countries
as well. As they have such a long history,
there are more stuff to see naturally.
Not like where I live, Canada, for 200 years
of history(if you can call it a history),
half of that is about how English and French
moved here.

I would very much enjoy Asian countries of
this service as those countries in asia
also have insanly long history.
(China, Korea, Japan, Viet)

My uncle is a travel/history freak,
and after he returned from asian countries
trip, he told me this.

North americans must take trip to asia
or euro more often, otherwise they start
to think that they have some kind of culture.

I laughed with his joke, but…
it’s true.

Some european people moved here a while
ago… that ain’t a history.