"Where am I?" Game

[Various Artist]

Heh – I've just gone to find the actual Google Maps spot at the Hook of Holland for the last one, and realised that at the far right edge of Sits' first picture you can in fact just glimpse the bridge of the Stena ship. Moreover, if you move to a photosphere further along the docks and closer to the water, you can get a driver's-eye-view of what it's like to board the ferry itself:



...and if you then click on the adjacent photosphere that appears to be floating on the water, it turns out that this is because it's actually inside a cabin on board:

[Various Artist]

And wowzers, I've clicked over to the next photosphere along on the quayside – and holy shit will you look at this for a view:

[ursus arctos]

I'm a bit cross because I have almost certainly walked through that passageway more than once, but failed to appreciate that Brexit has rapidly turned places into the simulacra of late Warsaw Pact landscapes

[jdsx]

Am I the only person sad enough to be trying this on a Saturday evening? I figured there was a Peru vibe but haven't found it yet. Think we're going to need another view/clue, Sean....

[San Bernardhinault]

Sean's one has what looks like a PT Cruiser in shot. I can't imagine they ever sold those outside of the Americas. There's water in the background. The brightly coloured cinder block houses feel like they could be almost anywhere in Central or South America.

[Sean of the Shed]

Here's another angle from the same spot.

Screenshot_20220827-161529_Maps.jpg

[jdsx]

They certainly made the PT Cruiser in Mexico, but also in Graz....

[ursus arctos]

Most PT Cruisers were actually built in Toluca, but there were also models built in Graz for sale in Europe, Asia and South Africa

I still think Central or South America, though

[San Bernardhinault]

The amount of vegetation in the second shot makes it less likely that it's around the shores of Lake Titicaca where I had been browsing - otherwise it looked kind of right-ish.

[ursus arctos]

Calling Fire Hydrants of the World . . .

[jdsx]

Chile would be my first choice for that one

[ad hoc]

Chile would be my first choice for that one

Chile looks good for this too https://www.google.com/search?q=pede...SxWGHKz64L-ATM

[Levin]

I'm in the same boat as Ursus. Feeling rather annoyed that I've stood where the picture was, feeling it looked familiar, but then discarding that as just being a station thing.

I'm trying to tell myself that it was very early and I was more concerned about getting the right train for Amsterdam.

[Sean of the Shed]

Let's have one more, then.

Screenshot_20220827-161513_Maps.jpg

[Fussbudget]

Still getting over discovering that Hoek van Holland is known as Hook of Holland in English, what a great nonsensical 'translation'. The thing is that Holland sort of does have a hook but it's right at the other end

[Various Artist]

I don't think it had ever occurred to me that it's not the actual 'hook' bit!

[Various Artist]

Sean's challenge is proving tricky, meanwhile. It looks rather a lot like substantial tracts of western Lima, for instance, but there's a reasonably high chance that isnt even the right country.

[ursus arctos]

I don't think it had ever occurred to me that it's not the actual 'hook' bit!

"hoek" doesn't mean "hook" in English. It means corner or angle.

[Sits]

Another couple of shots from Hoek van Holland - same spot - which I chose not to share:

[Sits]

[Sits]

So onto Sean’s - I think ad hoc has established that the pedestrian crossing sign is Chilean, no? I believe Various Artist has a PhD in such things.

[Sam]

"hoek" doesn't mean "hook" in English. It means corner or angle.

The English-language Wiki for Hook of Holland strongly suggests (but stops just short of actually confirming) that when the place was founded the name would have been used to mean 'Cape of Holland', as kaap hadn't yet been adopted into Dutch from Portuguese at the time.

Sean's is a great example of little cultural things that become so ingrained one ceases to notice them, because when I read Various Artist's initial suggestion that those were telegraph poles I couldn't help giggling. They're so instantly recognisable (to anyone who's lived a while in Latin America) as electricity cables that it never even occurred to me that anyone would see them as anything else. I haven't a clue where it is, mind.

[Sam]

If it's Chile it's likely to be in the north, I'd think. I'd have thought there'd be more green in the south, and that the sun wouldn't be as high in the sky. I'm also wondering whether it's near the coast, given the way the horizon just seems to disappear into haze in that first photo (which, if it's looking towards the sea, would be looking west).

[Sam]

One thing potentially mitigating against it being South America is that none of the three pictures Sean's posted have dogs in them. He must have been very selective.

[Sam]

I'm looking around a place called Tarapacá just outside Iquique, and the streetlights and general ambience are looking very promising. Having difficulty finding a road that's that well marked, though.