To ask if you ever go for a little wander on Google Maps?

[CheapSausagesAndSpam]

And if you do, where do you go?

I like looking around London where I used to live and finding lovely streets to admire.

Also, love looking around various parts of America. I found this the other week

www.google.com/maps/@34.0433622,-118.2458055,3a,75y,218.23h,77.34t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sEmKbr4InS-8TZfsg4duAxQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Skid Row!

I wandered about there for a while and it's so awful...looks like some really poor country.

I've tried looking at North Korea, unless it's changed you can only look at the showcase city, Pyongyang, and see what wonderful facilities they have got that we in the West should envy.

What's really fun is when the satellite view and streetview are out of synch. For example 1. look on satellite view and check the building where I have a meeting 2. want to check parking, so put the yellow man on the back street where it looks like car park entrance is. Nothing there! Just a green field! 3.Put the little man on the main road the other side - building mysteriously reappears.

I tend to look up places in TV progs - I've just checked out Osborn House, quickly followed by Vladivostok!

am I missing something re Skid Row? Was curious so typed Skid row los angeles and it's a fairly normal looking down town street?

Me too! I got a nice business/shopping area with cars, shoppers etc.

There's an area of skid row thats covered in graffitti and homeless peoples tents down each side

Try the back streets of Lagos. A real eye-opener.

My walking group goes to very remote areas of rural Northumberland. I use Street View to find my way to the meeting point. Sometimes I match it up with the Public Rights of Way maps online because some places are really hard to access. Love a bit of Street viewing .

Always use it when I'm going somewhere new, too, so I have a rough idea of the area and won't get lost.

I thought i was the only person who did this

I used to work in a particularly boring office job with very little work and used to pass the time doing this. I literally used to "walk" around various places in the world for hours

I was looking at Chongjin in NK (where the book is set) you can't actually go 'down the streets' like you can in other places but you can get a good view from overhead which is still really interesting.

For skid row, it starts off looking normal but very grim but if you go round the corner there's a whole street full of tents/makeshift accommodation which is really sad to see in such a big modern city.

Not for years and years, but thanks to this thread I've just rediscovered google earth. Had a look at skid row and it looks an awful place to live.

If you take a ‘wander’ round Central London (on the desktop version) the little orange Street View person turns into a tiny Queen somewhere round Hyde Park Corner!

Lowdoorinthewal 1 - much easier than walking up Steep Hill in real life !

Yes I do this for places I'm planning to visit - like to check out the road and location where a proposed villa might be, or how far to walk to a shop in the area or the beach, etc. Also places I've been to in the past or even places I'd like to visit.

I teach computing and ict in a primary school and my y2s love to travel the world using google earth.

I nose on places I used to live as a child

If you have some google cardboard goggles you can use the AR view and walk or look all around you - the children at school love that too.

Sorry I haven't RTFT entirely since my last post, but that one just above about the queen has reminded me of something - has anyone mentioned the Tardis yet? Love it.

By doing that I discovered my sisters house had squatters because they had built a porch on the front.

I saw this thread earlier so went onto Google Earth...I've been to 5th Avenue, the Sydney Opera House and my old house in Kent tonight

Any other suggestions gratefully received

I go all over the world: places I've been, places I want to go, places I used to live. I've had a nose at relatives' houses I haven't been to.

Best of all, I've been doing my family history and it's enabled me to check out places in Wales and Edinburgh where my ancestors lived.

The Colosseum, Mt Vesuvius and Pompeii.

deste Where was your sister? Tell us the story!

I’ve found something even better than google earth.

Hang on, I’ll find it.

It’s a 360 video so you can manoeuvre it round and see the summit from all angles. It’s as though you’re really there.

Open it in YouTube rather than the little picture on here.

I had a good look around alcatraz