Cardiff Castle

Today, I decided to visit Cardiff Castle.

Cardiff Castle is a medieval castle located in Cardiff, Wales. It is over 2000 years old and was transformed from a Norman keep erected over a Roman fort. The castle is a Grade I Listed Building in the U.K., i.e. one of exceptional interest. The Third Marquess of Bute, with the help of architect William Burgess, began the architecture alterations that brought Cardiff Castle its ornate interior and exterior design.

Photo Credit: Matthew Black. Retouched.

Bing Maps pulled up a satellite view of the castle as well as some beautiful “Bird’s Eye” views of it.

Google Maps provided “Street View” perspectives of the castle, both from its camera-mounted cars and photographs people have shared on the Internet.

Flickr pulled up a slideshow of beautiful photographs of the castle.

The best sources I found for information on Cardiff Castle were Yahoo! Travel and Wikipedia. The official website allows you to book tickets and plan your visit to the castle.

I visited Cardiff Castle in person almost 9 years ago when I was in sixth grade. I remember marveling at how beautiful it was and how large the castle grounds were. I spent years after that visit dreaming about visiting it again and imagining what life must have been like for the people who once lived there.

Photo Credit: Ann Lee

Buckingham Palace

Today, I decided to visit Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace has been the official home of British sovereignty since 1837. Originally known as “Buckingham House”, it had been built in 1705 as a large townhouse for the Duke of Buckingham, John Sheffield. King George III acquired it in 1761 as a private residence for Queen Charlotte, due to which it earned the name “The Queen’s House”. It underwent an expansion in the 19th century before finally becoming the official royal palace in 1837 with Queen Victoria’s ascension to the throne.

Photo from the Wikimedia Commons

Buckingham Palace also serves as the administrative headquarters for the British Monarchy. As it says on the official website, “It houses the offices of those who support the day-to-day activities and duties of The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh and their immediate family.”

Photo from the Wikimedia Commons. Retouched.

Bing Maps offered some really beautiful views of Buckingham Palace in its satellite and “Bird’s Eye” viewing modes.

Google Maps offered a “Street View” look, as well as access to photographs from different perspectives that people had shared on the Internet.

Buckingham Palace’s official website and Wikipedia proved to be great resources for information on the palace. I learned quite a bit from them (for instance, I didn’t know Buckingham Palace used to be a private residence before it became a royal residence).

Flickr and Fotopedia obliged by serving up slideshows/galleries of beautiful photographs of Buckingham Palace.

I have personally visited Buckingham Palace years ago. Unfortunately, my family and I didn’t get to watch the changing of the guard at the palace as it was cancelled the day we visited. However, early this past January when I was flying back to the United States from India at the end of my winter break, my flight had a stop at Heathrow Airport. As we circled London and descended through the clouds, I had the opportunity to “re-visit” from the air some of the places I had visited when I had been in London. Among them was Buckingham Palace.

Non-retouched. Photo license: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0. 

The Great Sphinx of Giza

We begin our journey to the Sphinx with Google.

The Great Sphinx of Giza is a statue on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt. It is the largest monolithic statue in the world; it was carved out of a single rock. The Sphinx is 241 feet long, 63 feet wide and 66.34 feet high. It is the oldest known monumental structure in the world, believed to have been built between 2558–2532 B.C.E.

From the Wikimedia Commons.

According to Wikipedia, Egyptian Arab historian al-Maqrīzī wrote in the 15th century C.E. that the Sphinx lost its nose in 1378 C.E. due to the iconoclastic vandalism of a Sufi individual named Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr. al-Dahr was outraged to find Egyptian peasants making offerings to the Sphinx in the hope that their harvests would increase and subsequently broke the nose off the statue. He was hanged for his actions.

Photo credit: dungodung

Google Maps provided a satellite view of the Sphinx as well as a “Street View” perspective of the statue based on photographs people have shared on the Internet.

Flickr and Fotopedia provided great slideshows of photographs of the Sphinx.

It was hard to come by good information on the Sphinx. The best source I found for comprehensive information on it was Wikipedia.

The Great Sphinx of Giza is an icon of one of the most advanced civilizations in the ancient world. It’s among the places I’ve not physically been to yet. It is, however, one of the places I absolutely want to visit at some point in my life.

The Statue of Liberty

As with all these escapades, I start my journey with Google.

The Statue of Liberty is a sculpture on Liberty Island in the New York Harbor. The statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886, having been gifted to the United States by France as a symbol of freedom and democracy. It shows a robed female figure (representing Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom) bearing a torch in her right hand and a tablet in her left hand inscribed with the date of the American Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776). At her feet lies a broken chain. The statue was designated as a National Monument in 1924.

From the Wikimedia Commons. Retouched.

According to the official National Park Service’s website for The Statue of Liberty, 

The French ship "Isere" transported the Statue of Liberty's 300 copper pieces packed in 214 crates to America. Although the ship nearly sank in rough seas, it arrived in New York on June 17, 1885. The Statue's parts remained unassembled for nearly a year until the pedestal was completed in 1886.

Another interesting thing I learned from the official website was that the original torch was replaced in 1984 by a new copper torch covered in 24 carat gold leaf.

Photo credit: francehousehunt

I was rather impressed by the detail Google’s satellite captured in photographing the statue from space.

Bing Maps had a really cool “Bird’s Eye” view of the statue that let me pan around and see it from different angles.

Google Maps offered a “Street View” that incorporated photographs people have taken at and around the statue, allowing you to switch between several perspectives from different angles and elevation levels.

The best resource I found for information on the Statue of Liberty was its official website. The National Park Service has done a great job putting together resources for you to learn about the statue and plan your trip there. It even has tools for teachers and children.

As always, Fotopedia obliged by serving up some beautiful photographs of the Statue of Liberty.

Almost 2 years ago on a cold December morning, I was in New York City with my sister. We had wanted to go see the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately, when we got to Battery Park to buy our tickets, we found that the line to get them was tremendously long. The wind was strong and the temperature was freezing, so we sadly decided to not wait in line to go to Liberty Island and instead just admired it from our shore.

The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of one of America’s great values: freedom. It is an American value I’ve come to love and hold dear to me. Despite having seen it with my own eyes (albeit from afar), I want to visit it again. This time up close and actually on Liberty Island.