Red brick industrial buildings next to a smokestack, next to a rapid river? My guess is Lowell, Massachusetts. If I had more time, more patience, more interest or if I were more google-skilled, I’d make an effort to confirm my hunch. As none of those things apply, I’ll wait till Tuesday to find out how close I was.
Another:
You’re going to get a TON of guesses from Massachusetts on this one. The red brick and semi-dilapidated smokestacks place this one in a mill town in New England. The two rivers (Merrimack and Concord for any Thoreau fans) meeting near a small waterfall (Pawtucket Falls) places it in Lowell, Massachusetts, formerly the largest complex of mills in the country.
Another Lowell guesser:
Being a lifelong Left Coaster I have no expertise in the matter, but I immediately thought “Massachusetts river mill”, which turned up this postcard from 1906:
The bank’s all wrong, but I’ll declare victory anyway and return to coffee.
Another:
Augusta, Maine and Frankfort, Kentucky are locked in an eternal struggle for Cutest Capital City in America. Both are significantly smaller than their states’ major cities (Portland and Louisville), and both have their distinctive geo-architectural features. Frankfort’s is the little bowl in which the state capitol sits. Augusta’s is this old red-brick mill on the St Lawrence, in your photo.
Another:
I say Saco, Maine. I don’t have time to chase a more specific answer, but since I was an early paid subscriber I believe that should be enough.
No favoritism to subscribers! But we are grateful for your support. Another reader:
Wow. I have been following your contests for a couple of years and have always been impressed with people who deduce locations from minor details in the picture, then spend time on Google Maps researching the exact location. I never entered before since I just don’t have that time and determination. But, then I saw this week’s contest and realized – I used to work in this building!
Oh my god, you people are dicks. I picked Havana, Cuba. Because, they have balconies. And laundry.
Another:
Aieee, there are no reference points here. It’s obviously from a crowded city in a developing world. I think the piece of clothing at the top of the picture is a sari, therefore India. I’m going to go with Pune, just because it seems a better guess than Mumbai or New Delhi.
Another is on the right track:
It is neither Greenwich, CT nor Sandpoint, ID.
Another:
I never win so I never play. And I am not searching the web for picture matches (really, an algorithm is going to win if you are not careful). But this is Cairo. OK, maybe Tangiers. But it so charming I’ll go with Cairo. Where in Cairo? I’ll go with Zalamek.
Another:
Barcelona? I have no idea, but I’m going with that only because I schlepped myself around there after college and lived in a flat with a similar view – balconies crammed with plants, stray junk, plenty of laundry, even a flag. I’ll say the Raval quarter near the water: cheaper, a tad dangerous, popular with lower income ex-pats (at least in the ’90s.) Subscribing soon, btw!
Another:
Even though I’ve only participated once (I was one of the “Sausalito300″), I imagine the VFYW contest is what will give me the necessary push to subscribe once you put up your meter. I don’t think I could tolerate seeing the picture every week and never finding out where it’s from.
The lack of location clues or monuments in this week’s picture probably means that I have as good a chance as anyone. I’m going to go with Taipei, Taiwan, because the architecture and clothes hanging outside suggest a warm Asian locale. I’ll guess somewhere in the Datong district, near the Dagiaotou subway station.
Another:
This must be in Sampaloc, a district of Manila, Philippines. What else to say, but this is my birthplace. I miss home (I am currently living in California). I still hang my clothes in my backyard, even though I have a washer/dryer at home. And Filipinos are proud to display the US flag, even if it is a tattered one. No disrespect intended to the US of A.
Another:
It has the feel of Southern Europe or North Africa, but the pillars with balls probably are European. I see a lot of blue and white (buildings and textiles), the same color as the Napoli soccer team. So my guess is Naples.
Another:
I’ve never guessed before, but the close-up shot rather than the landscape shots you usually pick got me excited. The Israeli elections are coming up, Ramallah is the seat of the PA, and I just came back from Israel and stuff looks like that there. Plus I think that’s a tattered US flag on that balcony. I’m not spending anymore time on this!
Another nails the right country:
I’m going to guess Da Lat, Vietnam. They love narrow, multiple storied buildings like the one pictured.
Another:
The architecture looks like it’s showing both Chinese and French influences. So Vietnam, maybe? I don’t have time to study maps, I’ll go with Da Nang. As a port, I’m sure it’ll be a popular choice, and even if it’s wrong you’ll probably have a reader who’s been there, to that exact city and can tell you the names of the families drying their laundry across the street.
Another:
Hanoi? The skinny buildings, the balconies, the laundry on the line: This looks a lot like the view from the fifth floor balcony of the Lucky Hotel at 12 Hang Trong in the city’s Old Quarter. I was only there once, 11 years ago, but recall the clockwork bustle: the city woke up at 7:30 in the morning and was in bed by 8 that night. My favorite sound was the screeched electric jingle, blaring from loudspeakers on the ice-cream carts: the Southeast Asian Mister Softee. If this were a “Sound From Your Window” contest, there’d be no mistaking it.
Another:
That view looks extraordinarily familiar. I would guess it’s in the Ba Dinh district of Hanoi, just off one of the alleys of Doi Can street near the B-52 museum. It looks hauntingly similar to a view through the window of a girl I used to date. Granted, almost all views in Hanoi look like that. I know she’s not there anymore but that house was always full of expats. If this is the correct house then that window opens up to a mini balcony, and it might be worth noting that a burglar once hopped onto balcony and robbed my girlfriend blind while she was sleeping.
Another nails the right city:
Reminds me of scenes from the 1995 Vietnamese movie Cyclo. So I’m looking for an urban-ish area, thus lacing me in the neighborhood of Tan Quy, Tan Phy, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
About a half-dozen readers correctly guessed Ho Chi Minh City. To break the tie, we went with the guesser who participated in by far the most contests, 12. The winner writes:
This has got to be either Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, very likely in District 5. There aren’t building that tall in Hanoi. But which neighborhood? I have no idea. Kudos to the Dish-head who can find something from that picture to solve the puzzle.
Details from the submitter:
The photo was taken from the Tan Hai Long #1 Hotel, 14 – 16 Le Lai Street, Dist 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. But my room was at the back of the hotel overlooking Nguyen Here‘s the map from the hotel. I’ve attached a photo of the hotel back entrance, from Nguyen An Ninh Street. I’m 99% sure our room was the one in the middle at the top of this photo, which I think was considered the 3rd floor, though I confess I can’t recall the room number and could have been the 4th floor. (I do know there are two parts to the hotel, and we were in a room in the “B” section.) I’ll check to see if my friends remember. Fortunately, given the relatively narrow building, there aren’t many choices (though I’ve learned not to underestimate Dish readers and their uncanny abilities in these contests). Worst case, I can call the hotel if we need to break a tie.
I was there with friends for a Habitat for Humanity trip; we were in HCMC before heading down to the Mekong Delta for the build. We all loved HCMC, and our hotel location was great because it was right next to the Ben Thanh Market, where we felt like big spenders because the exchange rate is around 20,000 dong to $1 US. (However, as you might imagine, telling people that we blew thousands of dongs on our trip felt wrong for lots of reasons…)
Thanks for picking the photo. I’ve read and been a fan of the blog for years (and became a subscriber this month!), but haven’t sent in anything before. Thanks to you and your colleagues for all your hard work. I look forward to seeing the guesses!
You have until noon on Tuesday to guess it. City and/or state first, then country. Please put the location in the subject heading, along with any description within the email. If no one guesses the exact location, proximity counts. Be sure to email entries to VFYWcontest@gmail.com. Winner gets a free The View From Your Window book. Have at it.
The wrought iron railing, the cypress trees, the terra cotta tile roof, the church spire in the valley, the nicely and boringly groomed farmland, the swimming pool crap haphazardly left lying around on the deck – all scream “Italy.” The mountains in the background look like they could be the Alps. I have no more specific guess than this because, well, I have a life. It’s Saturday, I’m buzzed on red wine, trying to get my younger son to finish eating his horse steak (yes, I live in Sardinia!) and I can’t wait to go to bed, so no Google searches for me! LOVE your blog! Will subscribe soon!
Another:
I don’t have the computer savvy like your other readers to pinpoint the location, but nothing screams California to me like this photo: standard swimming pool fencing, tall junipers, Spanish-tiled beige stucco house, with a flat valley surrounded by snow-capped mountains in the distance. Forget all those typical beach scenes. This is California!
Another:
Shifang, China? Really just winging it based on a quick google-earthing of the area. The closest actual landmark I’d guess is the Shifang Huilan No.1 Middle School. After lurking around for a while, I finally decided to enter.
Another:
Although I’ve had several of my window photos appear on your site, I’ve never tried to guess one before, but this looks so familiar. I lived in and around Barcelona for over twenty years and this looks like home (or at least, the country homes of friends). Those could be the Pyrenees in the background, or more likely the Montseny. The pool suggests it’s a summer place for some wealthy Catalan family – probably the house where the parents and grandparents grew up. The larger building is the typical Catalan masia, the large, dark, thick walled, small windowed farm house typical of that region. There are no doubt butifarras cooking over the fire…
Another:
I never bother to try with these contests because I have neither the skills nor patience of your regulars. But I lived in Bern, Switzerland for four years, and this just looks familiar. When you first started posting VFYW (before the contest existed), the view from my then-window in Bern was the fourth (I believe) that you posted. Anyway, happy to be a founding member of your new venture. Bonne chance et bisous de Paris.
Another:
Hotel Santa Croce, Sulmona, Abruzzo, Italy? I think it’s this hotel with a pool and if it isn’t, I’d like to stay there anyway:
Another:
Happy New Year!
Well, this is the last attempt by this particular geography class as the semester ends this week, so we’d like to at least be close. Though other possibilities came to mind, my class quickly settled on northern Italy because of the architecture, cypress trees, church steeple in the town, and (hopefully) the Alps in the distance. Further research turned up images of the Piedmont region in northwestern Italy that looked a lot like this, with the rolling hills and perhaps vineyards. But it looks like the local town is too small to be Turin, so we’re thinking on the eastern outskirts of Ivrea, Italy. Here’s hoping.
Another:
This was one of those pictures which almost suckered me into losing a night’s sleep comparing silhouettes of distant church steeples, but I successfully resisted – this time. My (thankfully) brief thought process: Europe, but not the Alps (mountains not steep and dramatic enough). Pyrenees. The relatively lush green, rolling hills and angle of sun say more France than Spain. Maybe the large mountain on the right is Aneto (highest in the Pyrenees)? A rough approximation of the view’s potential source puts me somewhere around the town of Saint-Girons in Ariège.
Very close. Another:
Looking at the cypress trees and the building in the foreground one might guess that this is Italy, but the church steeple and the mountains in the rear point squarely to the Pyrenees. This week’s view shows the medieval town of Mirepoix, France. The view looks south, south east from a building about half a mile outside of town, just off of the D106 road. Oh, and that pole with the blue net leaning against the railing? It’s a pool skimmer, with the pool deck lying just out of sight below your viewer’s window. Images of overhead and bird’s eye views are attached, as well as a partial shot of the viewer’s building marked with a red arrow:
Mirepoix it is. But that reader has previously won a contest and is the only one this week to get the exact town, so now we have to go to proximity for a tie-breaker. Of the half-dozen readers who guessed France, the following entry was the closest in kilometers to Mirepoix (other than the Saint-Girons reader, who has also won a book already):
Too run-down for California, plus the old-style church, too flat for Italian alps, too fertile for Spain, so that puts me in France. Valleys near Pyrenees seemed broader than Alpine valleys, that brought me to Lourdes.
Congrats, we’ll get a VFYW book to you shortly. The photo’s owner writes:
It’s from my parents’ new house in Mirepoix, France, looking towards a view of the Pyrenées. I took it yesterday morning at 8:23 am (sunrise comes late here!). Thanks for giving me a reason to get out of bed for the sunrise, even while jet lagged!
One more reader:
You used a photo I submitted for the View From Your Window contest on June 7, 2011, from Portugal. I was very new to the Dish at that point and didn’t really know the rules of the contest regarding how specific I should be, so I gave you the town where the photo was taken.
What I should have done was mention that the photo was taken from the Colina Flora B&B, in Pa de Serra, near Sintra. The B&B belongs to my aunt and uncle, and it’s been eating me up to think of the missed opportunity to give a boost to their business. It would probably be odd to publish a correction for a VFYW a year and a half old, so my request is simply that if you happen to make another VFYW book and use that photo, that you include the name of the B&B. I would be extremely grateful.
Of course, if you ever are visiting Portugal, I highly recommend it as a place to stay. It is hands-down one of the most beautiful locations I have ever been to, the B&B is an extremely peaceful place to stay, eco-friendly and dog-friendly.
Our reader follows up:
Thanks for publishing the correction to my VFYW submission from a year and a half ago! Having read this blog for a couple years now, I shouldn’t have been surprised, but given the vast amount of emails you must receive on a daily basis I did not expect such a silly request to be honored. I don’t know of any other blog that can give such personal attention to such a large audience. Thank you.
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