Category: Contest

A reader writes:

You need wrong entries to start things off, right? So here’s one. But it does remind me of San Antonio de Escazu, Costa Rica, which probably means it’s time to go back.

Another thinks we’re timing the view again:

Totally stumped! But it’s GOTTA be either Rio or Buenos Aires because it’s the World Cup Finals weekend … no way it’s Germany! I gave up when I saw that Rio is too lush for the pic and Buenos Aries is too flat!

Another goes birding:

Seems to me those are Griffon vultures. And the topography looks like Spain, which is where most of the Griffon vultures live. After that, it’s time for darts and/or educated guesses. As this is the week that the St. Fermin Festival ends, I am going to say that the person who sent it in was in Pamplona and is now up in the Aragon hills (or could be farther up in the Pyrenees). So, let’s say a hill town outside of Huesca.

Here, by the way, is an Algerian bank note with Griffon vultures (some Spaniards getting eaten alive in the post-bubble housing market might think putting vultures on the money itself is overkill):

Another pings Africa:

Cape Town, South Africa. Between Atlantic and Table Mountain. I’m guessing the Clifton/Camps Bay Area.

Another:

Milwaukee … because that is clearly a keg on the roof of that house in the foreground.

Back to that “keg” in a little bit. Another gets the right country:

This is a wild guess and probably not even close, but it seems like Greece to me. No way to prove that, however.

Another helps out with proof by nailing the correct town:

Based on the rooftops, vegetation and topography, this looks like Greece, and that looks like the Panthessaliko arena way off in the distance. That would imply that this picture was taken from somewhere near Portaria, Greece, although the limited time I had for a rooftop search to match the details of the picture came up blank. So close, alas …

Another correct guesser:

Looking across to Makrinitsa, and the distant plains of Thessaly. Land of the centaurs, by the way …

Chini notes:

The hardest part of these Mediterranean views is distinguishing between the architecture of the countries. This week, for example, I’m guessing the heat map is gonna have quite a few entries from Spain as well as Greece. And if you were one of the unfortunate readers who did get bogged down in Spain, well, it was probably a pretty long weekend.

Yep, readers definitely put Spain (and Italy and California) on the map this week:

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And here’s a delicious pie chart:

Another reader nails the hotel and highlights what was, for most contestants, the essential clue to solving this week’s view:

This sure seemed like a Mediterranean hill town, and the birds meant it probably wasn’t too far from the sea. The rooftop solar installation has a “Sigma” logo on the side, and a little googling showed that belongs to a company that operates out of Volos, Greece. The last clue that cinched it was the grey slate that makes up many of the roof tiles and the chimneys in the photo. I had a hard time finding anything quite like it, but finally found some close matches in the area of Mt. Pelion, unsurprisingly very near Volos.

A little more sleuthing showed that this week’s view was taken from the Hotel Karavos, Hajakou 15, Portaria 37011, Greece. I’m pretty sure it was taken from the center window on the 1st floor of the West side of the hotel. And now I *really* want to go to Greece. The views of the sea from Portaria are just stunning.

Our favorite GIF-making player nails the correct window:

There’s a Sigma solar hot water heater on the building’s roof across the road. Sigma is headquartered in Volos. I then matched up the visible soccer stadium, rock quarry (?), and forest on the mountainside in Google satellite images, then pinpointed Portaria. The window was harder. (Fun fact: the room is named after a flower. Which one, however, I do not know … )

Check out how methodically this reader zeroed in:

An image search on Sigma Solar eventually got me too a rendering of a Sigma labeled cylinder above a solar panel, crucially with a red “a” in the name. This Sigma was located out of Greece, which seemed to fit the geography of the picture better, so there I went. This Sigma was headquartered out of Volos, but that area seemed to close to the coast, so I moved on, looking again at soccer stadiums. I was looking for a decent-sized stadium, perhaps ringed by arches. When I got to Panthessalakio Stadium, I didn’t find arches, but it was ringed by a concrete frame with many openings, and it was located in Volos, so I began to think maybe this was it. Zooming in on Google Maps, I saw mountainous terrain, and a stadium on the edge of town with a major road turning to the left just past the stadium, and a view that wouldn’t include the surrounding coast. I knew I had the background, but how to isolate to a specific building?

The view seemed almost exactly perpendicular to the long facade of the stadium, so I headed due east. Surprisingly, many of the neighborhoods were predominated by either red or white roofs, but very few had a good mix of the two colors. Once I got to what I now know is Portaria, I began to see the right mix. I couple swoops into street view made me think this was generally the right area, so I went back to the satellite view, looking for a white building with chimneys near a red roof with a solar panel. I was pleasantly surprised to find not just a solar panel, but one with a highly reflective object and thick white cabling running to the side, next to a white roof that looked the part.

Street view quickly confirmed the white house was the foreground of my picture (Streetview voyeurism tells me that the solar panel was installed on the red roofed building sometime after July 2011).

Continuing in street view, the building on the opposite side of the street had four rooms with balconies with brown railings, one of which clearly had to be the source of the shot. Based on angles, the street lamp, wires, and other signs in street view, I felt pretty confident that it was one of the lower two balconies on the third floor, but which one? Given the excellence of other contest-goers, I clearly needed to step up my game to get the correct window. Going further down the street, I could see a sign on the building for Hotel Karavos. I started to look at pictures on various hotel review sites, and eventually came across a picture that I think almost definitely came from the same balcony, albeit from farther back and on a slightly different angle:

The extra view of the balcony itself showed that balcony itself went slightly further to the left (looking out) than the railing itself. Street view shows that one balcony ended flush with a divider, so it had to be the balcony on the right (facing the hotel).

This was a really fun one, thanks.

Bravo. Meanwhile, a previous winner gets her collage on:

I began by trying to identify the soaring flock of birds, but they appear to be a common and widespread European swift. Next I focused on the stadium that is vaguely visible on the flats at the base of hills (soccer weekend). That was not productive. I then searched for worked-stone roof tiles like those in the view and quit quickly found similar examples in villages clustered on the steep ridges above Volos, Greece. The Volos Olympic Stadium on the flats helped confirm I was in the right place. Searches of hotels eventually located views similar to that of the contest and Hotel Karavos.

The photograph was taken from one of the four balconies on the west face of the hotel. My uncertain guess is the lower and southern-most one. The steep slopes made judging window heights even more difficult than usual. This balcony seemed the most likely to include a number of clues. The balcony view had to include the top of a utility post visible in the lower right of the contest view, the tip of a neighboring roof corner on the right of the photograph midway, and the center post of the balcony railing that is left of center in the view. The most convincing clue was comparing a similar view taken from the only upper window on the western face with shutters which is located south of the balconies. The view from the shutter window appears close to that of the contest view but slightly higher. This would be consistent with the shutter window’s location in relation to the lower balcony (or more so than an upper balcony).

Now I want to know how the stone roof tiles are made and perhaps reused.

Here’s the Dish own collage of your best entries:

One of those readers adds:

Of interest to me is that Volos is the home of the mythical hero Jason (of Argonauts and Golden Fleece fame) but also of real-life composer musician Vangelis whose work on film scores such as Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner is well known.

This week’s winner is an 11-contest veteran from our vaunted list of previous guessers of difficult contests:

The most obvious landmark, the stadium way off in the background, wasn’t familiar, so searching for that right away wasn’t too helpful. Googling around for “sigma solar water heater” and doing some quick logo vetting narrowed it down to Greece rather than California or Spain. “Stadium Greece” was a fairly unhelpful Google Image search for the first few pages due to the prevalence of pictures of the Panathenaic Stadium, until I just happened upon the right one — in Volos, which is also the home of Sigma.

The mountains looked right, so I figured out roughly where it was on the map and zoomed in on anything looking like a square or large intersection (visible on the right edge of the image, 1/3 of the way up). On the second try, I found the building with the teapot sign (a tea shop), and from there it was a simple matter of turning around in Street View and looking up.

It’s Hotel Karavos, in Portaria, about 12km from Volos (39.389338,23.00066, for the picky). Due to the pole in the bottom right corner of the image, I’m guessing it’s… I don’t even know how you’d number the floors. Window is circled:

From the view’s submitter:

The picture was taken from the window of Room 202 of Hotel Karavos, in the mountain village of Portaria, Greece. This is one of the little towns on the western side of Mt. Pelion, looking down to the city of Volos, part of which can be seen in the distance on the left of the contest picture.

The whole region is very beautiful, with quaint villages on the mountain slopes and beautiful beaches just a short drive away on either side of the peninsula. My wife and I spent there three days exploring the area together with two friends of ours, a couple who got married this Saturday – the same day the photo appeared in the contest!

I’ve also attached another picture with a wider panorama of Volos, taken from the town of Makrinitsa, very close to Portaria:

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A stumped veteran player writes:

Zambia. I mean why not. You people are insane.

A happier reader:

I have no clue where this is, but I just wanted to say that I love the photo. One of my favorite VFYW photos ever. Thanks for posting. Can’t wait to learn where it was taken.

Another hazards a guess:

The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, WV. This is merely a hunch based upon the details of the balustrade along the roof line and the green ridges in the distance. Never having been there, I am unsure of where in the building the window is located.

A more confident reader:

This is a view from the state capitol in Helena, Montana.  No doubt about it!

Another confident reader:

Has to be Yavin 4:

That isn’t the view we’re looking for. But that Star Wars base and the White House actually were the most popular incorrect guesses this week. Another nails the right country:

 Happy Fourth of July!!!

Another:

I doubt if you will get a single wrong answer this week, so you will have to start off directly with the right answers.

A bunch of right answers:

The only private residence designated a world heritage site.

Until Frank Lloyd Wright came along, this building was the purest expression of intelligence in architecture in North America.

We hold this house to be self-evident. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of fancy rotunda.

Home of my most favorite dead president evah!

Let’s just let OpenHeatMap get to the point:

One of those readers who correctly answered Charlottesville, Virginia:

I’ve never been to Monticello, but (noting the date of this particular contest) it was the first thing I googled, and – WHAMMO! – there was the window! Well, eight of them. Figuring out which one was the window in question wasn’t that difficult. I’d be very surprised if this VFYW doesn’t receive the most correct answers ever, based solely on the fact that I was able to figure it out, and normally I stink at this. Truly, truly stink.

Indeed, a whopping 587 entries came in this week, the vast majority of them correct, rivaling only VFYW #14 from Brookline as the most popular contest. One entry came from “My Piggy Bank, Hawthorn Woods, IL”:

Apparently, the interior is much more expansive than I ever would have imagined!

Another smiles:

THIS IS MY FAVORITE VFYW CONTEST EVER! I mean it was obvious that the window was from Monticello, so I had the location within five seconds of going to the contest page. But who knew that Google streetview had actually had someone walk all over the property so that we could explore the whole area from afar?! I didn’t, until today. Thanks for pointing me towards a virtual tour that I am really enjoying this morning and will continue to enjoy for at least an hour more.

How one reader came to guess the correct window:

When I saw this week’s window, the circular shape and the neoclassical details of the balustrade in the foreground reminded me right away of a window I knew high atop a building across the street from the Basilica in downtown Baltimore, near where I went to college. The story I’d always heard was that the window belonged to the apartment of the “father of American architecture,” Benjamin Latrobe, who’d designed the apartment and the window to give him a good vantage for supervising construction of the cathedral.  I kind of recalled that Latrobe and Jefferson were pals, and given yesterday’s holiday all signs pointed right to Monticello.

A bit of Google-mapping and image searching later and I found the Dome Room and sorted out from the position of the balustrade and the walkway below which of its eight windows the view was taken from. The Dome Room is fantastically cool, with green floors and Mars yellow walls which you can see a little bit of in the photo. And of course all those windows.

Another features some history:

Pictures make it appear to be a beautiful room, but apparently it had limited use in Jefferson’s time.  According to Monticello’s website:

During Jefferson’s lifetime, the only documented use of the dome room appears to have been as a grandson’s bedroom. Access to the room was reached after climbing steep, narrow stairs and following a low hallway along the third floor. There would seem to be a limit to the practicality of such a chamber, but certainly no argument against the aesthetic beauty of the space. Washington socialite Margaret Bayard Smith wrote, following her visit to the house in 1809, that “it is a nobel and beautiful apartment furnished and being in the attic story is not used, which I thought a great pity, as it might be made the most beautiful room in the house.”

An expert weighs in:

I attended the University of Virginia for six years, and acquired a Ph.D in the history of American architecture there, so I’ve been in the Dome Room many times.  It’s a pity that Jefferson’s most inventive room turned out to be nearly useless to him.  He had planned on making the room his library, but the weight of his thousands of books were too much for the structure of the house.  Had he put all his books there, they would have come crashing down into the Salon below.  So this glorious room because a storeroom and sometimes playroom for Jefferson’s many grandchildren. The library-in-a-dome idea had to wait until he designed the Rotunda at the University about 1819.

Another relays some speculation:

Historians aren’t 100% sure of what the room was built for, but one theory is shared in the comments on Monticello’s website:

Cinder Stanton, Monticello’s Senior Research Historian, suggests that Jefferson might have used this room as his panopticon, where with the aid of his telescope, he could keep an eye on everything, including his slaves. With Jeremy Bentham’s 18th Century book “Panopticon” in his collection and two former slaves noting his use of the telescope, it is a sinister yet plausible interpretation.

Personally, I link to think that Jefferson simply wanted a room to admire such a lovely view.

Another needs to hide his column:

Funny, I spent a couple years doing fine architectural woodwork in Virginia, and although I have never been to Monticello, I knew it in an instant: the restraint, the reason, the measuredness of it all. I could stare at that window all day without ever wanting to look through it. Thanks for posting it on a Saturday, because for me at least, this kind of architectural porn is not safe for work.

The best aerial view we got this week:

But this reader is no fan of Jefferson:

In the view you posted, you can see a bit of the pediments’ sloping roof, as well as one of the walkways, below.  Lovely view of the countryside.  Too bad it was a concentration camp (i.e., slave plantation.)

My father’s grandparents supported the renovation of Monticello in 1923, and we have two plates from the inaugural dinner (Thomas Jefferson Foundation.)  I loved to look at them as a child.  They are inscribed with a beautiful cadence: “All my wishes end, where I hope my days will end, at Monticello.”  As I got older, and realized that not only was Monticello built on the backs of slaves, but a good deal of my ancestors’ money and social prominence as well (Maryland, Eastern Shore), I’m glad all we have left of that lucre are two stupid plates.

Another has a more balanced view:

I knew in an instant that this was Thomas Jefferson’s mansion, Monticello. When I was taken there on a family trip at age 8 it made a huge impression on me. At that time I was astonished by his genius as an inventor (such as his “polygraph” machine designed to make copies of his letters – it was two goose-quill pens latched together). Later I was astonished by the breadth of his thinking, and read scores of biographies.  After that I became equally astonished at his inability to deal with the unspeakable depravity of slave owning. It’s all worth contemplating when examining how this nation is so often at cross-purposes.

GIF of the day:

For many, the view brought a flood of memories:

Many happy childhood vacations were spend riding around the US to historical sites where my father would bring to life the stories and high ideals of this America adventure. To him, I owe a debt whose payment is rendered as civic responsibility, social conviction, and a well-seasoned sense of Wonder. I was never allowed to visit the upper-floored room where this window reigns, but the picture portrays the view exactly as mustered in my vivid imagination.

Here’s to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

And here’s to clever readers:

Gah! Another one that EVERYONE will get. At first glance I thought it would be really hard. Not much to go on in the photo. But then I realized it was the Fourth of July weekend and that we were probably looking out from a historical building related to the American Revolution, perhaps one of the Founding Father’s homes. Monticello was literally the first one I searched, but even if I hadn’t, how many different famous Founding Father homes are there? I can only think of Mount Vernon and Peace Field off the top of my head. But there are probably no more than five at most?

My only hope of winning is that most people will guess the wrong window. I first thought it was one of the front-facing windows, but a careful examination of the roof railing indicates that it’s the one facing the right side of the building.

Chini chimes in:

Looking at this one on my phone during the Argentina match I was sure it would be hard. Flat forestland, no other buildings, a real nightmare. But it only took a few minutes after the match ended to discover that it was, in fact, as easy as views get. You just had to ask yourself “What view would they pick for the Fourth of July?”

Many contestants had the same question:

On that note:

What happens when 500 people get the right answer?

Another contestant has a suggestion along those lines:

I expect that so many people will get the correct window, the win will come down to extreme precision. Based on how very deeply the window is recessed into the wall and the position of the distant horizon viewed through the window, one can determine how high the camera was off the floor:

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Or it might just have been an employee who stood on the only chair in the room (just visible in photo #8) when nobody was around … or some anonymous pituitary case.

An inspired entry, but we’re still giving the prize to the player with the most previous guesses but no wins, especially if they’ve guessed difficult contests in the past. So this long-suffering veteran gets the prize this week:

I hope my many previous guesses will be enough to win the tiebreaker this time. We are looking out from the south-facing window on the top floor of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia.

From the view’s submitter:

I think it’s either going to be super-hard or super-easy: you guys are either sadists or chumps!

This shot was taken facing south, overlooking the garden and slave quarters, in the dome room at the top of Monticello. (I’ve attached a photo of the Western facade, showing the window.) The dome is not generally open to the public: it’s part of a “Behind The Scenes” tour that must be reserved in advance, with only a limited number of slots available.

Jefferson called this vista his “sea view,” and the Piedmont countryside rolling off to the horizon certainly evokes a large body of water – which just might beguile anyone who doesn’t know where the shot was taken!

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A reader thinks it’s San Francisco:

The new strip mall on the other, never-photographed side of Alamo Square?

Another picks the “Smokeless Coal Capital” of America:

Looks like the roof of Tamarack arts center near Beckley, West Virginia. I just stopped there during a road trip in late April.

Another:

Hard one this week. The closest I can get is Aden in Yemen, judging by the profile of the mountains and Arabic signage.

Another correctly notes the significance of taking the contest to the Middle East this week:

So, as a Muslim (fringy as I am), I couldn’t help thinking that this week’s contest was maybe in honor of the beginning of Ramadan. If so, great! If not, thanks for not posting a picture of one of the souped-up Arab metropolises built to be viewed from the space station.

The view looks like some sort of shopping plaza, or entrance to an arcade. It’s rather desultory, certainly doesn’t call to mind the shiny new buildings and streets of one of the UAE cities. The hilly terrain bordering the city suggested Yemen or Jordan or Algeria. Given that of the three Yemen seems the most economically oppressed, I settled on Sana a. Never having been there, I have no clue as to whether or not the signage is in multiple languages. I’m pretty sure that in Jordan and Algeria they are at least also in English and French.

Of course, I could be dead wrong, again … grr. Perhaps if we were to get a glimpse of the populace, as in whether or not there is a completely or partially shrouded female population. That would certainly give me a better idea as to the sort of prevailing religious influence on the politics.

Still, I really hope I’m closer this time, and NOT because it’s Ramadan!

Another is thinking Kabul:

That dust (rumored to be a very high fecal content due to the open sewers), those mountains, the Arabic script, and somewhat decrepit window – looks a lot like the Afghan capital. Actually, it’s the wife’s guess. I’ve learned to listen to her. A few weeks back she said: that’s Chateau de Chillon! I said, no it’s not; it looks a lot like it, but the view is wrong. Stupid me. I lived in Lausanne 7 years and now feel very silly.

I can’t guess a window now, as we’re at 34,000 feet over Alaska en route to Tokyo. Normally that would give plenty of time to search, but the 9 month old in my lap is demanding attention and refuses to sleep.

Or Lebanon?

Well, I see Arabic writing in a somewhat rundown city, but no visible minarets, so perhaps a relatively secular nation. I’d guess Beirut or Amman, but Amman has lots of buildings on its hills, while Beirut has areas that look relatively sparse, so I’m going with it. I’m not one of those folks who tries to get the exact building; I’m just hoping this isn’t a shopping center in Detroit. That would be embarrassing, even for someone whose goal is “get the right city.”

Another gets the right country:

The only times I think I know the view it’s because I think I’ve been there. Well, it’s a big world, so the chances of that happening are miniscule.

But it really does seem like these are the green pyramids on top of the Golestan Mall in Shahrak-e Gharb, Tehran, Iran. It’s where my wife would buy dubbed pirated Disney DVDs for our bilingual children (they were only allowed to watch Disney movies in Farsi) Of course it could be that every mall in Iran has green pyramids …

Another nails the right city:

By George, I’ve got it! This was taken in Isfahan, Iran (or, as most Iranians call the city, Esfahan). The turquoise roofs are unmistakably Persian, as is the script on the store signs and the somewhat less prominent signage in the middle of the photo for some sort of civic office (the part I can make out says “Information and Communications of the Mayoralty of Isfahan”). I hope the recognition of Farsi won’t be considered a case of cheating, albeit a mild one.

The beautifully intricate architecture, impressive bridges, ancient artwork, and overall grandeur of the city warrant the famous proverb “Esfahan nesf-e jahan” (Isfahan is half the world). I should know: I have fond memories of family visits to Isfahan as a child, but am reluctant to return so as not to spoil the mental imagery I have of evenings spent on the banks of Zayandeh-Rood (Zayandeh River), which, alas, has been drying up gradually in recent years.

Here’s our sparse OpenHeatMap of everyone’s entries, which totaled less than 30 this week:

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Another reader was tipped off by “distinctive mountain peak in the background”. And behind that mountain is apparently some international intrigue:

We pretty quickly narrowed this one down to Isfahan, Iran. Firstly, it’s obviously somewhere in the Middle East and secondly one of our number is an Iranian Jew whose family is from that area. Then once comparing the mountain range visible in the picture to that on the map we determined it was in the north-northeast suburbs of Isfahan looking generally to the northeast (see map):

But from there we were stumped. So that’s what we’ve got for this week.

It’s interesting to note that on the other side of those mountains is the Natanz nuclear uranium enrichment facility, host of 1,000 centrifuges and the very plant that was infected by the Stuxnet computer virus at the hands of Israel and the U.S. intelligence agencies in 2007.

Another gets the exact location:

This is a view from a window of the Shah Abbas Hotel in Isfahan, Iran. The hotel is currently known as the Abbasi Hotel. The view is towards the south. The building across the way is a shopping mall housing carpet dealers and other tourist shops. The hotel was created from an old Safavid caravanseri and is attached to a small bazaar and a religious school. As the Iranians say, “Isfahan is half the world”. A wonderful place with great people. I was there as a Peace Corps volunteer forty years ago and went back again five years ago. I stayed at the Abbasi, perhaps in this room. Certainly one very similar.

A fantastic entry from a former winner:

The contest view is from the southern-facing exterior of the Abbasi Hotel (entry on Amadegah Street) in Isfahan, Iran. Not surprisingly, the view is from a lesser photographed aspect of this very elaborate hotel and misses most of the hotel’s iconic views.

The Persian writing on the shopping complex signs suggested Iran, so I began searching hotels and general views of Tehran. A series of photographs linked to a Tehran hotel included scenes of the Khaju Bridge in Isfahan. A mountain peak in the background appeared similar to that in the contest window, so I switched the search to Isfahan. I passed through many photographs from the Abbasi Hotel before seeing one taken towards the south, which included the distinct rows of blue triangular decorative elements on the roof of the neighboring shopping complex. The brick balcony arches on the hotels southern façade also matched that of the contest window (very nicely done brickwork). The angle of the contest photograph shows only the upper portion of the baloney’s decorative railing which is characteristic of this side of the hotel (part of the railing’s cross pattern is slightly visible in the right-hand corner of the contest photograph). A collage of clues:

Several features of the shopping complex visible in the contest view place the window on the western side of the building’s southern façade (number and relative location of blue triangles on roof, the stairs, bend in the shopping complex roofline, roof triangles visible in right-hand side of photograph, etc.). I relied primarily on sight lines to locate the general area of the contest window and chose, with significant uncertainly, the third window in from the western side of the building’s southern face on the upper-most floor (see attached):

I selected the upper floor because the view is through the upper tree canopy and misses the tops of palm trees that line this side of the hotel. I suspect a view from a lower floor would include crowns of the palm trees. Views from the shopping complex toward the hotel suggest that the tree canopy would extend to the upper floor.

Thank you for another fine tour of a World Heritage site.

Thank your fellow readers, one of whom is a former resident:

This is a view of a shopping complex built when I lived in Isfahan, Iran in the 1970s. The highest peak in the distance is crowned with the ruins of an Assasin’s Castle. This group gave us the word assassin and is currently known as Ishmaelis. The blue tile roof echoes the colors across the street of the side of a large complex built in the 1700’s.

There is the Madrassa (religious school) Modari – Shah complete with a bulbous blue tile dome. On the other side of this is a brick covered bazaar called the Boland bazaar because of it’s high domes.  Next to the school and across the street from the pictured complex is the former Caravan Serai. Rents from this and the Bazaar helped finance the school. This is a very practical arrangement often followed in the Islamic world. A shopping complex supports the mosque. Of course this can often get out of hand.

This caravan serai was turned into a deluxe hotel with a beautiful garden in the central courtyard. By the 1900s, all of these buildings were in severe disrepair as Islamic dynasties rarely keep up buildings from a former dynasty. A sadly little known American Persian scholar and his wife, Arthur Upham Pope, convinced the last Shah’s father, Reza Shah, to fund the restoration of Iran’s architectural heritage. This involved the training of scores of craftsmen, research, etc. Much of the Islamic Architecture one sees in Iran is due to his work. Without him there probably would have been little left as. Reza Shah’s son, the last Shah, continued this funding. His wive, the Shahbanu was very active in this area. Mr. and Mrs. Pope elected to be buried in Isfahan. They said they were not just ordinary scholars, they loved their adopted country, Iran.

The Shah built them a wonderful simple brick tomb in an early Islamic style on the banks of the river that flows through the city. When Khomeini took over mobs smashed into the tomb, dug up the bones and fed them to the stray dogs. The tomb has since been repaired.

Chini, as is wont, was the only reader to guess the correct window:

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that Persian speakers had a bit of a head start with this one. But not being able to read the signs helped to make this one of those perfect not too easy, not too hard views. More importantly, we’re not in Tehran. Lovely city, but another search through its 10,000 high rises would have just about driven me mad.

Instead, this week’s view comes from Isfahan, Iran and looks south by southwest along a heading of 191.78 degrees. The pic was likely snapped from a balcony on the third (physical) story of the Abbassi Hotel. The hotel itself is a local landmark because it was once a caravanserai, an ancient form of Persian trading inn.

It’s room 301, to be exact. Our winner this week was the only reader (who hasn’t previously won a contest) to guess the correct hotel and floor:

This picture was taken from a second or third floor balcony from the Abbasi Hotel in Isfahan. It is facing south toward Amadegah Street. There is a sign in the picture for the telecom organization of the City of Isfahan. The website of this organization gave me the address which I was able to find on Google Maps.

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A reader ventures a guess:

Björlanda, Sweden. I believe that is the Fladen fishing store on the pier.

Another looks east:

This looks very much like the area of Hakone, Japan in which I took an excursion in 2009. Those old-time looking ships are part of the tourist industry. I’m pretty sure this is on Lake Ashi, in the Japanese Alps.

Or the Caribbean?

I’m not entirely sure of the building, but I think this is from the second floor of the DeLugo Federal Building on Veterans Drive in Charlotte Amelie, St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Hassel Island is the island across the water in the foreground, and the building with the tall ship docked in front of it is next to the Legislature of the US Virgin Islands (which is out of the frame to the right). I haven’t been there since 2009, but it was raining then too! Thanks for a great window!

Another goes down under:

This contest is a pain in my ass. I went through chart after chart of tall ship logs (I finally settled on Australia/New Zealand and environs). I can’t take it anymore. I finally Googled “Tasmania esplanade” after searching with “quay”, “inlet”, “bay”, “tall ships” and just about every permutation of “port” and “harbor” I could think of … I landed on this painting of Strahan, Tasmania.

That sure as hell looks like the VFYWC, even though I can already tell the dome is missing from the building with the orange roof. I’m out. It’s probably clear on the other side of the world, like the Isle of Man.

Another nails the right island:

I see obvious English signage, a yellow-orange number plate, and double yellow lines, cars parked facing the left side leading me to think it’s somewhere in the UK. All my searches keep pointing back to Falmouth, but I can’t find any place that would match. The surroundings remind me on the gut level more of the area around Edinburgh, but again no dice. Brighton does a Tall Ships festival, but I can’t find any tie.

After looking at thousands of photos, tracing the UK on Google Earth, and going through every company beginning with “Community” I could find, I’m no better off than I was to begin with. I’ve got no more time to give, so I’m registering a frustrated “United Kingdom” as as close as I can get, and I’m even less than certain of that at this point. Grrr. Why do I love this game?!

Because of the drama of near misses? Another reader said the view “screamed” UK because of the “rain and depressed looking tourists”. Another hits the wrong end of the island:

Alrighty, so we have another dismal-ish looking port/harbor/beach view. If I hadn’t seen the little huddle of people bundled up in cold-weather clothing, I would have immediately guessed somewhere warm. However, the vehicles being on the left side of the road, the clearly English sign on the community whatsoever building on the pier, all led me to think that this is somewhere that the British were, or at least had an influence. The numerous blurry masts in the lower left corner suggest a yachting/boating is popular. There’s a sort of castle-y looking building on the waterside to the right, it looks quite old, as in a couple of hundred years or so. The steep slope of the hill at the right leads me to believe that that it probably goes up quite a ways, maybe the hillside buildings comprise a significant part of the landscape we’re not seeing.

All of the above only serves up some rather vague ideas about where this may be. Nonetheless, I’m going to guess somewhere in the Channel Islands or along the British coast.

Another gets the correct (presently non-sovereign) country:

I don’t have any more than this guess: Ullapool, Scotland.

This reader, like most this week, identified the correct city and hotel:

OMG, I FINALLY GOT ONE!

After years of blankly staring at the view from your window photos and wondering how anyone figured these out, I decided to stop doing anything else until I figured out where this one was. After all, there were plenty of clues: European license plate on a car, UK street markings, and even words on buildings! This would be easy, right?

Um, no … it appears that an insane level of persistence is required to search every possible clue until you get that magical hit. Then you get to obsessively triangulate in on the photo’s precise point of view. But holy cow, this was fun!

The town is Oban, Scotland, and it looks like the photo was taken from a third floor window at the Oban Caledonian Hotel.

Chini chimes in:

Normally it’s a tad disappointing to get an easy view, but between travel for work and Sunday’s World Cup game I’m grateful that this was a near instant find. Plus, it’s a good photo for new players because there’s at least half a dozen different ways to find the location.

Indeed there were:

Northern seaport.
European buildings, license plate.
“Community” on building – aha! Scotland.
Google “Piazza Scotland”: “We are a family friendly pizza/pasta restaurant on a pier in beautiful Oban Bay in Scotland”

Bingo!

Or you could take a more circuitous route:

Google indicated alternative European yellow tags could have been the Netherlands, Cyprus, or Gibraltar (who knew?), but the English word “Community” led me back to the UK.  Web searches for “wharf red metal roof” were totally useless, as was the “Plazen(?)” word by the red-roof building.

Reluctantly, I then circumnavigated the UK, starting near Dover (it was a hunch and not a good one), along the English Channel, then through Ireland, then up to the west coast of Scotland, looking for a bay with a red roof on wharf.  The UK train logos fooled me many times, but the red roof of the Oban North Ferry Terminal finally gave me hope that my efforts had paid off.  There is something really powerful about first seeing the street view confirming this sought-after location.  It’s a really cool feeling.

Below is this week’s OpenHeatMap of everyone’s guesses (zoom in by double-clicking an area of interest, or drag your cursor up and down the slide):

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Most readers got the right window too, but only one nailed it with a GIF – a first for the window contest:

I found it by googling “fish restaurant on dock scotland.”

A long-time lurker:

Aha! I’ve been following this contest for years and have yet to come any where near guessing correctly. And then finally, this morning, it’s somewhere I’ve been! I almost feel guilty (well no, not really).

The red roofed building on the pier is Ee-usk, a perfectly reasonable seafood restaurant that my wife and I walked out of in favor of fish and chips at a pub down the road. This photo was taken from there:

Another describes the scene:

The location is familiar because I visited Oban once more than twenty years ago. It was the last family holiday with my parents before I went to university. We stayed in a guest house near St Columba’s cathedral which you can seen in the distance behind the building with the red roof. The island straight ahead is Kerrera. It is a pity the weather was so bad when the picture was taken because the views from here are beautiful. If it had been clearer, to the right of Kerrera you would see across Loch Linnhe to another long low island, Lismore (the most boring place I have ever visited), and the mountains on the mainland again beyond it. Behind Kerrera, to the left, you would see the mountains on Mull.

A first-time player:

I am from Glasgow and first took my wife to Scotland to tour the country in 1999 (we met as students in Canada and started dating the previous year). We stayed for a night in Oban and sailed from there to Mull and went on to Iona. The night in Oban was wet (natch). We sat in our rental car on the seafront (possibly a spot in the photo), listening to “Just A Minute” and watching a diver ease his way out into the bay. Thanks for bringing the memory back to the surface.

Many readers have been there:

Not only is this week’s contest easy, but I’ve had pints at the Oban Caledonian Hotel looking at harbour. My wife and I stayed in Oban with our daughter, then almost two years old. It was our daughter’s first time experiencing the sun setting after 10 pm and she couldn’t sleep. So while my wife rested, I packed my daughter in the stroller walked into town, ordered a beer and rocked the stroller back-and-forth while looking out over the water.

I’ve mentioned this Scottish trip to The Dish before. The first time you posted one of my emails was for Contest 157(tbd) when you also used one of our Glen Coe pictures.

Anyway, back to the window. It is the third floor window over the balcony and labeled in the attached. The angle of the view, the details of the stonework around the window, and the newel post on the balcony below led me to the window.  For the room number, I’ll guess 215.

Above is a picture I took several years ago from the B&B we stayed at looking back towards the harbour. Unfortunately, it is not a high enough resolution to label the contest window. For anyone trying to figure out that window, I believe it was room 6 of the Alltavona Guest House.

Another reader:

I recognized Oban Harbour immediately. It is one of those places I felt really “at home”. I did the tourist thing to visit Castle Sween, a castle where some of my MacMillin ancestors were sheriffs for the Campbells. I stayed in Oban/Fort William to explore the western coast. It was November, off season and wonderfully full of locals only.

Another:

I’ve only been to Oban once, as a child, and I remember nothing but the harbour being full of dead jellyfish. The city was, like my native Cardiff, the hereditary home of the Marquesses of Bute. The 3rd Marquess, who converted to Catholicism, furnished the Cathedral Church of St Columba in Oban, which can be seen in the window, and was originally clad in corrugated iron (known locally as the “Tin Cathedral”). I think my great-great-grandfather was one of his boy choristers.

Another learned some vocab:

This week’s contest taught me the difference between “piers” and “quays”! Specifically, piers are wooden and quays are stone. And more importantly, when you Google “red buildings on piers in the UK,” you get nothing relevant, while the same search for “quays” just might do the trick.

This husband-and-husband team learned about ships:

Rather than brute-force through a zillion possible cities in Google Earth, my husband chose instead to search for sailing ships, first using reference materials found online to identify the brown and tan vessel in mid-frame as a ketch. “There can’t be that many ketches in the world,” he said, but he ended up viewing hundreds of images before finding this one on ship-photographs.com:

Ship-photographs.com (another handy site for window hunters) identifies the ship as Maybe, a 26.13m Bermuda ketch built in 1929. This information led in turn to Maybe’s web site, where an itinerary can be found. I got tangled up in news stories about Maybe’s arrival in Whitehaven such as this one before looking at an earlier stop in Oban, Scotland.

A former winner saw the street markings and was reminded of a “corny old family joke”:

A tourist asks an Irishman what the yellow line on the side of the road means. “Ah, it means you can’t park there at all.” “So what does it mean when there’s a double yellow line?” “That means you can’t park there at all, at all.”

Another reader:

First, as a heavy scotch drinker:

I thought this was going to be an easy one as there seemed to be tons of clues to go on – left-side driving, European license plate style (but also maybe Australian), distinctive seafood restaurant, some visible text (“community”), but it nonetheless took me a lot of hunting to track it down. I don’t know if that’s because it’s a hard contest this week, or if I was just unlucky or not very clever.

I finally managed to track down a photo of the EE-USK restaurant with the Google query “seafood restaurant pier scotland”, which found this photo showing the restaurant’s recognizable red dome:

How did I know to search Scotland? I didn’t. I tried “seafood restaurant pier england” and “seafood restaurant pier australia” and so on until I got lucky. The restaurant looks interesting. Its name is a phonetic spelling of “iasg”, Gaelic for “Fish”, which makes sense as they get their fish directly from the fishing vessels and can serve them fresher than pretty much anywhere else. A few hours from swimming in the sea to being served on a plate, as this YouTube video demonstrates: Ee-usk on “Town with Nicholas Crane”

After locating the correct harbor, tracking the view to the Caledonian Hotel was not hard. By my calculations it could only have been taken from one window.

My calculations are, however, sometimes wrong. Who knows what room number it is – I’ll take a wild guess at 222.

There were so many great entries this week, so see if you can find yours in our collage:

This week’s winner is a three-year, 19-contest veteran from our esteemed list of players who have correctly guessed difficult views in the past without winning:

My first thought was British Columbia/Alaska, but then I noticed the yellow elongated license plate and figured it must be Scotland. I googled “tall ships Scotland”, found a couple companies offering holidays on tall and small ships, and started looking at the ports mentioned. Oban was the first place I checked out, and the red roof on the Ee-usk Seafood Restaurant on the North Pier made it clear that I had found the right location. Looking for the crenelated seawall and the area with the benches got me to the Caledonian Hotel.

So far, so good. I’ve found the correct building any number of times, but I always lose it on the precise window locations – I’ve decided I have some hereditary problem judging sight lines and angles. After looking through every single customer photo of the Caledonia Hotel on Trip Advisor, I’m guessing the photograph was taken from room 204. I’m inserting a picture with a circle around the (I’m desperately hoping) correct window.

That’s exactly correct. From the photo’s submitter:

We’re terrible at playing VFYW, but we thought our current view would make an excellent submission for an upcoming contest.

We’re currently staying in room 204 of the Oban Caledonian Hotel in Oban, Scotland. Since their upcoming vote on separating from Britain has been in the news, we thought it would be timely too.

We snapped the photo upon our arrival this afternoon, being careful not to show any buildings that included “Oban” or other obvious words on them. We’re including Skitched photos from two angles in case someone identifies the window that way vs by room number. We thought it might be extra challenging to get the exact window because it looks out the side of the building rather than the front (which you can see by comparing the two angles.

By the way, this is our very first time on the UK, and we love it so far!

(Archive: Text|Gallery)

A reader writes:

At first glance, I thought I was looking at an airport. The wide concrete slabs and numerous arrows triggered that impression in my brain. Of course when it registered that there were benches lining the edges, I realized how wrong I was!

The wide man-made beach leading to what looks like a very unfriendly lagoon is clearly not South American, although it does conjure up the vision of a curiously deserted section of Ipanema. Most interesting are what looks like windmills on the upper left corner. The top of the hill has what looks like some sort of ruin, but probably isn’t. I’m not sure what makes me think Scandinavian, except that it is an unusually pristine beach and surroundings. However, I couldn’t find a pic resembling this image online. Again, this feels like a sad little place, the overcast skies darkening the lagoon water, with rather stark architecture. Somewhere in Scandinavia, Norway or Sweden, Copenhagen.

Another reader senses “a very Russian feeling” from the view. Another gets topical:

I do not have the time to follow through on my immediate instincts, which are “World Cup,” and “Brazil.” When I start looking at beaches in Brazil, I find some that have very similar light fixtures, so I think I am in the right country. But there are a lot of beaches! I’m taking a guess to say it is a beach in the vicinity of Recife, Brazil.

Another is clearly looking forward to summer:

Congratulations. Wherever this is, they have created the perfect beach experience for people who hate both sand and water.

Another hits the States:

This week’s view is really a puzzler. At first glance I thought there were plenty of clues to go on: the beach next to a densely-packed urban landscape, the concrete promenade, the bike path. There are odd buildings along the shore, and … is that a set of stairs going down to a parking garage? I can’t tell. There aren’t any palm trees, which suggests a temperate climate. I’ve been chasing up all these clues obsessively and haven’t found anything that seems remotely close. I’m certain it’s not Chicago, but I’m going with that anyway. So frustrating!

Even a correct guesser notes:

Wow, this one was hard.

Indeed. There were only 20 readers who even hazarded a guess this week. One of them frowns:

I would waste the day investigating this location but I am disqualifying it because it shows no part of the window frame and contains an animal (dog). I can do something productive instead.

True, we never post frameless views for our daily VFYW feature, but due to the lack of good candidates for the contest, we occasionally use them here.  And animals are only disqualifying when they are the central focus of the view, not incidental background. The closest incorrect entry:

Nice beach. No one swimming, not even a dog, despite the green flags. Must be the North Sea. I say it’s Dunkirk, France.

Another nails the right country and city:

My guess for this week is a city on the northern coast of Spain, specifically Gijon, Spain. The dense city, the streetlight fixtures, and the beautiful beach were my clues. There are a number of half-moon beaches in the area, and I suspect this photo was taken from the aquarium or some restaurant in the area looking east.

A previous winner nails the building too. Here’s his breakdown:

It took a while to figure this contest out because the items in the photo pulled me in different directions. The buildings and grey concrete sidewalks next to a beach with calm waters made me think it is an Eastern European location, perhaps on the Black Sea. The Kompan pirate playground, the wind, and the people dressed in long sleeved clothing made me think western or northern Europe. But the palm trees are too tall for northern Europe.

To confuse things further, I initially thought the statute on the hill opposite was a Greek ruin. After realizing the object was too large for that to be true, I started to try random bits of the European coastline. Then after stumbling across similar looking lamp posts in San Sebastián and Biarritz in North Spain, I realized the contest window must be nearby.

Soon enough, I discovered that Gijón, Spain had the same lamp posts as in the picture and I arrived at Calle Mariano Pola, 2, 33212 Gijón, Asturias, Spain. Based on this photo, I think the contest picture was taken from this two-bedroom vacation apartment for rent. For the exact window within the apartment, I highlighted it in the attached screenshot. The sculpture in the distance turns out to be Eulogy to the Horizon by Eduardo Chillida.

Below is a visual glimpse of all of the entries (zoom in by double-clicking an area of interest, or drag your cursor up and down the slide):

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From a reader in country:

Well, no special story or anything other than I have walked along that waterfront, as it’s fairly well known here in Spain. Only once have I been up to Gijón (pronounced in English as “hee-hone”), but I instantly recognized it, so I imagine you will have quite a few correct guesses this week. Let me recommend Asturias and the northern parts of Spain in general to so many of the readers who may have an image of the country that completely forgets the very verdant North. It’s a completely different style that is absolutely lovely.

Anyway, after knowing where it was from memory, I just used Google Maps to confirm it was the same place I was thinking of and found a nice street view photo sphere of the area:

And looking around I found a pleasant piece of architecture that I’m pretty sure is the building in question:

​Now that I noticed that the rules were bent a bit this week to not show the actual window, I’m going to guess that the photo is from the top balcony of the building at Calle de Mariano Pola, number 2.

A veteran player:

I got lucky looking at beaches with roof structures. I found a TripAdvisor shot, showing that striking wall design at the beach steps. That led to Google Map view, excerpted below, at a sunnier and more populated moment:

Below is a photo from an apartment for rent, described as Calle Mariano Pola, 2, 3:

I am not sure if this is the very apartment, but it seems awfully close! Perhaps the VFYW was taken early in the day; beach looks very empty, and with its lack of shadows, can’t tell what time it was. But I am thrilled to have found it, anyhow!

Another reader:

Playa de Poniente, white building shaped like a ship (there are three in a row; it’s the one nearest an old chimney), fourth floor. For the window, see the attached image:

This one was really hard. I came close to giving up, then my sister told me: “looks like Spain” (I was sure it was a northern country somewhere in Europe). So I googled “playa artificial” (it is definitely an artificial beach), and after a hundred photos of Japanese beaches-under-a-dome there it was.

Another:

Six in a row!  A new record for my wife and me.  And hard-earned, too, as this was easily the contest I’ve had to spend the most time on over the last month and a half.

But why, when there’s so much to look at?  I really thought a European beach would give itself up rather quickly, but this tiny beach near the Gijon marina hid itself as well as any place can on the internet these days.  Our first instinct was actually Scandinavia, and the lack of wave activity had us thinking it was perhaps a lake beach.  So a lot of wrong roads turned down this week, and had it not been for our streak I may have given up.  Eventually some combination of search terms yielded a travel site about Spanish beaches, and while Gijon wasn’t featured there were certain similarities in the plazas and access ramps that made me think Spain was the way to go.  That also made me aware that all those dark-haired people in the picture probably aren’t milling about a beach in Scandinavia.

And so I did what I’ve done before on obvious coastline scenes — just follow the damn coast of spain, stopping at every spot where sandy beaches intersected with a densely-populated area.  Plenty of false positives, but with so much detail in the view I was able to move on from each rather quickly.

There are three parallel ugly apartment buildings (I presume) lining that plaza, and the view is taken from the far-right one that sorta looks like a cruise ship.  3rd floor, let’s say.

Another:

The view is from Calle de Mariano Pola, 2, Gijón, Spain. Third floor balcony, at the northeastern corner. This is a private building, one of three condo buildings that are shaped like a ship, so I can’t even venture a guess as to the exact address. Attached I can’t believe I found this, but I’ve circled what I think is the window.

I’m never right on my first guess with these, but I looked at the photo and said, wait, I’ve been there. It’s Gijón! I had a summer of fun debauchery as an exchange student in a small town in northwestern Spain, almost 15 years ago. My host brother and I took the bus up to Gijón for a couple of days on the beach. Lovely. That’s the Playa de Poniente, one of Gijón’s several beautiful crescent beaches.

Yes, I questioned myself for a few minutes, because it could’ve also been San Sebastián with its famous crescent-shaped Playa de la Concha, and I haven’t been to either in 15 years and maybe I was wrong. The tip-off was the big gray building, when I re-reviewed the photo. It had to be the Talaso Poniente.

I assume you’ll get lots of submissions because it’s a rather unique building. Takes all the fun out of things that the crazy savants can always turn these out easily. Oh, well.

Our favorite spousal team rocks their 11th contest in a row:

Our guess is that the contest photograph was taken in Gijón, Spain. The view is of Poniente Beach and the surrounding area, and was taken facing northeast from the building and fourth-floor window shown in the photograph below:

We were out of town this weekend and did not expect we would be able to get to the VFYW contest, but we did a whirlwind search this evening (Monday) and got it done. Once our toddler was in bed my wife hopped on Google and called out possibilities while I was on Google Earth checking out her suggestions. Narrowing this one down was difficult, but my wife (correctly) suspected northern Spain. The contest photo featured several construction cranes, so when she spied a New York Times article that mentioned new construction in Gijón she sent me there to check.

Not that Chini is feeling the heat:

Unlike the memories that last week’s visit to the Musee Rodin brought back for me, this week … oh who am I kidding #distractedbyworldcup. The basics then: This week’s view comes from Gijon, Spain and looks east-north-east along a heading of 70.12 degrees from a 3rd floor window in the Linea Rural apartments located at 2 Calle de Mariano Pola.

This week’s winner was the longest-playing veteran with a near-miss guess (by one floor):

A third floor apartment in this block, which looks like the rear end of a liner, on Calle de Mariano Pola in Gijon, in northern Spain.

It was the bike path that made me think Spain, the calm water that made me think bay, and the crane at rest suggested a northern facing coast.

Congrats! From the view’s submitter:

The photo was taken from the second (European) floor of the building at Poniente Gijón, Spain this week. The name means “where the sun sets.”

(Archive: Text|Gallery)