"Been There" Virtual Travel Quiz? Round #20
A little info about the contest and the rules. This is the last time you'll see these:
When I started this project, my original goal was to come up with an activity fellow Taucktourians / forum participants could do on the Travel Forum while we are unable to travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I wanted more than just a means to post photos and definitely did not want to provide a contest of photography skills or an opportunity to brag about a high tour count. Instead, I envisioned a game of sorts where anyone could share a photo or two of, and a few questions about, the interesting and unique places and subjects they have seen on their Tauck tours. I thought it could bring back memories and provide more information about places people have already been when they research answers, and also generate interest in places for people who might travel there someday.
Along the way I discovered how easy it was to use Google Images and other websites to do a “Reverse Image Search,” so I have decided to revise the rules of the game to help maintain a more level playing field.
A certification that a Reverse Image Search was not used or a requirement that the poster describe how they solved the quiz would still depend on the honor system and not in the spirit of the game. So, my solution is to put the onus on those who post the photos and question(s).
Before posting a photo and question(s), I am asking everyone to evaluate their photo and read the rules:
- Is it ripe for a Reverse Image Search (there is no requirement to do one, but you can if you want to see if your photo lends itself to that process).
- Select photos of a recognizable feature or part of a scene or object that is significant, rather than the entire object. Remember you can crop your photos.
- Select photos of places or objects that may not be well known, but not so esoteric that someone who has taken that tour will not recognize them, this may take some experimentation. Hints are allowed and even encouraged if answers are missing the mark or are slow in coming.
- Select photo(s) that tell a story or has subjects that have a story. Make the guessers do some research.
- Base your question(s) on the story or significance of the place or object.
- Photo(s) must have been taken by the poster or spouse during a Tauck tour. Please, no commercial or internet photos allowed.
- Everyone is invited to guess- only one guess per family, per round.
- The original poster will acknowledge a correct guess.
- If there are no correct guesses and/or no correct answers to supplemental questions, after no more than two days , the original poster will provide the answer(s), so each round doesn't run too long. Please be nice and resolve disputes over answers via PM.
- On the other hand, to encourage others to keep digging, regulars are encouraged to post just an, “I know,” but nothing else. At the end of the round they may, but are not required to, post "I was right/wrong"
- As the defacto administrator, I will start a new thread for each new Round once each original poster has acknowledged or provided the correct answers.
- To give everyone a shot, I'm asking the original poster to wait until three additional rounds have been completed before posting again- we'll see how this goes.
- If two submissions are made at nearly identical times, to prevent confusion I'll ask the second poster to delete and resubmit for a subsequent round. I don't have forum ADMIN privileges so can't delete it for you (click on the gear at the top right corner of your post and select "delete").
Round #19 was won by Kathy M and MCD
Submitted by BKMD. The courtyard of the Belmond Monasterio Hotel in Cusco, Peru. It was built by the Spanish in the late 1500s and leased from the Vatican. For an extra fee you will be supplied with supplemental oxygen to help you handle the 11,000' + altitude. Several Tauck tours stay here when in Cusco.
Round #20 is officially open. Submit your photo in a reply [Leave a Comment] to this announcement.
Comments
The place in this photo will probably be obvious to many so the question here is what significant landmark in the city was this photo taken. The second part of the question is of course what city.
CIty is Prague. Given the picture is taken from above the city, I'll say it was taken from Prague Castle.
I sent the same thing to JohnS via Private Message, heeding AlanS wish.
Prague is correct. Prague Castle incorrect. I will wait for a few more guesses.
How about from the television tower?
Television tower is incorrect. Very much older than the Television tower.
Top of Gothic Tyn Church
This will probably give it away but you can see the Tyn Church from where I took the picture.
The old clock tower.
Smiling Sam is the winner. This picture was taken atop the Astronomical Clock Tower. The Prague Astronomical Clock, or Prague Orloj, is a medieval astronomical clock located in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. The clock was first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest clock still operating.
This was taken on the Tauck Imperial Europe tour which I believe now is called Warsaw, Budapest, Vienna & Prague.
View of the Tyn Church
On to the next round and hopefully some new people
I found this link that provides a 360 degree view from the old clock tower.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=prague+old+town+clock+tower&docid=608001089057129632&mid=5684C1064CC7117141625684C1064CC711714162&view=detail&FORM=VIRE
Check this out- just around the corner from the clock tower
That's a big corner to get you to Raleigh, North Carolina.
When we were there, the clock tower was closed for reno. The clock itself was covered in some sort of construction or special screen fabric and an image of the clock was projected on it. It didn't look too bad, but it was still a disappointment.
JohnS's view is at about the :50 sec mark- skyscrapers in the distance. There are a number of webcams around the city. I watched them set up and take down the XMAS Markets stalls, then in the months that followed, kept track of the Clock renovation- so I knew it wouldn't be on display when we eventually got there at the end of April (Blue Danube cruise).
What a great city and great cruise!! We packed a lot into our visit there. We arrive early and planned it so we didn't have to chose options- we did one tour with Tauck and a private company so we got to experience both the Old Town Walking Tour (with Tauck) and the Jewish Quarter tour (with PragueWalker.) The next day we made an excursion to Cesky Krumlov with PW so we could visit Salzburg with Tauck later on during the cruise. While in Cesky Krumlov we ran into a bus group from Tauck's eastbound Blue Danube. We arrived before they did and left after them so felt we made a good choice, but they had a shorter drive from Linz than we did from Prague.
When I was there on the Tauck Central Europe land tour, there was some scaffolding there and one could not go up the tower.
I recall sitting at an outdoor cafe on the banks of the Vltava, almost under the Charles Bridge, eating lunch and sipping a Budvar (Budweiser) beer. First time in my life that I enjoyed a Budweiser. So much better than what we get here.
Another memory of Prague is how crowded it was - wall to wall people. I asked our local guide who came to Prague when it was still Communist. Her answer was some East Germans and nobody else. Imagine the lost revenue opportunity of those days for the people of Prague!
I was there in 1969, on the first anniversary of the Soviet invasion. There was a bouquet at the foot of the Statue of St. Wenceslas with a tag that said, in English, "Ivan go home." I fell in love with Prague, and still feel the same way after having returned there in 2014.
We found pictures of one of my wife’s ice skating ‘associates’ on the wall at the Museum of Communism in Prague.
Her Americanized name after she defected was Aja Zanova and skated with the Ice Capades for many years.
She was ‘a lot’ older than my wife who was a ‘baby’ when she was one of the ‘principles’ in the Ice Capades.