Contest #462 Tayto Park, Meath, Ireland

Yes, it is a potato themed amusement park in Ireland. What more could you possibly add?

Tayto Park Logo.jpg

Rides include the Ro-tater (see picture below), the Tayto Twister, the Crispy Maze, and, for the wee ones, Tiny Tater’s Patch and Spudhara Playground.

Tayto Park Rotator.jpg

The park also includes Cú Chulainn Coaster, the largest inverted wooden rollercoaster in Europe.

Cú Chulainn Coaster Arial View

Those who got chips included:

  • Lighthouse
  • Garfield
  • hhgygy
  • Eloy Cano
  • Phil Ower
  • Paul Voestermans
  • Glenmorren
  • Max_Power

and those who needed a hint:

  • Declan Moore
  • Lelie

Contest #461 Biblioteka Kombëtare e Kosovës, or National Library of Kosovo, Pristina.

What is now a national library started in 1944 as the library for a province of Yugoslavia. The area’s history is long and bloody, and did not improve greatly after 1944. The people of Kosovo see themselves as a separate nation. Serbia still sees them as a semi-autonomous province of Serbia.

The present building opened in 1982. Designed by Croatian architect Andrija Mutnjakovic, the design has not been without controversy. As you might imagine. For the record there are 99 domes.

This is what one of the domes looks like from the inside:

The domes are not the only thing that might be regarded as peculiar, entirely covered in a metal fishing net.

Inside it doesn’t look much different from other large libraries:

Although not everything has been computerized yet:

The library is not a huge collection. All formats considered it holds around 1,890,194 items. Considering the context, not bad, and it is certainly serving as a focal point for the culture of its country.

Those who checked the place out (get it?):

  • hhgygy
  • Lighthouse
  • Paul Voestermans
  • Phil Ower
  • Eloy Cano
  • Garfield
  • Ann K.
  • RicardPG
  • Glenmorren
  • mehmet durmus
  • George, Esq
  • Tim
  • Romano
  • Lelie

And those who checked in late:

  • Steven Simmons

Contest #460: Santa Clara, Angola – Oshikango, Namibia

Congratulations once again to Garfield, Lighthouse and Phil Ower for solving all the contests on the recent series without needing any hints – and ending up with a perfect score of 20 points!

This week’s contest was the border control point between Santa Clara, Angola and Oshikango, Namibia. The large truck yard on the north/Angola side of the border was what attracted me to this location. The border point is interesting in that drivers in Namibia drive on the left side of the road, switching to the right side in Angola.

The major Namibia/Angola border crossing at Oshikango/Kuroka (Santa Clara) doesn’t have traffic lights. Instead, it uses the customs post as an intersection. When heading north into Angola, the customs building sits in the median. Immediately north of Namibian customs, each car heading north into Angola switches into the right-hand lane to access Angolan customs (which also lies in the median).

Those who found the location without driving on the wrong side of the road:

  • Lighthouse
  • hhgygy
  • Glenmorren
  • Garfield
  • Ann K.
  • Eloy Cano
  • Romano
  • Phil Ower

And who needed a sign telling them which side of the road to stick to:

  • Paul Voestermans