Contest #869: the 2015 Tree of the Year on the football field in Orissaare, Estonia

While most of the football world has been watching either the UEFA or COPA tournaments, the football players in the town of Orissaare, Estonia had probably have their eyes open for the 2015 Tree of the Year. It’s in the middle of one of the football pitches in the town. The tree was there long before the football pitch was set up around it!

Found before the hint:

  • Glenmorren
  • Paul Voestermans
  • Lighthouse
  • Robin
  • hhgygy
  • Eloy Cano
  • Bas van Limpt
  • Felix Bossert
  • Phil Ower
  • Garfield
  • Martin de Bock
  • Graham Hedley
  • donaaronio
  • Angie CF

After the hint:

  • Bernd
  • Gillian B.
  • BX29

Contest #868: the Snail House, Sofia, Bulgaria

After visiting a location just east of Sofia, Bulgaria with contest #866, we returned to the capital of Bulgaria this week with the Snail House. Designed and built to be environmentally friendly, it is said to have nothing straight (walls, windows, etc.) The snail’s mouth is the front door, the eyes are ventilation for the building and the bee on the back is a chimney!

Found before the hint:

  • hhgygy
  • Martin de Bock
  • Paul Voestermans
  • Garfield
  • Eloy Cano
  • Lighthouse
  • Phil Ower
  • Felix Bossert
  • Graham Hedley
  • Bas van Limpt
  • Angie CF

After the hint :

  • LawnBoy
  • Gillian B.

Contest #867: abandoned NASA Space Shuttle tank, Green Cove Springs, Florida, US

Along a service road near St. Johns River in Florida sits a 154-foot-long remnant of the U.S. Space Shuttle program. A test fuel tank that was built in 1977 and used for stress testing before any shuttles took flight offers a unique chance to get up close and personal with part of a space shuttle.

This tank used to be on display at the Kennedy Space Center. But after the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011, NASA announced that they would remove the test fuel tank to make room for the retired space shuttle Atlantis, along with a new exhibition facility. The tank was auctioned off and sold to the Wings of Dreams Aviation Museum in Keystone Heights, Florida.

According to Abandoned Florida, it took a 200-foot barge, two tugboats, and cranes to transport the massive tank from Kennedy Space Center to Green Cove Springs, where it would be temporarily held before moving to its final destination. But the logistics of moving such a massive structure proved difficult, and that temporary staging site seems to have become the fuel tank’s final home. It’s been sitting in Green Cove Springs since 2013, and the Wings of Dreams Aviation Museum closed in 2019.

Before the hint:

  • hhgygy
  • Martin de Bock
  • Paul Voestermans
  • Graham Hedley
  • Glenmorren
  • Garfield
  • Angie CF
  • Bas van Limpt
  • Eloy Cano
  • Phil Ower
  • donaaronio
  • Lighthouse

After the hint:

  • Ashwini Agrawal

Contest #866: the Kazichene Royal Station, Bulgaria

This week was a visit to Kazichene, Bulgaria and the abandoned railway station that once hosted the Bulgarian Royal family.

Built between 1906 to 1911 as the gateway for the new Vrana palace, the closest royal residence outside the capital of Sofia. On one side special trains brought the royal family and distinguished guests from all over Europe, and, on the other, a small-gauge private railway transported the family and guests to the palace to the southwest in less than 10 minutes.

Before the hint:

  • Paul Voestermans
  • Phil Ower
  • Lighthouse
  • Graham Hedley
  • hhgygy
  • Garfield
  • Bas van Limpt

After the hint:

  • Angie CF