Thursday 11 March 2010

Google Street Scene reaches Thury


Love it or hate it, Google Street Scene (GSS from now on) covers part of Thury-Harcourt along some roads (basically Thury to Caen and Thury to Falaise. For those not familiar with it, GSS provides 360 degree views from street level. One can move along a street looking right, left, backwards and forwards, and as one goes, see buildings, street furniture, street signs etc, and anybody who happened to be passing when the photo was taken (including a lady picking up a dropped 50c coin at the Place Heimbuchental who is just out of shot in the picture below). For those who are interested in Thury, it has a obvious attractions, but in a sense, it has perhaps also a downside in being a another step to a virtual reality universe. Why bother to go there, when one can explore via remote control?. When the Association started in 1982, our twin town must have seemed a very distant place for the earliest twinning travellers who perhaps arrived with a sense of discovery. Now someone, who has never visited, can if they wish, thanks to the internet go with a very good idea of what to expect, even down to the colours of curtains in particular houses. As internet bandwidth and resolution increases, one will soon be able to read the small ads in the shop windows. How long before there seems no need to go at all?




The three photos show two scenes from Thury (Place Heimbuchental and the main street near the post office) and for the nostalgic among those who have been before, the third shows: (albeit from an unusal angle ), a place that has always featured in our visits, and which now, because of altered ferry times, is a place that we are unlikely to visit again in the foreseeable future. A honourable mention to anyone who recognizes it





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