Madrid 3 D Google Earth is something I just found! A little surreal, but still fun.

Cool video! Odd how only the building have height whereas the trees are flat. It only looks odd when you get down to near ground level and see green land in front of you - covered in flat trees! For example, when the video takes you to street level at the Plaza de Cibeles, you're right in front of found looking towards Paseo del Prado - and there are NO TREES except the ones lying flat on the ground. hehehe....

I've never used Google Earth, mainly because I didn't want to install it on my computer after hearing the program is HUGE. And still, now after buying a super fast computer with an enormous hard drive, I STILL don't want to install it on my computer! hehehe... I'll stick to Google Maps Street View.

Saludos, MadridMan

Thanks for sharing that! And now here's Valencia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBgmjmQjp1k&NR=1

MM You're missing out. I love my Google Earth. I guess Google Maps is just fine but G.E. has soo many more goodies.

Peace

Rodolfo, please convince me. I love gadgets but apart from the "that's cool" aspect of it I can't imagine any applications worthy of its installation. Don't think I don't scrutinize carefully everything I put on my hard drive! hehehe... I'm not one to load-up my hard drive with programs I'm not likely to use frequently. Plus, with many programs, even if you DE-install them you're likely to leave a trail of little files behind and an altered registry. I hate nothing more than crumbs in my bed.

Saludos, MadridMan

MM, I can understand why you'd have concerns about intalling things like this on your computer. I've had stuff on my PC that have made it "buggy" and didn't like it one bit.

For me, it's a great travel tool. When I visited Brussles for the first time, I had no clue what to expect and didn't know a thing about the lay of the land, but it was easy to map out my arrival at the airport, distance I would travel on the train into town then from there to the hotel. It was a virtual "dry run".

Also, lets say I'd never been to Madrid and was trying to get an idea of the time and distance I would travel in a day spent walking the streets. Well, I can see, that from Sol to Opera is .32 miles. From there to the Palace then on to Plaza Espana is another .55 and then down Gran Via to Callao would be another .33. You can really budget your time and also see what stores, restaurants and sites you'd encounter along the way. I love it!

Maybe one day, use a friends computer who has it and see what you think. If you really feel it might compromise your computer then by all means, stay away from it. Maybe I can be more cautious as well.

Peace