Road Trip - Weirdest Roads of the World

Are you planning for a road trip with friends and relatives? If so, then try these roads. In most road trips you get to enjoy the places you pass by and drop by but passing in these roads already gives you a great experience.

Passo dello
Stelvio, Italy

Probably the most famous driving road anywhere in the world. It is the highest paved mountain pass in the Eastern Alps. Originally it was carved through the mountains in 1820 to connect Lombardia to Austria, but it's mostly used for hoonage now.

Travel Agencies to Take You There
   
 
Lombard St.
San Francisco USA

The most crooked street in the world. The 27 percent grade of the hill made a series of super tight hairpin zig-zag turns necessary. Cars have to crawl down at a walking pace, although we think it would make for an entertaining hill-climb race.

Travel Agencies to Take You There

Baldwin Street
Dunedin, New Zealand

The world’s steepest street. Made up of concrete since using asphalt can be very slippery. It has a 19 degree angle on inclination. So when driving here, you better use a car with automatic transmission or pratice half clutching as not to hit the car following you.

Travel Agencies to Take You There

Magic Roundabout,
Swindon, England

Sometimes the Brits can get a little carried away with their own cleverness, though. This nightmare consists of five smaller clockwise roundabouts with an anticlockwise roundabout in the centre. Apparently the trick to navigating these is just to hold your breath, and hope you come out the other side. Isn't it a thrill going back and forth in this round about. Passing here is quite an adrenaline rush.

Travel Agencies to Take You There 

Slaughter Alley,
90 Mile Straight, Australia

Holds the record for the longest straight road and perhaps the world’s most boring road, is also one of its most deadly. This stretch of tarmac in Western Australia is 146 km long. Can you imagine it cause I can't. It stretches way beyond the horizon. Even over speeding at 120 km/h it would be over an hour of driving totally straight. It’s no wonder many people loose concentration and veer off the road.

Travel Agencies to Take You There

Leipzig Halle Airport Bridge
Germany

We’re not sure who we’re more scared for, the people in their cars on the highway, or the passengers in the plane. The W1 taxiway connects the two sides of this major international airport. The bridge looks way too thin for that gigantic Airbusses.

Travel Agencies to Take You There

Trollstigen (The Troll Path),
Norway

According to legend it was built by ancient Norwegian trolls who used to roam these mountains looking for sweet cars. A different legend says it was built in 1936 under King Haakon VII. Either way, it's one of the most stunning stretches of tarmac anywhere in the world. The 11 hairpin bends scale the mountain right next to a 320 metre waterfall.

Travel Agencies to Take You There

Confederation Bridge
Canada

If you've never been across the bridge to P.E.I. before, it's definitely worth the road trip. It's 12.9 km long and ranks among the longest bridges in the world.

Travel Agencies to Take You There

Flipper Bridge
China

In order to solve the problem in building a bridge that connects left-hand-drive Hong Kong with right-hand-drive China. This concept bridge solves the problem by crossing one lane under the other. On a bridge, it’s fine, but we worry about what happens we you’re suddenly in another city and you’ve got to remember to drive on the opposite side of the road.

Travel Agencies to Take You There

Transfagarsean Road
Romania

Majority of the portion of the road is at 2,034 metres above sea level and up. Along the way you'll pass a castle that was the inspiration for Bram Stokers' "Legend of Dracula." as shown in the picture. The road actually goes through some mountains instead of over them, with the longest tunnel spanning some 845 metres.

Travel Agencies to Take You There

Millau Viaduct
France

It's the tallest bridge in the world. One of its towers has a height of 343 metres above the ground. The road over the viaduct has the distinction of being the highest road-bridge in Europe. So avoid it if you're afraid of heights but if not try to bungee jump here.

Travel Agencies to Take You There

Guoliang Tunnel Road,
China

There is a lot of confusion surrounding this engineering marvel which cuts through of the Taihang Mountains in China. The real Guoliang tunnel was built to link the otherwise inaccessible Guoliang Village on top of the mountain to the rest of the country. It has to be seen to be believed.

Travel Agencies to Take You There

Gravina Island Highway; “The Road to Nowhere,” Alaska

Once it earned the nickname, “Bridge to Nowhere” in the national press, the Gravina Island Bridge was doomed. It was supposed to connect the city of Ketchikan, Alaska (population 7,400) to the nearby airport on Gravina Island (population 50). It would have cost US$398 million. Federal funding for the bridge disappeared, but money for the highway to the proposed bridge still came in. Instead of a bridge to an airport, residents got a new US$25 million road that dead-ends where the bridge was supposed to go: the road to nowhere. Too bad this was not a part of the stimulus fund.

Travel Agencies to Take You There

Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road,
N.W.T. &
Nunavut, Canada

It was made famous by the TV show Ice Road Truckers, but was made awesome by the fact 87 percent of the road’s 600 kilometres are over ultra-thick lake ice. The road was originally built in 1982 to supply the Lupin Gold Mine. Today, it serves isolated communities which, for 10 months of the year, are only accessible by air.

Travel Agencies to Take You There

Sichuan-Tibet Highway
China


It goes over, through and around 14 separate mountains. That alone is enough to make this list. It also crosses several famous rivers in China and guarantees spectacular views for travellers. At its highest point it reaches 4,916 metres.

Travel Agencies to Take You There

North Yungas "Death Road
Bolivia


Nobody seems to have exact figures on which road is deadliest, but Guinness World Records says most experts consider the North Yungas Road from La Paz to Coroico in Bolivia to be the deadliest. There are as many as 300 deaths annually per 4.3 km of road. Despite all this people still have the guts to pass here? WOW. Can't they budget a detour? This road has killed more than AIDS does.

Travel Agencies to Take You There



Ebenezer Place
Wick, Scotland



The shortest street in the world at only 2.06 metres long. There is only one address because there is only room for one doorway on the entire street. That distinction belongs to No. 1 Bistro which is part of a local hotel. It was officially declared a street in 1887.

Travel Agencies to Take You There

Read more »

Strangest Buildings in the World

The Crooked House
Sopot Poland

The concept of this building is that it should look like it melted. This is actually a mall which houses restaurants, bars ans shops.

Olympic Stadium
Montreal, Quebec Canada

Also called The Big O, this is a multipurpose building where large events in the area are held.
The leaning tower that you see in the picture is about 175 m tall -- The tallest leaning tower in the world.



Forest Spiral
Darmstadt Germany

This is an apartment comprised of 105 units. This was built in 1998 and was finished in year 2000.

Tenerife Concert Hall
Canary Islands Sapin

The all-concrete building is characterized by the dramatic sweep of its roof. Rising off the base like a crashing wave, the roof soars to a height of 58 meters over the main auditorium before curving downward and narrowing to a point.



The Basket Building
Ohio USA

Built by Longarber Basket Company. The building is a replica of the product of the company, a market basket. This building costs $30 million.

Kansas City Public Library
Missouri USA

Looks like a book shelf. The books that were designed in the building were choosen by the people of Kansas that best represents their city which includes the very famous Lord of the Rings.


Wonderworks
Pigeon Forge, USA

It is an amusement park for the mind featuring over 150 interactive exhibits. Its 55,000 square feet of family fun!


 
 
 
 
 

Habitat 67
Montreal Canada
 
354 cubes of a magnificent grey-beige build up one on the other to form 146 residences nestled between sky and earth, between city and river, between greenery and light.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Cubic Houses
Rotterdam Netherlands
 
The concept behind these houses is that he tries to create a forest by each cube representing an abstract tree; therefore the whole village becomes a forest.
 
 
 
 

Tempe Municipal Building
Tempe, Arizona USA
 
Completed in 1971 and costs $52.5 million, the pyramid is 3 stories tall containing 17,650 square feet of municipal offices, including offices for the Mayor, City Council, and City Manager on the third floor. The 45º slope of the walls results in the floors on that level to measure 100 feet on each side, but the ceiling to measure 126 feet on each side.
 
 

Stone House
Guimarães Portugal
 
Yabadabado... The real life Flintstones. This house was carved from a huge boulder of stone.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The National Library
Minsk Belarus
 
It houses the largest collection of Belarusian printed materials. Its main architectural component has the shape of a rhombicuboctahedron. A total of 4646 color-changing LED fixtures were installed all around the building, effectively creating a monitor with 25x25 meter sides and 62 meters in diameter.

As a result, spectators are able to observe a fantastic show with incredible dynamic plots from hundreds of meters away.

Lotus Temple
Delhi India

Inspired by the lotus flower, its design is composed of 27 free-standing marble clad "petals" arranged in clusters of three to form nine sides. The nine doors of the Lotus Temple open onto a central hall, capable of holding up to 2,500 people.



Modern Igloo
Alaska

Igloos are once design to house a single family. But if you need more rooms. Then the modern igloo is what you will be needing.

Atomium
Brussels Belgium

It is 102-metres (335 ft) tall, with nine steel spheres connected so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. Tubes which connect the spheres along the 12 edges of the cube and all eight vertices to the centre enclose escalators connecting the spheres which contain exhibit halls and other public spaces.

Great Arche of Defense
Paris France

The Arche is almost a perfect cube (width: 108m, height: 110m, depth: 112m); it has been suggested that the structure looks like a four-dimensional hypercube (a tesseract) projected onto the three-dimensional world.




Air Force Academy Chapel
Colorado USA

The most striking aspect of the Chapel is its row of seventeen spires. The structure is a tubular steel frame of 100 identical tetrahedrons, each 75 feet (23 m) long, weighing five tons, and enclosed with clear aluminum panels.

Beijing National Stadium
Beijing China

Designed to look like a bird's nest, this is the stadium where the 2008 olympics was held

Fashion Show Mall
Las Vegas USA

That oval shaped structure on top is called "The Cloud".The Cloud at The Strip entrance is about 128 ft (39 m) above the sidewalk and is 480 ft (150 m) long. During the day, the structure provides shade for the entrance and at night it serves as a movie screen.

Atlantis
Dubai UAE

This is a hotel resort with 1500 rooms and a huge arch in the middle supported by 22 storey towers.

National Theatre
Beijing China

The exterior of the theater is a titanium accented glass dome that is completely surrounded by a man-made lake. It is said to look like an egg floating on water, or a water drop.

Gherkin Building
London UK

Featured in Basic Instinct 2, this building was completed in 2003 with 40 floors and stands 180 m tall.

Kobe Port Tower
Japan

A hyperboloid structure, is a 108 metre high lattice tower in the port city of Kobe, Japan. Kobe Port Tower has an observation deck at a height of 90.28 metres. The red steel Port Tower offers a spectacular sight of the bay area and the surrounding area.

Ripley’s Building
Ontario Canada

Located near the Niagara Falls, this is an entertainment building for of Ripley's Believe It Or Not. The looks like being hit by an earthquake

Banknote Building
Kaunas Lithuania

The image of the LTL 1000 banknote is brought onto this building using special enamel paint. Money theme well represents various businesses located in this spectacular building

Blur Building
Yverdon-les-Bainz Switzerland

‘The Blur Pavilion’ with self generated mist was meant to give an impression that the building is floating above the water without any structural support. And indeed it looks just like that.

Edificio Mirador
Madrid Spain

The highlight of this building is the large central hole which is 36.8 meters above the ground. It’s the large lookout area that provides inhabitants with a community garden and a space from where they can contemplate the skyline.Different colors represent different blocks with its own planning, which offer at least 9 different types of apartments.




Turning Torso
Malmö Sweden

The design is based on a sculpture by Santiago Calatrava called Twisting Torso. It uses nine segments of five-story pentagons that twist as it rises; the topmost segment is twisted ninety degrees clockwise with respect to the ground floor.




Montreal Biosphère
Canada

The Biosphère of Environment Canada is a museum in Montreal dedicated to water and the environment.

Great Mosque of Djenné
Djenne Mali

The Great Mosque of Djenné is the largest mud brick or adobe building in the world and is considered by many architects to be the greatest achievement of the Sudano-Sahelian architectural style

Wooden Gagster House
Archangelsk Russia

Believed to be the world’s tallest wooden house. The house dominates the skyline of Arkhangelsk, a city in Russia’s far north-west soaring 13 floors to reach 144 ft. It’s about half the size of tower of Big Ben.

Erwin Wurm: House Attack
Viena Austria


Installed on MUMOK's external façade: the single family house as a symbol of the everyday plunge into the façade of the museum.












Courtesy of wikipedia and villageofjoy

Read more »

Places You Should See Now Before They Vanish

Due to changes in the world be it natural geographical changes or caused by humans like global warming. The increasing water levels, climate changes and ocean acidification are changing if not damaging these beatiful sites. Who knows we might be the last generation of people to ever see them as they are now.

Venice
Venice Italy

Venice has long been sinking and it was observed that the number of floods increase each year. If the sea water increase further due to melting glaciers as a result of global warming this city will be gone unless Italy will replace these old buildings with sky scrapers.

Travel Agencies to Take You There

The Alps
Stretching around Europe

Due to global warming its magnificent snow mountain peaks are predicted to melt by 2050.
Could you believe that? Better ski there while it is still possible.

Travel Agencies to Take You There

South Australia
Australia

Desertification has badly threatened this place. Fresh water supplies are becoming scarce by guess what? Global warming again. These changes causes negative effects to wildlife and their vegetation.

Travel Agencies to Take You There



Alaskan Tundra
Alaska

Global warming is heating up the north pole twice than any part of the world and if that continues this beautiful Tundra could vanish plus the melting of permafrost releases carbon which increases the effects of global warming.

Travel Agencies to Take You There


Glacier National Park
Montana USA

A century ago there are more than a hundred glaciers around the park but today there are only 27 left. The flora and fauna in the park are suited for cold weather habitat. If the weather will continue to change then this could dramatically affect the ecosystem there.

Travel Agencies to Take You There


Great Barrier Reef
Queensland Australia

Rising ocean temperatures, ocean acidification and cyclones continually damage the reef and have caused mass coral bleaching. The Coral Reef that is visible in the outerspace could disappear in just a lifetime

Travel Agencies to Take You There


Patagonia
South America

Many of its glaciers are melting rapidly affecting the beautiful landscape. Though this place may not disappear completely its landscape may change totally different than it is today.

Travel Agencies to Take You There

Saharan Africa
Africa

The desert is growing at 0.5 miles per month and at this rate the whole of Northern Africa will be consumed affecting the diverse ecosystem there.

Travel Agencies to Take You There





 

Maldives

Maldives is the lowest-lying country in the world, with a maximum natural ground level of 2.3 meters (7 feet, 7 inches), and an average of only 1.5 meters (4 feet, 11 inches) above sea level. If sea levels rise too much, this country will the be the ever first country to be engulfed by sea.

Travel Agencies to Take You There

Bangladesh

Bangladesh sits in a perfect storm of climactic conditions. About 50 percent of the area would be flooded if the sea level were to rise by 1 meter. Bangladesh also lies at the heart of the monsoon belt. Natural calamities, such as floods, tropical cyclones, tornadoes and tidal bores occur here almost every year.

Travel Agencies to Take You There














Photos courtesy of MNN and cricketump

Read more »