WARNING! THIS IS HIGHLY ADDICTIVE STUFF, DO NOT BLAME ME IF YOU GET STUCK ON GOOGLE EARTH

Have you used Google Earth before? Then you know that it is AMAZING.

Have you used it to have a look around in the world? I am talking about another way of virtual travel, instead of the cyber cruise.

It is easy, just download Google Earth from here, install it and begin to drag, point and zoom to any place you want to explore at the earth globe – all in high-resolution 3D!

It has a very powerful search feature, so be sure to use it. Search style tips: “hotels near picadilly circus” – if that is what you want to get as a result.

Be sure to read the Google Earth Help information, you get a lot of very useful tips there.

Why not take a trip here:

The Victoria falls, between Zambia and Zimbabwe, probably the worlds largest falls. The only one that can be compared with the Victoria Falls is the Iguassu Falls in South America where I’ve been and Tor soon is going to, so I really can confirm that!

Write the name of the place you want to go to or the coordinates in this format: -17.925511,25.858223 (Latitude, Longitude)

Or to an awesome rock formation called The Badlands Guardians located in Alberta, Canada. Take a look – it looks like a human head dressed in feathers! (Coordinates: 50.010083,-110.113006)

You can placemark the places and share them with your friends. Add photos, your own words, restaurant reviews among other things.

Google Earth file formats are .KML or .KMZ.

Useful travel tools with Google Earth:

(You need to have it installed first before clicking the links)

Panoramio (Already in version 4.2.x)
An extensive collection of shared photos from around the world. Tip: Go to http://www.panoramio.com to upload and map your own photos to show up in Google Earth.

The World in Panoramic View
Fly around the globe exploring hundreds of high quality panoramic images taken by everyday people. Each placemark offers an image preview, a brief description and link to the full panorama.

Geographically Organized Webcams
With nearly 3000 webcams collected. Click on the placemark to view an image of the webcam and see what’s going on in that part of the world.

360 Cities (Google Earth 4.2)
Hundreds of panoramas. Each city has a variety of locations. From glitz and glamour to the hot deserts – something for all travel tastes.

Placeopedia
Collection of Wikipedia articles with their places.

Turn Here
Free city video guides for travel, restaurants, hotels, local events and music.

GeoBeats Videos
Each of the placemarks links to a video where you can hear from these experts giving information such as local etiquette, or how to use a city’s public transportation system.

Travel and Leisure Top 500
The 500 hotels Travel + Leisure readers named the greatest in the world.

Travel Adventures
With photos, descriptions and links, this KML is a highly informative and interesting account of one individuals jet-setting to the far reaches of our globe.

Earthbooker
Global discounts on hotels.

Booking.com
European hotel reservation service.

CBS Seismic Monitor
Display of real-time, worldwide earthquakes!!! I will try to avoid those hot spots…. *giggles*

Alaskan Motorcycle Trip
Follow two motorcycle enthusiasts trough spectacular scenery from the lush California to the wilderness in Alaska. Viewing tip: Turn “Terrain” on in your layers section.

Explore Nova Scotia
View photos, descriptions and links to learn more about the history and culture of Nova Scotia, Canada.

Other Google Earth Blogs to explore:

Google Lat Long Blog
Google Earth Blog
Google Sightseeing
Google Maps Mania

To get Google maps in your mobile phone, go here in your phones web browser: http://www.google.com/gmm/

Have you ever been wondering over the background for my very passionate travel interest?

Beside the more obvious reason, that I’m very curious and interested in a lot of different things, it has other reasons too. You see, I grew up in a family with 4 children. My father was working very hard to get us food on the table. Sweden weren’t as well developed as it is today and it was difficult to manage on one salary. At that time there were no such thing as day care centers. All Mom’s stayed at home with their children.

We simply couldn’t afford any traveling. We didn’t even had a car, so we couldn’t get around nearby either. When other kids where away in the summer holidays, I was most of the times (about 1,5 months of 2) without playmates. It was very educating though. I learned how to keep myself occupied in other ways. I only could dream about all other exciting places and countries that one could travel too. I never thought that I was going to be able to travel.

The only thing we did was to take the boat over to Finland to visit my Mom’s relatives over there, for a couple of weeks every summer. This was not anything I looked forward to, because everybody did speak Finnish and I did not. Since my siblings are all older than me, I went there alone with my Mom the last years. When I became 12 I refused to go there any more, because I felt sadly neglected.

I did say that I never would go there again and it actually took 33 years (!) before I wanted to take a trip to Finland again. That was my first trip with Mr Lifecruiser, after have known each other only for about 2 months. Remember that awful cruise? *giggles*

Once again, I say: I will never do that trip again, but this time I’m a bit wiser. You never shall say never, right? So I add: If I’m ever going there again, it’s gonna be by flight! Even though I have heard that the Finnish pilots can be a bit…eh… wild…. *giggles*

When I had grown up and was ready to leave home, I moved together with my boyfriend who I was engaged with then. This engagement went on for about 26 years… What can I say, I’m the loyal type

This time I may have to kick myself in the butt for not doing something about it, but you see – he was so NOT interested in traveling. What was worse were that he was being very grumpy about me traveling by myself or with others, so that was clearly not an option if I would want to have any fun at all.

Yes, I know, don’t complain afterward if you haven’t done something about it, but sometimes it’s not that easy. I was a rather sensitive person and if he got bad-tempered, it kind of destroyed my pleasure too. Dumb really, when I think about it afterward, but never the less, that was the facts back then. Sometimes I could persuade him to travel a couple of days to the south of Sweden to visit a friend of mine there, but after a couple of days he got restless and it was no fun any more.

In the end of our relationship he started to weaken up a bit and could think about travel somewhere, but after a couple of years of asking if we shouldn’t go any where, I got tired. Totally tired of it all. What did I do? I did break up our relationship after those 26 years. So strong were my will to do something about my prison life. Yes, it felt like a prison. He was also very jealous. I couldn’t stand it any more and it was too late to repair the damage between us.

I would never have thought that I should do that. Remember, I’m the loyal type, but obviously even I have my limits. Maybe it has something with that age to do too, I was 44 years then (2003) and you start to think: how long life have I left? I strongly felt that I wanted to have seen a lot more of the world before my life ended. It was also the matter of my bad back that reminded me that we might not always be healthy enough to travel either.

I was planning on being single for a long while, but Mr Lifecruiser happened to cross my way soon after that and, big luck, not only are our love passionate, but also our travel passion. Mr Lifecruiser never says never to travel

You can have a look here to see Lifecruiser travel during 2004-2005. After that I got some health problems and other family problems, so we have “only” been to Ireland in June 2006 and of course Fårö during July 2006 and 2007.

I’ve got hope that we might be able to travel something soon again! No wonder I’m thrilled! YAY!

Carpe Diem is so true. Travel today, tomorrow it can be too late. Never say no to travel, it’s so refreshing – and educating!

Captain ♥ Lifecruiser