Name That Skyline - Picture Game

[bruce_the_loon]

Fine, I'll jump to the front of the queue it's the seed bank and Kew Gardens.

Duncan has it. Was tougher than I expected, even with all the hints from Duncan, DB and others.

You're up @duncan.brown

 

[duncan.brown]

Here’s a picture on a recent vacation I took to recover from a mild case of Scribe's Fever (a form of neurasthenia common among the intelligentsia).

 

[tracer bullet]

Hmmmm. First thought was Lausanne on Lake Geneva. That's not it but I feel like I'm in the neighborhood. Just the overall feel, buildings, trees, water color.

Are we in Switzerland?

 

[duncan.brown]

We are not in Switzerland, but close.

 

[DBhomebrew]

Not as far as Budapest?

 

[duncan.brown]

No, but the hotel in the picture always reminds me of a certain Wes Anderson creation...

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Fine, I'll jump to the front of the queue it's the seed bank and Kew Gardens.

It's not Kew Gardens, it's the Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst Place over an hour's drive away down by Gatwick airport. It has seeds of something like 15% of all plant species, one of the best of the British millennium projects. The Wakehurst estate is owned by the National Trust but operated by Kew.

Current one - you get a lot of those limestone crags in the Rhone valley, the Dents du Midi are perhaps the most famous but I know the Dentelles de Montmirail better, possibly because they overlook some of the famous wine areas like Gigondas, Vacqueyras and Beaumes de Venise. But I don't think these are either of those - the lake water looks glacial, so higher up in the French Alps?

 

[duncan.brown]

It's not Kew Gardens, it's the Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst Place over an hour's drive away down by Gatwick airport. It has seeds of something like 15% of all plant species, one of the best of the British millennium projects. The Wakehurst estate is owned by the National Trust but operated by Kew.

Ah, then I may indeed have jumped the queue. I knew it was the Millennium Seed Bank, as I remember it before I left the UK right around the millennium. Since it's operated by Kew, I thought it was in Richmond as well.

On the current picture, we are higher up in the French Alps than Dentelles de Montmirail but not higher than Dents du Midi.

 

[Brewsmith]

Bourdeau?

 

[duncan.brown]

Bourdeau

Very close, but not quite.

 

[govner1]

Very close, but not quite.

Bordeaux?

 

[duncan.brown]

Colder... (although Bordeaux is warmer...)

 

[duncan.brown]

Might be time for a clue: @tracer bullet and @Brewsmith have bracketed the answer.

 

[tracer bullet]

I'm thinking Lac d'Annecy but haven't found the hotel or what mountain is in the background (if that's the right lake). Imperial palace is really close but definitely not it.

 

[InspectorJon]

Le Palace De Menthon (hotel), Lac d'Annecy, France. @tracer bullet got the right lake first.

 

[duncan.brown]

It is La Palace De Menthon in Menthon-Saint-Bernard viewed from Lac d'Annecy. I thought a picture of Annecy would be too easy, so I went with Menthon-Saint-Bernard. The mountain in the background is Les Dents de Lanfon:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dents_de_Lanfon
@tracer bullet was close, but @InspectorJon was definitive, so I'll have to give this one to @InspectorJon

 

[InspectorJon]

Something on my phone from last week. We will give this a go.

 

[beermanpete]

Malaysia?

 

[InspectorJon]

No, not Malaysia.

 

[pvtpublic]

Jl. Jend. Ahmad Yani No.24, Ps. Baru, Kec. Tebing Tinggi Kota, Kota Tebing Tinggi, Sumatera Utara 20627, Indonesia

 

[InspectorJon]

That seems pretty specific. The city is Tebing Tinggi. I took the picture while driving through on the road between Lake Toba and Medan. @pvtpublic is up.

 

[InspectorJon]

Sometimes it’s hard to say things on the internet without someone taking it personally. I say this as a general comment and not directed at anyone. This game was more fun before it became a google search contest. Google certainly has changed all our lives, not always for the better. Just to be transparent, I found the previous answer of mine using google.

 

[tracer bullet]

Yeah it's hit and miss. I do some but try to limit it. Searching for an identical picture is off limits. However I did type in some words on the side of the building in the most recent picture and they matched some words in a newspaper from, I believe, Jakarta. I didn't get farther than that but am hoping that kind of stuff's alright. Or if I have a city figured out I'll do the Google maps to fly over it and look for a landmark. I don't feel too bad if I put work into it and learn something along the way. Sometimes I find the answer immediately and then won't post a reply.

It's probably an honor system with everyone at their own thresholds.

 

[pvtpublic]

I actually found it the hard way, and thought it would be funny to drop a Google pin on it to get unnecessarily specific. I suppose my humor didn't translate well

 

[pvtpublic]

Alright, here we go!

 

[cmac62]

My first thought was the Carpathian range, don't know why. Then googled them and they look kind of similar in ways.

 

[pvtpublic]

You make a good point, but wrong continent.

 

[beermanpete]

Mt Shasta?

 

[bruce_the_loon]

Is that the great mountain 'Who is this Fool who does Not Know what a Mountain is' in the Forest of 'Your Finger You Fool'?

 

[pvtpublic]

Mt Shasta?

Right continent, but not so close to the coast