Virtual City Tours

I just found an interesting site called “Virtual City,” where you can pick a location or a route in Toronto and it will show you a photo of the location, and a continuous series of photographs of the nearby streetfront. The photos are stills taken by a video camera driven along Toronto’s streets, and it’s been mashed with Google Maps. The site seems to be a commercial venture, but if you’re going somewhere new, it’s a good way to see what your destination looks like. And if you just want to browse, you can move the arrow around to point at locations all over the city and get a look at them, or you can walk up and down the street. They’ve covered quite a range of Toronto streets.

I also found a site for London, England called Walk It. In a nice change from Google Maps, which gives driving directions, this one gives walking directions between any two points in central London. Plus it will tell you how long it will take, and how many calories you’ll burn.