VFYW: Repelling The Persians

In contest #469, we find ourselves near one of the most epic battles in history.

(For the View From Your Window contest, the results below exceed the content limit for Substack’s email service, so to ensure that you see the full results, click the headline above.)

Quick program note: the VFYW is taking next week off, along with most of the Dish — except for a July 4th pod with Walter Isaacson on one of the greatest Americans ever, Ben Franklin. So you’ll get an extra week to solve the new puzzle.

As the 4th approaches, here’s a patriotic view from the CO/NJ super-sleuth:

Congrats on the new house, Chris. Just in time to enjoy for the summer! We are in the middle of trying to sell our NJ house, and the softening real estate market is making it stressful. Fingers crossed that we can get it sold on time for our own planned move back to CO in September.

I thought the attached VFYW photo might be a fun one — not for the contest (too easy), but perhaps for the main Dish:

My wife and daughter and I checked off our list the Statue of Liberty (and Ellis Island), as we are trying to see some local attractions before we leave the area for good, this fall. We have lived here for 26 years and had never visited! It was a great day. Walking up in the crown and seeing the interior of Lady Liberty was cooler than I expected. Her copper skin is the thickness of two pennies. Thus, you can see every ripple in her robe and facial feature in reverse relief as you ascend 377 steps to the top.

The museum at the park is equally fascinating. It details the inspiration and construction of the statue. And we spent hours at Ellis Island immersed in the immigrant experience. Getting a glimpse into the experience of a few of these millions of intrepid souls seeking a new life in this country at the height of the early 20th century immigration peak provides a stark perspective and juxtaposition to today’s immigration debate.

From the other side of this great country, here’s a live-action VFYW of “Mama Moose and two calves on a residential street in Anchorage”:

That sleuth adds:

This is Elmendorf Street, near the Air Force base in the Nunaka Valley. The resident of the house says that along with moose, bears occasionally come down the street. She doesn’t mess with either one; moose apparently have nasty dispositions.

From the winner of last week’s contest, Valya:

Thank you so much for the prize! I would love to have the two-year subscription. I don’t participate in the window search as often these days, because the Alaskan globetrotter usually finds it before I even get a chance and pretty much kills the fun of the hunt for me. But I truly enjoy reading other sleuths’ research and learning so many new facts about different parts of our planet. Thank you for your amazing job of putting all this information together.

By the way, I also agree that the window of the Whistle Bar in Key West was misidentified. I wasn’t there when the photo was taken, but after studying Street View, I came to the same conclusion as Berkeley: the correct answer is the door, which is the second opening from the right corner. So Chini, the super-sleuth in DC, the Tewksbury super-sleuth and everyone else who chose that door were right.

Here’s what the globetrotter has to say about it:

Hi Chris. I’ve just learned that there is some controversy over the precise window in my Key West submission. As noted when I sent it, I had some uncertainty. And when you decided to use it, I was probably too quick to say which one. I’m so bad at the trigonometry side of things that I got my own submission wrong. I remain uninterested in this sort of precision, but I live with someone who feels differently, so I understand that it might matter. I defer to the other sleuths’ expertise on this. If only we could send my daughter to confirm — it’s not as far as Morocco.

Here’s a followup from our architectural super-sleuth in NYC:

Thank you to the cinema sleuth last week for featuring that clip from Man Bites Dog. I think it might be the greatest two minutes of architectural criticism. I agree with it all:

Like most architects, I am occasionally asked who my favorite architect is. Impossible question. There are too many whose work I appreciate. Instead I always answer Paul Kersey. He’s the fictional architect (and possible cousin of Benoit) portrayed by Charles Bronson in the five Death Wish movies. He engaged in his own brand of urban clearance:

On to this week’s view, here’s our super-sleuth on the UWS of NYC:

What magic will the super-sleuths conjure up this week? There seem to be no identifiers in this photo, yet I’m guessing that someone will point out an easily overlooked clue that nails it. Looking forward to learning from the masters ...

Here’s the Riverwoods super-sleuth:

At first glance it was Mexico for me, with the blend of tropical and temperate vegetation. I spent too much time trying to find a satellite dish logo matching the one on the left. Then I just couldn’t tie in the shorelines in the distance. So I jumped over to Spain, remembering from my visit there it seemed to have similar vegetation.

It might be an AirBnb near the port of Barcelona, but if not, I’m pretty sure it’s somewhere in Spain. I’m getting pretty good at getting a guess in nowadays, even if I’m not sure. Thanks for your weekly efforts!

This next sleuth also thought Spain:

The architecture and subtropical, semi-arid look of the vegetation suggest Mediterranean. It could be Corsica or Sardinia or Menorca, or coastal rather than an island. I recently stayed at a comfortable walled finca set amidst an olive orchard on Mallorca between Sao Pobla and Alcudia. The saltwater swimming pool was unheated and refreshing. This photo reminds me of tranquil views from the hillsides on the northeast shore of the island. So I’ll guess Betlem, Mallorca, Spain.

Another sleuth guesses simply, “Kotor, Montenegro.” From our married team in Falcon Heights:

The Midwest Monsoon washed this contest out of my mind yesterday. It looks like Lebanon to me. (I didn’t ask Deb; don’t tell her!)

From our super-sleuth in Alexandria:

This is the biggest, laziest shot in the darkest dark, but I’m guessing that this week’s window is somewhere in Tinjah, Tunisia, looking across Lake Ichkeul. The only reason I’m guessing that location is the semi-arid plants, low hills, hemp placemats, white walls (I’m guessing), and grape arbor ... that’s all I’ve got. But it totally could be Greece.

It’s totally Greece. The super-sleuth team in Vancouver, WA also stumbles into the right country:

We’ve had a crazy week. One of us celebrated a birthday by attending a concert (by an 1980s one-hit wonder band — weren’t they all?), one of us is celebrating a friend’s birthday in New York, and our third is flying back from Europe — hopefully with more window views to submit.

For this view, we agreed on three things:

1. We have no idea about this week’s view.

2. We are going to submit an answer anyway.

3. For some reason, we were all thinking about ABBA, which probably has nothing to do with this week’s contest.

Here’s some trivia about ABBA.

In 1999, ABBA’s music was adapted into Mamma Mia!, a stage musical that toured worldwide and, as of October 2024, is still in the top-ten longest running productions on both Broadway (closed in 2015) and the West End (still running).

So, our guess this week is the country where Mamma Mia! is set: Greece.

Here’s an SITD from a previous winner:

Lovely view this week, but I don’t have the time to street-view hop looking for it. Stab in the dark: Arkitsa, Greece.

From the Sidney super-sleuth:

This week there are two things I don’t have: time and the location (not in that order). Olive trees, islands, semi rural, boats … it’s Greece, but that doesn’t narrow it down. I’ve spent plenty of time (too much time, just way too much) looking south of Athens or some of the islands, but I’ve got nothing.

Ironically, my youngest is currently on holiday with friends in Paros! So to make up for a lack of location, a quick story. Last night she and her friends went to a local restaurant for dinner. At the end of the night, the owner gave them this painted plate:

The owner does this each night for their “best table.” The girls were super happy … and I suspect they’re going back tonight!

Our super-sleuth in Yakima has a WAG:

Early morning light from the east/northeast and the solar panels suggest we’re looking NNW, with a marina to our NW, looking over a wooded cityscape on a coastline that runs NE and out across a channel — perhaps 5-15 miles wide — to an east-west ridge of hills/mountains on the far shore, perhaps with 500-1000 foot elevation. Why the satellite dishes point as they do is a mystery.

The white buildings, red roofs, what may be a bouganvillea or star jasmine, a palm, and maybe cypresses all feel like Greece. After that I draw a blank.

I’ll make a wild-ass guess of Patras, just because its coastline runs in the correct direction and it has a small marina. How about the autological Bold Type Hotel? Because I like the name, even though it looks like it’s too fancy for our view.

Here’s another Greek town — from the VFYW biologist:

I looked at every marina in Greece but kept coming back to Benitses. The only candidate I can find is Roza’s home and studios, but its online images don’t show anything like the terrace in the photo. So this is a pretty imperfect guess:

I look forward to something better from other sleuths.

Her featured animal this week is “a cool if slimy marine critter.” But first, here’s how the San Mateo super-sleuth got to Greece:

This week the VFYW difficulty pendulum has swung back to “aarghhh!”

First, based on the four-fingered-hand logo on the left-most satellite dish in the photo, I think we’re in Greece (or Greek-speaking Cyprus). We might be on the east coast of Attica. We might be between Rafina and north of Artemida-Loutsa. But as we know, “might” doesn’t make “right.”

Here’s the partially obscured satellite dish on the left side of the VFYW, with a logo that looks like a four-fingered hand:

And seen below is a photo of a NOVA Telecommunications satellite dish (check out the logo). NOVA Telecommunications is (or was) a Greek company. According to Wikipedia, “Nova broadcasts in standard definition using the DVB-S MPEG-2 format and (since September 2010) in high definition using the DVB-S MPEG-4 format through Hot Bird 8 satellite at 13°E.” That also suggests the east coast of Attica, Greece.

I can’t identify the building, and I don’t have enough data to create a reasonable VFYW Reimagined this week. I haven’t missed providing a Reimagined in quite some time.

Giuseppe, our super-sleuth in Rome, also seized on those satellite dishes, adding:

The antenna and, above all, these solar panels also reveal that the photo was taken facing approximately north:

An easy contest, then? Not at all. The problem is that the mountain chains are often barely visible in the available photos due to mist and distance (a problem I encountered in contest #276 and couldn’t solve). You could be standing on the very location you are looking for and still not recognize the place. For example, here is a photo shot a few steps away from where this week’s photo was taken:

Look at the mountains; they are only partially visible. In other photos taken nearby, they aren’t visible at all. It takes patience and time, unless you’re lucky.

Always having patience and time is our super-sleuth in Berkeley (BTW, I’ve stopped using “super-champ” for many of the top sleuths because it’s become way too difficult to keep a tally of entries that would turn more super-sleuths into super-champs):

What a slog! Not as bad as the other week in China, maybe, but still! (I gave up in China two or three times before finding the place one day before deadline.) But this one was a slog too! I knew we were somewhere in Greece almost right away — or at least I did when I learned the crown logo on the satellite dish belongs to a Greek company.

But that’s when the slog began. Greece may be small, but it has a hell of a lot of coastline, and a hell of a lot of that coastline stares across a dozen or so miles of water toward an opposing hilly coastline similar to the one in our photo:

Luckily those hills are distinctive enough, even partly hidden by vegetation as they are, that I was able to turn the lights out on Friday night secure in the knowledge that our window was somewhere on the Greek island of [redacted].

Chini shows the island, adding his signature yellow circle:

From the Intrepid Couch Traveler:

So, the couch got called into court this week, so I’ve had no time to actually do any intrepid traveling. But the ocean looks very blue. The Aegean is very blue. Crete is in the Aegean. Google tells me there is a place in/on Crete called Mavrikiano.

So, with that impeccable logic, this week’s VFYW is from an unknown window in an unknown part of Mavrikiano, Crete, Greece, looking out over an unknown part of the Aegean at an unknown land mass not far across the unknown strait.

Chini-level accuracy, this guess is not. But the upside of not really having a clue is that I don’t have to get the window wrong again this week.

Our super-sleuth in Bethlum also has a wild-ass guess:

It’s WAG for me this week. I sense a strong Mediterranean vibe with a hazy mountain line in the back. Ugh, mountain profiles again. Trying to find this view in the Mediterranean is a real needle in a haystack. I thought I was close in Corfu, but I can’t nail it down.

In case I’m close, here’s a combination of natural and man-made public art in Corfu:

The Park Avenue super-sleuth names the right archipelago — “the Saronic Islands”:

Ok, you got me. I finally sat down yesterday afternoon with an hour to spare to find where in the Greek islands this photo was taken. I think it’s looking back across the Saronic Sea towards Athens/Port of Piraeus, but after an hour on Google Earth and going through infinite VRBO listings of villas on Aegina and the surrounding islands, I ran out of time. I checked Corfu as well, but I don’t think so. The key will be finding that marina, with that many sail boats (as opposed to fishing boats without masts). I can’t wait for Saturday morning.

Here’s a Chini-like view from our “a-maize-ing sleuth” in Ann Arbor:

Our mixologist in Austin names the right island:

Quite a challenging contest this week. Maybe not quite as hard as the China one, but pretty close. From the landscape and the vegetation, I was able to narrow it down to Turkey or Greece. But man, there’s a lot of coastline in and around the Aegean Sea. The distant mountains seemed to connect in the middle, making me think we were in a bay or an enclosed sea, so I started looking for those kinds of geographies that also had marinas.