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Google Street View adds Swiss Alps & Sochi Formula 1 track coverage

Street View continues to be one of the most robust features with Google Maps, and the team has recently added some remarkable locations to the Street View collection. Shared today on the company’s Europe blog, Google Street view has added new imagery of scenes from around the Swiss Alps in Switzerland:

Together with the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC) and the Swiss Tourism Board (MySwitzerland.com), we launched a contest called “Queen of the Alps.” High in the Swiss Alps, far from any road or other buildings, are picturesque huts used to spend a night by farmers and vacationers.

It often takes a full day hike to reach these out of the way huts. We ran online vote to find the favorite Swiss hut, promising to film the choice for Street View. The Swiss Alpine Club’s Lauteraarhütte-SAC in the canton of Berne (region “Grimselgebiet”) won. It took our Trekkers a five hour hike up the Grimsels Hospiz to capture this exciting imagery.

The Street View film crew also toured and captured the Winter Olympic venues in Sochi, Russia, including the Sochi Formula 1 racing track:

Stroll around the Fischt stadium which hosted the opening and closing ceremonies. Walk on the Ice Palace “Iceberg” and visit the Olympic Village, where your favorite team stayed.

In particular, take a look at the new Formula 1 track in Sochi. It is located in the city’s Olympic Park and is the only Formula 1 track in Russia. From October 10-12, Russia will host its first World Championship race.

As you can see above, you can actually tour the Formula 1 racing track as if you were behind the wheel of the car. Just search the venues on Google Maps.

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Google expands Russian Street View coverage in run-up to Winter Olympics

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While technology hasn’t quite reached the stage of allowing us to watch the Winter Olympics from within Google Street View,  you can now take a virtual wander through the host city of Sochi. The games are scheduled to take place there from 7th to 23rd February.

Street View coverage in Russia also now includes Vladivostok, Irkutsk and Yakutsk – though you may want to put on your coat for the latter: as the city with the greatest seasonal temperature swings on Earth, the lowest recorded winter temperature was a bracing -83.9F (-64.4C).

Google also added its first imagery in Slovenia, making the central European nation the 56th country to be added to Street View.

Check out some other cool (not all of them quite so literally) places you can visit on Street View with our roundup here.