Romania

Country Flag:

Google car:

–


Bollard:

Romania has some bollards, but they are very rare:

More important, Romania has 5 major categories of roads:
* Local Road (marked with yellow on the map)
* County Road (marked with blue on the map)
* National Road (marked with red on the map)
* European Road (Marked Green like any other country in Europe)
* Highways (Marked Green, all starting with letter A. Example: A1, A4)

Here are the most important bollards you will find, made out of concrete:
Below bollard is blue, meaning you are on a County Road, specifically 592:

On this one, you are on National Road 6:

Important to remember is that the number on the top part is irrelevant, it tells you on what kilometer you are from the start of the road. Just ignore it, all you need is color of the bollard and the number on the side.
On all the bollards, the first city is usually a big one that can be easily found on the map, if you also look for the road number.
If you find a yellow road or yellow concrete bollard, meaning Local roads, don’t bother looking for those, as they are very hard to find.
Sometimes, you will see a hectometres marker, made out of concrete, which looks like this:

Those markers are placed every 100 meters, and every 1000 meters you will have a big concrete bollard as above. The marker above is at 200 meters (2), so it means we have 800 more meters until we can see a big concrete bollard.

Camera Generation:

Very little Gen 2, mostly Gen 3


Road Lines:

–


Road Signs:

Romania has all the road signs with white text on blue background.
For example, the following sign tells you that you are on National Road 6 and also on European road 70. If you go west, you will be on Local Road 22 (very hard to find yellow roads!).
As mentioned previously, first city is a big one, but it doesn’t mean it is close. On those types of road signs (big ones), look for the 2nd city, as that is closer to your current location:

Other very typical Romanian signs:

Electricity poles:

Very typical for Romania are the concrete hollowed poles. They can also be found in Hungary, France, and Poland. The Romanian ones are distuinguishable by a yellow paint or sign on the side:

License plates:

Romania uses white license plates with black text. The first two letters tell you in which county you are. Each county has a “capital”, which is a big city, easily found on the map. Think of it as the two letters are an abbreviation of the city:
For example, “CT” comes from the county of “Constanta”, with the “capital” of the county, the city of Constanta:

“Brasov” county, with “capital” city of Brasov:

Here you can find a map with all the counties:

Phone number:

Mobile phone numbers in Romania consist of 10 digits in the format: xxx zzzzzzz where xxx represents the mobile operator code. All mobile operator codes begin with 07

Vegetation/Landscape:

–


Specific tree:

–


Architecture:

Romania was under Ceausescu’s regime, who adopted mass urbanization and industralization, moving people from villages to the city. To do that, he adopted the Russian model of the so-called “Khrushchyovkas”, aka bad concrete panels buildings. There are different elements of architecture on them but you can usually see that they are pre-fabricated:

General look:

–


Other general tips:

The Romanian alphabet has diacritics which makes the country easily recognazible in Geoguessr:

Hungary

Country Flag:

Google car:

–


Bollard:

Front:

Back:

Camera Generation:

Gen 3 & Gen 4


Road Lines:

–


Road Signs:

Specific to Hungary, the streets are called “Utca”. So if you see that anywhere, it’s an easy guess in which country you are:

Electricity poles:

Hungary has similar hollowed electricity poles like Romania. Unlike its neighbor Romania, the poles very rarely have any yellow paint or yellow plaque on the side, and the holes are more rarely wide:

License plates:

Phone number:

–


Vegetation/Landscape:

–


Specific tree:

–


Architecture:

–


General look:

–


Other general tips:

The hungarian alphabet is quite easily distuinguishable:

It has a lot of accents and dots above its vowels (a, e, i, o, u).

Albania

Country Flag:

Google car:

No visible car, except the antenna, which can be long or short.

Bollard:

Albania has several bollards which can be seen occasionally.



Road side barriers can often be concrete blocks or concrete arches, in addition to regular metal barriers:

Camera Generation:

Gen 3

Albania is one of several countries which has a recognizable “rifts” in its camera. These can be found the majority of the time in the country but not 100% of the time.

Road Lines:

Regular European all-white road lines:

Road Signs:

Regular European white and red road signs:

Electricity poles:

License plates:

Albania has two license plates. The most common is the newer, Italian inspired plate with blue strips on each end of the plate. The second plate has a single red strip down the left side.



Phone number:

–



Vegetation/Landscape:

Albania is a very mountainous country. Its mountains often have a rocky feel, typical of the Balkan area. The soil and rocks often also have a red tint. All of Albania’s coverage was taken between April and June 2016, so the country looks very green and often quite luscious.

Specific tree:

–



Architecture:


You will often see these water barrels on the rooftops of houses in Albania. They are used to heat water.

General look:

Albania is one of the poorer countries in Europe and some of the economic disparities can be seen. Some roads can be rather poor looking while other larger roads are in better shape. There are many unfinished houses made of brick or concrete which can be found alongside the road. Looking past this, it has lots of high rising mountains and cutting valleys, with a luscious but also rocky look.

Alphabet/script:

Unlike a lot of its neighbors, Albania uses the Latin script for its language, which often features the letters J, X, Q, K as well as the Ë.

Subdivisions:

Iceland

Country Flag:

Google car:

Bollard:

Camera Generation:

Gen 3


Road Lines:


Other variations: Icelandic Road Line Variations

Road Signs:


Other variations: Icelandic Road Sign Variations
Iceland uses yellow European-style warning signs:

Road numbering system:

Iceland has only one 1-digit road, the road number 1, which goes around the whole island close to the coast. The other roads feed into it and the first digit of those roads increases from the south of the island in a clockwise direction from 2-9. 2-digit roads are larger than 3-digit roads. More info about the Icelandic road numbering system: Iceland Road Numbering System

Right click on the image, “View Image” for higher resolution.

Electricity poles:

–


License plates:

Phone number:

–


Vegetation/Landscape:


Right click on the image, “View Image” for higher resolution.

Specific tree:

–


Architecture:


More examples: Icelandic Houses

General look:


Right click on the image, “View Image” for higher resolution.

Alphabet/script:

Icelandic alphabet has a number of unique letters, most notably the Ð, Þ and Æ, some of which it shares with Faroese and other Nordic languages:

The United Kingdom

Country Flag:


This is the Union Jack, mostly seen in England. It represents England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

These are the four flags that make up the United Kingdom (With labels as to which country is represented by which flag.) You can also end up on the Isle of Man, whose flag is listed below.

(Isle of Man Flag)

Google car:

–



Bollard:


This bollard has a very large red reflector on the top.

Camera Generation:

Gen 2,3, and 4



Road Lines:


The UK often will have either single or double yellow lines outside with white in the center of the road.

Road Signs:



Signs in the UK can be white, green and blue. Look for the letters A or M, as these are the major roads throughout the country.

Road Layout:

Britain within the UK uses a system by which to number it’s roads. A roads are usually main roads, and B roads are usually smaller. The numbers seen on this map are always second in the naming, e.g. A380.

Electricity poles:


The UK uses wooden Electricity poles that look like these.

License plates:


The UK uses white front, and yellow rear plates. Some feature the EU blue left side however this isn’t always the case.

Phone number / Domain:

UK mobile numbers begin with 07 in the format of: 07xxx xxxxxx
Most major cities have their own area code, with some big ones to remember being :
(0141) Glasgow
(0151) Liverpool
(0161) Manchester
(020) London
(028) North Ireland
The UK uses the Domain of .co.uk .

Vegetation/Landscape:

–



Specific tree:

–



Architecture:

–



General look:

The UK can vary between its individual countries by look, however most urban areas look similar, the main differences occurring in more rural regions, Scotland being the most mountainous, followed by Wales, then England, and Northern Ireland.
The UK will often have large hedges on the both sides of rural roads.

The UK also has a post code system which can help you narrow down which part of the country you are in.

Alphabet/script:

The UK uses proper English, while Wales has a mix of Welsh and English and Scotland can have some Scottish along with English.

Denmark

Country Flag:

Google car:

Most of the time there is a blue car, but sometime you will find a car with antenna as well:

Bollard:

Denmark is very easy to find because of the bollards which are on almost every road:

Camera Generation:

Gen 2,3,4


Road Lines:

Specific to Denmark you will see this type of line on the sides of the road:

Road Signs:

Denmark has white board with red text:

Highway sign:

Denmark has street names with a blue sign ending with “-vej” which means road:

Road numbering system:

–


Electricity poles:

–


License plates:

Private / commercial plate:

Phone number:

–


Vegetation/Landscape:

–


Specific tree:

–


Architecture:

–


General look:

Alphabet/script:

Internet domain:

.dk


Norway

Country Flag:

Google car:

Most of the time you will see a blue car, but it’s not 100% the case:

Bollard:

Bollards aren’t too common in Norway however they are black and white.

A more common sight are these snow poles.

Camera Generation:

2, 3, and 4.



Road Lines:

Norway often features white dashed road sides.

And Yellow centre lines.

Road Signs:

Norway features Yellow, Blue, and Green signs, White being used for street signs.


Norwegian roads often feature these signs which tell you which road you are driving on.

Electricity poles:

Norway features wooden electricity poles.

License plates:

Norway uses white plates for passenger vehicles.

And green for commercial.

Phone number:

Norway uses regional phone codes as demonstrated below.

Vegetation/Landscape:

Norway features some truly breath-taking views mostly in the form of their world famous Fjords.

It is a very mountainous country and still well forested.

Specific tree:

Norway is covered mostly in Spruce and Pine trees.

Architecture:

Norway features some fairly recognizable architecture, often red or brightly painted wooden houses can be found.

General look:


Alphabet/script:

Norway features an alphabet based in the Latin script, featuring 29 letters. It share this alphabet with Denmark.

Ukraine

Country Flag:

Google car:

Ukraine has the distinctive red Google car with a long antenna all over the country, except in Donetsk:

The Donetsk car is a black one with a long antenna, just like in Russia:

Bollard:

The regular bollards which appear on non-highway roads usually:

These bollards usually appear on highways:

Camera Generation:

Gen 3


Road Lines:

Ukraine uses the white centreline with white or no side line, like most European countries:

Potholes and other road deformations are very common in Ukraine ‘cos of the state of the roads.

Road Signs:

Ukraine has blue road signs with white text on them:

Highway sign:

Ukraine has the regular Soviet kilometre markers on their roads, which tell you how many kilometres of that road you have passed:

The turn arrows in Ukraine are white with a red background, but these signs can be found in Russia too:

The settlement entrance signs are white with black text in Ukraine:

Both of these signs are quite common on Ukrainian roads:

Ukraine, like Russia, has these large region entrance signs stating the name of the region you are entering:

Road numbering system:

Ukraine Road Numbering System

Electricity poles:

Electricity poles in Ukraine are usually painted white at the bottom:

License plates:

This is the most common plate found on street view:
Private plate:

Public transport plate:

There are newer and older plates, which you can find here: Vehicle registration plates of Ukraine

Phone number:

–


Vegetation/Landscape:

Ukraine has a lot of trees planted in a line like this on the side of the road:

Trees in Ukraine can often be painted white at the bottom as an insect repellent:

Specific tree:

–


Architecture:

–


General look:

–


Alphabet/script:

Ukrainian alphabet is the same as Russian, except for three letters – І, Ї and Ґ, which are very useful for differentiating them:

Subdivisions:

Ukraine is divided into 24 oblasts (regions), 1 autonomous republic (Crimea) and 2 cities with special status (Kiev and Sevastopol), whose names can often be found on signs:

Right click on the image, “View Image” for higher resolution.

Internet domain:

.ua


Sweden

Country Flag:

Google car:

–



Bollard:

Sweden features a bollard style which are white, with a black rectangle around 1/3 from the top which contains a white rectangle inside of it.

A common sight also are these snow poles.

Camera Generation:

Gen 2, 3, and 4.



Road Lines:

Sweden features short, white, dashed road sides, and white central lines.

Road Signs:

Sweden features, green, blue, and yellow road signs.

Yellow signs are often used for important information such as speed limits etc.

Electricity poles:

Sweden features wooden electricity poles.


License plates:

Sweden uses the standard European style plate.

Phone number:

Swedish phone numbers all begin with a 0, Mobiles beginning with 07.

Vegetation/Landscape:

Sweden is fairly flat, with some slight mountains closer to its Norwegian border or north. It is well forested.

Specific tree:

Sweden features many kinds of trees most commonly found are, Birch, Pine, and Spruce.

Architecture:

Sweden features some fairly recognizable architecture, often red painted wooden houses can be found.

General look:

Alphabet/script:

Sweden features an alphabet based in the Latin script.

Internet domain:

.Se



Finland

Country Flag:

Google car:

–



Bollard:

The Finnish bollard is black and white with the black portion containing a white rectangle.

A common sight also are these snow poles.

Camera Generation:

2, and 3.



Road Lines:

Finland usually features all white markings, sometimes dashed shoulder lines, and sometimes yellow center lines.

Aland off the coast of Finland has a red tinted road.

Road Signs:

Finland uses blue and green road signs. It uses white signs for its street signs.

Yellow signs are often used for important information such as speed limits etc.

Electricity poles:

Finland uses wooden electricity poles.

License plates:

Finland uses the standard EU plate style.

Phone number:

Finnish mobile numbers begin with either, 04, 0457, or 050.
Finnish area codes.

Vegetation/Landscape:

Finland is the flattest of the Nordic countries, and is well forested.

Specific tree:

The most common types of tree found are Spruce, Birch, and Pine.

Architecture:

Finland uses a lot of wooden houses often painted red.

General look:

Alphabet/script:

Finland features an alphabet based in the Latin script.

Internet domain:

.Fi



France

Country Flag:

Google car:


France uses the white car, often with the antenna visible.

Bollard:


French Bollards are super easy to recognize. It very large. Some of them are all white, while others have a red reflector. Both have the same design however.

These are a little more rare. Its the same general design but with a weird top red cap. These are found mostly where you would expect there to be snow.

Camera Generation:

Gen 2, 3 & 4



Road Lines:


The right shoulder line is dashed, not solid. This is very unique and is a very good indicator. All of the lines will be white.

Road Signs:


These are scattered across the major roads, telling you not only the road you’re on, but also how far along you are.

You can also see these road signs, pointing to local towns and cities. The A roads are across all of France while the E roads are shared between European Countries. The one road lettering system you don’t want to look for would be the D roads. These are Department roads, and each of the 96 French departments have their own numbers. THEY CAN REPEAT!

Street Signs:


France uses the word “Rue” on most of their signs.

License plates:



Older coverage (Gen 2) will have a chance to show the older license plates. Those would be the Yellow plates. Most of the newer coverage has the white plates. However, due to the blur, its tough to tell the difference from most of the EU countries.

Phone number:



Regions in France have their own area code, and there are only 5. Its very easy to learn these areas, and can help get you into the right area.

Vegetation/Landscape:

–



Domain:

.Fr



Architecture:

–



General look:


This is a typical French Country side. Its tough to find a real good example of a general look, but this is a common site.

Alphabet/script:

France uses a typical French Alphabet.

Ireland

Country Flag:

Google car:

–



Bollard:

Bollards can be quite rare in Ireland but will often be in this chunky green style.

Camera Generation:

Gen 2, 3 & 4.



Road Lines:

Ireland often has similar road marking to the UK.

However there is a unique pattern they use with dashed yellow side lines in certain areas.

Road Signs:

Irish signs will often be written in English with Gaelic translations.
Ireland uses green, white, and brown signage.

One key difference to tell the UK and Ireland apart is that Ireland uses the metric system.

Electricity poles:

Ireland uses wooden electricity poles.

License plates:

Ireland uses the standard EU plate style.

Phone number:

Irish mobile numbers begin with 08 and contain 10 digits, they also have an area code system for landlines.

Vegetation/Landscape:

Ireland looks almost identical to the UK and it can often be very difficult to tell the two nations apart in rural areas.

Specific tree:

–



Architecture:

Irish housing, especially in rural areas can be a key way to distinguish it from the UK, Irish houses tend to be more ‘boxy’ and often feature the door in the center.

General look:

Alphabet/script:

English and Gaelic alphabets based in Latin script.
Gaelic.

Domain:

.Ie


Germany

Country Flag:

Google car:

As there is only Gen 2 coverage, you cant usually see the car. If you somehow find a car, it would be a black car.

Bollard:


The left image is the front of the bollard, while the right image is the back if it.

Camera Generation:

Gen 2



Road Lines:

–



Road Signs:


These are typically found on the highways. They point to a city as well as the exit coming up. Zentrum means Center.

Electricity poles:

–


License plates:


License plates in Germany are super important. The first letter tells you which city the car is from. HOWEVER, CARS DO TRAVEL and its not always accurate! In this example, the F stands for Frankfurt.

The B on the Motorcycle stands for Berlin.

Phone number:


Phone numbers are super complicated in Germany as there is no limit to the amount of digits for a number. You can have a two digit number or a 10 digit. These guides give a good idea, but its still not easy.

Vegetation/Landscape:

–



Cities:

Germany doesn’t have full coverage. Most of the coverage is in the major cities. Its at the point where we can name the cities.
Berlin (East)
Leipzig (East)
Dresden (East)
Nuremberg (South)
Munich (South)
Stuttgart (South)
Mannheim (South)
Frankfurt (Central)
Bonn (West)
Cologne (West)
Dusseldorf (West)
Wuppertal (West)
Duisburg (West)
Essen (West)
Dortmund (West)
Bielfeld (It doesn’t actually exist)
Hanover (North)
Bremen (North)
Hamburg (North)

Not all cities are listed under this image, but that is the general coverage of Germany.

Domain:

.De



Germany uses .De, which stands for Deutschland.

General look:


Germany has a lot of Blurred houses. We call this “Blurmany”. This is due to some intense privacy laws.

Alphabet/script:


Germany uses a typical German alphabet. Look for the letter ß, as it has its roots in Germanic language. It represents the letters “SS”.

Luxembourg

Country Flag:

Google car:

–



Bollard:

Luxembourg uses a fairly generic black and white bollard with a white rectangle inside of the black one, the backside containing 2 white dots.

Camera Generation:

2, and 3.



Road Lines:

Luxembourg uses all white lines.

Road Signs:

Luxembourg tends to use yellow and white signage, often with a frame surrounding the sign.



They use white poles for their speed signs etc.

Electricity poles:

Luxembourg uses metal poles with the wires ‘hanging’ from them, they also have wooden ones.

License plates:

Luxembourg uses the standard EU style plate but yellow in colour.

Phone number:

Luxembourg mobile numbers begin with 6.

Vegetation/Landscape:

Luxembourg can be quite hilly, and contains a lot of open grassland.

Specific tree:

–



Architecture:

–



General look:

Often you will find roads lined with trees within Luxembourg.

Alphabet/script:

Luxembourg has 3 national languages consisting of:
Luxembourgish.

French.

And German.

Domain:

.Lu


Poland

Country Flag:

Google car:

White car with a long antenna, which can’t be seen whole always and can look like a small antenna:

Bollard:

Only one bollard type, the white bollard with a red stripe going all around:

Camera Generation:

Gen 3 and 4 (negligible amount of Gen 2)


Road Lines:

White centreline with white or no sideline:

Double centreline appears only near junctions and with different overtaking rules for the lanes:

Road Signs:

Green signs with white text, except on highways:

Highway signs are blue with white text, except when pointing towards non-highway roads:

Warning signs in Poland have a yellow background, which is a feature of only a few countries in Europe, and a thin frame line:

Poland has these distinctive settlement entrance and exit signs with a town outline depicted on them:

The turn arrows are red with a white background:

These signs are quite common on Polish roads:

The speed limit signs have a characteristic font to them:

Large crosses like this by the side of the road can be found in Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Romania and serve as a memorial to a person who lost their life there:

Similar memorials can be found in other countries around too, but usually not with crosses this large.

Road numbering system:

3-digit national roads are grouped together and their first digit zones range from 1 in the northwest to 9 in the southeast. More info on the Polish road numbering system:
Poland Road Numbering System

Electricity poles:

Poland has these characteristic slim holed poles:

License plates:

The usual European Union plates with PL written on them:

Phone number:

–


Vegetation/Landscape:

–


Specific tree:

The European Larch grows around Poland too, in addition to the Alps and Carpathian mountain ranges:

Architecture:

Northern Poland has this specific architectural style – tall slim houses with steep roofs (with or without ornamentation):

General look:

–


Alphabet/script:

Polish is the only Slavic language which uses the letter W. Other specific letters include Ą, Ć, Ę, Ł, Ń, Ó, Ś, Ź and Ż. Polish also has a lot of digraphs, so you will often find the letter Z after a consonant which changes the consonant’s sound, like in CZ (pronounced ch), SZ (sh), DZ (dz), RZ (zh), etc, which is also common in Hungarian, but in Hungarian the sound differentiation goes the opposite way (S is sh, SZ is s…). Because of this, Polish can often look difficult to pronounce, like in the city name Szczecin.

Subdivisions:

Poland is divided into 16 voivodeships, or provinces:

Right click on the image, “View Image” for higher resolution.

Internet domain:

.pl


Portugal

Country Flag:

Google car:

–



Bollard:

Portugal uses fairly generic black and white bollards.

Camera Generation:

2, 3, and 4.



Road Lines:

Portugal uses all white lines.

Road Signs:

Portugal uses a couple different styles of signs, however they are pretty useful to identify the country coming in white, brown, and blue.



Electricity poles:

Portugal uses concrete ‘ladder’ style poles that taper towards the top. Sometimes you may find wooden poles.

License plates:

Portugal uses the EU style plate but with a yellow bar on the right hand side also.

Phone number:

Portuguese mobile numbers begin with the number 9. Portugal does have a regional phone code system as seen below.

Vegetation/Landscape:

Portugal is a dry looking country but still very green, it has mountains in the north and the south is more flat.

The Azores:

The Azores are a group of Portuguese islands in the Atlantic ocean.
Only 2 of the islands have official coverage and use the Gens 2 camera, those being; Ilha Tereceira, and Ilha de sao Miguel.
Ilha Tereceira is the flattest of the two but does still feature quite a few hills.

Ilha de sao Miguel is the most mountainous, and has a lot of cattle farms.

Madeira:

Madeira is a very mountainous volcanic Portuguese island off the Moroccan coast and north of the Spanish canary islands.


Madeira has some unique bollards.

Specific tree:

–



Architecture:

Portugal features a lot of white painted houses often with orange tiled rooves.

General look:


Alphabet/script:

Portugal speaks Portuguese and uses an alphabet based in Latin script.

Domain:

.pt


Greece

Country Flag:

Google car:

–



Bollard:

Greece uses black and white bollards with a red square in the black on one side and white on the reverse.

Camera Generation:

2, 3, and 4.



Road Lines:

Greece uses white lines but often features a double central line.

Road Signs:

Greek signs often feature the Greek alphabet and a Latin translation, the Greek being in yellow, and Latin in white.

Greek warning signs feature yellow backgrounds.

Electricity poles:

Greece uses wooden poles.

License plates:

Greece uses the standard EU style plate.

Phone number:

Greek mobile numbers begin with 69.
Nice

Vegetation/Landscape:

Greece is a very hilly country consisting of a lot of peninsulas and off shore islands.

Specific tree:

–



Architecture:

Greek houses are often white with orange/brown slate rooves.

General look:

Alphabet/script:

Greece uses the Greek alphabet.

Domain:

.gr


Italy

Country Flag:

Google car:

Italy uses a white car. If its Gen 2 coverage, you wont be able to see it. If its Gen 4 coverage, the car will be blue. Gen 3 coverage wont always have a car!.

Bollard:


The front of the bollard is to the left, while the back is on the right.

These bollards are exclusive to the island of Sardegna. They have an Orange square clearly visible. That does not mean you cant find the other bollards here as well however.

Camera Generation:

Gen 2, 3 & 4



Road Lines:



You tend to find the white lines throughout the country, yet the yellow lines are a bit rarer. They seem to be located towards the south of the country, opposite of what you would expect.

Street Signs:


Italy uses the word “Via” on MOST of their street signs. You can clearly see them on nearly every building (at a cross road).

Highway Signs:


SS roads are unique to Italy, while E roads are European roads and are shared between countries.

Electricity poles:

–


License plates:



Italy has two blue bars, one on the left and one on the right of the plate. This is only seen on Italy and Albania. Its very visible, even through the blur.

Phone number:



Italy has a pretty structured area code layout. While they do extend to 3 digits, the general area numbers are a better bet to learn.
Most phone numbers in Italy will be presented as 0X-XXXXXX (Up to 11 digits) while mobile numbers will start with the number 3 and be 10 digits.

Vegetation/Landscape:


While this is not all of Italy, you get this very dry feel towards the south. This is the general feel for ALL of the Mediterranean, so it isn’t great for just Italy.

Domain:

.it



Architecture:


These roofs are very common in most Mediterranean areas. Its a good general location when you see these.

General look:


As Italy is near the Mediterranean sea, you will find landscapes that look similar to this. This is taken from Sicily.

This is from the Island of Sardegna.

However, this isnt the only type of shot you will see. The north of the country is very different. The valleys of the mountains create a totally different feel.

Alphabet/script:

Italy uses Italian, however there are chances to see other languages near the borders like Swiss, Austrian, French, Slovenian and Croatian.

Spain

Country Flag:

Google car:

Spain will often feature a car with a long antenna, however this is not always the case.

Bollard:

Spanish bollards are black and white with a yellow rectangle within the black section.

Camera Generation:

2, 3, and 4.



Road Lines:

Spain uses all white lines.

Road Signs:

Spanish road information signs have thick red borders.

Spain uses blue, white, yellow, and brown backed signs.

Electricity poles:

Spain uses wooden and concrete poles.

License plates:

Spain uses the standard EU style plate.

Phone number:

Spanish mobile numbers begin with either 6, or 7.

Vegetation/Landscape:

Spain has a variety of landscapes, from alpine mountains on the Andorran border, lush forests in the north, and dryer shrub and desert landscapes to the south.



The Canary islands:

The canaries are a group of Spanish islands off the coast of Morocco, they are volcanic islands and as such can differ in appearance to mainland Spain.
They are very mountainous and often feature darker almost black soil/rocks.

Specific tree:

–



Architecture:

Spain features many smaller single floored buildings, either with flat rooves or red/brown tiles.
Houses will often be painted white or bright colours.

General look:

–



Alphabet/script:

Spanish uses a Latin based alphabet.

Regions:

Spain has 50 provinces across 17 regions.

Domain:

.es


Montenegro

Country Flag:

Google car:

The google car in Montenegro features a mid-length antenna in the north.

And a short one in the south.

Bollard:

Montenegro uses white bollards with black caps, and red rectangles sections.

Camera Generation:

3.



Road Lines:

Montenegro uses all white lines.

Road Signs:

Montenegro uses yellow, brown and blue backed signs.

Montenegro’s road information signs have a white edge.

Electricity poles:

Montenegro uses wooden and concrete poles.

License plates:

Montenegro uses the standard EU style plate but with the countries crest in the centre.

Phone number:

–



Vegetation/Landscape:

Montenegro features a very mountainous landscape.

Specific tree:

–



Architecture:

Montenegrin houses often have red tiled rooves.

General look:

If you look at the sky in Montenegro these ‘rifts’ are a very common sight if you have the mid-length antenna car, they appear due to a stitching error of googles maps.

Alphabet/script:

Montenegro uses a mix of Latin and Cyrillic alphabets.
Latin.

Cyrillic.

Regions:

Montenegro is divided into municipalities of which there are 21.

Domain:

.me


Switzerland

Country Flag:

Google car:

Switzerland uses a ‘low camera’ often told by relative height to nearby objects, but it will also look like it has a larger than usual blur.

Bollard:

Swiss bollards come in a few different shapes but they all follow the same black and white pattern.

Camera Generation:

3, and 4.



Road Lines:

Switzerland uses all white lines.

Road Signs:

Swiss signs feature green, blue, or white backgrounds.

Many swiss signs feature a metal border.

Electricity poles:

Switzerland uses wooden poles.

You may sometimes come across electricity hubs such as these.

License plates:

Swiss plates have a white background with the countries crest on the left hand side.

Phone number:

–



Vegetation/Landscape:

Switzerland is incredibly mountainous due to being located in the middle of the alps.

Specific tree:

–



Architecture:

Switzerland has lots of unique looking chalets, and the window shutters are quite common across swiss houses.

General look:

Alphabet/script:

Due to its unique location within Europe Switzerland has 4 official languages, all based in a Latin alphabet.

German is the most common through out the country, found mostly north and central.

French is most common in the west near the French border.

Italian is most common in the south by the Italian border.

Romansh is the only language unique to Switzerland and isn’t too common but is found in the east.

Regions:

Swiss regions are called ‘cantons’ of which there are 26.

Domain:

.ch


Lithuania

Country Flag:

Google car:

Lithuania’s google car has a short/stubby antenna.

Bollard:

Lithuania uses a pretty generic bollard style, but with yellow on one side, and white on the reverse.

Camera Generation:

3.



Road Lines:

Lithuania uses all white lines, though it uses many gravel roads with no markings.


Sometimes the shoulder lines will be dashed.

Road Signs:

Lithuania use blue backed road signs, and white settlement signs.



The backs of Lithuanian signs have folded edges.

Electricity poles:

Lithuania uses concrete poles with ‘bulbs’ in a 1×1 2×2 or 3×3 format, sometimes they will have an odd number of bulbs.

License plates:

Lithuania uses the standard EU style plate.

Phone number:

Lithuanian mobile numbers begin with 86.

Vegetation/Landscape:

Lithuania is a very flat country.

Specific tree:

–



Architecture:

Lithuania has a lot of wooden/brick houses with corrugated metal rooves.

General look:

Main roads in Lithuania will often have trees lining them.

Alphabet/script:

Lithuanian is based in a Latin script.

Regions:

Lithuania is divided up into 10 counties and 10 municipalities.

Domain:

.lt


The Netherlands

Country Flag:

The country flag of the Netherlands is very similar to the one of Luxembourg.

The exception is that the blue part of the flag is darker for the Netherlands and lighter for Luxembourg.

The Netherlands has 12 provinces, that each have their own flag.
You may come across one of these flags, which then may help you narrow down your options.

Google car:

The Google Car is generally hidden in the Netherlands. However, the shadow can often be seen.

Also, reflections in windows can often be spotted.

When you spot some hair like on the picture below, you know you are in the Hoge Veluwe Region, just north of Arnhem.

Bollard:

This is the most common bollard in the Netherlands, a white bollard with a red reflector.
These bollards can be mostly found on the right side of the roads and highways.

Less common, also on the right side of the road black bollards with red reflectors can be seen.

Bollards on the left side of the road are less common, but often they are white with a white reflector.

You can also find bollards with distances on them, counting from the start of the road until the end.

Bollards with multiple reflectors exist as well.

The following bollards, can also be seen alongside smaller roads in between cities/towns/villages.

Within cities you can often see similar bollards like these:


Camera Generation:

Gen 2, 3 and 4 can be found in the Netherlands.



Road Lines:

Double white stripes in the middle of the road, with a green line in between, means cars are allowed 100 km/h.

Double white stripes in the middle without a green line, means cars are allowed 80 km/h.

No lines in the middle, means cars are allowed to go 80 km/h, unless a 60 km/h sign is shown.

The Netherlands has a lot of red cycling lanes, either alongside the road or completely separate on the side.

Road Signs:

National hectometer signs are green with white letters.
They will have either Li or Re written on them, to indicate that you are on the left (Li) of the right (Re) driveway.
The number on the signs indicates the distance in kilometers from the start of the road.
Quite often the road number is clearly visible, giving you a great hint to figure out where you are.

What a lot of people don’t know is that hectometer pole are arguably the best ways to locate yourself on the map.
Besides the national hectometer signs, a lot of provinces have local ones too, and if you know them by heart, your guess will automatically be better.

Drenthe

Flevoland

Friesland

Gelderland

Groningen

Limburg

Noord-Brabant

Noord-Holland

Overijssel

Utrecht

Zeeland

Zuid-Holland

Directions to cities are generally blue signs with white letters.
Road numbers are often visible.
Red for A-roads
, Green for E-roads, Yellow for N-roads


The example above with the yellow road marks is one of the few examples of Toll Roads in the Netherlands.

Yellow signs with black letters are warning signs with instructions.
Think about detours, road constructions, or when two lines merge into one.

Overhead digital road signs can be found above highways.
Most of the time they are not used, but you can see X-es on them, or numbers with speed limits too.

When exiting a highway, you will often see this sign.

When entering a tunnel, you will see this.

Local areas within cities have a white border around them on the signs.
Examples are ring roads, neighbourhoods or directions to harbours.
These can be seen on highways and within cities.

Brown signs normally show touristic information.

Red and white signs like these are directions for cyclists.
These are very clear indications that you are in the Netherlands.

Street signs in the Netherlands look like this.
Most common they end with -straat, -weg, -pad or -plein (street/road/path/square)



Fietspad means bicycle lane, not a street name.
Don’t look for a street named Fietspad on the map.

Electricity poles:

Electricity poles in the Netherlands look like this.


The reclaimed land of Flevoland, as well as the northern Wadden Islands don’t have any such typical electricity poles.
There, as well as in other parts of the country you will find electric windmills.

License plates:

Current license plates in the Netherlands are yellow with black letters.
The most recent registrations consists of one number, three letters and two numbers, or two numbers, three letters and one number.
There are in total 11 combinations available in different colors for specific reasons, but these are far less common.
The license plates are the same from the front and the back.


Phone number:

Phone numbers within the Netherlands are systematically arranged.
Numbers starting with 01 can be found in the South Western part of the country.
Numbers starting with 02 can be found in the North Western part of the country.
Numbers starting with 03 can be found in the Central part of the country.
Numbers starting with 04 can be found in the South Eastern part of the country.
Numbers starting with 05 can be found in the North Eastern part of the country.
Numbers starting with 06 are mobile phone numbers which can be found in the whole country.
Numbers starting with 07 are the odd ones and spread out over several parts of the country.
Numbers starting with 08 are toll free numbers and can be found in the whole country.
Numbers starting with 09 are chargable numbers and can be found in the whole country.

010 – Rotterdam and surroundings
011 – Zierikzee, Goes, Terneuzen, Middelburg and surroundings
013 – Tilburg and surroundings
015 – Delft and surroundings
016 – Bergen op Zoom, Roosendaal, Tholen and surroundings
017 – Alphen aan den Rijn, Naaldwijk and surroundings
018 – Ridderkerk, Spijkenisse, Gouda, Gorinchem and surroundings

020 – Amsterdam and surroundings
022 – Den Burg, Den Helder, Enkhuizen, Hoorn and surroundings
023 – Haarlem and surroundings
024 – Nijmegen and surroundings
025 – Beverwijk, IJmuiden and surroundings
026 – Arnhem and surroundings
029 – Uithoorn, Purmerend and surroundings

030 – Utrecht and surroundings
031 – Doetinchem, Wageningen, Ede and surroundings
032 – Lelystad, Dronten and surroundings
033 – Amersfoort and surroundings
034 – Harderwijk, Barneveld, Culemborg, Woerden and surroundings
035 – Hilversum and surroundings
036 – Almere and surroundings
038 – Zwolle and surroundings

040 – Eindhoven and surroundings
041 – Oss, Waalwijk and surroundings
043 – Maastricht and surroundings
045 – Heerlen and surroundings
046 – Sittard and surroundings
047 – Roermond, Venray and surroundings
048 – Cuijk and surroundings
049 – Helmond, Weert, Best and surroundings

050 – Groningen and surroundings
051 – Drachten, Heerenveen, Sneek, Franeker, Dokkum and surroundings
052 – Steenwijk, Meppel, Coevorden, Emmeloord, Hoogeveen and surroundings
053 – Enschede and surroundings
054 – Oldenzaal, Winterswijk, Almelo and surroundings
055 – Apeldoorn and surroundings
056 – Wolvega, Terschelling and surroundings
057 – Deventer, Zutphen and surroundings
058 – Leeuwarden and surroundings
059 – Emmen, Assen, Appingedam, Stadskanaal and surroundings

070 – Den Haag and surroundings
071 – Leiden and surroundings
072 – Alkmaar and surroundings
073 – Den Bosch and surroundings
074 – Hengelo and surroundings
075 – Zaanstad and surroundings
076 – Breda and surroundings
077 – Venlo and surroundings
078 – Dordrecht and surroundings
079 – Zoetermeer and surroundings

Vegetation/Landscape:

Many will be surprised, but the vegetation within the Netherlands is very diverse.
The dune areas and overgrown beach plains are unique in Europe.

The large low peat bogs (Nieuwkoop, Vechtstreek, Northwest Overijssel, Friesland) find no equivalent anywhere in Western and Southern Europe.



The same applies to the Oostvaardersplassen in Flevoland created by land reclamation.

The moraines, moors, high moors, fens and deciduous forests, river valleys, brooks and springs located in the east and south each have their characteristic vegetation.



In the extreme south one finds a plateau landscape with in the valleys a rich flora, partly bound by limestone, which differs greatly from that of the rest of the country.


In addition, mankind has influenced landscape and plant growth for thousands of years, mainly through small-scale and varied agriculture.


Specific tree:

There’s a lot of different trees in the Netherlands, but if we talk about specific ones, then 9 turn out to be very common.

Beech
/
Birch
/
Oak
/
Scots Pine
/
Els
/
Ash
/
Maple
/
Elm
/
Poplar
/

Architecture:

The Dutch Golden Age roughly spanned the 17th century.
Due to the thriving economy, cities expanded greatly.
New town halls and storehouses were built, and many new canals were dug out for defense and transport purposes.
Houses in cities were generally very narrow.
In the countryside, larger houses were built, though not as many.


Some towns are still very traditional like Zaanse Schans for instance.

Other places are much more modern, both in the cities and in the countryside.

Rotterdam is a very modern city when it comes to architecture.
The outskirts were partially unharmed during World War II, but the city center was totally destroyed.
Instead of rebuilding like it was before, as they did in many other cities, Rotterdam chose to build a new city.
Lots of skyscrapers and unique architecture can be found in the Manhattan of Europe, very different from the rest of the country.



General look:

The Netherlands is the country of cute little villages with canals and small little bridges.

It is also the country of dikes protecting the people from the water, which are often full with cows or sheep.

The Dutch love fields of flowers, windmills, more windmills and of course bicycles.


Oh, and it is the country where you can find all garbage bins of the neighborhood piled up, ready to be emptied.

Alphabet/script:

People in the Netherlands speak Dutch and pretty good English.
It is very common that you will see English on the streets during your Geoguessr missions.

Dutch is spelled in Latin letters and generally looks like this.

There is however, another official language within the Netherlands, Frysian.
This language is only spoken in the province of Friesland, in the north where Leeuwarden and Heerenveen are located.
City names appear in both languages in those areas, the bottom one being Frysian.

Street names look different there.

They got a lovely flag with hearts there.

The language generally looks like this.

You can see â, ê, and û appear, as well as more j’s and y’s than in Dutch.
Frysian is actually closer to English than it is to Dutch.
It’s often a sort of phonetically spoken/written English.

Domain:

.nl



Latvia

Country Flag:

Google car:

Latvias google has a short/sutbby antenna.

Bollard:

Latvian bollards are black and white with a yellow or white rectangle on the front and 2 dots on the back.

Camera Generation:

3.



Road Lines:

Latvia uses all white lines, and still has many dirt/gravel roads.

Road Signs:

Latvia uses blue backed road signs.

It’s road information signs have quite a thick red line.

The rear of their signs have folded edges.

Electricity poles:

Latvia uses concrete and wooden poles with ‘bulbs’ on the ends of ‘hooks’ usually alternating sides unless there is only 2.



You may sometimes find these hubs.

License plates:

Latvia uses the standard EU style plate.

Phone number:

Latvian mobile numbers begin with 2, and landlines with 6.

Vegetation/Landscape:

Latvia is a very flat country.

Specific tree:

–



Architecture:

Latvia has many wooden/brick houses with corrugated metal rooves.

General look:

Alphabet/script:

Latvian uses a Latin script.

Regions:

Latvia contains 5 regions.

Domain:

.lv


Estonia

Country Flag:

Google car:

Estonia’s google car has a small/stubby antenna.

Bollard:

Estonia uses a generic black and white bollard, sometimes with yellow replacing the white rectangle.

Camera Generation:

3.



Road Lines:

Estonia uses all white lines, and still has many dirt/gravel roads.


Sometimes the sholders are dashed.

Road Signs:

Estonia uses blue backed signs.


The back of Estonian signs have folded edges.

Electricity poles:

Estonia uses concrete, and wooden poles.


License plates:

Estonia uses the standard EU format.

Phone number:

–



Vegetation/Landscape:

Estonia is flat country, and well forested.

Specific tree:

Whilst found across all of the Baltic states these white flowers seem to be very common in Estonia in big patches.

Architecture:

Estonia has many houses made of wood/brick with corrugated metal rooves.

General look:

–



Alphabet/script:

Estonian uses a Latin script.

Regions:

Estonia has 15 counties.

Domain:

.ee


Turkey

Country Flag:

Google car:

–



Bollard:

Turkish bollards are white with a red rectangle.

Camera Generation:

3, and 4.



Road Lines:

Turkey uses all white lines.

Road Signs:

Turkey uses blue and white backed road signs.

Turkish road information signs have white borders.

The backs of Turkish signs have folded edges.

Turkish stop signs say dur.

Electricity poles:

Turkey uses metal, wooden, and concrete poles.


License plates:

Turkey uses white plates with a blue strip on the left side.

Phone number:

–



Vegetation/Landscape:

Turkey has a rather dry landscape featuring a fair few mountainous regions.

Specific tree:

–



Architecture:

Turkey has many apartment blocks.

General look:

Alphabet/script:

Turkish uses a Latin based script.

Regions:

Turkey is split into 7 regions.

Domain:

.tr


Bulgaria

Country Flag:

Bulgaria currently has 28 provinces (oblasts).
Here is a map that shows parts of the flags of each of the oblasts.

Google car:

In most of Bulgaria a small antenna can be seen like on the picture above.
In some parts however, you can find the one below.

Bollard:

In comparison to other countries, it’s not very likely that you will see a bollard in Bulgaria.
If you do, they will most likely look like this.

In some parts bollards are replaced with these things.

Whereas in other parts you will only see reflectors like this.

reflectors

On smaller roads however, you can find bollards like this.

Camera Generation:

In Bulgaria you can find Camera Gen 3 and 4



Road Lines:

Most Bulgarian roads have just white stripes in the middle of the road.

Due to the cold winters and the lack of maintenance alot of roads have cracks and are in a poor condition.


In other situations there are no road lines available at all.

Solid white lines can also be found in some parts of the country.

Alot of coverage in Bulgaria has been recorded during the winter.

Quite often, you see roads like this too.

Now add your occasional dirt road, and you’re done learning Bulgarian roads.

Road Signs:

In Bulgaria they write in Cyrillic, however most road signs have the cities or street names mentioned in Latin as well.
Note that on highways the signs are in green, whereas along smaller roads they are in blue.


This is however not the case alongside smaller roads.

Electricity poles:

Within Bulgaria you can find a wide range of electricity poles.







License plates:

Most Bulgarian plates start with one or two letters, followed by four numbers and another two letters.
The background of the plate is white and the letters are written in black.
They look the same from the front and from the back.

If you have the luck to come across a Bulgarian plate that is not blurred by Google Maps, it may help you narrow down your location.
The plates are marked by area. The first or first and second later show you where the car is registered.
Caution! As cars travel, they might be located out of their registered zone.
Some codes used make more sence then others, so here’s a small list to help you further in case you see them.

A = Burgas
B = Varna (B = V in Cyrillic)
BH = Vidin
BP = Vratsa
BT = Veliko Tarnovo
E = Blagoevgrad
EB = Gabrovo
EH = Pleven
K = Kardzhali
KH = Kyustendil
M = Montana
H = Shumen
OB = Lovech
P = Ruse (P = R in Cyrillic)
PA = Pazardzhik
PB = Plovdiv
PK = Pernik
PP = Razgrad
C – CA – CB = Sofia (C = S in Cyrillic)
CH = Sliven
CM = Smolyan
CO = Sofia Oblast
CC = Silistra
CT = Stara Zagora
T = Targovishte
TX = Dobrich
Y = Yambol
X = Haskovo (X = H in Cyrillic)

Phone number:

Phone numbers in Bulgaria all start with a local area code, which all start with a 0.
This way, when you come across a phone number, you can narrow down your search area drastically.

02 = Sofia
030 = Smolyan/Pamporovo
031 / 032 / 033 = Plovdiv + Oblast
034 / 035 = Pazardzhik + Oblast
036 = Kardzhali + Oblast
037 / 038 = Haskovo + Oblast
039 = Dimitrovgrad
041 / 042 = Stara Zagora + Oblast
043 = Kazanlak
044 / 045 = Sliven + Oblast
046 / 047 = Yambol + Oblast
051 / 052 = Varna + Oblast
053 / 054 = Shumen + Oblast
055 / 056 / 059 = Burgas + Oblast
057 / 058 = Dobrich + Oblast
060 = Targovishte + Oblast
061 / 062 / 063 = Veliko Tarnovo + Oblast
063 / 064 / 065 = Pleven + Oblast
066 / 067 = Gabrovo + Oblast
067 / 068 / 069 = Lovech + Oblast
070 / 078 / 079 = Kyustendil + Oblast
071 / 072 / 075 = Sofia Oblast
073 / 074 / 075 = Blagoevgrad + Oblast
076 / 077 = Pernik + Oblast
081 / 082 = Ruse + Oblast
084 = Razgrad
086 = Silistra
087 / 088 / 089 = Mobile Phone Numbers
091 / 092 / 097 = Vratsa + Oblast
093 / 094 = Vidin + Oblast
095 / 096 / 097 = Montana + Oblast

Vegetation/Landscape:

Considering its relatively small size, Bulgaria has a great variety of topographical features.
Bulgaria features notable diversity with the landscape ranging as follows.

Snow-capped peaks in Rila, Pirin and the Balkan Mountains



The mild and sunny Black Sea coast


The continental Danubian Plain in the north


The strong Mediterranean climatic influence in the Macedonian Valleys

The lowlands in the southernmost of Thrace

The lowest parts of the Upper Thracian Plain, along the Maritsa River

The Southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.

Bulgaria has substantial land in agriculture and forest



Specific tree:

A lot of the Bulgarian coverage is shot in the winter period, meaning a lot of trees lack leaves.

Among the coniferous trees, the white pine, the black pine, the spruce, the fir tree, and the Balkan pine are the most common.
On the other hand, among the deciduous trees, you will find mostly the beech, the oak, and the poplar.

Architecture:

Bulgaria is full with old Soviet/Communism style buildings.



Also, within Sofia you can find some modern, or refurbished flats.

Before:
After:

General look:






Alphabet/script:

The Bulgarian alphabet, a version of Cyrillic, is used to write the Bulgarian language.

Domain:

.bg


Belgiuum

Country Flag:

Google car:

Most of the Belgian coverage shows a car with a small antenna.
However in some parts the antenna is not visible, meaning nothing is seen.
In the southern parts the car with the red front has been spotted.
The one with the blue front has been spotted in the western part.
Please bear in mind that the different colors may appear somewhere else as well.




Bollard:

Belgium has a variety of bollards to pay attention to.
There’s completely white bollards, white bollards with yellow, white and red reflectors, as well as blue and white bollards.
Sometimes you can see a bollard made of rock next to one of the white ones with yellow reflectors.
Other times you may see the white bollards with yellow and white reflectors standing next to each other.
There’s also hectometer signs and wooden city bollards that you might want to pay attention to.








Camera Generation:

Gen 2, 3 and 4



Road Lines:

Most roads in Belgium either have a single white striped line, or no road lines at all.
Sometimes they go together with cycling paths.
You can also come across so called multi-dot lines.




The Multidot Line is not only designed as a marking, but also has the function of draining rainwater in a quick way.
This form of road marking consists of small but regular dots of thermoplastic with paint-free zones between them.

Road Signs:

Directions to other cities in Belgium are on blue signs.

Once you enter a certain district while driving on the highway, you might see such signs.

Local directions from the highway are visible on white signs like this.

Street signs are different in every city, even within the same city.
Quite often in Belgium these come with the city name printed on them, which is useful for Geoguessr players.
From the big cities Bruges (Brugge) seems to be the exception to this fact.
Even smaller cities like Boom, or even villages, quite often have their name mentioned on the street signs.
Antwerpen
Brussels (French/Dutch)
Charleroi
Liège
Gent
Boom

Electricity poles:

Electricity Poles in Belgium may look like this.


This one with the three lines, can also be found with just two or one line.


Wind turbines can be found in Belgium as well.

License plates:

License plates in Belgium are white and come with red letters and digits.
Most of them have the one number-three letters-three numbers format.
However, since 2014 Belgians can request their personalized license plates, which makes any combination possible.


Phone number:

Belgian phone numbers all start with a 0, followed by one or two digits, which explains the area code the phone number is registered in.
010: Wavre (Waver)
011: Hasselt
012: Tongeren (Tongres)
013: Diest
014: Geel, Herentals, Turnhout
015: Mechelen (Malines)
016: Leuven (Louvain), Tienen (Tirlemont)
019: Waremme (Borgworm)
02: Brussels (Bruxelles/Brussel)
03: Antwerp (Antwerpen/Anvers), Sint-Niklaas
04: Liège (Luik), Voeren (Fourons)
* Landlines in Liège have numbers starting with 04, and so do mobile phones all over the country. But mobile numbers are 10 digits in total, while Liège numbers are 9 digits in total.
050: Bruges (Brugge), Zeebrugge
051: Roeselare (Roulers)
052: Dendermonde (Termonde)
053: Aalst (Alost)
054: Ninove
055: Ronse (Renaix)
056: Kortrijk (Courtrai), Comines-Warneton (Komen-Waasten), Mouscron (Moeskroen)
057: Ypres (Ieper)
058: Veurne (Furnes)
059: Ostend, Bredene (Oostende/Ostende, Bredene)
060: Chimay
061: Bastogne (Bastenaken), Libramont-Chevigny
063: Arlon (Aarlen)
064: La Louvière
065: Mons (Bergen), Casteau
067: Nivelles (Nijvel), Soignies (Zinnik)
068: Ath (Aat)
069: Tournai (Doornik)
071: Charleroi
080: Stavelot
081: Namur (Namen)
082: Dinant
083: Ciney
084: Marche-en-Famenne
085: Huy (Hoei)
086: Durbuy
087: Verviers
089: Genk
09: Ghent (Gent/Gand)

Vegetation/Landscape:

Belgium has three main geographical regions: the coastal plain in the north-west, the central plateau, and the Ardennes uplands in the south-east.


Architecture:



General look:


Alphabet/script:

Belgium uses the Latin alphabet, but have three official languages: Dutch, French and German.
Knowing which language you see, can help you narrow down your options.

Odd Situation

Baarle-Hertog is a Belgian enclave located within the Netherlands.
This may be confusing you, as you can easily be in Belgium, but you may see three Dutch cars parked alongside the road.

Domain:

.be


Belarus

Country Flag:

Google Coverage:

Belarus uses a Trekker for all of their coverage They have extremely limited coverage as show above.

Bollard:


While this isnt really a bollard, its in most places that you have trekker coverage and can help you figure out its Belarus.

Camera Generation:

Gen 3 Trekker



Road Lines:


The small coverage that crosses roads show a white divider lines and yellow towards the curb.

Road Signs:

–



Electricity poles:

–


License plates:


These are the license plates for Minsk (The only city that has coverage in Belarus). The Red one is from before 2004, but can still be seen on street view.

Phone number:

Belarus has a international country code of +375, which replaced +7 from when they were apart of the Soviet Union. Minsk has an area code of 17. As of now, it doesn’t feel like there is a phone number (that isn’t blurry) on street view here.

Vegetation/Landscape:

–



Specific tree:

–



Architecture:

–



General look:


There are only a few places that have coverage, but they all kinda feel like this.

Alphabet/script:

Belarus uses the Cyrillic language.

Domain:

.by


Malta

Country Flag:

Google car:

The Google car in Malta is white, but you will not get any glimpse of it.

Bollard:


Bollards in Malta are so incredibly rare that it really isn’t worth learning them as the chances of you finding them are very slim. Its possible that these bollards shown above are private bollards, which mean they wouldn’t be consistent.

Camera Generation:

Gen 3



Road Lines:


Malta uses all white lines, including a double white line to separate the lanes. The only use of yellow appears to be for Bus stops and handicap parking in major towns / cities.

Road Signs:


Their stop signs appear to have a larger “Stop” than most countries.

Most of their warning signs have a white rim on the edge. This is also common in Italy.

Electricity poles:


There is also a double light pole variant of this one (shown below)



There are a few variants here, but most of them are painted this weird tan color. They almost blend in with the tan walls / buildings that are everywhere, which is what I would think would be the reasoning behind this color choice.

License plates:


This picture makes the blue strip look pretty light, but it is the same blue as the rest of Europe.

Malta can also have these short thick license plates, but they are not the only place in the EU that can, so it may not be the best clue.

Phone number:


Malta has a country code of +356, and you will see it in some places. All of their numbers since 2002 have 8 digits, with the first two digits representing a locality. All numbers will look like xxxx-xxxx or xxxxxxxx, mobile or not.

Any number that begins with 77, 79 or 99 are mobile numbers, and will not give any good information.

Vegetation/Landscape:


The landscape feels much like Greece and Italy, often with rock poking through the grass that exists. It feels dry, and you can often find groupings of Cacti along the sides of the road.

Specific tree:

–



Architecture:


While these are not everywhere, most of the rural roads have these stone walls. They might not all be this tall, but the layout is generally similar. Its a very good indication that you may be in Malta.

General look:


Malta is South of Sicily, so it feels Mediterranean, and that may cause some people to be confused.

Alphabet/script:

Malta uses the English Language and Maltese. You can generally find both rather easily, but the English is what really gives it away.

Domain:

.mt



North Macedonia

Country Flag:

Google car:

–



Bollard:

North Macedonia has black and white bollards with a red rectanlge on one side, and white on the other.

Camera Generation:

3.



Road Lines:

North Macedonia uses all white lines.

Road Signs:

North Macedonian signs use latin and cyrillic.

North Macedonia has brown tourism signs.

North Macedonian road info signs have white outlines.

However these signs can also appear in yellow where they have no such outline.

North Macedonia uses km markers on its motorways.

The backs of North Macedonian signs have folded edges.

Electricity poles:

North Macedonia uses wooden, and concrete poles.

License plates:

North Macedonian plates are white with a blue rectangle on the left side, and a red square a few digits in.

Phone number:

North Macedonia uses a phone code system as shown below.

Vegetation/Landscape:

North Macedonia is hilly country.

Specific tree:

–



Architecture:

–



General look:

Alphabet/script:

North Macedonia has 2 official languages, Macedonian, and Albanian.
Macedonian comes in both cyrillic, and latin alphabets.
Cyrillic.

Latin.

Albanian is latin based.

Regions:

North Macedonia is divided into 8 regions.

Domain:

.mk


San Marino

Country Flag:

Google car:

–



Bollard:

San Marino bollards are white with black caps containing either a white or red square.

Camera Generation:

2, 3.



Gen 3 camera is only found on roads which border italy and cross between the two nations.

Road Lines:

San Marinos road lines are all white.

Road Signs:

San Marinan signs feature a white outline, with black backing.



Hazard signs can be found in yellow.

Similarly their turn arrows are in yellow/red.

San Marino street names are surrounded by a box.

Electricity poles:

San Marino has a mix of concrete, metal, and wooden poles.



It also features these large sub-stations.

License plates:

San Marino plates are white backed with light blue text, and the countries crest on the left hand side.

Phone number:

–



Vegetation/Landscape:

San Marino is a mountainous nation within the borders of italy.

Specific tree:

–



Architecture:

–



General look:

Alphabet/script:

The official language in San Marino is Italian.

Domain:

.sm


Slovenia

Country Flag:

Google car:

Slovenia most commonly features a google car with a short antenna.

Bollard:

Slovenian bollards feature black caps atop white poles, with red reflectors on the front and white on the reverse.

Camera Generation:

3



Road Lines:

Slovenia uses all white road lines.

Road Signs:

Slovenian signs have a white outline, with folded edges on the back.




Settlement signs feature a yellow background.


Street signs are suspended.

Electricity poles:

Slvenia uses wooden poles.

License plates:

Slovenia uses EU styled plates with a coat of arms 2 digits in.

Phone number:

–



Vegetation/Landscape:

Slovenia is a mountainous and incredibly well forested country with almost 60% of its land mass covered in forests.

Specific tree:

–



Architecture:

–



General look:

Alphabet/script:

Slovenian uses a latin based alphabet.

Domain:

.si


Austria

Country Flag:

Google car:

Austrias google car features a short antenna.

Bollard:

Austrian bollards feature black caps with red reflectors on the front, and grey on the rear.

Camera Generation:

3, 4.



Road Lines:

Austria uses all white lines.

Road Signs:





Austrian street signs are most commonly coloured blue.

Austrian bus stops use these yellow/green signs containing a H.

Electricity poles:

–



License plates:

Austria uses the standard EU styled plate.

Phone number:

–



Vegetation/Landscape:

Austria is a very mountainous nation.

Specific tree:

–



Architecture:

A common site can be these ‘chalet’ styled houses.

General look:

Alphabet/script:

The official language of Austria is German.

Domain:

.at


Slovakia

Country Flag:

Google car:

–



Bollard:

Slovakian bollards are white with a black segment containing a white or orange reflector.


There are on occassion colour variations featuring entirely blue poles or a handful of other colours.

Camera Generation:

3



Road Lines:

Slovakia uses all white lines.

Road Signs:

Slovakian signs feature a white outline.



Slovakian settlement signs are in white.

Electricity poles:

Slovakia uses wooden poles.

License plates:

Slovakia uses the standard EU plate style.

Phone number:

–



Vegetation/Landscape:

Slovakia has a mix of flat and hilly terrain with mountains towards the north.

Specific tree:

–



Architecture:

–



General look:

Alphabet/script:

The official language in Slovakia is Slovak.

Domain:

.sk


Monaco

Country Flag:

Google car:

–



Bollard:

Monocan bollards are white with 2 red rings.

Camera Generation:

1, 2.



Road Lines:

Monaco uses white lines.

Also due to it having an F1 track around the city, you can find these red/white curbs.

Road Signs:

Electricity poles:

–



License plates:

Monaco has short white plates with blue text, however due to its location you can see a lot of Italian, French plates.

Phone number:

–



Vegetation/Landscape:

–



Specific tree:

–



Architecture:

–



General look:

Due to being a city-state Monaco is entirely built up.

Alphabet/script:

Monaco uses french as its offical language.

Domain:

.mc


Åland Islands

Country Flag:


The Åland islands are owned by Finland, therefore you can find the Finland flag as well. However, Åland has their own flag as seen above.

Google Coverage:


Åland is located between Sweden and Finland. Most of their coverage contains main roads. There are countless areas not covered.

Google car:


When in Gen 3 coverage, you can see a bit of the antenna off the back of the car.

Bollard:


(Front)

(Back)
Åland Uses this as a bollard.

(Front)

(Back)
These yellow bollards are found near intersections.

Camera Generation:

Gen 2 and 3



Road Lines:


Åland uses a white divider with dashed white shoulders. Their roads are also tinted red, which is a good clue that you are in Åland.

Road Signs:


There are chances you can find the road number on the side of the road.

You can find these blue signs on most major highways. They will point you towards towns, cities and villages. They also state the road number you are on.

They use Yellow and Red warning signs, which are also seen in Sweden.

These signs essentially mean no tailgating. The language here is Swedish.

The dashed line around the road numbers means that you are not on that road. If it is solid, like the number 2, that means you’re on that road.

Electricity poles:



Åland uses wooden poles with what appears to be a metal cap up top. You can also find these low voltage transformers on some poles.

License plates:


Åland uses different plates from Finland. They don’t have the blue bar on the side showing that it is a part of the EU.

Phone number:


Phone numbers in Åland with an area code are extremely rare. However, you can find numbers that do not have an area code attached to them. These will be between 5 and 6 digits long. You are also very likely to find numbers from Finland.

Vegetation/Landscape:

–



Specific tree:

–



Architecture:


Åland has very similar architecture to Sweden and Finland. The houses are generally red with white trim.

General look:


The most important thing to notice here is the red tinted road. This is a huge clue. The mix of bollards and the warning signs also are pretty indicative of the area.

Alphabet/script:

Åland uses a typical Swedish alphabet even though they are territory of Finland.

Domain:

.ax



Croatia

Country Flag:

Google car:

Croatia will most commonly have a short antenna.

Bollard:

Croatian bollards are white with a black rectangle containing a white reflector on the back, and red on the front.

Camera Generation:

2, 3.



Road Lines:

Croatia features all white lines.

Road Signs:


Croatian settlement signs are yellow backed.


Croatian road info signs feature a slight white outline.


Along highways you will find green KM markers.

Croatian street signs are blue.

Electricity poles:

Croatia uses wooden and metal poles.

License plates:

While Croatia may use the EU styled plate, at the time coverage was taken they were still using the previous all white plate.

Phone number:

–



Vegetation/Landscape:

Croatia is a very mountainous nation.

Specific tree:

–



Architecture:

Along the Dalmatian coast Croatia has many white painted villas with terracotta rooves.

Inland they will be more of a standard house design.

Croatia uses blue coloured fire hydrants.

General look:

Alphabet/script:

The official language of Croatia is Croatian.

Domain:

.hr


Isle of Man

Country Flag:

Google Coverage:


The Isle of Man is located between England and Ireland. Most of the major roads are covered, but there are some places in the middle of the island that are left uncovered.

Google car:


Due to the coverage being Gen 2, you do not get a chance to see the car. However, there are plenty of reflective surfaces where you can catch glimpses of a black car.

Bollard:


(Front)

(Back)
These are the same bollards that can be found in the UK.

Camera Generation:

Gen 2



Road Lines:


Isle of Man uses all white lines. The Middle divider can either be dashed (like the picture) or a solid line. There are also cases where the middle divider is a double line.
You can also find these black and white curbs near intersections and peoples driveways.

Road Signs:


The Isle of Man uses the typical Red and White warning signs that can be seen throughout most of the world.

These green signs point you towards other towns. The roads listed are also important, as they can help you triangulate your position.

Electricity poles:


The Isle of man uses wooden poles for most of their Electricity poles. There isn’t too much difference throughout the country.

License plates:


The plates from Isle of Man are special as they have a red strip on the left instead of a blue strip like the rest of the EU. Albania and Kyrgyzstan are the only other countries that had a red strip at one point.

Phone number:



The area code for the Isle of Man is 01624. It covers the entire island. It may prove to be difficult to find examples with the area code however. Most of the time, the telephone number you find will be 6 digits long, set up like xxxxxx.

Vegetation/Landscape:

–



Specific tree:

–



Architecture:

–



General look:

Alphabet/script:

The Isle of Man uses a typical English alphabet.

Domain:

.im



Russia

Country Flag:

Google car:

Russia usually has a black car with a long antenna:

Rarely, in some areas, like parts of the Chelyabinsk Oblast and Primorsky Krai, there is a white car with a long antenna:

Sometimes the antenna can appear small too:

Bollard:

Multiple types of bollards, different from the Ukrainian ones:

Camera Generation:

Gen 3


Road Lines:

Full white:

Potholes and other road deformations are quite common in Russia, maybe a bit less than in Ukraine.
The curbs and guardrails can very often be painted black and white:

Road Signs:

Russia has blue road signs with white text on them:

Sometimes the kilometre distances on signs can be enormously large in remote parts of the country:

Russian road signs are very often painted black on the bottom:

Russia has blue kilometre markers on its roads, not unlike other ex-Soviet countries, which tell you how many kilometres of that road you have passed:

The turn arrows in Russia are white with a red background, the same as in Ukraine:

The settlement entrance and exit signs follow the same format as other road signs – blue with white text, unlike Ukraine which uses white signs with black text:

These signs are quite common on Russian roads:

Russia, like Ukraine, has these large region (rayon and oblast) entrance signs stating the name of the region you are entering:

Sometimes there are built up area entrance signs:

The white signs in cities tell you the directions to parts of the city or streets or certain points of interest:

Note that улица means “street” in Russian, and it is shortened as ул. In the same way, город means “city” and is shortened as г. This is useful for searching for city/street names on signs and billboards.
The crosswalk signs in Russia usually have a lime reflective frame for additional visibility during the night:

The crosswalks themselves can often be yellow (or orange) and white, as in the picture.

Road numbering system:

Russia Road Numbering System

Electricity poles:

The most common types:

Electricity/light poles can often be painted white at the bottom:

Light poles by the side of the road can also have black and white stripes on them at the bottom to serve as reflectors for drivers in the night:

License plates:

Regular plates are all-white with a Russian flag in the corner:

The 2 or 3-digit number above the flag signifies the region (oblast) number.
Public service vehicle plates are yellow:

The tractor or agricultural vehicle (1st) and motorcycle (2nd) plates are more boxy:

The region (oblast) numbers on the plates are as follows:

Sometimes buses and UAZ vans can have their license plate numbers/characters written big on their backs, which is useful as they are not blurred like the plates:

Original picture: Bus to Zelenogorsk
However, if you are lucky, you can find an unblurred plate, or more often a corner of a plate with the oblast number not blurred.
The Tatarstan plates are a little bit different from the rest of the country and have the region’s flag and no region number:

Phone area codes:

Vegetation/Landscape:

An EXTREMELY useful map of tree ranges in Russia which is enormously helpful for narrowing down the location in the country:

Right click on the image, “View image” for higher resolution.
You can Google the trees to see how they look.
Trees in Russia can often be painted white at the bottom as an insect repellent or roadside reflector:

Specific tree:

Probably the most distinctive out of all the vegetation in Russia is the famous “Hokkaido cabbage”, which in Russia grows only on the island of Sakhalin in the far east of the country:

The accurate name for this plant is (giant) butterbur, or fuki in Japanese (Latin: Petasites japonicus).
Another distinctive plant/tree is the Siberian larch, which grows only in Siberia and the Far East, and not in the rest of the country (see the range on the map above):

Larch is one of the rare coniferous tree species which sheds it’s needles during the winter, so you can also see it with yellow or without any needles in some parts of the country, depending on when the coverage was taken:

(Picture from Mongolia.)

Architecture:

A very common old rural house style, made from dark logs with colourful ornate windows:

General look:

–


Alphabet/script:

Russian uses the Cyrillic script:

Full guide to reading Russian Cyrillic, comparison with Latin, and differences with Ukrainian/Belarusian (written by Alok):
East Slavic Cyrillic Guide

Subdivisions:

The Russian Federation consists of 85 federal subjects – 46 oblasts, 22 republics, 9 krais, 4 autonomous okrugs, 3 federal cities and 1 autonomous oblast:

Right click on the image, “View Image” for higher resolution.
Many of these are named after the biggest, capital city in the region. There are also lower level subdivisions, like rayons (districts), and they are also usually named after the capital/biggest city/town in them.

Internet domain:

.ru, .рф