The Cycling Embassy went to Bath and Bristol for the AGM, and around the discussion and decisions for the future, we had fun riding around a couple of my favourite cities pointing at the nerdy details of the infrastructure, seeing if there was anything to be learnt about what to do and what not to do. I promised to do write-ups of them, and decided to experiment with using Google Maps as a medium for doing a photo essay tour.
Link to the Google Maps photo essay tour.
You can take the tour by going through the pins in the left-hand panel, clicking them in turn to open the bubble with the information about each point of interest; alternatively, hide the panel, set your browser to full screen mode, zoom in at the Bath (eastern) end of the yellow line and start following it west, clicking the bubbles in turn for the information (some of them can be easy to miss when zoomed in, though). Or for a third option, click on the “KML” link to open it in Google Earth for easier zooming and panning around.
I prepared a lot of photos in advance (and then failed to prepare a blog post in advance), but didn’t manage to get everything. Thanks to As Easy As Riding A Bike and A Grim North for capturing all the photos that I’d failed to get.
If you like the format, I’ll do the other Safaris that way too.
At War With The Motorist 
I’m really impressed with the map! Any chance of posting details of how you achieved this? Or if the process is already described somewhere on the net, could you reply to this comment with a link?
Very easy – when logged into Google go to “my places” in maps, “create new” and it’ll give you the tools for adding paths and pins. Pin bubbles accept all the HTML you’d need to embed images and media.
I actually made it in Google Earth, exported to kml, and used the import button in the google maps editor, because it’s easier to pan and zoom in Google Earth. But either way it’s simple.
Fantastic, thanks. The “draw a line along roads” feature is a real time saver (where the route happens to be along a road).
I have found Google Earth is good for reminiscing about rides I did many years ago in Cape Town! Thanks for a great blog, and please take a look at my bike blog A Bikeride a Day at http://rideaday.wordpress.com/ and (if you like it) add to your list of blogs! Many thanks
Nathan Townshend