Beside the Seaside, Beside the Sea Quiz

Answer: Doge's Palace, Venice

Construction of the Doge's Palace in Venice began in 1340, with most of the early work concentrating on the side of the building facing the lagoon. The courtyard side of the building was completed in 1442. Parts of the building were destroyed by fires in 1483, 1547 and again in 1577, but the rebuilding work mostly stayed true to the original design.

The most significant addition was the famous Bridge of Sighs over the Rio di Palazzo: added in 1602, it connects the Palace with the 'New Prison'. The name was not actually given to the bridge until the 19th Century, when Lord Byron suggested that prisoners would sigh as they took their last view of the beautiful city as they were led away.

Answer: Danish

Born in Copenhagen in 1918, Jørn Utzon was still not 30 years old when he won the design competition held by the New South Wales Government. The competition attracted 233 designs from 32 countries, with many of the most famous architects of the day taking part. Described as 'genius' by one of the judges, Utzon's winning design was accepted the following year.

It would be another 15 years and more than 100 million Australian dollars before Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the building.

Answer: East

The Kennedy Space Center is located on Merritt Island, north-northwest of Cape Canaveral Florida's eastern Atlantic Ocean coast an hour east of Orlando. It was used as the launchpad for all space shuttle missions from 1981-2011 and for the manned Apollo missions to the Moon. On their return, the space shuttles landed either here or at Andrews Air Force Base in California, and the KSC runway they used was one of the longest in the world.

Despite the loud noise of takeoffs, KSC is a wildlife sanctuary: wildlife enthusiasts can see bald eagles, Florida panthers, Florida manatees and American alligators.

Answer: Orange-red

The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886, presided over by the then-president Grover Cleveland. The lady is a representation of Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom.
Made of copper, the statue was originally an orangey-red color. Copper is one of only four metallic elements that are not naturally grey/silver. (The others are gold and caesium, which are both yellow, and osmium, which is blue.) Copper is naturally an orangey-red that goes deeper red when exposed to air.
By 1900, the statue's copper had begun to oxidize and within six years the entire statue was the green color it appears today.
The statue has been closed to the public on numerous occasions either for renovation (in 1984, the torch the statue holds was replaced) or for safety reasons (for a while after the September 11 attacks).

Answer: The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen

A tribute to Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, "The Little Mermaid" has been a major tourist attraction in Copenhagen Harbor since 1913. The statue's head was first sawn off in 1964. It was never recovered and a new head had to be made. A second attempt was made to sever the head in 1990, and she was decapitated again in 1998, although this time the head was returned anonymously two days later.

She has also been blown up - explosives blasted her into the harbor in 2003. She has been daubed with paint several times and graffiti-artists have used her to express political messages.

The Copenhagen authorities announced in 2006 that she was to be moved further out into the harbor in an attempt to prevent further vandalism and to stop tourists climbing on her.

Answer: The Presidio

Located on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula overlooking Alcatraz Island, "The Presidio" is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Originally built by New Spain in 1776, this former military base belonged to Mexico for a while before it was handed over to the United States in 1848.

More than two centuries of military service officially ended on October 1, 1994, when it passed into possession of the National Park Service. The Presidio was registered as a National Historic Landmark in 1962.

Answer: Battersea Power Station

Although it closed as a working power station in 1975, the iconic Battersea Power Station, Europe's largest brick building, is one of the most familiar landmarks on the River Thames. It can be seen in Alfred Hitchcock's 1936 film "Sabotage", in the 1965 Beatles' movie "Help!" and in the classic 1969 film "Battle of Britain".

It's most iconic appearance in popular culture, though, is on the cover of Pink Floyd's 1977 album "Animals", with an inflatable pink pig floating over it.

Answer: Easter Island

There are a total of 887 "moai", or monumental statues, on the remote Chilean territory of Easter Island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. They were created by the early Rapa Nui people, who settled this southeastern outpost of Polynesia some 1,000 years ago. The whole of Easter Island was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.

Answer: Blackpool Tower

Opened in 1894, Blackpool Tower was inspired what is now one of the world's most recognizable structures, the Eiffel Tower, which had been built five years earlier for the 1889 World Fair in Paris. At a height of 519 feet, the Blackpool landmark is little more than half of the height of its more famous elder cousin (which is 915 feet high).

The fire that almost destroyed the Blackpool Tower in 1897 broke out at the top of the tower and flames could be seen more than 50 miles away.

Answer: Cape Town

The thick white clouds that regularly descend to cover Table Mountain are known as 'the table cloth' - folklore attributes this phenomenon to a smoking contest between a local pirate and the Devil.

Standing 3,558 feet high, Table Mountain dominates the skyline of Cape Town, South Africa. A cable car carries visitors to the top of the 2-mile wide virtually flat summit, although you can hike up if you feel so inclined.