It amazes me how many airline passengers prefer to have their window shade down, even when they aren’t sleeping or it’s not that bright out … even on takeoff and descent, which is when you can see everything so much clearer. Not to mention, in most countries, it’s required that the window shades are up for takeoff and landing. Surprisingly, in the U.S. it’s only required for those in the exit row, though some airlines like Hawaiian Airlines require all window shades to be open on both takeoff and landing.
I’ve seen some incredible scenery looking out the window even when at a cruising altitude but most definitely at low altitude. An ultra runner who travels all of the world named William Goodge recently posted an amazing video of the Eiffel Tower (see embedded video below) piercing through the clouds. His caption reads: “Low clouds over Paris reveal the Eiffel Tower. I’ve seen some beautiful sights out of plane windows, but nothing quite like this….”
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Most of the comments were posted and included words like: “magnifique,” “sick,” and “amazing.” One commenter however, thought it was created by artificial intelligence (AI) but William quickly kiboshed that claim: “Pinky swear this is real and not AI. I don’t have the skills to figure that out, big up nature.”
I believe William that it’s real and I’ve seen monuments and buildings poking their beautiful heads out of the clouds all the time. The last one that I can remember was on my flight from Los Angeles to Sonoma last summer where I captured the photo below of a tower in San Francisco. It’s not the greatest picture, I know, but it shows that I’ve seen similar.
One commenter who goes by @traesienna had a good point when he wrote: “Imagine you buy a ticket to go on top of the Eiffel Tower, only to see nothing.” Yeah, not much to see on that day. Always check the weather.
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