We've had a travel page over at JaneandRichard for many years now, and I've been trying to come up with a more visual, map based display for some time. Enter Google Maps and the incredibly easy API, something I've been meaning to take a look into for a while.

Armed with little more than the Google Maps API Reference I set about using their sample code to make a travel map. I wrote a few functions in javascript, which Richard later got some of the travel reports based on our photo album software to call, and we were were off. All we needed now was the Longitude and Latitude of all the places we've been to. *sigh*. After lots of google searches for obscure and less obscure places (Playa del Cura, Gran Canaria being one) I discovered that the BBC Weather page displays the longitude and latitude for a lot of places. Perfect.

So, I've got clickable markers (I'm in the market for a pin image), which when clicked open information bubbles displaying the name of the place and the date at the very least. For those places were travel reports exist there are links, and there are pictures where possible. We've started the map off as zoomed out as we can get. This does mean, however, that if you click on one of the top markers - like Iceland - the map scrolls down and we're left with a grey border. I've checked the main Google Maps and theirs does it too - so I guess its by design. Were we moved around on our trips, if there are separate reports for different places then they're marked multiple times, otherwise we've picked the most "typical" place, or the place we stayed the longest.