Here we visit a Murano glass store. Here they demo how glass blowing is done
This was cool. To make handles, you just drop some molten glass, cut off a piece...
Do a little twist while it's still cooling, and attach the other end. Not sure how they make it even though.
The biggest glass horse in the world! Notice the care I took to make sure the “do not photograph” sigh is in focus. They didn't allow pics in the Murano glass shop, cuz people used to steal their designs. Some were really nice. I want to be very rich so I can buy $3500 euro pieces...
Here we make the tour to Burano, where they are known for bright colored houses and lace works. There are a variety of legends on why the houses are painted this way (for example, so fisherman can recognize their own homes), but I think they did it just because there's nothing else to do on the island...
Our taxi boat, those little planks are narrow and wet.
Some lovely lacework. I dont think these are made in china.
Venice masks are a tempting tourist sourveir item as well, some are quite elaborate.
Lace work
Mask sourveirs
Interesting pasta shapes
I was so wet and miserable, but we already paid for the gondola rides, so off I went. I'm still coughing from my flu, this day made my flu really worse I think.
Yes people fuzzy. Buildings not.
Our singer and accordian player. We had quite a few accordian performances during dinners and such.
Other tourists, we wave at each other and take pics
Massive alien battle cruiser lands in Venice. Oh wait, just a cruise ship.
Europe is starting to import Holloween. They honor All Saints Day more (day after)
Cute baby chair
Smart car, parked sideways!
Note the cord on the wall, it's for you to pull if you fall and can't get up. The shower was tiny also.
We are in ROME! We do a little night tour first...
This pic is for you, Jennifer!
Vatican Meseum, that way! The Vatican has its own walls.
Big memorial statue in the city of Rome
Those 2 little guys are real soldiers. This thing is massive.
This is balcony is where Mussolini used to give his speeches.
Yes, sorry, a lot of duplicates of this beautiful mounment.
You can see current excavation of old Roman buildings inside the current city.
Yay, we're almost at the famous coliseum
OK, this place is actually smaller than I expected. No place for hot dog stands either.
Where do people fight? Actually, the little mazelike structures were topped with a floor/ceiling, these maze thingies are where the gladiators/slaves were.
Here you can see some of the orginal marble. This WHOLE place was covered with white marble originally, but after the fall of the Roman empire this place was abandoned, and the locals used this is a homedepot for building materials so a lot of the marbles were lost.
This platform shows how it would have been. That entrace is the gate of the victor, where gladiators come in and winners leave. BTW, these were like sports stars, so only the bottom 10% of gladiators were actually killed by other humans. Sometimes the lions win though, and whatever died goes out the other side, the gate of the losers.
Hehe, I found graffiti from 1883.
Of course, the coliseum would have been a complete oval originally. This was finished around 100 AD.
A lot of roads in europe are like the left side. The Roman army was good at building stuff.
There are 7 hills of rome. This hill is where caesar's place was.
This is Circus Maximus, aka the Largest Circus. This is where they had chariot races, like in Ben Hur.
This is the Citadel of the Angel, due to the big angel on top.
We're off to see the Vatican! Standing pilars in the road leading up to the Vatican.
Little gift shop sells all sorts of religious knick knacks
Cool telephone booth
The pillars surrounding the Vatican square (circle)
Alexander 7 commissioned this work (or at least the gate), that's why his name is up there.
The Swiss guards are the traditional guardians of the Vatican.
The pope has bitchin home set, bro.
We're going into St Peters Basilica, which is NOT the seat of the pope. Remember, a basilica is where remains of religious people are kept. The remains of Peter, yes THAT Peter one of the original disciples, resides here, along with lots of popes (John Pope 2 was right next to Peter, but Peter's was set way in more)
You were not supposed to take pics here, but I snagged a few. Resting pope.
Unfortunately, I could not take pics of Peter and John Pope's places. There were guards there and lots of people praying.
It turns out today is All Saints Day, so the Pope will give a speech! This guy is serious about getting the pope's picture.
At 12, the little window to the pope's apartment opens...
and they hang a flag to show his holiness...
The program for today...
There he is! Most of the speech was in latin though. He did give a benediction near the end in like 5 languages, including english. No chinese though
It was pretty cool to see the Pope. Bye bye your Holiness.
My gelato! Basically ice cream, this was a lot creamier than the Gelato I had last nite, which was more thinly shaved ice texture.
Tiny tiny little car, even smaller than the Smartcar to the left of it.
Random street shot. Again, the woman was not the purpose of this shot.
Did I say I like fountains?
I think this was the Cathedral, where the pope actually takes seat.
This is the famous Pantheon, a temple for all the gods. I think the name there was the architect's name.
Nice Ice
Another shot of this common street stones. I'm not sure if this means these were laid down by Roman soldiers.
A lot of street side sitting when possible
Cool monument to Maximus, the emperor that died in the Gladiator movie.
I am Maximus, I kicked butt
Awesome detail work
Local mall
Also common for people to just stand and drink their little coffees. Take away is more the exception than the norm, and milk is not common.
A lot of roman buses run on Methane now, with more planned to be converted.
Another pic for size comparison for the Smart Car
Another tiny little car we found. Our local tour guide is next to it. Turns out, in a lot of cities we hired local tour guides because you need a license to give tours in many places, and also they know their area more.
Another little vehicle. I think this is a triwheel scooter with a truck casing.
SPQR marks the public works of rome.
A lot of tourists...
Neat staircase where the images change.
A cafe that started before our country did.
This is the famous Spanish Steps. Not sure why it's famous, I think it was in a variety of classic movies, and now this area is a hotspot for fashion
TONS of tourists...
Our singers for tonight's meal. I liked the right one. The guy was pretty friendly too with his expressions and gestures.
We're off to see the Vatican Museum. It was nice being in a group, because we got special entry privileges. The statue on the left is Michaelagelo himself, you can see him holding a chisel and hammer.
Vatican walls sends a clear message to unwanted salespeople.
So many beautiful things in the Museum. I love marble.
Beautiful ceilings...
They have really good mosiac workers. This table shows some of their skill.
Down we go this famous exit staircase. We saw the Sistenine Chapel as well, but we werent supposed to take pics even though a lot of people did. Don't worry, God will smite them or something. We get ahead in life by following rules, right?
Look at this longass line to get into the museum. I'm a big believer in guide tours now.
A new day. I forget where we are, sorry. Here's the remains of an old guard tower.
This cycle is built backwards!
We made it to Florence and this is the Basilica of Santa Croce. This is where a lot of famous Italians are buried, like Michelangelo, Galileo Galilei, Machiavelli, Gioacchino Rossini.
Another cute little car
Cathedral of Florence
Another little power machine
This knife stand is fun
Gold? work on a door, forgot which building.
These antigue statues are out in the open for people to view. Notice Michaelangelo's David on the left. That's a copy to mark where the original stood. We went to a museum to see the original. Pretty awesome work, you can see veins on his arms.
The Rape of the Sabine. Wiki this, interesting legendary history about the abduction of these women (not rape) as wives for romans.
Yes, my camera sucks at night. If I used the flash it's even darker for some reason.
I forgot why I took this pic. Someone famous worked up there, Michaelangelo?
Runs on maple syrup.
The hotel tonite is very nuvo.
You can access the internet using the wireless keyboard, but it sucked, typing way too slow and the TV cant show the whole browser.
We're at the leaning tower of Pisa and this little choochoo will take us from the parking lot to there!
These little souvenir shops are stored in teepees, then opens up in the daytime.
Almost there...
Tada! Wait, there are other buildings near the tower itself?
The right side was completely filled with souvenir shops. There's even a town to the right of the tower.
Here we celebrate bad engineering.
People waiting to go up the tower. We didnt do this, it would take too much time.
I really like this pic of tourists doing the “Look I'm pushing up the tower” picture.
On the road again...
We went through 170 tunnels to go from the Italian riviera to the French riviera. Here's the first pic of the french side.
Another “shopping” stop, at a perfume factory. The best part is I get to go wizzy. Strangely, the bathroom didnt smell all that nice...
The french uses dogs as their drivers!
The french riviera is not just beaches, but packed full of people...
A local square near our hotel
OK, it's pretty common in France to have these shower handles with the long snake pipes. I think most of the bathrooms also had a place where you can hang the handle to take a shower the normal way. Mine didn't. Taking a bath sucked.
All along the road where our hotel is are really fancy stores. The french knows how to dress, and this is a high end resort area.
A little night drive. McDonalds is everywhere!
We're not in Kansas anymore
OK. For some reason, the French LOVES to have phramacey stores. I mean they are EVERYWHERE.
Our little dinner excursion for tonite. The food turned out to be pretty good, and there was a black cat that walked around as we ate.
Pepper steak. This was very good.
A little walk in the early morning
I like fountains
If I was homeless, I'd make sure I have a doggy, it really improves the return on begging. Actually, I'm not sure if this guy is really homeless. As I said before, I didn't see many homeless - either because we're in tourist areas, or the strong social welfare system.
It's very common to have narrow alley ways in europe.
People often hang out their stuff to dry.
OMG a real butcher shop. Admittedly, this was the only one I saw in the whole trip, but still I didn't know these existed anymore.
Early morning markets
Lots of cute sweets
The little brown thingies are olives. I thought they grew in jars.
Luxury yachts moored at the french riviera...
Supposedly this place (Jimmy'z) is famous
OK, we're walking to where the Cannes festivals are held, so there were a few of these.
Along the sidewalks of the Cannes, you can see hand prints of famous people, like the walk of stars in hollywood.
This really should be a fist print.
This is funny, some guy made his own print
Neat chairs, or aliens in disguise.
OK, here was a surprising thing. In France, it's OK to just let your dog poo anywhere. France spents a ton of money keeping their streets clean, and they have people with special vacuums to clean up doggy poo. This doggy bag post is actually a rare find.
People in france play this weird bowling like game, sort of like big marbles knock each other around.
Oh, it's also ok to let dogs into the restaurants! Of course, this would never work in China, they'd end up on the menu...
I got “no no”ed for taking a picture of the menu. Why? Anyways, I'm in line here because I need to goto the restroom, and this place had a code pad on the entry. You had to buy something to get the code off the receipt. Ironically, I bought a bottle of water to get the code.
This yacht is really beautiful.
I won $1000000 here! Actually, Casino is just a chain of supermarkets.
We're visiting an old medieval town, now a trendy tourist destination.
This place was called St Paul
This is where women used to bring their laundry to wash, beating them with a rock. I wish I bought my laundry.
They really didn't like travelling salespeople. Just a left over cannon from the town's old days.
The cobblestone streets of this town is neat.
This water is actually drinkable. In a lot of old towns, they would have one or more of these drinkable water spots for the people.
A lot of foo foo shops in this place.
I like this toilet paper holder.
I was really tempted to buy some of these, some sort of crystal/magna rock things.
The sign basically says: If you are dumb enough to fall over, it's not our fault.
Official guide to moo moo emotions
The top middle blue piece was my favorite. It was like $95 euro, I was seriously tempted.
A close up. Again, static picture can't convey all the light plays
Alright, moving on. This carving is of a man using a key on himself. I think I lost my key.
I'm happy until you drop me! Only 1400 euros...
This was pretty tasty - ham and cheese, with cheese toasted outside as well.
A horse made of horseshoes.
One of 25 authorized copies of Rodin's thinker. If you buy now, you get a set of steak knives as well!
I have to get more gelato!
OK, I had to go do laundry again, damn it. This machine dispenses laundry powder. Yes, they come in powder, my young friends!
My laundry buddy
This place is neat. What you do is choose the machine you want to power up then put in coins for that machine.
We're going to Monaco. Some mounment that we drove by, I forgot what.
Fuzzy picture of french riviera as we drive up to Monaco.
Monaco's own navy!
This is the main church of Monaco. Grace Kelly and her husband are buried here.
The dog I grew up with, Bingo, looks just like this...
This is the Royal Palace of Monaco. I wonder if Princess Stephanie is in tonite.
A defibrillator right on the street, in case you lose too much money I suppose.
They really need to upgrade their defensive systems
This was the winter festival, a little carnival.
Yup, Monaco's own plates. This whole nation is like 1 square mile, so maybe 2 cars are registered...
Not sure what this was, but I like the happy eggs
We're visiting Monte Carlo. This is the main industry of the whole nation, a casino.
This is where the high rollers go. For some reason they couldn't find my name, bad record keeping.
The police station is right next to the casino.
Music awards that weekend, with Celine Dion! I didn't see her though.
Where did I park my car.
Only here can u find olives right on the table. The coffee was like 5 euros, so that's about $7.
Ah, there's my car.
Next day, we're on the bus again. Here we stop at Arles, whose claim to fame is Van Gogh lived here.
They had their own little coliseum, which you can see is being restored.
These dogs were huge.
Another little machine, working next to the old roman city walls.
Yeah... this cafe's bathroom is a bit traditional... For #2, you would squat on those 2 foot thingies...
My brunch. Coffee and some sort of hot dog pastry. It tasted weird without all the chemicals we add to our hot dogs.
High tech county fair ride!
A lot of fighting happened here against the Nazis, so we'll put a memorial here.
Crossing the border into Spain. Not sure if this pyramid is old or new.
We're in Barcelona, the party city! Here's a fuzzy picture of some city art deco.
Our hotel. Very modern.
Swanky! That piece of paper on the toilet says it's sanitized for my use. Probably just a spray of lysol...
OK, all along the main road, in the middle is a big walkway. Traditionally, there'd be blocks of different types of vendors. Today, different vendors are mixed together. Here we have animals being sold on the street.
These tiny bunnies are cute.
I forgot the name of these hamster like pets.
Yes I like dogs, sue me.
This goth chick had a pink hello kitty bag. Somehow that comforts me.
OK this is really dark, but it's a large trash can where the guy inside would surprise people and make cat sounds. He's a street “artist” asking for donations.
The middle of our hotel.
The police is serious about their high speed pursuits.
Forgot which church this was. Church of the Holy Family I think it was.
Inside the church there are all these alcoves with their own shrines. Each represented a different profession/guild, like shoe maker.
No flash in churches please.
Various chairs for various nobles that attended a big convention back in the days
Some duke and his wife are “buried” here.
I found buried treasure in the church!!
13 ducks, some religious thing. They also act as guard ducks for the monastery back in the days
Oh, not buried treasure. Real people buried here, and we're walking right over them.
You too can sponsor a stone. I want to sponsor the foundation stone, then threaten to remove it unless I get a hefty bribe. Ah, this place is the Cathedral of Barcelona...
No boring ceilings in europe
They happen to be making a film in the square of the king today. Call me, Angelina!
Serious about home security
Narrow streets and lack of parking makes scooters and bicycles a real practical option
An architect named Gaudi designed a lot of funky buildings. A real visionary back in the days. I think this was the building that had one of the first underground parking. 100 years ago he had the vision to see that one day, people with these new fancy cars would want to park under their residences.
Neat street tiles. It forms different pics depending how they are together.
OK, this was the church of the holy family, one of Gaudi's master pieces. Under renovation and still not completed. It takes centuries to finish a church.
The front of the church is very psychdelic, zoom in for details. Maybe he visited that mushroom shop in Amsterdam.
2020 is the median prediction finish date
A sourveir shop with lots of weapons!
Spain with its bull fighting legacy. I think I can take this one on.
This comes up to my waist. Now I feel thirsty.
Lladro is made in Spain.
Back of the holy family church. zoom in for details.
Forgot what this was.
That blue star thing is the mascot/symbol of a bank - represents a child putting a coin in his piggy bank, pretty smart design actually.
Spain is ready for alien invasion with that plasma cannon. Also works as a large antenna for now.
A panorama of Barcelona
Worship me!
I'm too cheap to buy a postcard, so I'll just take a pic.
This artsy sign represents the different aspects of Barcelona.
Taking the kids out on a day trip. Chained together, with bright neon shirts so mopeds wont run them over.
Prisons for the young
This was the main street walkway I told you about. On the side, narrow paths for cars to actually use the road.
People in Europe like things relaxed, not like type A americans. Here old folks sit around and chat.
These hard roll sandwiches are pretty common. I didn't like the bread in Europe at all, most are really hard crusts.
Check out that little sandwich in the middle, just a hunkering chuck of cheese in the middle.
Another Gaudi building
Cute baby stuff
These were neat artsy stuff too, basically a face inside a scarf like thing. Wood I think is the material, not sure.
More cute baby stuff
I applaud this man for at least doing something to get some money. He makes stuff out of cans.
These little magazine stands are common
Some international signs are pretty ingenious. I like the toilet one on the right.
This is actually a “modern” road, where real cars are actually pass.
Visiting the Gaudi park. This was designed by one of his students.
Gaudi was a real genius. These benches are egronomical. When it rains, the sand would filter the water, where they would flow through the hollow pillars into a reservoir
Gaudi liked to blend nature and artificial.
More funky Gaudi buildings
An Ukrainians couple on our town, sitting on the egronomic (back supported) benches.
Check out the lady statue on the right, blended as part of a pillar
Famous little dragon, guardian of the water. That drooling makes me think of my sick nights...
Hey what are you doing boy, get off of there!
Car dusters are grown, not made in China!
OK, what's the limit of the number of strings on an instrument...
Beckham selling perfume. When I think of him, I just think sweat :P
Spain also has a rental bike program.
Off to see the Picasso museum.
I thought this was a sweet moment.
Friendly native waving at us. She was happy we were all taking her pics.
Buying some stuff from the local market, where things are “cheap”. Here, they use draggable baskets.
This little dog anxiously waited for her master, wouldnt even pay attention to me.
Two street “artists” begging for money.
Our Flamengo dinner, inside what used to be a vault. Good food for once.
OK let's start the show! It's packed and I'm sick.
These Flamengo dancers were pretty amazing.
I liked this outfit
No they were not kissing
A hostal! This is where you can rent a cheap place to stay the night. 2 stars means you won't get eaten by rats, I think. No, those girls are not prostitutes ... I think.
Funny travelling sleep pillows.
I ate about 385 ice creams before I realized she's not gonna pop out of the machine...
What the hell, Spain has HUGE bulls.
Another one!
Man the castle defenses!!
Stopping at a little town named Zaragoza, an old roman outpost
Local church. This is really a lunch and potty break. EU has strict rules about how many hours a driver can put in, so we have to do these stops. Which is good, cause my bladder is about 2.5 hrs capacity...
The doggy just had a sip from the fountain
This is a map of Spain. Not very portable.
Old Roman city walls
Hail Caesar!
Some really funky pizzas they have.
Lamp posts worshipping the church
What the hell, when did we get a coffee machine on the bus! Our driver has been holding out! The seat to the right is where the tour director sits.
Old castle
Wind power!
Another cow sighting!!
Hey what the hell, it's just a sign! Turns out theses were put up by a brandy company in the 50s, before they outlaws commercial signs along the highways. The cows were too well built so they just left them there, and now they are cultural landmarks. I like them.
We arrive at Madrid. A really big and packed city.
There were a TON of these densely populated apartment buildings.
More human beehives
Our hotels vending machine offer a wide variety of products. Zoom in to see them.
I kept this picture cuz it looks artsy. Just a bumpy ride with no flash.
I think this was the Plaza De Espana
Singers at our dinner. The 2nd guy on the right forgot to never put his guitar in the dryer.
This is the absolute center of Spain. All highway marker distances are measured to this spot.
Statue to King Carlos the third
The bear at the famous Puerta Del Sol
Europeans are not so stuck up on sex, unlike puritan based americans
Jennifer, another pic for you!
I like this bank's sign.
Can you spot where the door to my hotel room is? I couldnt...
This hotel always had a “guard” for the entrance to keep peasants out.
This is where the Madrid train bombing occurred.
One more cow pic. Bus rides are really boring, I should bring a ninendo DS next time.
We're visiting Toledo
Panorama of Toledo
Toledo is known for their sword making, but should we be concerned they are making so many?!
They are good at gold etchings
I liked this sourveir shop
All these swords, I love it! I was tempted to get a few
This bad boy was damn heavy.
Don Quixote was written near here...
This katana is a bit more my style
More churches. Yes, we're visiting Europe. Forgot the name of this church
The top of this piece is used for the new year procession I think. Zoom in for details
Funky ceiling
This church is high tech. You don't light devotion candles, just turn on a bulb.
This is where old priests would “stand”. The little seat is called the mercy seat, so they can lean against it during long services.
This church sure had a lot of eye candy
Some other church. Zoom in on the doorways
More weapons from a local sourveir shop!
This castle is made out of mazapanes, some kind of local pastry/candy thingy.
Whee, people using Gingers (aka Segway scooters).
A muslim temple I think. No pics please (hehe).
Those black chains were where Christian prisoners were hung.
OK off we go.
Can you spot the working girls in this picture? While not legal in Madrid, the police don't really care about these street walkers.
We're off to visit the Spanish Civil War memorial. This place was awesome. That cross is super huge and you can see it far away from the highway.
Valley of the Fallen
No pictures were allowed inside, which was too bad since I really liked it. This place holds the Civil War dead. It has a capacity of 1 million and 130000 bodies so far, with more bodies relocated regularly.
Another potty stop. I thought this sign was pretty smart design - you would black out the parts of the 8s appropriate to list your own numbre.
Our driver. First time we've seen him fuel up the bus, must have sucked the station dry. Both him and the tour director did very well, and my tips reflected it. There were some on the bus that questioned the value of what we got, idiots. The guideline was 3-5 US dollars per day of service (24 days total). 38 people at max 120 is just 4560. These guys worked for tips, Globus didn't pay much supposedly.
We reach Bordeaux. I wonder if the wines I ordered are ready.
Another cute little vehicle.
All the locals are out to shop and mingle. This place was packed.
A different species of bottle recycle bins
New tram system. Europe is really good about building mass transit. Being more compact, environment is important to them as well as keeping vehicles off the road.
Packed! Though, supposedly Hong Kong and China will be worse.
Some giant dropped his screwdriver
Poor doggy was left alone in the trunk by his master. So sad :(
Little bus
This fountain was awesome
OK, this public bathroom is cool. What happens is that after each use, it will go through a self wash cycle to sanitize itself.
Oh yeah, I score some over the counter cough medicine with codeine. No miracle drug though, the germs were stomping all over my defenses.
Bordeaux is famous wine country
Leaving for Paris in the dead of night, taking the high speed TGV train in the morning.
We are the early birds
This train station bathroom also allows you to take a shower!
Place the bomb here!
Here we go, choo choo
A fellow traveller and patient. We're getting our hot teas. This table design is neat because the train's movement makes this place sway a bit, so you would just wedge yourself against the corner and the wall.
Due to bomb threats, Paris came up with the brilliant idea of using only plastic for trash, so if bombs are put inside people may notice.
Paris, like all other cities, have a river. Having that much water to look it was the best.
Statue to Joan of Arc. The flag sways a bit under the wind. OK, by this point I was ready to puke, having picked up a stomach flu on top of my normal flu. After the group potty break, I had the tour director take me to the hotel. The first taxi we hailed refused to take me, he was afraid I'd puke in the car :P I missed the city drive tour as well as going up to the 2nd level of the Eiffel Tower. I also missed the Cabaret show that night :(
The french should really implement a flight ceiling limit.
This doggy just did his #2 on the street, the owner just left it there. Remember, it's ok to do so cuz they have special people to take care of this stuff.
The Eiffel Tower was built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle, a World's Fair marking the centennial celebration of the French Revolution.
Paris is serious about jay walkers! They have squads of these heavily armed soldiers patrol the streets and especially the monuments for terrorists.
The national assembly where they vote to work 2 hours a week.
The city center. Every cool city has a ferris wheel. That oblisk is from Egypt. Yes, I forgot a lot of names.
Old architecture styles abount in Europe
Here we visit the Louvre. It used to be a fortress so you can see some of the original walls.
Our cute French guide. Call me!
The Louvre is huge, complete with shopping stores and restaurants. You really need a week in here. BTW, I had a few coffees from Starbucks when I got tired of tiny little cups. American portion for this bad boy here, please!
Through the glass pyramid I see a nearby building...
The Da Vinci Code audio guide.
This guy is still nursing. Move to solid foods already!
First eye surgery. I doubt it went well.
Run this way in case of raptor attacks, they are drawn to museums for some reason.
The original moat
More stuff stolen from Egypt. Might makes Right!
I love marble.
Our lovely guide showing us where Venus de Milo came from. A place called Milo apparently :)
Gimme a hand?
SO MUCH to see in here.
Louvre has like 8 sections with different themes/categories. We're not going down this way today. You can see a lost couple trying to make sense of the place.
The Winged Victory of Samothrace, also called Nike of Samothrace,[1] is a marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory), discovered in April 1863 on the island of Samothrace (in Greek, Σαμοθρακη — Samothraki) by the French consul and amateur archaeologist Charles Champoiseau. Yes, I wikied this.
The Coronation of Napleon. Actually of his wife. Huge famous painting. See Louvre is cool about letting people take pictures, so all that crap about flash being bad is just a way to force people to buy the books. Fine, I believe flash is bad, but still.
Cool ceiling before we see Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa behind a special glass to protect against flash and thieves.
She gets her own wall. A real money maker for the Louvre!
Modern art! Oh wait, just a sofa.
Da Vinci code referred to this painting.
If you get permission, you're allowed to stand in the museum and practice your painting.
Why can't our ceilings be cool like this
Original fresco (painted directly on walls), now in bad shape. I'm gonna make all my art work in titanium so it lasts forever.
This was Winged Victory's hand. She's giving us the finger.
Napleon crown jewels. Kinda ugly crown if you ask me.
Random statue I took a pic of
Another random one
Marble!
The Louvre has its own post office. One thing fun for tourists to do is to send post cards from different famous places (like this and the Vatican) to get the post mark.
A special picture of my little globus bag, which actually served very well. My faithful ducky companion kept me company throughout this whole thing. Notice the packs of Halls I stacked up.
The original Moulin Rouge (which means Red Windmill)
A little city cemetary
A gas station right off the side of the road!
It's expensive if you want to live in this foofoo neighborhood.
We're visiting the artist district Montmartre
Renoir worked in one of these buildings before. Can you find him?
Chris makes a date! She's
Dalida (Born Yolanda Christina Gigliotti) (January 17, 1933–May 3, 1987) was an Egyptian singer of Italian origins who lived most of her life in France. She received 55 golden records and was the first singer to receive a diamond disc. A real pop star of her days. She lived here and received a square in her honor after her death. Notice that her chest area (as often the case with busty busts) are different colored than other area, from all the touching.
This martyred saint supposed was beheaded, picked up his head and walked 6 miles. Some angel had fun that day.
Another funky vehicle.
A scultpre to a writer named Marcel Ayme. One of his books talked of a man who walked through walls.
A moulin rouge restaurant. Here artists and cabaret girls can mingle back in the days.
This was where Dalida lived. Her wiki picture was beautiful.
Funky house.
Artsy and yuppie shops abound in Montmartre
That white sign tells of all the famous people that dined here.
Old advertisements for these old shows
Even today it's still an artist district. Back in the day, this place was settled by artists because it was beyond the city limits of Paris and thus not subject to her taxes.
A comprehensive art guide
Yes, another church
Panorama of Paris
Roaming artists willing to do your portrait.
It turns out it was a pair of preteens that were standing here, “begging” for money.
This pigeon got the last piece of my gelato cone.
I wonder if they are homeless or just kids making a buck.
This guy was pretty skilled with these big yoyos
This doggy let me pet him a while but didn't really pay attention to me. I noticed that all dog owners sympathize with a few of us needing to pet every dog we see.
A trash and a recycle bag.
One of the forgotten outside this church.
Paris missile defense system
It was faster to walk down this place than wait for that slow car.
The red light district, near the original Moulin Rouge. I don't see street walkers though, they are probably resting now.
You can often see flower shops and stands, unlike in the US where we only have florists.
A lot of people in Europe smoke, although thankfully most restaurants ban them now. I was so sick the slightest smoke can trigger my coughs.
Eiffel Tower under the powerful sun
The Australian ambassy. Both Australia and New Zealand speak english, but their accents can be very heavy. There was an Aussie on the tour that I can barely understand. Separate your words, man!
A little statue of liberty.
An ark made of animals, found inside my hotel.
I clear my pocket of random change. Sometimes I leave them this way, hoping it brings a smile to the cleaning lady.
I'm on the 14th floor.
Just insert cart into my mouth and I'll let you in.
Paris by night. Get ready for fuzzy pictures
This is the restaurant's version of Sprite. Tasted like sprite but without all the bubbles. I mix this with my orange juice.
A bunch of pics of people on my tour. These filippnos are pretty well off.
Their wives
The rest of the tour composed of 3 americans (including myself), aussies, new zealanders and 2 canadians.
Our Tour Director Chris is very happy the tour is ending
Yeah, finally I can get rid of these ponks! Actually, I think our tour was pretty good in that we didn't whine much. Some tour groups are really bad in their whining. Stay home, ponks!
A random pillar with lots of detailed engravings. Too bad it's night time and we're moving.
We stop for some pics of Eiffel Tower at night
Yeah, I'm going home!! The Paris airport Charles de Gaul (CDG) has playstations for boys, big and small. I havent slept all night, and won't be sleeping on the plane due to my coughs. By the time I get home I was up 48 hours. If you actually finished all these pics, you must be really bored, but I congratulate you :)
