Europe tour photos
Ok, so I'm finally going to post some of my favourite photos from the Europe trip, and I might talk about some of the things I saw. We'll see how long this post goes for... it will almost definitely be another one of my novels. At least I have something substantial and interesting to talk about this time.
If you want to have a look at more photos, go to http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l129/mrwarandieboy/2006%20Europe/
Ok, so the first thing I did when I got into London after 30 hours on aeroplanes and in airports (after meeting up with Helen in Piccadilly) was jump on a train to Edinburgh (in Scotland). We were going up there to catch the last few days of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (don't ask my why they dont call it the Fringe Festival, I dont know). After an additional 5hrs of riding in a train we arrived in Edinburgh. It's a really beautiful city, full of wonderful old buildings, with a castle overlooking a park in a valley in the centre of town. It just so happened that Belle & Sebastian were playing in said park the day that we arrived, so after dropping our bags off at our B&B, we went in and watched them do their soundcheck for about an hour. We had plans to bo back into town that evening to see their proper show, but I'd pretty much crashed and burned by about 5pm. Helen was lucky to even wake me at around 8:30pm to go and get some dinner.
Belle & Sebastion with Edinburgh Castle in the background.
Edinburgh Castle.
The next day Helen and I went out and got into the festival. We grabbed tickets in the morning for three comedy acts: an improv midday show in a small bar, famous Edinburgh comedian Danny Bhoy in a big auditorium, and obligatory Aussie Corinne Grant in a side-room of a large complex with about 15 other people. All three were pretty brilliant, but I think my favourite was the improv duo - they were genius (and their accents weren't overly thick, so I could understand them just fine). They did 5 or 6 'games' that each went for about 10 minutes. My favourite game was where the comedians were given three things that they had to work into a scene. Then when the scene was done, they asked the audience for two movie/theatre genres. They then replayed the scene in the two given genres; our audience's selections were 'Japanese Anime' and 'Zombie Vaudeville' (which was actually a combination of two separate genres, since they didn't think plain old 'Zombie' was difficult enough). Zombie Vaudeville was absolutely hilarious - they would be acting out the scene as zombies, when they'd break into these slow motion dances with the dodgiest rhyming songs, all while still being zombies.
Zombie Vaudeville.
After Edinburgh we met up with our tour group in London and headed off on our 25 day trip of Europe. Usually the groups around 30-45 people, but we only had 21 in ours, so there was lots of space on the bus and things were a lot more manageable in general. I didn't know it at the start of the trip, but we had a really great group. I was worried beforehand that there would be some real dickheads that I'd be stuck with for a month (you know, your stereotypical travelling Aussie bonehead), but every single person was really nice and very easy to get along with, including the guides. So if any of those people read this, cheers!
The Cliffs of Dover from the ferry to Calais.
The first place we went to was Paris. We went for a drive in the bus around the city, taking in the major sights and learning about the history (this was fairly standard practice whenever we got to a new place). Seeing things like the Eiffel Tower and the Arc du Triomphe for real was a pretty amazing experience.
Ferris Wheel at the Louvre.
The next morning we were supposed to be at the bus by 8am to head into town. However, I slept through Helen's alarm, and she went straight back to sleep after turing it off, so we didn't wake up until 8:10am. We thought everyone had left so we were getting dressed pretty slowly, when we received an annoyed knock on the door demanding to know why we weren't on the bus with everyone else. Needless to say, we were pretty sheepish when we got on the bus.
First stop, the Louvre. We saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and countless other priceless paintings and sculptures.
Notre Dame Cathedral.
Muthafuckin' French Snakes on a Muthafuckin' French Plane
Arc du Triomphe. We climbed up the top of this.
Eiffel Tower. I didn't quite make it to the top of this... I could only get to the 2nd level (of three levels) before my fear of heights took over. Helen went to the top though.
Eiffel Tower at night - taken from the cruise on the River Seine we took that evening.
The next day we left Paris and headed to Lauterbrunnen, in the Swiss Alps.
O RLY? NO WAI!
Interlaken.
The valley in which we stayed.
The day after that we caught the train up to the top of the Jungfraujoch, which is the tallest mountain in Europe (3.5km high). The Jungfrau was absolutely stunning. The air was so thin, I'd never experienced anything like it. I got it into my head that I wanted to walk over to a restaurant that was about a kilometre or so away, slightly up the mountain from the main tourist area through thick snow. Helen wasn't too keen but I dragged her along anyway. About 1/3 of the way there we were pretty stuffed, the lack of air and difficulty in walking through snow was taking its toll. However, I really wanted to get to this restaurant, so we came up with a plan of attack: we would walk about 20m at a time, then take a 30second break to let our legs stop burning and get our breath back, then we'd go another 20m, and so on. It took us about 45min to go that 1km. At the end we both felt very proud, and had celebratory Swiss hot chocolates.
Train ride to Jungfraujoch
View from the mountain.
Huskies!
A massive crevice.
Helen and I at the end of our climb.
Hot chocolate.
Ice carving exhibit underground in the mountain. The exhibit was literally dug into the ice - all the walls and floors were ice.
My favourite photo from the entire trip - from the train on the way back down the mountain.
After Lauterbrunnen we went to Avignon for one night. Avignon is a town where the Popes (or anti-Popes as they were known, due to their corrupt nature) had their headquarters for a while, many moons ago.
We saw this wedding procession. EDIT: I have been told that this was actually a wine festival procession. It is true that there was a wine festival just up the hill from this chapel. However, there was also a couple who had just got married and followed the procession up the hill. Whether the procession was for the wedding or the wine festival, I don't know. Apparently the flags are representative of many of the nearby regions of Italy.
After Avignon we headed to Nice, stopping via Cannes.
A Cannes beach, covered with Queensland sand. They ship it over, since the French beaches are usually made of pebbles.
A view of the mansions on the coastline on the drive from Nice to Monaco.
The entire group dressed up for a night in the casinos of Monaco.
The next stop was Pisa, on our way to Florence. The drive through Tuscany on the way there was great.
Helen, Myself and some tower.
The Duomo, in Florence. Our tour guide, Rae, was caught by the local tourist police just near here. In much of Italy it's illegal to be a tour guide (as opposed to a tour leader - the difference is that a guide tells you what you're seeing, where a leader just takes you from place to place) unless you have a license, which of course they only give to locals.
The tomb of Michaelangelo in the Santa Croce. This cathedral also houses the tombs of Galileo, Dante and Macchiavelli, among others.
Next up was Rome... wow, Rome.
Rome was probably my favourite place on the trip (along with Berlin and perhaps Amsterdam). Our first afternoon/evening in Rome was spent on a bit of a walking tour around the major sites in the city centre.
One place we visited that I don't have photos of (not allowed) was a chapel just outside of 'central' Rome. It used to be located elsewhere, but had to be relocated. Hundreds of monks were buried in the old churchgrounds, so they dug them up and moved them to the new site. However, they didnt just dig a hole and dump in the remains at the new site - instead, they created statues and ornaments out of the remains. If you go into the 'basement' of the chapel you can see these remains. They've been set up in a number of alcoves along a longish hallway. In each alcove is a scene featuring skeletons in various poses, walls covered with skulls and other bones, and various bit and pieces all created from bone. even the lamps that hang from the ceiling are made out of bone. The freakiest thing there is right at the end - in the very last alcove there is a skeleton attached to the roof... this skeleton has a scythe and set of scales (still made out of bones). It's the grim reaper. Below him is a plague that reads: 'What you are now, we once were. What we are now, you will one day be'.
Trevi Fountain. There is drinkable water here that supposedly turns you into a virgin again. Most of us had a drink.
The Pantheon.
The dome of the Pantheon. This was once covered with bronze, and the rest of the building covered in marble. However, that was all stripped to decorate other monuments, such as St Peter's Cathedral.
Raphael's Tomb.
Piazza Venezia, otherwise known as the wedding cake.
A little building known as the colosseum.
The next morning we were dropped of nice and early just around the corner from the entrance to the Vatican City Museums. We went inside and saw many many famous works by artists such as Raphael and Michaelangelo, including the famous painting on the roof of the Sistine Chapel.
This is a self portrait that Raphael painted into one of his paintings in the apartments in the Vatican City.
We were lucky enough to be able to join a free guided tour around St Peter's Cathedral. The guide was an American History Masters holder (as in, and American who had a Masters in History, not someone who held a Masters in American History, because that wouldn't have been very useful to us at all) who had been doing the tours for about 5years, so he know his stuff.
St Peter's Cathedral. This was probably the single most awe-inspiring thing I saw on the trip.
The inside of St Peter's. To give you an idea of the scale, the gold writing you can see above the arch on the left of the photo is 2m tall.
Michaelangelo's Pieta in the cathedral. It's behind a bullet-proof glass barrier because some Hungarian fellow attacked it with a hammer in 1972. In between him starting the attack and people managing to drag him off a lot of the pieces he had hit off were picked up and stolen by tourists. However, after a public plea pretty much everything was returned.
90 tonnes worth of bronze. Made by the italian sculpture Bernini.
The dome of St Peter's. Again, to give an idea of scale, the characters at the base of the dome are about 4m tall, and are elongated so that they appear to be in correct proportion when viewed from the floor.
We then went on a guided tour of the Colosseum and Palantine Hill, which is the location of the birthplace of Rome.
Arc of Constantine.
The inside of the Colosseum.
The birthplace of Rome.
Part of the Roman Forums.
We also went on a day trip to Pompei during our stay in Rome.
Here's a picture that was uncovered in a brothel. There's a whole series of them.
This is a painting that is located right at the entrance to a large house. The owners of the house were brothers who had made their money through being merchants - they were 'new money' and liked to show off. Hence, one of the brothers decided that he wanted everyone to know how well hung he was. Pompei was a very sexually aware society, as you can probably tell. It was a port town, after all.
A petrified body.
Well, you'd be pretty scared too if a volcano blew up a few miles from you
Mt Vesuvius.
After Rome we headed to Venice...
...although we stopped off at Verona on the way there, and saw Juliet's Balcony (from Romeo & Juliet).
The Grande Canal in Venice.
Helen, Bronson, Naomi and myself on a Gondola Ride.
"I only sing in the shower, or when making love" - direct quote.
St Mark's Square and Basilica, with protected pidgeons.
Penis pasta.
Next was Austria. First we spent two nights in St Johanns, where we had a bit of a rest in the midst of all the touring (although we did have some fun tobogganing down a mountainside). Then it was on to Vienna, via at Salzbury (to have at look at Mozart's Birthplace).
Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna. It had some beautiful gardens, plus a maze. Unfortunately we didn't have time to go through it.
The group at the palace.
Austrian Parliament. A bit nicer than ours.
I really like this photo. It was a freaky looking fountain near the Hofburg palace, featuring Athena (a Greek goddess).
Helen and I went to the Natural History Museum in Vienna. It was awesome, and I was like a little kid in the dinosaur exhibit. This is an Allosaurus.
Mr Fischer, who owns and runs the Old Viennese Schnapps Museum & Factory. He was hilarious and so nice (favourite quote I can remember: "this one is great for parties, even when there's no party"). They actually made a type of Schnapps called 'Vienna Gold', which had real gold flecks in it. They also made Absinthe, which I tried a bit of (and then tried again a few days later at a bar).
Prague was our next stop. It was a beautiful old city.
The first night we were there I was snoring a lot, since I was getting over a cold and the beds weren't the most comfortable, so instead of keeping everyone else awake I decided to go for a walk at around 5am, while it was still dark. It was kind of scary at first, because we were staying on the edge of the city, right next to a large lake with old abandoned buildings around it, remnants of communist rule. However, soon it became quite beautiful as the sun started to appear. I got this wonderful sunrise photo, which is my other favourite photo from the trip.
Elderly fisherman at the lake.
This is an astronomical clock in the centre of Prague.
During the day we went up to the Palace on the top of a large hill across from central Prague - this is a view from the top of that hill. Inside the palace we saw a concert performed by a trio of piano, violin and flute. The flutist was probably one of the most stunning women ive ever seen. The actual music was also very enjoyable - they played music from Mozart, Vivaldi and many more composers.
After Prague was Berlin, which was probably the most emotional place we visited, due to the fact that it was the scene of such recent horror, and it was amazing to see the evidence of a country of people trying to come to terms with that.
Berlin Wall. There are bits of the wall all throughout the central area of Berlin. The Germans are trying to ensure that the remaining sections of the wall are protected to provide a reminder of their history. Some of the paintings on the wall are quite uplifting.
In the morning of our first day in Berlin we went on a guided tour of central Berlin, where all of the major historical landmarks were pointed out. It was probably my favourite activity in the entire trip. It was a truly emotional experience. The above photo was taken at the site of Hitler's bunker, where he committed suicide toward the end of WWII. There is pretty much nothing left of any of the Nazi Party buildings - they were all destroyed in the war anyway, so when it came to rebuild the city the Germans simply demolished what was left behind and built over it. Therefore, there is no memorial at the site of Hitler's death, as the German's didn't want to create some sort of shrine for neo-nazis. There's simply a little board that explains what happened there years ago. The actual bunker still exists underground - its too massive to destroy and remove. The apartment buildings behind it are where the old Nazi Headquarters used to be - a massive building that was about half a kilometre long. You wouldn't have any idea of any of these things unless you knew what to look for, theres no indication at all that this area used to be the centre of such atrocities.
Mere metres from Hitler's Bunker is the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. It's simply a grid of a bit over 2000 grey stone blocks. You can walk down amongst the blocks - the ground dips down as you go further in, until the tops of the blocks are a few feet above your head. Even though there might be 100 people in there at the same time as you, because you can only see down one row of the grid at any time it can feel very lonely. The blocks aren't perfectly straight and in line with each other, and the ground is uneven, which makes thing seem even more uncomfortable.
This place was the one place that affected me the most. To be totally honest, I became quite upset in there. It's difficult not to think about the horrors that went on 60 years ago, and to also think about your own loved ones. When we exited the memorial I had to stay away from the rest of the group for a bit while I composed myself.
I remember watching a television show about a year ago where this Jewish-Australian comedian went on a pilgrimage to Auschwitz. When he got there he was pretty much overcome with emotion. I remember doubting whether simply being somewhere could have provoked such a response in me - now I don't doubt it at all. I think if I'd gone to an actual concentration camp my reaction would have been similar, Jewish or not. My one regret from my trip is that I didn't get to visit a concentration camp. I'll have to go back one day.
Anyway, back to the trip.
This is a statue that was destroyed during the liberation of the city. It located outside one of the ex-Nazi buildings (one of the few still remaining). Next to this building is the 'Topography of Terror' exhibit, which details the rise and actions of the SS, and also talks about the Germans who opposed the Nazis. It also has an exhibit about the Nuremberg Trials.
Here is Checkpoint Charlie (or at least a replica of the original Checkpoint Charlie). This was the only point at which civilians from the West could enter Eastern Berlin - civilians from the East could not visit the West. There's an exhibit next to this that explains the history of communist Germany. It also details some of the escapes that were made (or attempted) by Eastern Berliners.
Brandenburg Gate.
The Reichstag (German Parliament). Hitler never actually set foot inside the Reichstag as Chancellor, as it was burnt down right after he came to power (some people believe it was the Nazi party that started the fire, as they used its destruction to their advantage to gain more power) - this is something of a source of pride for the German people, that he was never legitimitely elected and never spoiled their democratic home.
Those crazy Germans.
The final major stop on the tour was Amsterdam, a city famous for its drugs and sex industry. However, it offers so much more than that. It's an absolutely stunning city, probably the most beautiful that I saw (with the possible exception of Paris). It's also rich in history and culture... and drugs and sex.
On the first morning we went for a ride around Amsterdam, out to some parklands on the outskirts of the city centre.
After that we went for a walk around the city, past many of its beautiful canals.
Helen and I went to the Van Gogh museum, which was thoroughly interesting. We also went to the Anne Frank Museum, which was once again somewhat emotional. In fact, I got very emotional when this American guy was talking on the phone while we were watching a movie of Otto Frank (Anne's father) talking about receiving Anne's diary after the war, and his battle to continue on after his entire family was murdered. One lady asked this American to please take his conversation outside as it was disrespectful. He grudgingly left, but not before quite loudly saying into his phone "yeah, I just got asked to leave... ah, I really don't care". I was furious at that remark, and so turned around and loudly told him what I thought of him before storming off. Crude, yes, I admit that. But I was pretty livid at the time.
I should probably also mention the drugs and sex stuff. Yes, we did go to the Red-Light District. It was interesting, and smaller than I was expecting. The group went to a 'sex show' in one of the venues there. No, I don't feel bad for going - these people are all legal, registered workers who get paid a good wage and, from what I could see, didn't have any problems doing what they did. On the contrary, the majority of them seemed to enjoy the attention and the performance aspect of the show. The prostitute booths were a bit different, the girls (or variations thereof) there didn't seem quite so enthusiastic, although I guess that sitting in a small room for hours on end probably isn't very exciting.
As for the drugs, we did go to a 'coffee shop'. Helen and I tried a 'space muffin'. To be honest, it was a waste of money. We didn't feel anything, and since we didn't want to drink after eating it we weren't allowed to stay in any of the clubs, so we were basically forced to head back home. Meh.
The last night in Amsterdam was spent on a cruise through the canals. I have heaps of photos of this night - check the photobucket account, pages 7 and 8.
Bronson tries his luck with Flic.
Sunny has gas?
Kang is a cool mofo.
That pretty much brought us to the end of the Europe tour.
The sun sets on a wonderful trip (driving back to London).
With Helen and I on our own again, we set about exploring part of Britain. Here's some highlights:
Buckingham Palace.
Changing of guards at Buckingham Palace.
Westminster Abbey.
Helen in front of Big Ben / Parliament.
Stonehenge, one of the highlights of Britain. Despite what people say about the atmosphere being ruined by the road that goes right past it, I still found it to be quite eery.
We also went back up to Edinburgh for a few days to see more of the actual sites and history of the place. We had a lovely rainy & misty day for our tour of the Scottish Highlands, which is perfect.
Hamish, the Scottish Highland Cattle/Cow.
Loch Ness. No sightings of monsters.
Nelson Monument in Edinburgh.
We went out to Stratford-Upon-Avon to see William Shakespeare.
Where Bill was born.
Where Bill is now (Holy Trinity Church, he has his grave inside the chapel).
Monument. I like this photo.
There's also a really cool butterfly farm in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Who would've thought? They also had some cool spiders and scorpions. Once again, I was transformed into a little kid.
Before I left Europe we spent the day at the Tower of London.
This is the infamous 'Watergate' at the tower. If you entered via this gate in the past then in most cases the only time you would be leaving is on the way to your execution.
The White Tower.
The Tower Bridge.
And thats pretty much it. Hopefully you enjoyed the photos and stories. I'm sure I've forgotten lots of interesting things that I saw, but I think that I covered the major points.
Red sun in Hong Kong
If you want to have a look at more photos, go to http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l129/mrwarandieboy/2006%20Europe/
Ok, so the first thing I did when I got into London after 30 hours on aeroplanes and in airports (after meeting up with Helen in Piccadilly) was jump on a train to Edinburgh (in Scotland). We were going up there to catch the last few days of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (don't ask my why they dont call it the Fringe Festival, I dont know). After an additional 5hrs of riding in a train we arrived in Edinburgh. It's a really beautiful city, full of wonderful old buildings, with a castle overlooking a park in a valley in the centre of town. It just so happened that Belle & Sebastian were playing in said park the day that we arrived, so after dropping our bags off at our B&B, we went in and watched them do their soundcheck for about an hour. We had plans to bo back into town that evening to see their proper show, but I'd pretty much crashed and burned by about 5pm. Helen was lucky to even wake me at around 8:30pm to go and get some dinner.
Belle & Sebastion with Edinburgh Castle in the background.
Edinburgh Castle.
The next day Helen and I went out and got into the festival. We grabbed tickets in the morning for three comedy acts: an improv midday show in a small bar, famous Edinburgh comedian Danny Bhoy in a big auditorium, and obligatory Aussie Corinne Grant in a side-room of a large complex with about 15 other people. All three were pretty brilliant, but I think my favourite was the improv duo - they were genius (and their accents weren't overly thick, so I could understand them just fine). They did 5 or 6 'games' that each went for about 10 minutes. My favourite game was where the comedians were given three things that they had to work into a scene. Then when the scene was done, they asked the audience for two movie/theatre genres. They then replayed the scene in the two given genres; our audience's selections were 'Japanese Anime' and 'Zombie Vaudeville' (which was actually a combination of two separate genres, since they didn't think plain old 'Zombie' was difficult enough). Zombie Vaudeville was absolutely hilarious - they would be acting out the scene as zombies, when they'd break into these slow motion dances with the dodgiest rhyming songs, all while still being zombies.
Zombie Vaudeville.
After Edinburgh we met up with our tour group in London and headed off on our 25 day trip of Europe. Usually the groups around 30-45 people, but we only had 21 in ours, so there was lots of space on the bus and things were a lot more manageable in general. I didn't know it at the start of the trip, but we had a really great group. I was worried beforehand that there would be some real dickheads that I'd be stuck with for a month (you know, your stereotypical travelling Aussie bonehead), but every single person was really nice and very easy to get along with, including the guides. So if any of those people read this, cheers!
The Cliffs of Dover from the ferry to Calais.
The first place we went to was Paris. We went for a drive in the bus around the city, taking in the major sights and learning about the history (this was fairly standard practice whenever we got to a new place). Seeing things like the Eiffel Tower and the Arc du Triomphe for real was a pretty amazing experience.
Ferris Wheel at the Louvre.
The next morning we were supposed to be at the bus by 8am to head into town. However, I slept through Helen's alarm, and she went straight back to sleep after turing it off, so we didn't wake up until 8:10am. We thought everyone had left so we were getting dressed pretty slowly, when we received an annoyed knock on the door demanding to know why we weren't on the bus with everyone else. Needless to say, we were pretty sheepish when we got on the bus.
First stop, the Louvre. We saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and countless other priceless paintings and sculptures.
Notre Dame Cathedral.
Muthafuckin' French Snakes on a Muthafuckin' French Plane
Arc du Triomphe. We climbed up the top of this.
Eiffel Tower. I didn't quite make it to the top of this... I could only get to the 2nd level (of three levels) before my fear of heights took over. Helen went to the top though.
Eiffel Tower at night - taken from the cruise on the River Seine we took that evening.
The next day we left Paris and headed to Lauterbrunnen, in the Swiss Alps.
O RLY? NO WAI!
Interlaken.
The valley in which we stayed.
The day after that we caught the train up to the top of the Jungfraujoch, which is the tallest mountain in Europe (3.5km high). The Jungfrau was absolutely stunning. The air was so thin, I'd never experienced anything like it. I got it into my head that I wanted to walk over to a restaurant that was about a kilometre or so away, slightly up the mountain from the main tourist area through thick snow. Helen wasn't too keen but I dragged her along anyway. About 1/3 of the way there we were pretty stuffed, the lack of air and difficulty in walking through snow was taking its toll. However, I really wanted to get to this restaurant, so we came up with a plan of attack: we would walk about 20m at a time, then take a 30second break to let our legs stop burning and get our breath back, then we'd go another 20m, and so on. It took us about 45min to go that 1km. At the end we both felt very proud, and had celebratory Swiss hot chocolates.
Train ride to Jungfraujoch
View from the mountain.
Huskies!
A massive crevice.
Helen and I at the end of our climb.
Hot chocolate.
Ice carving exhibit underground in the mountain. The exhibit was literally dug into the ice - all the walls and floors were ice.
My favourite photo from the entire trip - from the train on the way back down the mountain.
After Lauterbrunnen we went to Avignon for one night. Avignon is a town where the Popes (or anti-Popes as they were known, due to their corrupt nature) had their headquarters for a while, many moons ago.
We saw this wedding procession. EDIT: I have been told that this was actually a wine festival procession. It is true that there was a wine festival just up the hill from this chapel. However, there was also a couple who had just got married and followed the procession up the hill. Whether the procession was for the wedding or the wine festival, I don't know. Apparently the flags are representative of many of the nearby regions of Italy.
After Avignon we headed to Nice, stopping via Cannes.
A Cannes beach, covered with Queensland sand. They ship it over, since the French beaches are usually made of pebbles.
A view of the mansions on the coastline on the drive from Nice to Monaco.
The entire group dressed up for a night in the casinos of Monaco.
The next stop was Pisa, on our way to Florence. The drive through Tuscany on the way there was great.
Helen, Myself and some tower.
The Duomo, in Florence. Our tour guide, Rae, was caught by the local tourist police just near here. In much of Italy it's illegal to be a tour guide (as opposed to a tour leader - the difference is that a guide tells you what you're seeing, where a leader just takes you from place to place) unless you have a license, which of course they only give to locals.
The tomb of Michaelangelo in the Santa Croce. This cathedral also houses the tombs of Galileo, Dante and Macchiavelli, among others.
Next up was Rome... wow, Rome.
Rome was probably my favourite place on the trip (along with Berlin and perhaps Amsterdam). Our first afternoon/evening in Rome was spent on a bit of a walking tour around the major sites in the city centre.
One place we visited that I don't have photos of (not allowed) was a chapel just outside of 'central' Rome. It used to be located elsewhere, but had to be relocated. Hundreds of monks were buried in the old churchgrounds, so they dug them up and moved them to the new site. However, they didnt just dig a hole and dump in the remains at the new site - instead, they created statues and ornaments out of the remains. If you go into the 'basement' of the chapel you can see these remains. They've been set up in a number of alcoves along a longish hallway. In each alcove is a scene featuring skeletons in various poses, walls covered with skulls and other bones, and various bit and pieces all created from bone. even the lamps that hang from the ceiling are made out of bone. The freakiest thing there is right at the end - in the very last alcove there is a skeleton attached to the roof... this skeleton has a scythe and set of scales (still made out of bones). It's the grim reaper. Below him is a plague that reads: 'What you are now, we once were. What we are now, you will one day be'.
Trevi Fountain. There is drinkable water here that supposedly turns you into a virgin again. Most of us had a drink.
The Pantheon.
The dome of the Pantheon. This was once covered with bronze, and the rest of the building covered in marble. However, that was all stripped to decorate other monuments, such as St Peter's Cathedral.
Raphael's Tomb.
Piazza Venezia, otherwise known as the wedding cake.
A little building known as the colosseum.
The next morning we were dropped of nice and early just around the corner from the entrance to the Vatican City Museums. We went inside and saw many many famous works by artists such as Raphael and Michaelangelo, including the famous painting on the roof of the Sistine Chapel.
This is a self portrait that Raphael painted into one of his paintings in the apartments in the Vatican City.
We were lucky enough to be able to join a free guided tour around St Peter's Cathedral. The guide was an American History Masters holder (as in, and American who had a Masters in History, not someone who held a Masters in American History, because that wouldn't have been very useful to us at all) who had been doing the tours for about 5years, so he know his stuff.
St Peter's Cathedral. This was probably the single most awe-inspiring thing I saw on the trip.
The inside of St Peter's. To give you an idea of the scale, the gold writing you can see above the arch on the left of the photo is 2m tall.
Michaelangelo's Pieta in the cathedral. It's behind a bullet-proof glass barrier because some Hungarian fellow attacked it with a hammer in 1972. In between him starting the attack and people managing to drag him off a lot of the pieces he had hit off were picked up and stolen by tourists. However, after a public plea pretty much everything was returned.
90 tonnes worth of bronze. Made by the italian sculpture Bernini.
The dome of St Peter's. Again, to give an idea of scale, the characters at the base of the dome are about 4m tall, and are elongated so that they appear to be in correct proportion when viewed from the floor.
We then went on a guided tour of the Colosseum and Palantine Hill, which is the location of the birthplace of Rome.
Arc of Constantine.
The inside of the Colosseum.
The birthplace of Rome.
Part of the Roman Forums.
We also went on a day trip to Pompei during our stay in Rome.
Here's a picture that was uncovered in a brothel. There's a whole series of them.
This is a painting that is located right at the entrance to a large house. The owners of the house were brothers who had made their money through being merchants - they were 'new money' and liked to show off. Hence, one of the brothers decided that he wanted everyone to know how well hung he was. Pompei was a very sexually aware society, as you can probably tell. It was a port town, after all.
A petrified body.
Well, you'd be pretty scared too if a volcano blew up a few miles from you
Mt Vesuvius.
After Rome we headed to Venice...
...although we stopped off at Verona on the way there, and saw Juliet's Balcony (from Romeo & Juliet).
The Grande Canal in Venice.
Helen, Bronson, Naomi and myself on a Gondola Ride.
"I only sing in the shower, or when making love" - direct quote.
St Mark's Square and Basilica, with protected pidgeons.
Penis pasta.
Next was Austria. First we spent two nights in St Johanns, where we had a bit of a rest in the midst of all the touring (although we did have some fun tobogganing down a mountainside). Then it was on to Vienna, via at Salzbury (to have at look at Mozart's Birthplace).
Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna. It had some beautiful gardens, plus a maze. Unfortunately we didn't have time to go through it.
The group at the palace.
Austrian Parliament. A bit nicer than ours.
I really like this photo. It was a freaky looking fountain near the Hofburg palace, featuring Athena (a Greek goddess).
Helen and I went to the Natural History Museum in Vienna. It was awesome, and I was like a little kid in the dinosaur exhibit. This is an Allosaurus.
Mr Fischer, who owns and runs the Old Viennese Schnapps Museum & Factory. He was hilarious and so nice (favourite quote I can remember: "this one is great for parties, even when there's no party"). They actually made a type of Schnapps called 'Vienna Gold', which had real gold flecks in it. They also made Absinthe, which I tried a bit of (and then tried again a few days later at a bar).
Prague was our next stop. It was a beautiful old city.
The first night we were there I was snoring a lot, since I was getting over a cold and the beds weren't the most comfortable, so instead of keeping everyone else awake I decided to go for a walk at around 5am, while it was still dark. It was kind of scary at first, because we were staying on the edge of the city, right next to a large lake with old abandoned buildings around it, remnants of communist rule. However, soon it became quite beautiful as the sun started to appear. I got this wonderful sunrise photo, which is my other favourite photo from the trip.
Elderly fisherman at the lake.
This is an astronomical clock in the centre of Prague.
During the day we went up to the Palace on the top of a large hill across from central Prague - this is a view from the top of that hill. Inside the palace we saw a concert performed by a trio of piano, violin and flute. The flutist was probably one of the most stunning women ive ever seen. The actual music was also very enjoyable - they played music from Mozart, Vivaldi and many more composers.
After Prague was Berlin, which was probably the most emotional place we visited, due to the fact that it was the scene of such recent horror, and it was amazing to see the evidence of a country of people trying to come to terms with that.
Berlin Wall. There are bits of the wall all throughout the central area of Berlin. The Germans are trying to ensure that the remaining sections of the wall are protected to provide a reminder of their history. Some of the paintings on the wall are quite uplifting.
In the morning of our first day in Berlin we went on a guided tour of central Berlin, where all of the major historical landmarks were pointed out. It was probably my favourite activity in the entire trip. It was a truly emotional experience. The above photo was taken at the site of Hitler's bunker, where he committed suicide toward the end of WWII. There is pretty much nothing left of any of the Nazi Party buildings - they were all destroyed in the war anyway, so when it came to rebuild the city the Germans simply demolished what was left behind and built over it. Therefore, there is no memorial at the site of Hitler's death, as the German's didn't want to create some sort of shrine for neo-nazis. There's simply a little board that explains what happened there years ago. The actual bunker still exists underground - its too massive to destroy and remove. The apartment buildings behind it are where the old Nazi Headquarters used to be - a massive building that was about half a kilometre long. You wouldn't have any idea of any of these things unless you knew what to look for, theres no indication at all that this area used to be the centre of such atrocities.
Mere metres from Hitler's Bunker is the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. It's simply a grid of a bit over 2000 grey stone blocks. You can walk down amongst the blocks - the ground dips down as you go further in, until the tops of the blocks are a few feet above your head. Even though there might be 100 people in there at the same time as you, because you can only see down one row of the grid at any time it can feel very lonely. The blocks aren't perfectly straight and in line with each other, and the ground is uneven, which makes thing seem even more uncomfortable.
This place was the one place that affected me the most. To be totally honest, I became quite upset in there. It's difficult not to think about the horrors that went on 60 years ago, and to also think about your own loved ones. When we exited the memorial I had to stay away from the rest of the group for a bit while I composed myself.
I remember watching a television show about a year ago where this Jewish-Australian comedian went on a pilgrimage to Auschwitz. When he got there he was pretty much overcome with emotion. I remember doubting whether simply being somewhere could have provoked such a response in me - now I don't doubt it at all. I think if I'd gone to an actual concentration camp my reaction would have been similar, Jewish or not. My one regret from my trip is that I didn't get to visit a concentration camp. I'll have to go back one day.
Anyway, back to the trip.
This is a statue that was destroyed during the liberation of the city. It located outside one of the ex-Nazi buildings (one of the few still remaining). Next to this building is the 'Topography of Terror' exhibit, which details the rise and actions of the SS, and also talks about the Germans who opposed the Nazis. It also has an exhibit about the Nuremberg Trials.
Here is Checkpoint Charlie (or at least a replica of the original Checkpoint Charlie). This was the only point at which civilians from the West could enter Eastern Berlin - civilians from the East could not visit the West. There's an exhibit next to this that explains the history of communist Germany. It also details some of the escapes that were made (or attempted) by Eastern Berliners.
Brandenburg Gate.
The Reichstag (German Parliament). Hitler never actually set foot inside the Reichstag as Chancellor, as it was burnt down right after he came to power (some people believe it was the Nazi party that started the fire, as they used its destruction to their advantage to gain more power) - this is something of a source of pride for the German people, that he was never legitimitely elected and never spoiled their democratic home.
Those crazy Germans.
The final major stop on the tour was Amsterdam, a city famous for its drugs and sex industry. However, it offers so much more than that. It's an absolutely stunning city, probably the most beautiful that I saw (with the possible exception of Paris). It's also rich in history and culture... and drugs and sex.
On the first morning we went for a ride around Amsterdam, out to some parklands on the outskirts of the city centre.
After that we went for a walk around the city, past many of its beautiful canals.
Helen and I went to the Van Gogh museum, which was thoroughly interesting. We also went to the Anne Frank Museum, which was once again somewhat emotional. In fact, I got very emotional when this American guy was talking on the phone while we were watching a movie of Otto Frank (Anne's father) talking about receiving Anne's diary after the war, and his battle to continue on after his entire family was murdered. One lady asked this American to please take his conversation outside as it was disrespectful. He grudgingly left, but not before quite loudly saying into his phone "yeah, I just got asked to leave... ah, I really don't care". I was furious at that remark, and so turned around and loudly told him what I thought of him before storming off. Crude, yes, I admit that. But I was pretty livid at the time.
I should probably also mention the drugs and sex stuff. Yes, we did go to the Red-Light District. It was interesting, and smaller than I was expecting. The group went to a 'sex show' in one of the venues there. No, I don't feel bad for going - these people are all legal, registered workers who get paid a good wage and, from what I could see, didn't have any problems doing what they did. On the contrary, the majority of them seemed to enjoy the attention and the performance aspect of the show. The prostitute booths were a bit different, the girls (or variations thereof) there didn't seem quite so enthusiastic, although I guess that sitting in a small room for hours on end probably isn't very exciting.
As for the drugs, we did go to a 'coffee shop'. Helen and I tried a 'space muffin'. To be honest, it was a waste of money. We didn't feel anything, and since we didn't want to drink after eating it we weren't allowed to stay in any of the clubs, so we were basically forced to head back home. Meh.
The last night in Amsterdam was spent on a cruise through the canals. I have heaps of photos of this night - check the photobucket account, pages 7 and 8.
Bronson tries his luck with Flic.
Sunny has gas?
Kang is a cool mofo.
That pretty much brought us to the end of the Europe tour.
The sun sets on a wonderful trip (driving back to London).
With Helen and I on our own again, we set about exploring part of Britain. Here's some highlights:
Buckingham Palace.
Changing of guards at Buckingham Palace.
Westminster Abbey.
Helen in front of Big Ben / Parliament.
Stonehenge, one of the highlights of Britain. Despite what people say about the atmosphere being ruined by the road that goes right past it, I still found it to be quite eery.
We also went back up to Edinburgh for a few days to see more of the actual sites and history of the place. We had a lovely rainy & misty day for our tour of the Scottish Highlands, which is perfect.
Hamish, the Scottish Highland Cattle/Cow.
Loch Ness. No sightings of monsters.
Nelson Monument in Edinburgh.
We went out to Stratford-Upon-Avon to see William Shakespeare.
Where Bill was born.
Where Bill is now (Holy Trinity Church, he has his grave inside the chapel).
Monument. I like this photo.
There's also a really cool butterfly farm in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Who would've thought? They also had some cool spiders and scorpions. Once again, I was transformed into a little kid.
Before I left Europe we spent the day at the Tower of London.
This is the infamous 'Watergate' at the tower. If you entered via this gate in the past then in most cases the only time you would be leaving is on the way to your execution.
The White Tower.
The Tower Bridge.
And thats pretty much it. Hopefully you enjoyed the photos and stories. I'm sure I've forgotten lots of interesting things that I saw, but I think that I covered the major points.
Red sun in Hong Kong