Europe Trip Pictures

Trip Overview

2007-10-18T06:05:00.000-07:00

3 continents, 31 countries (counting Vatican City & Monaco), 131 days

I took 7,500 pictures. The highlights are posted here. All pictures are either 922 x 692 or 692 x 922. So if your screen resolution is 1280x1024 or larger, then you should be fine on this page.

If you have a wide screen monitor or small resolution and aren't able to fit all of the souvenir picture (below) onto the screen, and if this is going to annoy you when looking through all the vertically-oriented pictures, then go to http://hawketravelsmallpics.blogspot.com The picture quality isn't as good, but at least you should be able to see the whole picture without scrolling up and down.

Send feedback, questions, or requests for more pictures of something specific to ShaneRobertHawke@gmail.com

My only two souvenirs from the trip - Papyrus painting from Egypt and a stein from Oktoberfest.

My route:

I started out by flying into Cairo (A). Spent two weeks in Egypt, then flew into Frankfurt (B) and followed that route into Turkey. From Istanbul (C) I flew to Athens (D), spent a week and a half doing Athens and the Cyclades Islands, then flew from Athens to Dubrovnik, Croatia (E). Followed that route (flying from Croatia to Italy instead of taking a ferry) until I got to Dublin (F). I ended the trip by flying into Munich (G) for five days of Oktoberfest.

New York (Layover)

2007-10-18T06:00:00.001-07:00

I had a 12 hour layover at JFK Airport on the way to Cairo. Instead of hanging around the airport all day, I decided to take the subway to lower Manhattan.

Statue of Liberty

Ellis Island

The waterfront park

Ground Zero

NYSE on Wall Street

Egypt, Part 1

2007-10-18T05:55:00.001-07:00

ALEXANDRIA

Pompey's Pillar. The only standing Roman ruin in Alexandria.

Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Built on the site of the ancient Library of Alexandria.

The library's planetarium. Looks like the Death Star.

Roman amphitheater ruins

Mosque by the boardwalk

CAIRO, ROUND 1

Typical Egyptian policeman

Mosque in the middle of downtown Cairo

Al-Azhar Mosque

A real Egyptian street market for locals. Won't find any souvenirs here.

Mosque of Sayyida Zeinab

Random mosque

Pyramid of Khufu (aka The Great Pyramid of Giza)

Entrance to the tomb. The walk to get to the tomb is more interesting than the tomb itself.

Pyramid of Khafre

All three pyramids. The pyramid on the far right is the Pyramid of Menkaure.

The standard "Look at me standing in front of something famous" picture

Camel ride around the back of the pyramids to the Sphinx

He looks like he's having a great time

Contiki caravan

The whole Giza Necropolis

The Great Sphinx

This is what everyone thinks of when they think of Egypt

Shot from the freeway headed to downtown Cairo

Another shot from the middle of Cairo

SOUTHERN EGYPT

Driving across the Aswan Dam

The unfinished obelisk at the stone quarry in Aswan. The obelisk cracked as they were carving it, so they just left it there.

That's the actual Sahara Desert

The Nile

The only crocodile we saw the whole trip

View from the top of a sand dune

Me & Mason

Really shouldn't have walked up in bare feet. Turns out Saharan sand is hot.

Random ancient ruin on the Nile

The Great Temple at Abu Simbel (Ramesses the Great)

Close-up with people for scale

No pictures allowed inside. This is as good as it gets.

The Small Temple at Abu Simbel (Nefertari)

The temple was in danger of being flooded when the Aswan Dam was built. So in the 1960s, the entire temple was carved up into blocks and relocated. This is a close-up of how it was carved up.

Shot of the whole temple. Abu Simbel was the most impressive thing I saw during the entire trip.

Room on the Nile cruise boat.

Pool deck. Spent every night up here drinking Stella and Saqqara.

Temple of Kom Ombo

The two gods that Kom Ombo is dedicated to. Horus (falcon) and Sobek (crocodile).

Some well preserved carvings

Pretty cool columns

Kom Ombo side view

Temple of Horus, in Edfu

This is what happens when you build a temple, die, and your successor hates you

Interior of the Temple of Horus

The outer walls

Egypt, Part 2

2007-10-18T05:54:00.000-07:00

LUXOR

Avenue of the Sphinxes, in Luxor

Obelisk outside Luxor Temple

Side shot

Luxor Temple complex. It's pretty big.

Interior of Luxor Temple

More statues and carvings

Night shot

Avenue of the Sphinxes all lit up

Karnak Temple, still in Luxor

Ram-headed sphinxes. I like these better than regular sphinxes.

Interior of Karnak

More cools columns. These things were massive.

Contiki group shot

Valley of the Kings

Tomb entrance. This is all you can see from the outside. All the cool stuff is inside, where guards will take your camera if you try to take pictures. They're assholes.

The climb to another tomb entrance

King Tut's tomb. It was really small inside. He died young, so there wasn't much time for construction.

Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, at Deir el-Bahri. This is also Level 1 of the video game Serious Sam, if anyone's ever played it. You get to run around blasting aliens with a shotgun.

Statues of Queen Hatshepsut

More Egyptian guards, just chillin' with their rifles.

Paintings on the inside

Ruins that were found in the middle of farmland

Hotel room at Luxor

Hotel pool at Luxor. Right on the bank of the Nile. Not a bad view.

Evening felucca Nile cruise

Second camel ride of the trip. This was on pavement, not sand.

Contiki caravan taking over the road

Picture taken inside the kitchen of a local home. Pets or dinner?

Irish pub in Luxor. No Guinness, but plenty of Britney Spears music. Worst Irish pub ever.

Me, Rebecca, Sara, Neesha

Out tour leader Sherif (red hat) out partying with us. He should have done it more often.

CAIRO, ROUND 2

Random mosque in downtown Cairo

Khan el-Khalili bazaar. Huge tourist trap.

Djoser's Step Pyramid, at the Saqqara necropolis

A close-up of the construction

Hole in the wall at Saqqara

The Citadel complex

Mosque of Muhammad Ali (aka Alabaster Mosque)

Another shot. With a palm tree this time. Huge difference.

Inside the mosque. It was impossible to take a picture that actually captures the scope of the interior. It's way too big.

This is what happens if you aren't covered up properly. You get to relive high school graduation.

More of the Citadel. Built by Salah al-Din in the 1170s during the Crusades. This is the same Salah al-Din that annihilated the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin and recaptured Jerusalem in 1187.

Sultan Husayn Mosque

Going inside the mosque

Pyramid light show

PICTURES TAKEN BY OTHER PEOPLE

Group shot on top of the sand dune

Cruising the Nile

Traditional Egyptian lunch

Camel ride #2

Egyptian party on the Nile cruise

Most of the Contiki group at the Irish pub

Me & Rebecca

Me & Caroline

Me, Sara, Al (roommate), Caroline, Mason

Germany, Round 1

2007-10-18T05:50:00.001-07:00

FRANKFURT

Old Town

Some random church

Downtown

RHINE VALLEY

View of St. Goar from Rheinfels Castle

Rheinfels Castle exterior

Rheinfels Castle interior

Castle wall

Another exterior shot

Most awesome urinal ever?

Random castle on the Rhine. You pass a ton of these if you travel along the Rhine since each baron wanted to control their own stretch of river during the Middle Ages.

The Loreley, a pretty famous rock formation. Marks the narrowest point of the Rhine.

Wine country

Another random castle

Castle built on an island

The castle in Bacharach

HEIDELBERG

City view from the castle

View of river and lower walls

Ruined part of the castle

Another ruined part of the castle

Walkway to lower walls

Living quarters

Big barrel. I'm carrying everything I own with me in that picture.

Standing next to the biggest barrel in the world

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Typical Rothenburg street

Looking the other direction

Shot of a tower that's part of the medieval wall

Medieval wall that surrounds the town

Another wall shot with watchtowers

View of the whole town

Pretty impressive wood altar

Shame masks at the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum

More shame masks

Chastity belts. They look comfortable.

MUNICH

Hofbrauhaus

The skinny asian guy was our waiter. Huge disappointment.

Drinking light beer

Drinking dark beer

Linendorf Castle

Linendorf Castle grounds

Neuschawnstein Castle

Close-up shot. Supposedly this is what Walt Disney used as the inspiration for Cinderella's castle.

View of the Bavarian Alps from Neuschawnstein Castle.

Czech Republic

2007-10-18T05:45:00.001-07:00

CESKY KRUMLOV

Town square

View of the whole town

Castle tower

Vltava River

View of the castle

Another castle view

Kayaking down the Vltava is pretty popular

Proof that the Czech Republic is awesome. 0.2L Coca-Cola is 30 Kc. 0.5L of Eggenberg is 24 Kc ($1.25). And Eggenberg was some of the best beer I had during the entire trip.

PRAGUE

My room in Prague. I think it was 35 or 40 USD per night.

I forget what this is.

Tyn Church

Astronomical Clock

Graveyard in Josefov, the old Jewish ghetto

Prague Castle

St. Vitus Cathedral, on the Prague Castle grounds

Cool stained glass window

The back of St. Vitus Cathedral

Another church in Prague Castle

I love this shield

Some government building right outside Prague Castle

St. Nicholas Church

The Lennon Wall. Covered with graffiti honoring John Lennon.

Walking across Charles Bridge

Side view of Charles Bridge

No clue what the hell's going on...

Prague Dancing House (aka Fred & Ginger building)

Side view

Night shot of Prague Castle

Night shot of Charles Bridge

Poland

2007-10-18T05:40:00.001-07:00

KRAKOW

I think this is a castle museum. Maybe. I forget.

Rynek Glowny - Old Town square

Interior of the church on the square

Random church

Wawel Castle

Entrance to Wawel Castle

Wawel Castle interior

Cathedral inside the Wawel Castle grounds

Tomb of Tadeusz Kosciuszko. He was the leader of the 1794 uprising against Russia, and was a colonel and the head engineer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Pretty cool guy.

Polish beer wasn't great

Oskar Schindler's factory

The stairway was a famous scene in Schindler's List

AUSCHWITZ

Gate to the main compound

Barbed wire fence

Halt!

Perimeter

Execution wall

Patrol route for guards

Crematorium

Auschwitz II-Birkenau train tracks

Auschwitz II-Birkenau compound, left

Auschwitz II-Birkenau compound, center

Auschwitz II-Birkenau compound, right

WIELICZKA SALT MINE

Stairway into the depths of the mine. 130 meters below ground.

Mine passageway

Last Supper carved right into the rock

WARSAW

Palace of Culture & Science

Another view, in better weather

Street in the Stare Miasto (Old Town)

Warsaw Uprising memorial

Stare Miasto ramparts

Stare Miasto square

Royal Castle

Pompey's head being presented to Caesar. If you watch HBO's Rome, this should be familiar.

Guys admiring their abs

Lithuania

2007-10-18T05:35:00.000-07:00

VILNIUS

Church on the outskirts of town

Vilnius' Cathedral

The main tourist street in Vilnius

Random entrance gate

The Gates of Dawn

St. Ann's Church

Side view

A Frank Zappa monument? Seriously???

Gediminas Castle

Old Town square

Former KGB Headquarters in Lithuania

Names of the victims of the KGB and its predecessors

Padded cell

Cell that was filled with water in winter as a punishment

Trakai

Trakai Castle, built on an island

Interior of the castle

Castle keep

Latvia

2007-10-18T05:30:00.000-07:00

RIGA

Central square

The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia

Communist statues are pretty damn cool

Another town square shot

Peace monument

The Dome Cathedral

Random church

Parliament building

The bar at Friendly Fun Frank's Hostel. It was one of the best hostel bars of the whole trip.

Frank. Really cool guy.

Estonia

2007-10-18T05:25:00.000-07:00

TALLINN

Old Town square

Entrance through the old city walls

No idea what it is, but it's cool

Typical old town street

Guard tower on the city wall

Riigikogu, the Estonian Parliament building. Why would you paint it pink??

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

The other side, with the beautiful green scaffolding

Flippin' the bird

Old Town Tallinn

The Youth Song & Music Festival. Seemed like every kid in the country was marching down the street.

Finland

2007-10-18T05:20:00.000-07:00

HELSINKI

Uspenski Cathedral, the largest orthodox church in Western Europe

Close-up

View from the harbor

Lutheran Cathedral

Esplanadin puisto

The Church in the Rock entrance.

Yep, it's actually a church carved into the rock. Really clever name.

Sibelius Monument, built to honor a Finnish composer

Looking up

Suomenlinna fortress

The harbor at Suomenlinna

The island is also a popular picnic spot

Bunker

The tomb of Augustin Ehrensvard, who designed most of the fortress

One of the coolest tombs of the trip

Sunset on the overnight Helsinki-Stockholm ferry

Sweden

2007-10-18T05:15:00.000-07:00

STOCKHOLM

Church in downtown Stockholm

Arches in Old Town

Royal Palace

Changing of the guard

St. Nicolaus Church (aka Storkyrkan)

Wooden carving of Saint George and the Dragon. One of my favorite statues.

Apparently Jesus was a hobbit

Proof that you paid your taxes to the fire department. If your house was on fire and didn't have one of these, you were shit out of luck.

A different version. Anything with a phoenix on it is cool.

View across the river

Art museum

The Riddarholmen Church

Lots of boats and old buildings

Bridge leading to the Vasa museum

Sewer sculpture. The one in Slovakia is better.

Sergels Torg

City Hall

City Hall's backyard

City Hall courtyard

Tomb on the City Hall grounds

Skansen - an open air museum that contains 150 historic buildings and a zoo

Glass blowing demonstration

Operational bakery

Windmill

Church

Bell tower maybe?

Otters are the coolest animals on the planet

View of the Nordic Museum

Old Town Stockholm

Nordic Museum

Museum interior

Huge statue of a Swedish king

Mousetrap collection

The Vasa, a warship that set sail in 1628 and sank about 20 minutes into its maiden voyage.

View from the front

Gun ports that never saw action

Norway

2007-10-18T05:10:00.000-07:00

OSLO

City Hall

Oslo harbor

Downtown street near the train station. Flooded with hookers and drug addicts once it gets dark.

Church

National Theater

Royal Palace

Kon-Tiki, a raft built by Tor Heyerdahl to prove that ancient cultures could navigate oceans

Rear view of Kon-Tiki

Ra II, another vessel built by Tor Heyerdahl and housed in the Kon-Tiki museum

Rear view of Ra II

The Fram, the worlds first ice breaker

Top deck of the Fram

One of the boats in the Viking Ship Museum. It's approx. 900 years old.

Top view of the same ship

The second ship

Vessel #3

The Vigeland Sculpture Park

Probably the most famous of the sculptures

There are some really weird ones

The centerpiece of the park

Close-up of the human pillar

Rear view of the park

NORWAY IN A NUTSHELL

The best way to see a Norwegian fjord is to follow the Norway in a Nutshell route. You take a train from Oslo to Myrdal, then hop on a cogwheel train to descend 2,800 feet from Myrdal to Flam. Hop on a cruise ship at Flam to cruise the Sognefjord, then take a bus up to Voss, where you catch a train back to Oslo.

Oslo-Myrdal train ride

View near the Myrdal train station

Kjosfossen waterfall

Sognefjord

Sognefjord

Sognefjord

Waterfall

Lots of waterfalls

Even more waterfalls

See the snow in the background? Notice I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt? I'm an idiot.

The river outlet from the fjord

Voss-Oslo train ride

Denmark

2007-10-18T05:05:00.000-07:00

COPENHAGEN

View from my hostel room

Some government building

Hans Christian Andersen

Norman knight maybe?

Canal

Tivoli amusement park

Low bridge!

Cruising the canals

Wind farm. As an engineer, I actually found this interesting.

The Little Mermaid

View from the boat

Park area near the Little Mermaid

Random church

Another random church. Supposedly the architect killed himself in disgrace when he found out the tower was supposed to spiral in the other direction.

Christiania - the "free living community" *cough*hippies*cough*

The last picture I could take before entering the no camera zone

Graffiti to celebrate getting rid of the IV users. Clearly, weed is still fine.

Yep, definitely hippieville. Cartman would hate this place.

Germany, Round 2

2007-10-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

BERLIN

Brandenburg Gate

The Reichstag - German parliament

Glass dome on top of the Reichstag

Hotel Adlon, where Michael Jackson dangled the baby out the window

One of two twin churches. The state built this church for some religious group, but then another religious group got all pissed off about the government showing favoritism, so an identical church was built on the other side of the square so that the two are facing each other.

War memorial

Berliner Dom, which looks much older than it is. It was built in the late 1800s because it was felt that every important European capital had a giant, old-looking cathedral except for Berlin.

Side view of the Berliner Dom

Marienkirche and the TV Tower

Statue outside the Egyptian Museum

Another statue outside the Egyptian Museum

Bust of Queen Nefertiti, the highlight of the Egyptian Museum

Side view

Greek temple inside the Pergamonmuseum

Greek frieze reconstruction depicting a battle of the gods

One of the bad guys about to get his ass kicked

Ancient Middle-Eastern city gate

The current U.S. Embassy

The new U.S. Embassy being built on Pariser Platz next to the Brandenburg Gate

The brick line is where the Berlin Wall used to stand. Also pictured - Annabel, the best tour guide ever.

This is where Hitler's bunker used to be. The Germans didn't want it to become a tourist attraction, so it's now a parking lot for an apartment complex.

War damage

Berlin Wall

Reinforcing the wall

The other side of the Berlin Wall

Checkpoint Charlie

Cafe Adler, where all the spies used to hang out

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

In the center

Another weird memorial

Memorial to Russian soldiers

Netherlands

2007-10-18T04:55:00.000-07:00

AMSTERDAM

"Coffeeshop"

Yep, we're in Amsterdam

Amsterdam canal

Random building

A hotel that's famous for something. Can't remember what.

Another canal shot

The skinniest house in Amsterdam. Property taxes were paid on how wide your house was, not the depth. This guy was a cheap bastard.

Anne Frank House

Yet another canal shot

The Dampkring, a coffee shop that was in Ocean's Twelve (the Robbie Coltrane scene)

The Rijksmuseum. Only 25% of the collection was on display due to renovations, but they still charged the full admission price. Assholes.

The back of the Rijksmuseum

Van Gogh Museum

Heineken Brewery

Inside the brewery

Winston Kingdom. The open window on the left is where Quentin Tarantino wrote Pulp Fiction.

Belgium

2007-10-18T04:50:00.000-07:00

BRUGES

Central square

More of the central square

Cathedral

Canal

Canal w/ bell tower in the background

Another canal. It's like venice, only with 1/1000th the number of tourists.

Last canal picture

Central square at sunset

Bell tower at sunset

Typical Bruges street

Windmill at sunrise

Switzerland

2007-10-18T04:45:00.000-07:00

LUZERN

View across the lake

Another lake view

Jesuit Church

Town square

The Chapel Bridge - the oldest wood bridge in Europe, before it burned down in 1993 and had to be rebuilt.

Other side of the bridge

Restaurant in the Old Town. Looks like there's a ringwraith overlooking the square.

I'm going to forget about a career in engineering and become a wildlife photographer

One more view of the Old Town and Chapel Bridge

The gateway to central Switzerland

Random church

The Lion Monument. Built as a memorial to the 700 Swiss officers and soldiers who died defending Tuileries Palace in Paris in 1792. Unknown to them, King Louis XVI (who they thought they were defending) had already fled the building.

Close-up of the lion, sculpted by Bertel Thorvaldsen in the early 1800s.

One more close-up. It was one of my favorite sights of the entire trip.

INTERLAKEN

Luzern-Interlaken train ride

Luzern-Interlaken train ride

Luzern-Interlaken train ride

Luzern-Interlaken train ride

Nearing Interlaken

Aftermath of a hail storm

That's some big hail

JUNGFRAUJOCH

Waterfall near Lauterbrunnen

Starting the ascent

View of the valley above Lauterbrunnen

The clouds are a little worrisome

Ice tunnel

Ice cave

View from the Jungfraujoch

View down the valley

Damn you clouds!

Wearing the warmest clothes I brought on the trip, and still freezing

Another view of the valley

View from the Sphinx viewpoint, elevation of 11,782 feet. The drawing is what I should be seeing. I paid over $100 to see the inside of a goddamn cloud.

GENEVA

The train to Geneva

Lake Geneva

Sculpture in front of Olympic Park

ZERMATT

Crappy picture from the train to Zermatt. Railroad bridge in the distance.

View from the hostel in Zermatt

This is all I could see of the Matterhorn for most of my stay

View up the valley

Downtown Zermatt

10 minutes before my train left, the clouds finally cleared. Finally got to see the Matterhorn.

ST. MORITZ

View from the Zermatt-St. Moritz train

Alpine lake

Another railroad bridge. Sorry for the reflection in the window.

St. Moritz. Just a small alpine Swiss town.

Sunrise

Austria

2007-10-18T04:40:00.000-07:00

INNSBRUCK

All that could be seen of the surrounding countryside

Goldenes Dachl (Golden Roof), built on behalf of Emperor Maximilian I

Building on the main tourist street

Cool lookin' butterfly

Statue on a fountain in a town square

The tomb of Maximilian I inside the Hofkirche

Most effeminate knight ever?

Gimli?

SALZBURG

Walking to the Salzburg Old Town

Hohensalzburg Fortress, above the Old Town

View from Hohensalzburg Fortress

Mozart, one of two reasons people go to Salzburg (the other reason is the Sound of Music)

Garden at Schloss Mirabell

Statue in the Garden of Dwarves

Another statue, which was featured in Sound of Music

Leopoldskron Castel, seen in Sound of Music when the kids fall into the lake

Glass pavilion, another Sound of Music sight

Mondsee Cathedral, where the Sound of Music wedding takes place

Inside the cathedral

Red Bull headquarters

View on the drive to Mondsee

Old Town at sunset

Looking the other direction

VIENNA

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Inside St. Stephen's Cathedral

Vienna's Mozart statue

Hofburg Palace

Rathaus, during the opera film festival

Another church

Schloss Schonbrunn

The Schonbrunn gardens

Schonbrunn's backyard

Slovakia

2007-10-18T04:35:00.000-07:00

BRATISLAVA

Novy most bridge

View of Bratislava Castle from downtown

Bratislava Castle

Some weird, anatomically correct statues on the Bratislava Castle grounds

Old Town Square

Slovak National Theater

Napolean's army soldier statue, located on the main square

Cumil. Nobody can agree on what he's actually up to.

Statue honoring Schone Naci, a poor and mentally ill guy who dressed up and walked around bowing to ladies he passed in the early 1900s.

Hungary

2007-10-18T04:30:00.000-07:00

BUDAPEST

Pretty much every building in Budapest could use a repainting

State Opera House

Entryway to the House of Terror, located in the former headquarters of the secret police

Szechenyi public bath

St. Stephen Cathedral

Walking along the Chain Bridge

View of the entire Chain Bridge

The Royal Palace on Castle Hill

Royal Palace

Battle damage

Fisherman's Bastion, on Castle Hill

More of Fisherman's Bastion

The Great Synagogue - Europe's largest synagogue.

The Parliament Building

Heroes' Square

King Charles I of Hungary

The founders of the Magyar nation

I love these statues

Rollie Fingers?

Budapest Statue Park, housing the communist statues that used to be scattered around downtown Budapest

Liberation Monument

Workers' Movement Memorial

The Hungarian Fighters' in the Spanish International Brigades' Memorial

Martyrs Monument

Marx & Engels

Republic of Councils Monument

Romania

2007-10-18T04:25:00.000-07:00

BRASOV

Look out, Hollywood

Old Town square

Church near the hostel

City Hall building? Maybe?

Garden on the edge of the Old Town

Rasnov citadel - ruined castle

The citadel overlooking the town

The church inside the citadel

Bran Castle. Also known as Dracula's Castle, although it looks absolutely nothing like any castle that's ever been in a Dracula movie.

Notice the rolling green hills instead of dark, scary mountains. Damn you Hollywood!

The castle courtyard

Looking up from the courtyard

The only thing that looks like it could belong in a Dracula movie

BUCHAREST

The Parliament building - the only thing to see in Bucharest. It's also the 2nd largest building in the world. The Pentagon is the largest.

My birthday party

Hooray for Slovenian girls

Bulgaria

2007-10-18T04:20:00.000-07:00

SOFIA

Church of St. Nedelya

Banya Bashi Mosque

Russian Church of St. Nikolay

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral - Side View

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral - Rear View

War memorial sculpture

Another sculpture

Stray cats hangin' out in front of the hostel

One of them snuck inside to sleep on the kitchen counter

PLOVDIV

Ottoman Empire mosque

Walking through the Old Town

Roman amphitheater

Don't know what it is, but it's cool

Small art museum

Residential street

Turkey

2007-10-18T04:15:00.000-07:00

ISTANBUL

View from the hostel

Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia close-up. Built in the 6th century for the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, looted in 1204 during the 4th Crusade, and converted to a mosque in the 15th century. Now it's a museum, it's not a working mosque.

Entrance foyer

Look at that beautiful scaffolding that takes up half the interior!

The main chamber

First and second stories

Looking up

Sultanahmet area

Sultanahmet Mosque (aka Blue Mosque)

Close-up of the blue mosque. It's still a working mosque.

Entrance to the courtyard

Inside the courtyard

Inside the Blue Mosque

Good shot of the arches

The basilica cistern built by Emperor Justinian in 532

The place is huge

Walking up to Topkapi Palace

One of the minor buildings on the Topkapi Palace grounds

One of the rooms in the Harem

Another shot of the Harem building

Nuruosmaniye Mosque

Kapali Carsi (aka Grand Bazaar)

The rug area of the bazaar

New Mosque

Egyptian Bazaar

Lots of lokum (aka Turkish delight) in the back

Spices & teas

Turkish viagra?

Spice stall

Scarves and lamps

Looking across the Golden Horn. Galata Tower rises up in the background.

Looking down the Bosphorus

Rumeli Fortress, on the Bosphorus

Istanbul skyline

Valens Aqueduct, completed in 368

Now a major road runs underneath it

Sultanahment Mosque at night

Hagia Sophia at night

Greece, Part 1

2007-10-18T04:10:00.000-07:00

ATHENS

The Acropolis

The front of the Acropolis, with the only point of entry

The back of the Acropolis

Turtle hanging out at the Acropolis

The Acropolis Amphitheater. Sorry dad, no Yanni sightings.

The Temple of Athena Nike. Completed in 420 B.C.

The back of the Temple of Athena Nike. I hate scaffolding.

The Parthenon. Completed in 432 B.C.

The back of the Parthenon

More goddamn scaffolding

The Erechtheion. Completed in 406 B.C.

The front of the Erechtheion

One more Erechtheion shot

The Caryatids

Walking to the Ancient Agora

The Temple of Hephaestus in the Ancient Agora

Looking all the way through

View of the entire Ancient Agora

The Stoa of Attalus II

Lord Voldemort?

Hadrian's Library

The Roman Agora

Walking up to the Theater of Dionysus

Theater of Dionysus. Used to be able to hold 17,000 people.

The Temple of Olympian Zeus, as seen from the Acropolis. Hadrian's Arch is towards the bottom.

Hadrian's Arch

The foundations were laid by Pisistratus in 515 B.C., but the temple wasn't actually completed until Emperor Hadrian's reign in 129 A.D.

The remaining columns. There used to be 104.

The fallen column, which was blown down during a wind storm in 1852

Oops

The Acropolis at night

Drinking games at the hostel. I'm looking really sunburned.

Greece, Part 2

2007-10-18T04:09:00.000-07:00

MYKONOS

Paradise Beach, a 2 minute walk from my cabin

Mykonos Town

Across the harbor

Windmills

Typical Mykonos building. Everything is blue and white.

This one, not so typical

Back alley in Mykonos Town

Red Church

Blue Church

White Church

Petros the Pelican

DELOS

The theater quarter

All of Delos is like this. There are hardly any standing structures.

Mount Kynthos

Floor mosaic

Terrace of the Lions

Lion

The birthplace of Apollo & Artemis

SANTORINI

Getting off the ferry at the Santorini dock. If you look closely, you can see all the switchbacks that the buses had to navigate.

Santorini hostel. Even the interior is blue and white.

The caldera

The Santorini cliffs

Thira, the main town on Santorini

Sunset

Thira at sunset

The caldera at sunset

Shopping street in Thira

Colorful church

Nighttime

Perissa beach - the black sand beach

The cliffs near Perissa beach

Church & bell tower in Perissa

IOS

View from my cabin

The pool at the campground

Milopotas beach

Milopotas beach at sunset

Croatia

2007-10-18T04:05:00.000-07:00

DUBROVNIK

The guesthouse I stayed at

Lots of stairs in Dubrovnik

The residential area

Gate to the Old Town

City walls

The city was built right up to the cliffs

Old Town and the hills above. You're not supposed to walk the hills because not all the mines have been found from the 1991 war against the Yugoslav People's Army.

Half of Old Town

The other half of Old Town

Each black triangle and circle represents artillery damage sustained during the '91 siege of Dubrovnik

Faded roofs are original. The new red roofs mean the originals were destroyed during the siege.

In some cases, they didn't bother to rebuild

Dubrovnik harbor

Walking the city walls at sunset

A Dubrovnik "beach"

Church of St. Blaise

Digital clock tower

Always nice to see artillery soldiers get recognition

The south walls

Fortress Lovrijenac. Supposedly built in 3 months.

Lokrum

View from the ferry to Lokrum

Swimming hole

Another Croatian "beach"

Lokrum harbor

View of Lokrum from the highest point on the island

View of Dubrovnik from Lokrum

Italy, Part 1

2007-10-18T04:00:00.000-07:00

NAPLES

The Bay of Naples, with Mt. Vesuvius in the background

Castel dell'Ovo

Arch on the waterfront. The homeless guy washing himself really adds to the ambiance.

Some Spanish king

Castel Nuovo

Castel Nuovo as seen from the waterfront

The Church of Gesu Nuovo

The Church of San Domenico Maggiore

Very classy

Walking through Napoli Sotterranea, an underground cistern

Cathedral of Naples (aka the Duomo)

Fauns are pretty sketchy looking

Mosaic depicting Alexander the Great defeating Darius III at the Battle of Issus. Taken from the House of the Faun in Pompeii.

Featured in the opening credits of HBO's Rome

Top floor of the Naples Archaeological Museum

POMPEII

City entrance

Central square with Mt. Vesuvius in the background

Stepping stones for when the streets used to flood

House of the Faun

The Faun

Bakery

Whorehouse. Looks comfortable.

Typical side street

The gladiator training ground

The arena

The main boulevard

Cast of one of the 2,000 people who died

Another body cast

ISLE OF CAPRI

Capri and the marina

Cruising along the cliffs

Cave

Cliffs

The Faraglioni

Going through the middle

More cliffs

A couple little caves

That's some really blue water

FLORENCE

Ponte Vecchio, lined with jewelers and gold/silver shops

Michelangelo's David, inside the Accademia. No pictures allowed inside, so this is as good as it gets.

Palazzo Vecchio

Santa Maria del Fiore (aka the Duomo di Firenze), and the adjacent Giotto's Bell Tower

Santa Maria del Fiore. 4th largest cathedral in Europe.

The dome

The golden door on the Baptistery

David severing the head of Goliath

Predator wannabe

Why are centaurs always getting their asses kicked?

This is pretty awesome

Italy, Part 2

2007-10-18T03:59:00.000-07:00

PISA

The Leaning Tower of Pisa. Construction began in 1173, and it's been a structural disaster ever since.

Duomo di Pisa and the Leaning Tower on the Piazza dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles)

Duomo di Pisa and the Baptistery

Another Leaning Tower shot

One more angle

VENICE

Main canal right outside the train station

The gondolas are out in force

Cruising down the main canal

Scalzi Bridge

Rialto Bridge

Seems a little out of place

Ponte dei Sospiri (aka Bridge of Sighs)

Piazza San Marco

Saint Mark's Basilica

Saint Mark's side view

Another digital clock tower

The private gondola, for 150+ euros

The public transportation gondola, for 1 euro

A Venetian traffic jam

Venetian alley

Navigating the narrow canals

ROME

The Colosseum

Another view

View from Constantine's Arch

The 1+ hour wait in line that I was able to skip because I actually do some research (walk 3 minutes to the Palatine Hill ticket office to buy your Palatine Hill/Colosseum combo ticket, and you can skip the Colosseum line)

Inside the Colosseum

View of all three levels

View of the tunnels that were underneath the arena floor

Constantine's Arch

Walking down the same path that Caesar walked on

The Roman Forum

Site where Caesar's body was cremated

Arch of Septimius

Roman Forum view on the walk up to Capitol Hill

Circus Maximus and a view of the ruins on Palatine Hill

Walking on Aventine Hill, the setting of HBO's Rome

Now it's just an upscale residential neighborhood

You're looking at three countries in this picture. Malta (embassy), Italy, and Vatican City.

View of Circus Maximus and Aventine Hill from Palatine Hill

Palatine Hill grounds

Ruins of a huge villa on Palatine Hill

Private arena on Palatine Hill

The Vittorio Emanuele II Monument, on Piazza Venezia

The Pantheon

Side view of the Pantheon

Inside the Pantheon

Fountain

The Spanish Steps on Piazza di Spagna

Trevi Fountain on Piazza di Trevi

The crowd at the Trevi Fountain

Colosseum at night

The Capuccin Crypt. It's a crappy picture, but it's the only one I could sneak.

Vatican City

2007-10-18T03:58:00.000-07:00

VATICAN CITY

Piazza di San Pietro

St. Peter's Basilica

Piazza di San Pietro as viewed from the Basilica

Birds eye view of the piazza

Lookin' good, fellas

Just inside the entryway of St. Peter's Basilica

Main altar

Roof over the main altar

One more interior shot

Dome

Another dome

Vatican Museum

Vatican grounds

Sculpture of Roman soldiers

Egyptian mummy

Statue of Hermanubis, a combination of Hermes (Greek mythology) and Anubis (Egyptian mythology)

Babies fighting a crocodile

Severed heads are always cool

Water basin

Bill Clinton?

They were mean bastards back in the day...

The assassination of Julius Caesar

Hall of Maps

I guess they needed 8 ft. tall maps back then

Battle scene

The School of Athens, featuring Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, and Pythagoras

Wildlife paintings

Exit stairway

Some random hall that was roped off to the public

Sistine Chapel with The Last Judgment painting behind the altar

Sistine Chapel ceiling

Monaco

2007-10-18T03:55:00.000-07:00

MONACO

Walking out of the train station

City view from the harbor

Typical Monaco hotel

Back of the Monte-Carlo casino

Front of the Monte-Carlo casino

Place du Casino

Seems like every other car in Monaco is a Ferrari

Port of Monaco

Walking along the dock

Show off

Another private yacht

Just your standard Monaco shopping mall

The beach

Interesting take on Adam & Eve

The walk up to the Prince's Palace

Obi-Wan Kenobi?

Port of Fontvieille

Apartments in Fontvieille

Are these really necessary?

Apparently, since there are signs all over the place directing you to the nearest one

One more casino shot

Window decorations

Spain, Part 1

2007-10-18T03:50:00.000-07:00

BARCELONA

View from Placa d'Espanya

Palau Nacional

Olympic Stadium Communication Tower

Palau de Congressos de Barcelona

La Sagrada Familia. Designed by Antoni Gaudi, construction started in 1882. It's still not even close to being finished.

Front entrance

The back of the basilica

Close-up of the rear entrance

Sagrada Familia Crucifix

Interior of the basilica

Stained glass

Interior construction

One of the Barcelona beaches

Christopher Columbus monument

Passeig de Lluis Companys

Arc de Triomf, built for the World Exhibition in 1888

Gothic Church of Santa Maria del Pi

Side of the church

Walking through a local market

Interesting...

I usually hate street performers, but this guy was funny

I love this stuff

Churros con chocolate. Always important to stick to your diet when traveling.

IBIZA

View from the hotel

Playa d'en Bossa

Walking to Ibiza Town

VALENCIA

Used to be a bull ring, now a bunch of shops

Cool paint job

Gargoyle on a bridge

Palace of the Arts at the City of Arts & Sciences

The Hemispheric at the City of Arts & Sciences

Pond in the City of Arts & Sciences

Some government building

Valencia Cathedral

Thought by many to be the Holy Grail.

Close-up of the Holy Grail

Central square

GRANADA

Funky Backpackers Hostel

Monument to King Ferdinand

Walking through El Albayzin

Random church in Old Town

Inside the Granada Cathedral

Cathedral columns

Coin operated prayer candles? Aren't you supposed to actually light a candle?

View of the Granada Cathedral. It's pretty big.

La Alhambra

The walls of the Alcazaba, on the Alhambra grounds

The Alcazaba

The Alhambra grounds

Nasrid Palace courtyard

Nasrid Palace entryway

The Generalife (garden) on the Alhambra grounds

View of the Alcazaba from the Generalife

Señor Frog

Spain, Part 2

2007-10-18T03:49:00.000-07:00

SEVILLE

Cathedral of Seville

Inside the cathedral

Domed ceiling

The remains of Christopher Columbus

Altar

Nice detail

Pearl torso

Cathedral interior

La Giralda bell tower. Used to be a minaret tower when a mosque was here. You walk up ramps, not stairs, to get to the top. They were there so that the Muslims could ride their horses to the top for the call to prayer.

View from the bell tower

View from the entrance of the Real Alcazar (Moorish palace)

Courtyard inside the Real Alcazar

Wall decoration

Residential building in the Real Alcazar

Plaza de Toros

Bull fighting arena

Plaza de Espana

Side tower on the Plaza de Espana

Church in Old Town

Flamenco dancing

CORDOBA

La Mezquita, the 3rd biggest mosque in the world (200,000+ capacity)

Mosque interior

Close-up of the double arches

The cathedral that was built in the center of the mosque. Pretty weird.

Cathedral floor

Puente Romano (ancient Roman bridge) spanning the Guadalquivir

MADRID

Madrid's Atocha train station

Palacio Real (Royal Palace)

Palacio Real courtyard

Catedral de la Almudena

Palacio de Telecomunicaciones (post office) in Cibeles Square

Las Ventas Bullring

The bullring

The assholes

The bull

Ole!

Preparing for the killing blow

Delivering the killing blow. This jackass needed six attempts to finally finish it.

A bull getting some revenge

More revenge, same bull. The horse was ok.

The last fight of the night ended with a gored thigh - look close at the left leg, the blue strip is a tourniquet. Damage was done by the same bull as the last two pictures. He went down fighting.

SAN SEBASTIAN

La Zurriola Beach

The river flowing into the ocean

Catedral del Buen Pastor

The cathedral bell tower

Buildings along the beach. Not sure what they are.

The tapas bar district

La Concha Beach

Walking to Ondarreta Beach

La Concha Beach at sunset

Pub crawl

A half-Estonian, half-Croatian Aussie flashing the west side signal in Spain. Makes perfect sense.

France

2007-10-18T03:45:00.000-07:00

MONTPELLIER

Stade de la Mosson, for the U.S.A. vs Tonga Rugby World Cup match, Pool A. Tonga won 25-15.

U.S.A. Eagles

Mike MacDonald, he scored a try in this match

Tongan warm-ups

U.S.A. team photo

Tongan team

The Kailao - the Tongan war dance

Scrum

Line-out

Receiving a kick

Eagles on defense

PARIS

Montmarte hill

Sacre Coeur

Grand Arche de la Defense, a modern version of the Arc de Triomphe

Arc de Triomphe

The Louvre

Champs-Elysees

Obelisk stolen from Egypt

Le pont Neuf

The spot where the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay, was burned alive at the stake

The river Seine

Saint Germain l'Auxerrois Church

National Defense Lion

Notre Dame Cathedral

Angled view

Pretty fancy door

St. Denis

Notre Dame interior

Stained glass

More stained glass

Statue outside Notre Dame

Side view

The golden dome of Les Invalides, which is home to Napoleon's tomb

It's melting!

Parc du Champs de Mars

Eiffel Tower

Looking up

Eiffel Tower at night

Glittering Eiffel Tower

Moulin Rouge

The river Seine at night

Louvre at night

Stop! This is the empire of death.

Walking through the Parisian catacombs

The maze of bones

Bones from 1786

There are more than 6 million people buried here

England, Part 1

2007-10-18T03:40:00.000-07:00

LONDON

Tower Bridge

Westminster Abbey

Side view of Westminster Abbey

Clock tower at the Palace of Westminster

Big Ben & the Houses of Parliament at the Palace of Westminster

St. Paul's Cathedral

Entrance to St. Paul's Cathedral

The columns at St. Paul's. They look fragile.

Millennium Bridge

Temple Church, former headquarters of the Knights Templar

The dragon statue at the Temple Bar monument

10 Downing Street

Apparently people can't adjust to traffic coming from the right

St. Pancras station - in the Harry Potter movies this is filmed as King's Cross station because it looks a lot more interesting than King's Cross

Going to Hogwarts

Free stress test! I was tempted...

Buckingham Palace

Kensington Palace

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

Seeing The Merchant of Venice

The cast

The White Tower at the Tower of London

Yeomen Warder (aka Beefeater)

On the Tower of London Grounds

A couple of the Tower of London ravens hanging out on the grass. Their wings are clipped so that they can't fly away. Legend says that if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, the Tower and the monarchy will both crumble. So there is a yeomen warder dedicated to their care.

One more building on the Tower grounds

You've got to be kidding...

Nelson's Column on Trafalgar Square

Bronze sculpture at the base of Nelson's column

Wayne: Here we are. Piccadilly Circus!
Garth: Whoa. What a shitty circus.

Rosetta Stone, on display at the British Museum

Human-headed winged bulls from Sumeria

Reconstructed Greek temple

Lewis chessmen

A crystal skull, which is supposed to be the focus of Indiana Jones 4

Pretty cool painting

Big Ben at night

England, Part 2

2007-10-18T03:39:00.000-07:00

HEXHAM

Hexham Abbey

The walk up to Hexham Abbey

YORK

A gate in the old City Wall

The Shambles

Clifford's Tower. All that's left of the castle that was built by William the Conqueror.

View of York Minster from the city walls

The birthplace of Guy Fawkes

York Minster, the largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe

The entrance to York Minster

York Minster interior

Stained glass and domed ceiling

King Edward I (aka Edward the Longshanks)

NEWCASTLE

The Castle Keep

Another medieval building

Gateshead, across the River Tyne

Old Town

HADRIAN'S WALL

Vercovicium (aka Housesteads Roman Fort)

Hadrian's Wall near Vercovicium

The wall took 8 years to build, and was built by soldiers from the occupying Roman legions under orders from Emperor Hadrian. It's 73.5 miles long (80 Roman miles) and when it was built, it was 16-20 feet high and 10 feet wide. There was a milecastle every Roman mile, and two guard towers in between each milecastle.

Hiking along the wall

Looking out onto enemy territory from Milecastle 37

A great view from the wall

The hike has a lot of ups and downs

Scotland, Part 1

2007-10-18T03:35:00.001-07:00

EDINBURGH

View from right outside the hostel

Edinburgh Castle

Pretty imposing outer walls

Edinburgh Castle entrance

William Wallace

Robert the Bruce

Castle street

Mons Meg, a bombard built in 1449. It could only be fired a maximum of 8-10 times each day because of the heat generated by the powder charge.

St. Margaret's Chapel. The oldest building in Edinburgh Castle, built in the early 12th century.

Stained glass window of William Wallace, located in St. Margaret's Chapel

The portcullis

View into the city

Castle keep

Broadsword

Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray, scaled these cliffs with a small band of fighters and captured Edinburgh Castle in 1313

West Princes Street Gardens

View from Edinburgh Castle

George Heriot's School

St. Giles' Cathedral

Donaldson's College, a school for the deaf

Holyrood Palace

Calton Hill

The Royal Mile

Deep fried Mars bar. It was delicious.

The Tollbooth Kirk

The Scott Monument, in honor of the author Sir Walter Scott - he wrote Rob Roy and Ivanhoe.

View of the Scott Monument from West Princes Street Gardens

Greyfriars Church

Square just off the Royal Mile

West Princes Street Gardens

Edinburgh Castle

Apartment building on the Royal Mile

Scottish Parliament

Another view of the Scottish Parliament

Edinburgh at night

Edinburgh Castle at night

Murrayfield Stadium for the New Zealand vs. Scotland Rugby World Cup match, Pool C. New Zealand won 40-0.

New Zealand warm-ups

National anthems

The Haka

Scrum

New Zealand line-out

All Blacks attacking

All Blacks about to score a try

All Blacks successful defensive stand

Scotland attacking

Scotland, Part 2

2007-10-18T03:34:00.000-07:00

GLASGOW

Central Square

The River Clyde

Walking towards the University district

St. Mungo Museum of Religious Life & Art

Glasgow Cathedral

Glasgow Cathedral

LOCH LOMOND

Loch Lomond

Honestly, Waldo Lake is much better

The picnic area

STIRLING

Stirling Castle ramparts

The entrance gate

Castle courtyard

The palace

Robert the Bruce

Castle walls

Interior of the Great Hall

View of Stirling from the castle. You can see Stirling Bridge towards the bottom, and the William Wallace monument on the hill in the distance.

The battlefield where William Wallace defeated the English in 1297

Stirling Bridge - obviously a reconstruction since the original was destroyed during the battle

ROSLIN

Rosslyn Chapel, and the current efforts to preserve it. This was the final stop in the movie The DaVinci Code.

Exterior carvings

Chapel interior

The Crypt beneath the chapel

The Apprentice Pillar

Really detailed carvings on the ceiling

More impressive carvings

Supposedly each of these carved blocks are a coded message left by the Knights Templar

The Green Man

They carved all this out of stone. Wow.

If you decide that the carvings around the window are maize, then it's proof that the Earl of Orkney led a group of Templar Knights to North America long before Columbus even thought of making the trip, since maize was not introduced to Europe until a couple hundred years after these carvings were done. Others argue that the carvings are just stylized wheat or strawberries.

INVERNESS

The River Ness

Some churches by the river

Inverness Castle

Burial mound in the countryside

LOCH NESS

Urquhart Castle, on the banks of Loch Ness

The ruined castle keep

The grounds outside the castle

Urquhart entrance gate

Inside the castle grounds

Loch Ness, seen from Urquhart Castle

The loch, just before the rain moves in

Rainbow

Cruising the loch. No Nessie sightings.

Northern Ireland

2007-10-18T03:30:00.000-07:00

BELFAST

Belfast City Hall

Grand Opera House

Entering Sandy Row, a unionist area

Robert Dougan memorial mural

Sandy Row memorial

Sandy Row mural

Shankill Road mural. Shankill road is another unionist area.

Shankill Road mural honoring Andrew Jackson

Shankill Road mural

Shankill Road mural

Shankill Road mural honoring Oliver Cromwell

Shankill Road memorial

Shankill Road mural

Shankill Road mural

Shankill Road mural

Shankill Road mural

Shankill Road mural

Shankill Road mural

Shankill Road mural honoring James Buchanan

The Peace Line

Falls Road mural. Falls Road is the nationalist area.

Falls Road mural honoring Bobby Sands, who died during a hunger strike

Falls Road memorial

Falls Road memorial

Another Falls Road memorial. A little bit classier than the Unionist areas.

Falls Road mural

Apparently they're anti-American too

Ireland

2007-10-18T03:29:00.000-07:00

DUBLIN

Christ Church Cathedral

Entering the grounds of Christ Church Cathedral

Saint Patrick's Cathedral

Saint Patrick's Cathedral bell tower

Bedford Tower, in Dublin Castle

A Norman tower and the Chapel Royal in Dublin Castle

Random church

Downtown buildings

O'Connell Street and the Millennium Spire

The River Liffey at sunset

Trinity College

Bell Tower on the Trinity College grounds

Academic building

Kilmainham Gaol cell block

More Kilmainham Gaol cells

Guinness Brewery, with the trucks lined up waiting for deliveries

St. James's Gate Brewery

Entering the complex

Overlooking the brewery

Another brewery shot

The Guinness pour

No T.I.E. Fighters allowed in Dublin

Germany, Round 3

2007-10-18T03:25:00.000-07:00

MUNICH

The Neues Rathaus with the Glockenspiel, currently being renovated

Kickin' ass

The river in front of the Deutsches Museum, which was one of the best museums of the trip

The electricity room

Aerospace room

German fighter plane

Rocket car

The ENIGMA machine, a cipher machine used in WWII

An early computer

OKTOBERFEST

Spatenbrau tent

Hacker-Festzelt tent

Augustiner-Brau tent

Augustiner-Brau interior

Schottenhamel tent

Schottenhamel interior

Paulaner tent

Lowenbrau tent

Lowenbrau interior

Pschorr tent

Pschorr interior

Hippodrom tent

Nice work, sir

That's a lot of meat

Hofbrau tent

Hofbrau interior

The band

Drinking buddies

Impressive

Shot of the standing area

End of the night, everyone's standing on the tables

Christmas 2007

2007-10-18T03:20:00.000-07:00

PEACOCK LANE

Looking down Peacock Lane

Notice the leg lamp in the upper left window

DRIVING TO THE COAST

Aftermath of the windstorm that hit the coast

Close-up of the trees that were snapped off at the base

More wind damage

Roots of a tree

Me, standing in front for scale. I'm 6'0".

Destroyed fence

DRIVING TO SUNRIVER

Central Oregon

Hills near Smith Rock State Park

Rainbow in Bend

Lava Butte

SUNRIVER

Sunriver house

Backyard

More of the backyard

Christmas dinner

Killing time on Christmas Day

Snowflake hunting

Snow angel

Nice job Kev

The sprint back to the 103 degree hot tub

Mission accomplished

Chlorine dispenser + eye = ???

Canoe rental harbor, now frozen over

Boat ramp next to the Trout House

Sunriver mall

Cardinal Landing Bridge

Deschutes river

Looking upstream

Whit demanding a picture for Facebook

I have no idea what's so funny

River loop bike path

Sunriver house as we're leaving. Just a little bit more snow than when we arrived.

Icicles

Backyard after all the snow

At least 18", probably more

Idiot