16 February 2011

Colosseum


The Collesseum was amazing.

13 February 2011

The Cats of Rome


There are homeless cats that roam the ruins of Rome. When I approached this one, it walked over to the wall and sat down with its back to me. Very strange cat behavior. The cats encountered in the gardens of Palatine Hill acted similarly.

10 February 2011

Berlin


This is a palace near where my friend Hayley lives in Charlottenburg. Had such a good time with Hayley going to the various Christmas markets. We ended up walking around the palace grounds and when we'd gotten all the way around a caretaker told us that we weren't supposed to be in the gardens this late and we would have to walk all the way back around to get out (even though our exit point was a mere 20 feet from where we were standing and hadn't been closed yet!). So we walked all the way back around to the other gate which had just been shut by another caretaker. Hayley asked him (in German) if he could please let us out and thankfully he did. What a long, cold night it would have been had he not.

Hayley is an amazing violinist and is in Berlin to play with the orchestras there. Next time I visit her, hopefully I'll be able to catch one of her performances as I haven't been able to watch her play since we were little.

09 February 2011

Manneken Pis


The peeing boy of Brussels was presented to us as "the Eiffel Tower of Brussels". These colorful guys are actually little replicas in a Belgian chocolate shop, but the actual boy is peeing into a fountain on a nondescript intersection of two nondescript streets. You'd totally miss it if you weren't looking for it, but luckily my friend was there to point it out to us.

Brussels was a really pretty city.

It rained for most of the time and by nightfall, the rain turned to snow.

08 February 2011

Musée du Louvre

This time around in Paris, I planned my time a little more carefully. Where before I gave myself less than an hour to visit the Louvre, I cut out a half day to explore it this time. It was a good time to go because there weren't as many tourists so we could get up close to the various antiquities and artwork. This is a photo of the inner courtyard of the museum. Looking forward to my next visit to France this summer!



02 February 2011

Regensburg


The magical fairytale city of Regensburg in southern Germany. The city is one of the only cities that was essentially untouched in WWII and so the beautiful buildings constructed in medieval times remain standing today. The city had such a lovely community feel to it and everyone was so cheery and nice.

Went with Brendan to one of the Christmas markets with lots of little wooden stalls selling various crafted objects. The market also had a campfire for people to sit around and be jolly. There was mulled wine and sausage with various potato dishes, of which we had plenty. There was even a lady going around with a stick with mistletoe at the end and holding it above couples' heads so they would kiss. Storybook fantasy kind of stuff.