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If Ikea made cars

Barcelona

Barcelona is the city of Guadi, the man who basically started Modern architecture.  His church is still unfinished and probably will not be completed for another 50 years.  Even in its unfinished state I've never seen a church like this before.  Konrad, I think this is the same one you were talking about and you should have gone inside.  

These next pictures are a couple other buildings he made.  After seeing these I know he must have been an inspiration to Santiago Calatrava, another Spanish architect, who is known in Wisconsin for the new wing on the Milwaukee Museum of Modern Art.  

We spent our nights eating tapas and drinking sangria.  On one night we got to see a Flamenco show.  I basically set the camera on the tiny table in front of us, propped up on a film canister and hit the button to see what I could get.  These are some of the better results.  

Galway

Galway at sunset.  

I couldn't decide which photo I liked best so there are several very similar pics posted here of the cliffs of Moher.  

They are the largest cliffs in all of Europe and they finally had to put up a small wall along the edge because people kept falling off.  The wind is strong enough that you can lean into it and not fall over, but when the wind dies suddenly you can get caught off balance.  And its strong enough that if it caught you from behind you would get pushed over.  

The Burren, or literally the place of stone.  

London

My trip to London was 4 museums, 2 shows and 1 good friend from La Crosse, in less than three days.  No wonder I got my first and only blister.  

This is Tower bridge, not London Bridge.  London is a blah modern bridge built in the 60's or 70's.  When they realized that London Bridge needed to be replaced they decided to sell it.  Who bought a falling down bridge?  An a American who had it shipped to Arizona and reassembled.  When it was all done the purchaser is quoted saying, "Well, this is a nice bridge, but where are the towers?"  So now there is London bridge of Arizona and it's the second most popular tourist site in the state.  (Europe 1, America 0) 

The famous Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Greece.  Britain stole them and now won't give them back.  It was nice that they had them because I wouldn't have been able to see them otherwise.  But there is a whole museum in Athens dedicated to the Parthenon that would take really good care of them too.  

I also saw the Rosetta Stone.  While I was in London looking at the real Rosetta stone, my friend Camille was in Egypt looking at a copy of the Rosetta Stone.  Although, I suppose if Britain returned everything to its rightful owner the museum would be empty.   

View from Trafalgar Square.  

Harry Potter clock, and a Griffon to let you know when you've entered the Old City.  

Millennium Bridge.  As soon as it opened (purely for foot traffic) it started to wobble back and forth.  After 4 days of constant traffic and wobbling it was closed for 12 million English pounds worth of remodeling.  Londoners still refer to it as the 'Wobbly Bridge' (say wobbly with an English accent, like Renee Zellweger says 'wobbly bits' in Bridget Jones' Diary, it just sounds better)

While it has only been open again for a few years, I was not able to cross it due to routine maintenance.  

St. Paul's.

Dublin

My arrival in Dublin started off with a bacon cheeseburger and a Guinness, two things I haven't had in Italy.  Most of my visit to Dublin revolved around good food, good beer and good music.  It's been hard for me to describe this trip in a blog but here are some pictures anyways.

View of the city from the top of the Guinness storehouse.  The gray clouds seen to define Dublin and I don't think the city would have felt the same without them.  

Inside the storehouse museum.

And the beer tasting room, don't worry there is a whole pint waiting at the bar at the top for everyone who enters.

A view of O'Connell Street looking at the Millennium Spear.  Dubliners think its the biggest wast of 5 million euros because it is in honor of absolutely nothing and wasn't completed until 2003.  It pairs nicely with London's Millennium bridge that wobbles as one walks across it.  

I went to the Abbey theater to see an Irish play.  (No, it was not the TV show)

The Ha'Penny bridge, named because it cost a half penny to crosse when originally built.  

A night of Irish music.  One of several.

The inside of Kilmainham Gaol.  It was built by the English and has held every Irish political prisoner that tried to rebel against English rule.  

St. Patricks, both times I was there it was on a Sunday during service so I couldn't go inside.  

Trinity college, with the largest one room library, which houses the Book of Kell's.  The years known as the Dark Ages refers to the time after the collapse of the Roman Empire, which covered most of the European and part of the Asian and African continents.  It covered the island of England and Scotland but did not reach Ireland.  So when the rest of the world fell they did not really know it and kept living life as they had always done.  Monks continued to copy old manuscripts and illustrate them as they made new books.  The Book of Kell's is a copy of the 4 Gospels.  It is one of the oldest surviving, dating to 800 C.E. and is the most ornate of all the books.      

Pisa! (and Lucca)

The famous leaning tower, the only thing anyone ever sees in Pisa.














This is actually the only asymmetrical facade of a Romanesque Church in all of Europe.  The church itself is symmetrical on the inside but the facade sticks out farther and runs into the tower.  According to our program director while the church was smaller the tower was built by some family.  When the church wanted to expand they started the expansion before acquiring all of the properties around it and this one family held out.  Expansions took awhile in the 1500's so the church expanded everything and thought that they could convince the family to give up the tower by the time the facade would be added.  Unfortunately this didn't happen and the money doesn't always stick around for a long time, so they built the facade anyways.  The art historian guiding us seems to think this is improbable but he has no better answer.  (This church is actually in Lucca, why can't blogspot open up photos in the order I tell it too?)






























So we played tourist.  Better than playing tourist is watching everyone else do so.  Especially when its from a different point of view than their camera person.   I should have some shots from my film camera, have to develop that roll still though.