EUROPE 2005

this section is under construction, but i have all of the paris photos up, and all of germany, and am still adding my witty commentary. keep checking back for the rest...

click on any image to enlarge.

much more to come.

pins and needles

awaiting our departure at will rogers airport in okc. our plane was delayed 3 times, a total of about 2 hours. this is my passport, it verifies that, despite what my wife says about my beard and mustache, i am not a terrorist.

sardines

this is sam and beth, respectively, for any who do not know them. the four of us made the journey together. look how small our first plane (to chicago) was. i couldn't even stand all the way up in it.

streamlined

paris, charles de galle airport.
sam and i just strapped our carry-ons to the outside of our backpacks, a decision we would soon regret.

subway in paris, attempting to get to our first hostel.

lodging

friends hostel, we found ourselves seated in the lap of luxury, in one of paris' finest neighborhoods to boot!

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A-"hmmm, where should we go next?"
J-"whatever it is, i just hope there's plenty of stairs."

notre dame

that's me there in the middle pretending to be the hunchback, in case it wasn't obvious. i'm sure no one else in history has ever done that. go irish!

zombies

at this point, though the sun and clock say approx. 16:00, our bodies think it is about 22:00 with only a couple hours of 'sleep' on the plane the night before. i was beginning to crave brains.

[photo by amanda]
prayer candles inside notre dame

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[beth's feet] climbing the 193,278,154 stairs to the top of notre dame

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if you look close you can see me vomiting in the background

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i call him rudy

ok, so maybe the multi-million-stair climb up ancient spiral stone staircases was worth it, maybe.

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this is the doorway into the bell-tower. you know, the one quasimodo lived in. you know, if he wasn't fictional and all.

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[photo by sam]

fine dining

here we sit alongside the siene river, eating pizza we got from a corner food-counter. the reason you can't see mine is that i threw it into the river because it was burning my face off. i swear it had red hot chili powder in it or something. i ordered plain cheese pizza.

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[photo by amanda]

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paris, part deux

finally, we get something decent to eat. we found chocolate-filled croissants at a food-counter in the subway, and then got more chocolateyness from this shop across the street from the louvre.

here we we see our heroes attempting to get in the backdoor of the louvre. it seems, however, that the 3-day museum pass they purchased does not bestow upon its bearers the power to 'sneak in the back way'. just for the record, i am NOT talking on a cell phone, i guess my ear itched or something.

welcome to the louvre!

looking up from inside the glass pyramid

swoosh

winged victory, the namesake for nike

venus de milo, which is translated: venus of milo

marble butts drive me nuts

two things. first, the only reason i look so happy is because i finally found an air-conditioner and was standing on it to keep from suffocating. second neither am i wearing, nor do i own man-capris. my pants have adjustable bungees around the ankles, which can be utilized in stagnant-air emergencies such as this one.

'i see your schwartz is as big as mine!'

i'm NOT yawning, i'm not. i'm chanting: i heart art, i heart art...

ol' whatsername.
sam was nearly trampled by about 400 asian tourists (yes they were all from the same group) while trying to get this photo. its behind glass, & beyond a velvet rope, hence the poor image quality.

musee' d'orsay

i wish we had come here first. it had quite a bit of more recognizeable, modern art. since we had just finished several hours at the louvre, we mainly just viewed the impressionists. cool museum, i highly recommend it. if you ever go to paris, come here first, then go to the louvre and just go see the few really famous things.

impressionisme

this is an early monet, not to be confused with manet. its called swan from train window. notice the delicate brush strokes and the realness of the image...
ok, fine. i took this picture through the window of a moving train in germany... it looks the part though.

a real monet

self-portrait by van gogh