From April 28th to June 7th, 2002, myself and my cousin Jed took a trip to Europe, he just having finished college and I just having been let go from my job. We traveled to England, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, and The Czech Republic. We had a great time, and these are the pictures we took.
London
A postcard of London, featuring Westminster Clock Tower, Trafalgar Square, St. Paul's Cathedral, and the Tower of London.
The Earl's Court Youth Hostel where we stayed.
Our room at the hostel.
Views out of our window.
View out of the bathroom window.
Brompton Cemetery, near Earl's Court.
Headstone of Clarinda & George Deadman.
Headstone of the Beavis Family.
A Harding headstone.
Myself trying to look solemn while testing the timer feature...
A postcard of the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge.
Views of an interesting fountain called The Navigators, sculpted by David Kemp, at Hay's Galleria just south of the Thames River.
The Millennium foot bridge across the Thames River, near the Tate Modern Art Museum.
Inside the Tate Modern, which was a power plant before it was a museum.
The London Eye.
A postcard of the London Eye.
A postcard of the Houses of Parliament.
Several small cars which caught my eye...
A church that was in the neighborhood of Earl's Court, with quite a few Vespa scooters parked behind it.
A postcard of Buckingham Palace.
Just an interesting cloud formation I spotted while lying on my back in Hyde Park on May Day.
A postcard of St. Pauls Cathedral.
Some interesting beverages & candies that struck my fancy. The "Fiery" ginger beer is not as hot as Cock & Bull Ginger Beer, by the way.
Paris
A postcard of Paris.
We stayed at the 3 Ducks Hostel, in the 15th arrondissement.
Here is Jed in our room at the hostel. Cozy, eh?
This is the view out our balcony into the courtyard of the hostel.
This church was just across the street from our hostel. It served as an easy landmark for us.
These neighborhood shops faced each other.
A postcard of the Arc de Triomphe.
Some snaps of the door to a doctor's office. Quite ornate.
A postcard featuring numerous Paris sights.
View from beneath the Grande Arche at La Défense corporate center.
Some Miró sculptures, and the Grande Arche behind.
A giant thumb sculpture at La Défense.
Part of the superstructure of the Eiffel Tower, at night.
Waiting for the Metro.
Bordeaux
Jed in our ultra-modern Bordeaux hostel room.
View out the window of our room.
Several views of the interior of our space-age hostel.
A view out another window.
San Sebastian
View out the hostel window in coastal San Sebastian.
A guard post at the Castillo de Santa Cruz de la Mota, high atop Monte Urgull overlooking San Sebastian.
View out the narrow window of the guard post.
Overgrown path leading up to the Castillo courtyard.
Underground passage below the courtyard.
Stairs leading up to the courtyard of the Castillo.
Name plaque on the wall of the castillo.
Plaque dedicated to fallen soldiers.
Statue of the Sagrado Corazon de Jesus atop the Castillo.
Cannons for defending the Castillo.
A closeup of the stamp on a cannon.
View along the rampart of the Castillo.
Beautiful view of San Sebastian from the Castillo.
More of San Sebastian.
Monte Igueldo across the bay.
Some of the flora near the Castillo.
Madrid
Our hotel room in Madrid.
The view out the hotel window.
Looking down a mysterious shaft in our bathroom...
...and up.
A classical garden.
The Plaza De La Villa.
Taking a breather back at the hotel.
The monument to Cervantes at the Plaza De España, featuring Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.
Barcelona
A postcard of the monument to Colombus in Barcelona.
Views out of the window of our hostel room.
A postcard of the beautiful Barcelona beaches.
Sights around Barcelona, snaps taken while I was laid up with a bum leg...
La Sagrada Familia, coolest church I've ever seen.
Postcards of the amazing Temple de la Sagrada Familia, designed by Antoni Gaudi. Yes, we climbed way up there.
Fancy rooftops at the Parc Guell.
A Postcard of Gaudi's Parc Guell.
We were both taken with the idea of drinkable gazpacho. I tried it. Not bad, really.
A parting shot of this building with its graffiti-covered statues.
Nice
Our hotel room in Nice.
The Negresco Casino, right on the Mediterranian.
The highly frequented yet stony beaches of Nice.
Florence
Our hotel room in Florence.
The view out our window.
Another window view.
The tiny bathroom in our hotel.
Florence as seen from the top of the Duomo.
A postcard of the Duomo.
A postcard of the Baptistery doors, known as the Gate of Paradise.
A postcard of selected paintings from the Uffizi Gallery.
Some neat posters at the train station in Florence.
Venice
The view out of our hotel window in Mestre, outside Venice. Rainy day...
Scenes from a boat race through the canals of Venice.
One of the countless waterways of beautiful Venice.
A postcard of the Piazza San Marco. Words can't express how many pigeons congregate there.
A postcard of the Bridge of Sighs.
Munich
The Schloss Nyphenburg in Munich, King Ludwig I's summer home.
A swan carrying a swanling on its back.
Amsterdam
Our room at the Flying Pig Palace in Amsterdam.
The view out the hostel window. Straight across is Vondel Park.
The ridiculously cramped bathroom at the Flying Pig.
Two Fiats parked along the sidewalk near the Flying Pig. Too cute.
I think this is a Citroen. Wild.
Some interesting flora and fauna in Vondel Park.
Hanover
Jed's roommate's brother Jamie let us stay at his place in Hanover. Wasn't that nice?
Jamie's kitchen.
View out Jamie's kitchen window.
This tree-lined path leading to the Herrenhausen gardens must have been at least a kilometer long.
The geometrically trimmed Großer Garten.
The theater at the Großer Garten.
A fountain at the Großer Garten.
Sights around Hanover.
Hamburg
Our hostel room in Hamburg. 25 beds!
The view out the hostel window.
Jed in the washroom.
The Rockhouse Brothers play Birdland. Jamie, Joe, and Wolff. Great fun!
The Rockhouse Brothers rock out at the Academy Club at Hans Albers Platz.
Joe and Jamie Carnwath, our friendly guides to the seedy underbelly of Hamburg.
The intrepid explorers, caught in a moment of repose.
This dog followed us back to our hostel after a night on the town.
Berlin
This building was across from our hostel in Berlin.
Berlin's TV tower, called the Fernsehturm. I found it hypnotically compelling.
Some pretty red poppies I found in the Tiergarten.
German advertisers don't pull any punches.
Prague
Construction on our room at the hostel in Prague had apparently just been completed the day before we got there.
I noticed this cryptic graffiti not far from our hostel.
View across the River Vitava.
Picture of the city taken from the Charles Bridge.
St. Vitus' Cathedral.
Picture of the city taken from beneath a bridge, in a rowboat.
Cool Art Nouveau advertising mural.
Out the hostel window and down the street.
I wasn't able to determine what this monument was dedicated to, but it sure is a big guy on a horse.
These doors are quite impressively carved with struggling figures from various periods of history.
Nice view from the base of the horse.
Another angle on the horse statue.
More cool doors.
These dramatic statues seemed vaguely communistic.
This is a nearly 180 degree view of Prague from the monument.
Whew! That's a lot of photos!