From a boat tour.

The view from the tip top of the Church of Our Saviour

The final 150 stairs that lead to the top have been placed on the outside, rather than the inside of the building. Climbing a spiral staircase on the outside of a building was a somewhat terrifying yet exhilarating experience.

Random photos from around the city

Freetown Christiania is an autonomous neighbourhood within the city of Copenhagen consisting about 850 residents and 34 hectares. It is famous and infamous for many reasons and I loved it.

I couldn't take photos of the commercial areas, but these are from the residential section.

This is Siri. She and her boyfriend Anders were my wonderful and generous hosts in Copenhagen.

On July 17th the Gills and I parted ways temporarily while I went off to explore Copenhagen.

sunset

Rundetårn (the Round tower) is a 17th-century tower that was built as an astronomical observatory for Christian IV.

Christian IV had the corridor made large enough so that the building could be climbed by horse and carriage (which was done in 1726 by the Czar Peter the Great). In 1888 there the tower became part of a bike race and in 1902 the first motorized vehicle ascended the tower.

The view from the top.

The King's Gardens

The photos below were taken from Carlton Hill.

Linlithgow Palace is the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots and is well worth the train ride from Edinburgh

These pics are from the Glasgow School of Art designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh between 1899 and 1909. Sadly, they wouldn't allow pictures of the inside but they let me take some shots of the windows.

An evening flight to London...

And finally a shot from one of my favourite spots in London, the cafe at the top of the Tate Modern.

The Cock of Arran

Traffic jam.

I couldn't resist going out to and up Goat Fell, despite some unfriendly looking weather...

When I set out in the morning, I had no intention of climbing a mountain. I felt jetlagged, exhausted and lazy. I didn't really want to do anything but stay in bed and perhaps read a book. The overnight flight to Scotland and the lack of sleep before I left Canada (due to packing up and moving out of my apartment as well as excitement) had really taken it out of me. However, my pride kicked in as I was actually worried that the people in my B&B would judge me if I didn't bother to leave the house all day. Since I'd heard that the walk up Goat Fell was beautiful, I decided that I would walk part way up and when I got tired I would turn around a go back. I wasn't expecting to run in to two kind people who would encourage me all the way up the mountain.

This was our view. We were a bit sad that we couldn't see the gorgeous view that we heard so much about, but at the same time, the clouds made it feel like we were the only things in the world. We were surrounded my nothing. There were a couple of magical moments when the clouds lifted for about 15 seconds or so and the island was revealed but these moment were too short lived to capture. But, if you stare really hard at the photo below, maybe you can just make out the coastline.

At sunset the clouds finally lifted and showed the summit.

I know it's a cheesy title, but I'm not too sure what I should call my first blog entry in well over a year. I almost feel like I should start a whole new bog since it's been so long since I've made an entry on this one. But... that would require quite a bit of effort and I don't feel like it! So there.

And so, in case you haven't guessed or heard. I am once again on the road again. I'm doing a course in Berlin (beginning mid July) and since I found a fabulously cheap flight into Glasgow June 21, I thought I would start my travels on the Isle of Arran. I'd never had a chance to see the countryside in Scotland and the guide book said that it was Scotland in miniature and so off I went...

Photos from the ferry

On the Isle of Arran. Brodick habour

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The next photos are taken on the walk from Brodick village to Brodick Castle.

Salmon berries. Not very sweet, but I still thought they were yummy

Looking back towards Brodick, the largest village on Arran and my home base.

Brodick with the ferry coming in

Brodick Castle. I got there too late in the day to go into the Castle, but I could still explore the grounds. Original parts of the castle date back to 1307 with the newer sections dating from 1844.

The rest of the photos were taken on the coastal walk back to Brodick.

The mountain in the background is Goat Fell. It is the largest peak on the island and I climbed it the next day.

This statue, Unconditional Surrender, is based on Alfred Eisenstaedt's famous photo of a solider and a nurse celebrating the end of WWII with the Kiss. It's one of the more famous Sarasota landmarks.

Below is me going in for a dip in the somewhat chilly 17 degree waters...

The rest of the photos are all taken at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art which is actually a multi-building complex on a 66 acre estate. John Ringling not only built this massive estate, but much of Sarasota as well as his pet project of running a circus.

A bit of the gardens:

One of the highlights is the Circus Museum, celebrating all the mystique surrounding circus life, with little acknowledgement of the animal rights abuses and hardships that performers and workers endured... don't get me wrong though. Even though its one-sided, its still pretty fun to see!

This circus in miniature was built over more than a 50 year period by one very devoted Howard Tibbals. I kinda wish I would've taken more photos of this display. The attention to detail is quite phenomenal.

This is the Venetian-style Mansion that John and his wife once lived in. On the terrace, once a month (just in time for my visit) there is a band, food and drink. It's well worth hanging out to watch the sunset.

Photos from February 17th's flight from NY's LaGuardia to Tampa, Florida.

That's right, I've taken advantage of reading week to go on a little trip through the USA. Part 1 of the trip is NYC. My lovely friend Kelly (yes, my Thailand and Hong Kong travel buddy) very kindly got me a bus ticket for next to nothing to the Big Apple and my four short day there turned out better than I could've possibly imagined.

The first set of photos were taken from the lovely hotel room I had the incredible good luck of crashing through a friend of a friend... First a night photo...

The next 4 are from the daytime view.

The hotel is at 44th and 7th, in case you were curious, and my location was the 49th floor.

There are two sets of photos in this entry. The first is from a walk I did with Sue-Li waaaaay back on Feb. 21st of 2008. (I wonder how many years its going to take me to finally post all the photos of my 3 years away!)

Part of the trail had been closed. We couldn't figure out why and so continued along the seaside path. When we saw this, the reason was suddenly quite clear:

This next set of pictures are from a sunny version of the walk. This time with Monika, Ashley (more of them here) and Peter. Somehow though, I managed to take no photos of people, just scenery.

Oh... and by the way. I said this was going to be a series about Dublin walks, but I forgot that I'd already posted the other walk way back here.