Barcelona from the mountain of Montjuic

Montjuic is a mountain that has fabulous views of the city and the sea. In addition to a fortress at the top, there are also museums, gardens, and Olympic venues from the '92 games. In the 17th century the fortress was in use. There is a lot of history on the hill, but after being in a big city, I love to go for the views.. (click to enlarge!)

view to the north

It's not often the skies are this clear

Part of the military museum, where there are guns, spears, rapiers, crossbows, etc. from the 16th century and after.

Sailboat regatta! Cannons!

The port, which is waiting for my yachts to enter. Only a few more years...

It was a cold day, which meant there were very few tourists.

artillery in the garden. of course!

THAT thing... is called Agbar tower. We all laugh at it. But look behind it.. snowy mountains!

Castle cats!

Paris, part 4: Landmarks!

You saw this one coming, right?


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The Arc de Triomphe image again, but it's so I can show you the next photo...

...which is much more interesting. But it's more impressive when you've seen the whole monument

A government building and a church (which I forget the name of) that I wanted to go to. Closed! How French... grr




Almost the same picture, but I like this one better. It just doesn't show the other large government building so here are both images.

Opera! It's hard to capture the amount of GOLD on this building with a night picture and my small digital camera.

Sacre Coeur, looking above Paris. It's as much a part of the Paris skyline as the Eiffel Tower is.

Another angle! This was a really impressive building. You can see the copper statues are so old and have started to stain the building green.

Now for a bunch of Notre Dame photos...
Rose window from the outside.

Gargoyles!
We tried to go up to the top of the Notre Dame to see the "better" gargoyles, but I guess the dudes running the line wanted to go to lunch. Chumps. I hope a gargoyle spits on them.

There was a park next to the Notre Dame with a rose garden. The French like their rose gardens.

...and rose windows.

The Notre Dame has an interesting history. It's freakin' old, to begin with. Construction began in 1163 and went on for almost 200 years after. Kings have been crowned here, Joan of Arc gained credibility after death here, and then it was abandoned. Victor Hugo saw that city planners thought of tearing it down, wrote The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and people collected money to restore it. Good thing or else gargoyles would have gotten pissed off, right?

how silly...

Paris part 2: Louvre museum

The first place we went to in Paris was the Louvre. I couldn't have gone to Paris as an art student and NOT hit this place up. Anyway, it was an experience I would recommend to anyone with a couple of hours of time on their hands and who won't mind getting absolutely lost in this massive building.
There are a lot of photos here, but it's a tiny amount compared to what we saw. Most of these images are a more interesting point of view compared to what you would regularly see. We aren't labeling the photos with names, and titles, etc. because you won't read all of them anyway! :)
(click to enlarge the images)

Hey it's liberty!

Art on the outside too..

haha what a wig on that guy up there!!

Actually I was laughing at this :)

Hall o' sculpture

Hi mom, it's mercury

Such a cool image.

Why's that guy even pointing at me? Man...

Study of a character.

Detail of a zodiac on the ceiling. Very cool lighting.

Opium?

Li'l fat man! They made coins with his face from this sculpture.

The ceilings were art as well. Incredible.

Liberty, again?

Hall o' paintings.

Massive!
Napoleon proclaiming himself emperor.

This would make a cool painting.


This one just turned out so bizarre!

Soul escaping the tomb!

old writing...

...and old bread!

And at the end, the rest of the pyramid.