28. Peaches

I've jokingly recounted that I ate more peaches on this trip than I had in my entire life previously. Now this is probably untrue, and virtually unprovable. Unless we go to my mother and ask just how often she bought the little Gerber peach mush, or added slices of the fruit to my Rice Krispies. I do realize that peaches aren't really "European". In fact, the day after I returned to America I had a peach and remarked, "Damn, this is twice as good as the best one I had over there." But they were excellent, healthy snacks for an on-the-go-hungry-man-about-town so I scooped them up by the kilo. Or perhaps I had an inkling that a certain vivacious character would be nicknamed after them. A Season For Peaches indeed.

29. The Latin Quarter

Paris' 5th arrondissement is known as the Latin Quarter because the language was spoken there first during Roman colonial times and later by the studious attendees of the Sorbonne. These students can be seen at the seemingly endless array of bistros, cafes, and bars that line the mostly pedestrian streets. It literally took us over an hour to pick a restaurant (to eat the aforementioned #47 escargot) since there were so many. An interesting characteristic of the area is that while it is busy during the day, the number of people seem to multiply at night, giving the district the feel of a vibrant, never ending party.

The quarter (incl. Pantheon) as seen from Notre Dame

Rue Mouffetard, where we stayed

Daytime hustle and bustle

Night time, hustle and perhaps more bustle?

30. Parco Nazionale Delle Cinque Terre

These five towns and the trails that connect them make up one of my top three places in Europe. There are no specificly great stories here, but the walks in between the towns were breathtaking. Seriously, there were some steep climbs.
One of my favorite things about the trip was the balance between uber-touristy cities and laid back country towns. For every Paris there was a Blois, for every Berlin a Wurzburg. The Cinque Terre were the best of the latter.

31. Some Girls

We had given up on London's West End theater district since The Lion King wasn't playing that day, Guys and Dolls was too Guys and Dolls and everything else looked worse. Piccadilly Circus was nearby so we walked over to check it out (above) and spotted the theater showing Some Girls starring David Schwimmer. We scored half-price student tickets and got our London theater culture on American style!





Afterwards, we hopped a double decker bus for the fun of it and I found I wasn't really prepared for just how high that second deck actually is.

32. Barcelona Aquarium

Everywhere I see an aquarium I want to go. Paris' was rather pedestrian and we skipped the one in Biarritz, but in Barcelona I convinced Bryce to hit up the largest aquarium in Europe. One highlight was a 4-million gallon tank where sharks, rays, and an assortment of otros pescados swam over and around the glass tunnel a moving walkway escorted you through. There were also the scores of little niños screaming "Nemo Nemo" at every orange fish they saw. However the coolest part was the penguin lair where there was a constant stream of birds diving into the water, swirling around and then popping back out onto the rocks. They were so entertaining I could have sat and watched them all day.

33. Airplane seats

How can I impress upon you the importance of a good start to a trip? I could try with the story of the time my family tried to spend a nice weekend camping in North Carolina. We got two hours out of town when our car broke down so we had it towed back to Richmond, waited until the next day, packed up our other car, got two hours out of town, had it break down on us, got it towed back to Richmond, waited until the next day, and caught a ride with our friends where I was cramped in the back sideways seat of a pick-up's cab. Needless to say, that sucked and the trip wasn't nearly as fun as it could have been. So how lucky were we to end up with these seats on the ride over? Lucky enough to be so fresh that we plowed through our first day on NO sleep walking all over London and were sentient enough to celeb-spot Marcia Cross at Harrods that night. Rock!

34. Merchant Taylor's School

Located in Moor Park, Hertfordshire, this is where Kate (of Mike and Kate) teaches. Kate walks about half a mile from their house along this completely splendid path that winds through the woods, past a pond and through a field before reaching the school grounds. I enjoyed this walk so much, which incidentally Mike gets to take as well since his school is situated just past Merchant Taylor's, that I immediately considered applying to work there. I could have tended to the expertly manicured lawns of the cricket/quidditch pitch and kept the broomshed clean.

35. Ishtar Gate

From Isar to Ishtar, two non-German sounding German things. The Ishtar Gate was part of the processional way through ancient Babylon and was excavated and moved brick by brick to Berlin's Pergamon Museum. Even Bryce with his infantile appreciation of history was impressed. Now remember this amazing archaeological and architectual treasure has no relation or connection to this.

36. River Surfing

I'd have never thought this was possible if I hadn't seen it myself. I mean surfing, in the middle of a city! We encountered this spectacle on our Mike's Bikes Tour of Munich. The fast running Isar river is channeled underneath the city and then shoots out into the English Gardens here. Apparently some strange current is created (we think with a few strategically placed logs) and the result is a rockin opportunity to hang zehn. If Bryce's masterful photographs aren't good enough for you, check out the Google Video and Youtube versions.

37. Ice Cave

Eat your heart out RASS. This is a very cool cave on top of Aiguille du Midi in the Alps. Now I didn't get a chance to explore it past the barriers they had, but it was definitely a chill experience.

38. Lions

Lions and lions and lions, oh my! It seemed everywhere you looked there were the magnificent beasts. Below we have a giant guardian of Trafalgar Square, several inhabitants of the Hall of Animals in the Vatican Museum, and finally two fine specimens from the British Museum.