Europe Adventures

I  chose these two photos of the outside of the European Parliament building in Bruxelles to start this blog post because I thought it was fitting. I had a great trip to Europe, and it was a good way to celebrate my graduation from high school. I hope you enjoy seeing photos from the places I visited, as it was quite fun to compile these photos and create this page.

This is one of the views from a hill in Rothenburg, it's quite picturesque and beautiful.

The town of Rothenburg, Germany, is a very cute little town. We just stopped there for dinner, but it was small enough that we could get to know the town in just a small amount of time. There were lots of tourists, in fact we heard more English being spoken than German. There was also a night watchman who was giving a night tour of the town to a fairly large crowd of tourists, so even though we hadn't paid, we were able to listen in on different things he was saying. Overall Rothenburg is a really cute town, and it was quite picturesque.

Beer, chips, and football. We went to a beer garden to watch Germany vs USA in the world cup, and it was a really great experience. There were lots of people there all watching the game from a rather small TV in the corner, but everyone was enjoying themselves. It was also great to see Germany win that match, and of course the whole world cup later on.

In Munich the markets have a pole in the middle of them and it's supposed to tell people what is being sold that day. For example, the pole I have photographed has four local brewing companies on it to symbolize that their beer can be bought and drank on that particular day.

There is an old castle in Nuremberg and this is a the view of the city from that castle. It's quite a spectacular view and the castle itself is also quite grand.

I find this scene to be very picturesque and peaceful. Nuremberg is a really beautiful city, with a lot of very old and impressive looking buildings.

I went to Hamburg and saw one of my best friends who spent the year there doing an exchange. It was great to see her after a very long time and also see a bit of Hamburg.

On the drive from The Netherlands to Germany, there is a thirty mile long dyke. It's quite an impressive structure with the ocean on both sides and a highway in the middle.

While in Leiden we went for a walk on the dunes, which eventually leads to the sea. The walk is quite nice and the sea is of course very picturesque, though it was pretty windy when we went.

While some might think this is an ordinary coffee shop sign, it's not. In Amsterdam, a coffee shop does not only sell coffee but also joints of marijuana since it is legal over there. I didn't go into this shop, but I just took a picture of the sign.

Amsterdam is full of canals, and it's really nice to walk along them and see all the boats and houses.

My Mum and I discovered a windmill museum in Leiden, which was actually very interesting. We got to climb up the inside of a windmill and learn about how the milling industry works.

My Mum and I visited the botanical garden in Leiden. I'm pretty sure these lily  (approximately 5ft in diameter) the term "giant lily pad" to the next level.

In The Netherlands everyone travels via bicycle, literally everyone. All of the bicycle racks are over full and it's almost more convenient for bicyclists to travel than motorists.

The famous I amsterdam sign! It's an interesting installation, people were having all sorts of fun taking pictures in front of it or even climbing on some of the letters. I definitely had to wait for a slower influx of people in order to be semi-successful at getting a picture.

Taking a literal pit stop in Bruxelles, my parents just showed me the sites they remembered. Mannequin Pise is a sculpture/fountain of a small boy urinating. He is dressed in the Belgian football team colours, since they were playing against Algeria in the world cup that day. Belgium beat Algeria, and after the game was over the entire city went mad. People were waving flags everywhere and driving around the streets celebrating the victory.

There are several cute little canals in Bruges, I like this one in particular because it was in a secluded area and it just seemed very peaceful.

This is probably one of my favourite sculptures, it's of two monks that are leaning on each other. I particularly like this portion of the sculpture because it shows how the two monks are holding each other for support. (A photo of the full sculpture can be seen on the homepage of this blog)

My parents have longtime friends who live in a town called Leiden in The Netherlands, so my Mum and I went to explore the city one day. Leiden has many canals, and this is one of them. They're all quite picturesque and some even had flower pots on the railings

It feels a bit strange to say that I had my graduation dinner at Musee D'Orsay in Paris. Well it was actually a conference dinner for people like my Dad who do intellectually stimulating things I don't understand. Personally I think my parents turned it into my graduation dinner just so I would go, but of course it was still nice. As I sat there surrounded by people who are too smart for me, I became quite enthused by my wine glass. At first I thought the design symbol was saying that one shouldn't wear lipstick and drink from the glass, but I'm still not entirely sure what it is. As well as the interesting design on the wine glass the dinner was very nice and enjoyable.

Parc Floral de Paris, is a botanical garden full of interesting plants. While my Dad and I were walking around, we stumbled upon some flowering Bonsai trees. Neither of us had ever seen these types of bonsai trees, and they are quite pretty.

Le Centre George Pompidou (George Pompidou Center) is a very interesting building in Paris, as all of the plumbing is on the outside of the building instead of the inside. I had been there on previous visits to Paris, but this time around my Mum and I had a good walk around inside and it has some very interesting modern art, but also some very beautiful views of Paris. This is one of the views from Le Centre Pompidou where one can see the La Tour Eiffel along with the rest of Paris.

Whilst walking through an artsy neighborhood in Paris called Le Marais, my Mum and I stumbled upon this shop where they restore old photographs. They were selling a large collection of old photographs from what seemed like random peoples' collections.

This was the view from our apartment in a suburb of Paris called Vincennes. It's a very conveniently located suburb in that it's a short metro ride into Paris. I took this photo on the day we arrived and it was raining very hard outside, but the buildings and the street still looked beautiful.