Parc Güell

The view of Barcelona and the Mediterranean beyond from Parc Güell, also on our rainy excursion.

Sagrada Familia

It rained the day we visited the Sagrada Familia.

Hams

Hams at the Boqueria, a food market.

Lichtenstein

A sculpture by American artist Roy Lichtenstein

Cathedral dance

Walking past the cathedral one evening, we noticed a band warming up. We stayed for the first few tunes of their concert, 

and to our surprise, many in the crowd joined hands and danced traditional Catalan folk dances.

Door

A little way up the alley from the hot chocolate shop.

Barcelona week: churros y chocolate

What better place to start in Barcelona than at Granja La Pallaresa? Our late afternoon meal of hot chocolate, 

which was essentially a bowl of hot thick pudding, and fresh, greasy churros.

Blu

We looked at a lot of graffiti on our Fat Tire Bike Tour. This is by Blu, in the former West.

Brandenburg Gate

The Brandenburg Gate, with the Alexanderplatz TV tower visible in the background.

East Berlin apartments

Many apartment buildings in the former East are surprisingly modern with cheerful colors.

Intimes Kino

The constantly changing graffiti wall at Intimes Cinema in the former East.

Templehof

The grand, recently retired Templehof Airport in the former West has become a public park, used by kite flyers,
in-line skaters, and the odd bagpipe group. It was quite strange to bicycle down the former runways.

Ampelmännchen

The charming cross-walk men in the former East.

Pink pipes

There are pink pipes running above ground all over town. Berlin has a high water table, 

and these pipes drain the water from construction sites.

Berlin week: wir bleiben alle

"We are all staying."

A former squat, in the former East.

Windmills

We climbed several steep ladders to look around inside this windmill on our last day in Bruges.

Garage doors

Clever garage doors in the town.

Belgian cows

These animals look like a cow-pig combo. I believe they're Belgian Blues.

Belgian coast

The coast is lined with condos. Click on the photo to see the large-scale panorama.

Biking, part two

We biked a 45 kilometer loop out to the beach for our second bicycle outing. It rained twice, and we found shelter both times. In Belgium, bike itineraries are indicated by a list of numbered intersections rather than paths. There's a nice little video here showing how it works.

Simon Stevin Square

Walking home from dinner one night, I noticed a photographer setting up his tripod in the Simon Stevin Square. 

The church in the background is the Church of Our Lady.

Almshouses

The triangular courtyard of a set of almshouses.

Turnips

We passed a farmer pulling turnips by hand on our first outing.

Belgium week - biking the canals

From Cambridge we traveled to Bruges by train, taking the Eurostar from London through the Chunnel to Brussels, 

where we switched to a local train. Two of the days we were in Belgium, we rented bicycles and headed

 into the countryside on bike paths that occasionally follow the canals.

The River Cam

Near the end of our tour, we heard tales of student pranks involving the bridges over the River Cam. 

Clare College stands in the background.

Pembroke College, Cambridge

On Sunday, we had rain during our walking tour of the town and colleges. The streets and sidewalks 

of Cambridge were narrow and full of people, but inside the colleges was tranquil.

Samson Slaying the Philistine

Unusual choice for garden art, I thought.

WWII day

The estate was hosting a WWII day with men in uniform and civilians dressed in a wide range of attire
 from fox stoles to coveralls.

Cambridge week

Leaving London, we headed up to Cambridge to visit American friends who live there.
On Saturday, we took a long bike ride out to the Wimpole Estate on another beautiful day.

Albert Memorial

Commissioned by Queen Victoria after the death of her husband.

Victoria and Albert Museum

Zak consulting our map under Thomas Heatherwick's traffic cone canopy at the V&A.

Tate Modern

There were large groups of students in every museum we visited.

Southbank Airstream

An Airstream in London. Of course I had to photograph it.

Changing of the guard

Our bike tour arrived at Buckingham Palace just as the guard were marching by.

Savile Row

We walked up and down Savile Row, enjoying the window displays of bespoke menswear.

London bike tour

A stop on our Fat Tire bike tour at the Horse Guards Parade. 

The beach volleyball competition of the Olympics was held here.

London week

The lovely floral display at The Hereford Arms, a short walk from our lodgings in South Kensington.

Summer 2012

This summer, we ate lots of salads and pies. I did a lot of genealogical research, and a few sewing projects.
And we stayed close to home.

May 2012

In May, we went for a hike near Solothurn with friends from Minnesota who are now working at Cambridge University, but were in Switzerland doing research that week. Zak ran four of the six Tour de Canton races, and I nearly photographed him once. We celebrated our second wedding anniversary. And we took a long weekend trip up to southern Germany to visit a friend from our Portland days. Paul took us punting on the Neckar River in Tübingen, to Bebenhausen Abbey, and to Hohenzollern Castle, and shared his encyclopedic knowledge of European church history with us.