During the summer of 2003, I went over to a conference in Belgium to present a paper, and decided to spend a couple weeks afterwards travelling around Europe seeing some of the sights. This page shows some of the pictures I took on my trip.
The conference took place in the smallish town of Leuven, which is around 30 km east of
Brussels. Leuven has a lot of character, and even though I was attending a conference, some
of the conference activities included seeing the town (and sampling the local beer--which was
very good for the most part).
The most striking building on campus was the chapel, which you can see on the left. When I
first arrived in town, I thought (due to a misreading of the map due to scale issues) this might
be the location of the conference, but I was quite confused due to the lack of any signs leading to
the registration desk. Luckily I found the right location to register before all the free beer was
gone.
Above on the right is the free beer provided for us upon registration.... Right. Well, I guess it was
the same type of beer at least. I took a picture of this stack of kegs during our visit to
the Stella Artois brewery which is located in Leuven. I had never heard of this type of beer before
my journey. My sources say it's the "Budwieser of Belgium." It was quite prominent
at pubs across Europe, where saying "Stella" would get you a beer regardless of language. However, I'd
never seen the stuff in the US (until a couple weeks after my trip, when I saw some in a grocery store in
San Diego while attending SIGGRAPH). I took the picture of the kegs just to remind myself that they
do in fact exist, outside some particular states in the union.
The tour of the Stella Artois brewery showed the place to be pretty "institutional", holding large vats of beer in various stages of brewing. The image on the left is from the "warm room", which was uncomfortable to be in due to the high heat, and pretty unexciting. You could look into the vats and catch a glimpse (if you were lucky) of some browning stuff sloshing around.
Other rooms with equally exciting equipment included the filtration room and the cold room. Perhaps the best part of the tour was the last part, where the entire group was herded into a room where we got a free Stella Artois glass and some beer. I have to say that it was probably good I got to try it for free, because I would have been a bit disappointed to pay for the stuff, specially with the quantity of better beers available for the same price.
After finishing up the conference, I returned to Brussels to spend some time wandering around the city, which is an interesting place. Sections of the city look like they probably appeared 300 or 400 years ago, and if you walk a couple blocks away you see all the things expected in a modern city. Below are some of my pictures from Brussels.
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I love the squares that all the older European cities have. They seem to always be a center of social happenings, markets, games, and other activities. These sorts of places seem to have been lost, particularly out in the Western US, where the car became king.
At night, the town hall (on the Grand Place) was lit up with lights changing, moving, and dancing to music. Supposedly this only happens on summer weekend evenings, but it just so happens those were the only days I happened to venture down to the Grand Place around 11pm. At other times, you have to put up with the "boring" old town hall with simple white light.
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One of my first days in Brussels, I went on an Art Nouveau tour with my advisor (who had to stay a Saturday night for cheaper airfare), where we looked at a number of buildings in Art Nouveau style. It was an interesting tour, which took me to a number of places I wouldn't normally see.
 The one in the center, which is one room wide. |  Comic Strip Museum is housed in an Art Nouveau building originally occupied by a textile merchant. |
Near the Grand Place in Brussels is the Gallerie St. Hubert, which is a "covered shopping mall" which is essentially a road of merchants with a glass roof. Note the large number of cows. It seems Brussels was having an outdoor public art display consisting of hundreds of cows painted and decorated in various styles. This is similar to the display of buffalo around Salt Lake City during the 2002 Winter Olympics. I particularly liked the "flying cow".
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The Gallerie St. Hubert is two "blocks" long, and in the center it intersects with what I call "Restaurant Row" but literally translates as "Restaurant Road". This is a tourist trap if I've ever seen one. I almost didn't escape! Anyplace where there's 30 or 40 dinky restaurants in a row, all with "waiters" outside begging you to come in, scares me. I actually ate at one of the reastuarants on the row, though it was perhaps the only one where the waiters were busy waiting, not scrounging for more customers.
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The Manniken Pis is.... Well, you just need to take a picture to prove to people that Belgians are indeed crazy. Of course, the fact that you can buy waffles on a stick proved their craziness to me long before.... Anyways, the Manniken Pis is indeed a fountain with a little boy pissing. I must have been lucky (or unlucky) since when I visited, he wasn't dressed up in one of his hundreds of costumes. This statue is a really big attraction in Brussels. In fact, I got asked (by some German, I think) "Ou es la Manniken Pis?". Luckily this is a bit of French that is very easy for me to understand (even with a German accent), and I had a map to gesture with.
Now for a few images I took while just wandering around, from one place to another.
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 |  stand hidden in various parts of the city. |
 mandated to similar depth. |  middle of the street. |
 |  Palace Royale towards the Cathedral of St. Mary. |
The area along the Rue Royale is completely different than the area near the Grand Place. This area is spread out and more majestic, unlike the Grand Place which is more clumped together. For some reason, all the panhandlers like the Grand Place area better. Maybe that's where all the gullible tourists go.
 than the "puny" king's palace on the Grand Place. |  to cow criminals arriving here. Really, there's no way to do it justice (haha) in a picture. |
About halfway between the royal palace and the Palais de Justice is the church of Notre Dame. It's amazing how many churches have "Notre Dame" in them. Every city has (at least) one Notre Dame. Now I know why we have some many churches of "Our Lady" over in the states. We're just copying those silly Europeans who could never come up with a better name.
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The day I was planning on leaving Brussels and heading north to the city of Brugge, there
was a Belgian train strike. Not exactly knowing how these things work in Belgium, I
stayed near the train station pretty much all day. This was partly because it was raining on and
off (off when I was in the station, on as soon as I left), partly because I thought they might
end early, and partly because it was Monday so all the museums I hadn't seen were closed. I
decided fairly early in the day to try to get on the first train available to Brugge and try
to make it there before my hostel closed for the night. I should have just written off my reservation
for the night and stayed in a Brussels hostel again. I got to Brugge maybe an hour too late to check
in (that first train stopped at every stop, and wasn't exactly on schedule anyways). Anyways,
one of the few places I did get to see between raindrops was the old Brussels Botanical Garden, which
was pretty neat to wander through.
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So, after the train strike, I finally got to Brugge. At 1 am. My hostel was closed, so I couldn't check in and get my room, so I had to find a hotel. It was nice to get a clean towel and a big breakfast after a night in the hostel. It was like one night of luxury before hitting the hostels hard core.
Brugge is a fairly small town in northern Belgium which mostly retains the old European city feel. Unlike Brussels, there isn't a modern city "a few blocks" away. This made walking around Brugge much more fulfilling for me. The numerous canals criss-crossing Brugge led some people to refer to it as the "Venice of the North." Of course, I've since heard of other cities referred to by that name. Maybe multiple cities can claim that title.
On the left is the town hall, of market square in the center of Brugge. The town hall is probably the tallest building in the city, and the view from the belfry is quite good. Definitely worth the couple euro admission price.
On the right is me at the "Postcard View" (according to Rick Steve's book). It is a very nice view, though I'm not sure it's the best in Brugge. Why is it that I can never pick people who can take really good pictures of me? This one is decent, but I wish I could have framed it better.
 The statue in the center of the Market Square. |  A photo I took at the "Postcard View". |
 The inside of the Church of Our Lady, where the Michelangelo's Madonna and Child is located. |  |
It was great wandering around town along side various canals, especially since Salt Lake City has such a severe lack of fresh water lying around. Of course, the boats crusing the canals with tourists mobbed onto them were a bit disturbing, but I tuned them out for the most part.
 |  Me in the middle of the water! Aaargh! |
 |  Here's me at the Minnewater. |
As I wandered around town as sunset approached, I walked through a park near the edge of the old, walled city. The tower below appears to be in the right location to have been from the old walls, but it appears to stand alone, without destoyed pieces which might have been attached to the wall. Anyways, I thought it was a cool tower but it confused me a bit, and I didn't know enough Dutch to ask about it.
 |  Inside the town hall. |
Intrestingly, the one night I did spend in the Brugge hostel, I met up with a couple of guys from Canada. They were both traveling alone and met up in a Brussels hostel, and decided to travel to Brugge together. We hung out in the hostel bar for a while, had a few beers, and met up with a couple other people, mainly from Spain. A large group of us decided to go into the center of Brugge around 11 (once the hostel bar closed) looking for some pubs. It was a bit strange to go bar-hopping in a strange city in the middle of Europe, especially on a Tuesday night. Not much was open. But it was fun despite the rain.
I had a great time in Paris. Despite having no real plan for what I wanted to do each day, I got to see everything I really wanted to see in the time I had, and had a bunch of interesting experiences. I found out that each of the major Paris museums is open late at least one night a week. I used those late nights well, getting to see stuff later in the evening while everyone else was off having dinner. The Louvre and Musee D'Orsay are much less crowded at dinner time!
 L'Arc de Triomphe from the edge of the surrounding roundabout. |  The view from the middle of the road is good too! |
One day I was sitting under the Arc de Triomphe eating my dinner when suddenly the place was swarming with police motioning for everyone to get up. They herded us all onto onside of the plaza below the arc and formed a human barricade so no tourists could cross. A bit later, a military band and a large number of (presumably) French veterans parade up the Champs-Elysee towards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier located under the arch. They proceeded to have some sort of ceremony, of which I understood very little, and then took off, leaving the plaza to the tourists who remained.
Another day, I climbed the numerous stairs to the top of the Arc and spent some time perusing the museum inside and looking over the city from the top of the monument. I was pretty impressed with the view, which you can see below.
 Looking down the Champs-Elysee from the Arc. |  Le Basilique de Sacre Coeur from the Arc. |
 The famous tower from the Arc. |  See! I am taller than the Eiffel Tower! |
I must say I was very impressed with the Musee D'Orsay, and I enjoyed it perhaps more than the Louvre. I forget how amazing some of those impressionist painters were, thought I am much less impressed by some of the newer artists. However, I do belive my favorite museum from the trip was a small little museum in Brugge called the Groeninge Museum. It contains a wide assortment of amazingly photorealistic paintings from the 1600-1700 period painted in northern Belgium.
 Me on a bridge over the Seine with the Musee D'Orsey behind. |  The Musee D'Orsay from the nearby bridge. |
For some reason, I didn't take any pictures in the Musee D'Orsay. Maybe they had a no photos policy, however I have lots of pictures from my time in the Louvre.
 Another arch, this time in the Louvre's courtyard. |  Despite the impending rain, more people were leaving than entering the Louvre around dinnertime. More space for me! |
 The Winged Victory. It's unfortunate that photos don't show how big this statue really is. |  I went and peered at the Mona Lisa, but instead of waiting in a mob to take a picture of the glass-enclosed painting, I took a quick peek and walked into the next room, where I saw this painting, which impressed me much more. Unfortunately, I don't remember the painter. |
 The Venus De Milo stands well lit on its pedestal. |  Who looks better? No... Don't answer that. |
I meandered over to Notre Dame as well, and took a few photos. In the evening, there was a group which "performed" outside, which was interesting to watch... for a few minutes. Another night, a musical group performed nearby on the walkway next to the Seine. It's really nice to walk around a city which has a nightlife instead of one that closes shop at 6 pm sharp.
 Notice they're doing a bit of construction on the left. |  Behind the church they had a shed set up where they sculpt stones to replace existing pieces that are falling into disrepair. |
 The little garden behind Notre Dame. |  Notre Dame from across the Seine. |
 Notre Dame looks cool at night too! |  Especially from across the river. |
I ventured over to Montmartre, where the Sacre Coeur is located. Montmartre is interesting because not only do you have all the beggars and peddlers trying to sell you cheap trinkets, postcards, and various drinks, but you also have the starving artists following you around like a puppy trying to convince you that your face would look excellent in a drawing. Anyways, there's not much to do in Montmartre except visit the Sacre Coeur and drop money. So I did both. I visited the church and took a chance to eat some crepes from a street vendor. Interestingly, a service was going on inside the church, so I watched and listened for a while until I got tired of not understanding a word.
 Le Sacre Coeur as seen while walking up the hill to Montmartre. |  And from the back garden. |
 Inside the Sacre Coeur, looking up towards the ceiling. |  A garden in the center of Paris where I ate lunch one day. (Jardin du Luxembourg) |
The first evening I was in Paris I headed over towards the Eiffel Tower, where I planned to eat some food before catching the Metro back to my hostel. On the way over, I noticed that not only were the lights on, but thousands of small white lights were flashing randomly over the entire tower. I guess they installed a few new lights since the last time I was in Paris...
 La Tour Eiffel. |  The Eiffel Tower. A bit closer this time. |
 I'm almost there! |  And suddenly day became night! |
 You can see some of the flashing lights here. |  And now the tower is just glowing. |
I paid the 3 or so euros to climb the Eiffel Tower to the second platform my last evening in Paris. I'm glad I didn't shell out the 10 euros for the ride all the way to the top, because even at 11 pm, the line ran all the way around the second floor of the tower. However, the climb was well worth the cost and the view is great, especially at night.
 Looking down on the garden next to the tower. |  Watching the Seine on one side... |
 The Seine on the other side. |  Looking straight across the Seine towards La Defense (in the background). |
 The Hotel des Invalides from the Tower's 2nd landing. |  The Hotel des Invalides up a bit closer. |
 The altar inside the Hotel des Invalides. |  That's a giant marble coffin! |
I also went to a number of other, small museums while I was in Paris, including a museum with many of Auguste Rodin's sculptures. On the left is The Thinker, one of Rodin's more famous works.
The hostel I stayed at in Paris is worth mention. It was quite a nice hostel, thanks to the fact that they didn't enforce their breakfast policies (e.g. you could eat as much as you wanted), the bathrooms were in the rooms, and a key code got you into your rooms (so there was no key deposit or way to lose your key). Additionally, I was able to stay there much longer than I had originally booked.
However, I did have a strange experience my first night. I showed up around 3 pm off the train from Brugge looking to drop off my bags. I checked in, dropped my stuff off, and wandered downtown. When I came back around 11 or 12, I noticed that only one other person had dropped off stuff. However, the backpack was strangely pink for some guy to be carrying around as luggage. Since hostels are supposedly segregated by gender (unless you rent the entire room), I just figured some guy had strange taste in luggage. However, as I was getting ready for bed, I heard someone trying to get the keycode right to open the door. Trying to be nice I went over to open the door, and was a bit stunned to see two girls trying to get in. Turns out that if the hostel is fully booked up, they often have one or two rooms with both males and females.
Anyways, I took the chunnel train from Paris to London. It was an interesting experience, but having taken both the chunnel and a ferry, I must say I prefer a ferry even if it takes a bit longer. Going through the chunnel is a bit boring -- just 20 minutes of blackness outside the train. Also, it was a pain to go through immigration control for both France and Britain before boarding the train, and then going through British immigration control again after the trip.
I took one day off from visiting the sights of Paris to visit the royal palace at Versailles. As recommended by a number of my guidebooks, I visited on a Sunday when they turn on the water in the garden fountains. Personally, I found the gardens with the running fountains to be much more impressive than the palace itself. Most of my pictures below are of the gardens. Simply this is because I could do justice to the grounds with a camera, but the inside needs to be experienced and I didn't feel I could capture the experience in a photograph.
Having said that, I was a bit unimpressed with some of the decor of the chateau, however. I didn't expect one of the most famous palaces in Europe would have faux marble in places, where the wood was simply painted is an obviously fake marble imitation. They could afford magnificent marble hallways, but yet other equally important rooms only rated the fake stuff. The paintings didn't match up to the quality of the paintings other museums I visited. Not to say the place wasn't impressive, I just was a bit disappointed after the amount of hype. Plus I had to deal with all the annoying tourists visiting Europe... After all, Versailles is one of those must see attractions. So all the must avoid tourists visit there.
So, with no further ado... the fountains of Versailles:
 Even gods and goddesses lounge around the fountains. |  The trees are immaculately trimmed as well. |
 This fountain is surrounded by a vine covered path. |  This area has a Greco-Roman motif surrounded by simple fountains. |
 A large pond surrounded by a grassy area and a few statues. |  This was an amphitheater-like waterfall with golden vases. |
 Here's one of the hunting motif fountains. |  These crazy kids hold up a line of similar fountains. |
 This is a majestic fountain, make no mistake. |  One of my favorites, a rocky cliff-like outcropping with many "waterfalls" which flow around statues of various animals. |
 These horses do not look terribly healthy. |  The Chateau in the background of the Basin of Neptune. |
 Looking down from the Chateau over the gardens off into the distance. | The gardens are amazingly tended in Europe, and at Versaille in particular. |
 For some reason, this reminds me of the Wierd Al song "Amish Paradise," despite the large palace in the back which would seem a bit out of place. |  More geometricly patterned gardens. |
 Looking back up the gardens at the Chateau. |  Even this picture does not really show the size of the Chateau. |
 Me in front of the wall of waterfalls. |  A glimpse of the Chateau in one of the garden's pools. |
I arrived in London around 7pm, which was lucky since evidently advance reservations are required on the Eurostar from Paris to London. I didn't have any reservations, and just happened to be at the counter as someone cancelled their reservation. Anyways, I did not have a reserved bed for the night either. I quickly walked to the nearest hostel, located in downtown London nearby St. Paul's cathedral. Fortunately, they had rooms still available--for a nubmer of nights. Afterwards, I visited a (relatively) nearby grocery store, and wandered down to the Thames to eat as the sun set.
 The Parliament building as the sun sets. |  I walked next to Big Ben on my way beck to bed. |
I was excited to be back in an area where food labels were in English.... I figured I'd actually know what I was buying again. Unfortunately, that's not completely true, and I had an interesting meal. Between the things I bought to try (Who makes things like "treacle tarts" in the states? And what is a treacle?) and the messed up British idea of crackers, I had an interesting meal. Then I got to wander back to the hostel dodging tour groups of 10 year olds and strange London panhandlers. All in all, and interesting first few hours in London.
One of the great things about London is that virtually all the museums you might want to see are free. One of the downsides of London is that virtually all the museums you might want to see are free. It's great to be able to wander freely in and out of museums, looking at the amazing variety of art they encompass. However, it's easy to spend all your time in museums and forget to see the rest of the city. Additionally, since the museums are free, they're packed with school kids all day. That's a bit annoying, though it is interesting that they were all in uniforms. I thought that was just a stereotype.
Anyways, I did spend some time outside of museums, seeing the famous places.
 That's where the Queen lives. They didn't change the guard at all while I was there. I was a bit disappointed. Or maybe not. |  See! I was there. |
Interestingly, I walked by Buckingham Palace later and noticed a number of workers out trimming the roses. There were significantly fewer after they were done. They had bags full of flowers behind them. Maybe they were just going to sell them somewhere....
Since I was staying so close to St. Paul's Cathedral, I visited one morning before the museums opened. It was another large, ornate cathedral. Though it was in the process of being cleaned up for an anniversary, so much of the ceiling was covered up. Like most cathedrals, I couldn't take pictures inside, but when I climbed to the top of the dome, I too a few pictures of central London from the top. I find the (European?) Catholic tradition of burying people in all parts of churches to be a bit freaky. I don't think I'd be comfortable sitting in church praying and singing and suddenly realize, "Hey, I'm standing on Bob!"
 This is the view from the top of the spires of St. Paul's. |  Here's St. Paul's Cathedral at night. |
The bad thing about England is that attractions other than museums are expensive. I went to the Tower of London. For a student, the price was £10.50 (think $17). I was a little in shock. At least I saved £3 for buying my international student ID card. I recouped one quarter of the cost of the card at the Tower of London.
 When I was younger I thought this (the Tower Bridge) was the London Bridge. Anyways, the actual London Bridge is very boring. |  There's the famous Tower of London. Doesn't look like much, eh? |
 Here's a view of the river side of the Tower. |  The Tower of London's central keep. |
 The Tower keep from the other side. |  Inside the keep was a large museum, including lots of weapons and armor. |
Despite the expense, the Tower of London was quite interesting. Seeing the Crown Jewels is pretty impressive. Of course, those shiny things in the jewels could be cut glass for all I know the difference. But still, the large collection of gold and silver platters, cups, statues, etc. is impressive in its own right.
After spending some time locked up in the Tower, barely escaping with my life, I spend a leisurely evening eating dinner down at Trafalgar Square. I also walked up and down Picadilly Circus, but that's more an experience that something worthy of pictures. Besides, I wouldn't want anyone to know that I had a valuable camera in my backpack... They might try to steal it then!
 Everywhere looks better at night. Here's a fountain from the square. |  Even at night Trafalgar Square is packed with tourists. |
Once again, I must mention the amazing gardens of Europe. I spent lots of time wandering through the gardens in London, eating my lunches and dinners, as well as walking through them to get from place to place. They are amazingly well kept up, and people of all sorts hang out in them all day. I saw families feeding ducks and other waterfowl in just about every park, games of every sort, concerts, picnics, and a multitude of other activities. Wonderful.
 I took a peek at Westminister Abbey. I was a bit churched out by this point... They all started looking the same. |  Here's the gardens outside Kensington Palace. A bit of the palace can be seen behind the far line of bushes. The palace contains a large collection of court clothing from the past few centuries. Including about 3 million of the Queen's hats. |
I spent quite a bit of time walking around London. Since I stayed in the center of the city, everything was within a short walk. I took the Tube a few times, but it was a bit pricey, so I tried to avoid it for short trips. My final few pictures of London, below, are evening pictures I took near the Parliament building.
 Here's Big Ben from the road opposite the river. You can see the big ferris wheel put up for the millenium celebration in the background. |  This picture is from a funky bridge up the river a bit. |
Interestingly, as I wandered around London, I walked past a park near the Thames which looked familiar. Turns out that it's the park where I played a concert (10!) years ago when I traveled to Europe. Sadly, the Utah Ambassadors of Music were playing there the next day, but I had already made plans to visit Dover. It would have been interesting to watch that concert to see if I knew anyone playing.
After staying in London for 2 or 3 days, I travelled out to Bath, where I stayed for a night. I left Bath, travelled to Stonehenge and Salisbury the next day and returned to London, where I spent the rest of my nights. However, I also made day trips to Windsor Castle and Dover.
So I travelled to Bath, walked up this huge hill, and finally got to my hostel... completely soaked with sweat.
The place was really quite nice for a hostel. So I dropped my stuff off in my room and headed down into town.
I grabbed some food and decided I should visit the Roman Baths. After all, why else would you visit Bath?
I took my time in the baths, going slowly, and spent 2 or 3 hours looking around. I tasted some (nasty) warm mineral water which supposedly helps heal you and prevent further illnesses. Luckily, I didn't catch anything. So after spending an interesting few hours in the bath house, I left to see what else there is to see in Bath.
I wandered up to the Royal Crescent, which is this big crescent of buildings along a road, all connected by a curved facade. Pretty cool looking, but the No. 1 house, which is the place to see on the Crescent was closed and covered up for renovation. I wandered around a few other areas with beautiful old English architecture.
Other than a few interesting architectural areas, there's nothing else to do in Bath. Except shop. I spent quite a bit of time admiring the old English architecture, wandering through parks, and looking for interesting things to see. But I ended up going back to my hostel and reading a bit. If I needed to get gifts and had room in my backpack, Bath would have been a great stop....
Around 2 am, during the middle of my sleep, the fire alarms in the hostel sounded. While the place was pretty nicely kept up, it was in an older English house and when I checked in I noticed the building looked like a death trap... I mean, you had to go up a flight stairs, take a left, go up a few stairs, go through a door, go past the bathroorms, go through another door, go up more stairs, make a left, go down a hall, and finally get to your room after circling the top floor. I got turned around completely every time. Needless to say, I woke up pretty quick, since I figured if there was a fire, I'd need all the time possible to find my way out. Anyways, I ended up sitting outside for 45 minutes while the fire brigade looked throughout the hostel, listening the entire time to about a dozen teenagers talking about how they thought they saw a fire someplace. Luckily there wasn't a fire, and I got to go back in and sleep.
After leaving Bath, I took a commuter train from Bath to Salisbury. That was completely different than the longer distance trains I had taken so far in Europe. I figured taking a 2 hour ride to London, and then another 2 hour ride to Salisbury was the wrong way to go. So this commuter train was two cars long, had no first class (not that I was riding in first class anyways), no air conditioning, little luggage room, and had most of the seats reserved in advance. But it went through some really cool countryside.
I got to Salisbury and bought a bus ticket to Stonehenge. I had a while to wait until the bus came, so I looked for a place to store my backpack for a few hours. The Salisbury station was the first train station I visited which had no luggage lockers. A friendly lady at one of the booths offered to let me store my pack at her booth, but I wasn't sure I'd be back before she closed up shop.
The bus ride to Stonehenge took about 45 minutes on this big double decker bus. It was kind of strange, because we took this right turn and suddenly by the side of the road a few miles up you could see a ring of people. It took a while longer before I could see stones inside it. For a while I thought I was going to visit Touristhenge. Luckily Touristhenge surrounds Stonehenge.
Honestly, Stonehenge was one of the better deals in England. It was only a few pounds to get in, you got one of these newfangled "audioguides," basically an MP3 player which allows you to listen to commentary about various points of interest. The Stonehenge audioguide had a lot of interesting information and made what could have been a fairly boring 5 minute walk around the stones into a pretty interesting hour or two.
Unfortunately, you can't walk up close to the stones any more. On the other hand, this restriction give you better chances for pictures without people up hugging the stones. Amazingly, I had a beautiful cloudless day out at Stonehenge. Where's the rain Britian is famous for?
 There are two sides to Stonehenge: the shadowed side... |  and the lit side... |
 Once again: the illuminated side... |  and the shadowed side.... With a fallen stone out front. |
I went to Windsor Castle 10 years ago but I didn't really get a good look at it, being seriously jet lagged and wandering around with a bunch of other teenagers. I decided I'd go back and get a good look. So I took the train from London to Windsor and walked up to the castle. When traveling around the continent on bus, you don't get a good feel for how close everything is. Traveling by train and your own two feet proves how close together things really are located. I was impressed.
Once again, Windsor is an expensive place to visit. I paid another £8 or £10 to get in.
I took a guided tour for a bit, wandered through Queen Mary's dollhouse, which contains a large model
dollhouse of one of the royal castles, complete with replicas of the furniture. Quite an amazing
setup. I wonder who had the bright idea to give such a thing as a gift, it's not like anyone could "play"
with a dollhouse that large.
 There's a small grassy area outside the castle before the line of nearby shops. |  Looking from the lower ward into the middle ward. |
 The moat garden. Never actually filled with water. |  More of the moat garden. |
 The round tower. |  A flag with the queen's coat of arms flies when she is in residence. Interestingly, between this picture and the last, the flag changed. So the queen left while I was there. Maybe I look threatening. |
So, for my last day in Europe, I decided I'd go on the less traveled path. I had a BritRail pass, allowing me to travel anywhere in Britian. I decided I'd try to visit Dover and Canterbury. I had no clue what there was in Dover or Canterbury to see, but I figured I'd travel there, see what sorts of things were advertised in the train station and go from there. After all, it couldn't be worse than Bath, which I had planned in advance!
I showed up at the train station in the morning and decided I'd take a train to either Dover or Canterbury, whichever left first. The train to Dover left about 20 minutes earlier, so on I went to Dover.
So what is there to do in Dover? Well, a brochure at the station said that Dover Castle was just a quick 15 minute walk up the road. I like castles. 15 minutes is an easy walk, especially with my backpack safely stored back at a London hostel. And with that I decided to visit Dover Castle. Arguably it was the most interesting place I visited in England.
Why was this castle so interesting? Well, the location has been in use for over 2000 years.
It was used for a Roman lighthouse in the first century, and has been in use as a castle since
the tenth century. In fact, the castle was even used as a wartime headquarters during World War
II! Wow! I thought castles went out of style well before the 1940's.
 Here are the remains of the first century Roman lighthouse. |  Looking down on Dover from the castle. Doesn't look like a fifteen minute walk, does it? |
 Some of the older walls of the castle. |  Looking over towards the old castle keep. |
 One of the many towers of Dover Castle, looking out towards the grassy land away from the channel. |  Here are the White Cliffs of Dover seen from the castle. |
 The Dover Castle Keep. |  Me storming the castle keep! |
On the left, you see me making myself at home inside the castle.
The amazing thing about the castle is its size and complexity. Below the white cliffs are a maze of tunnels dating from the Napoleonic time. These tunnels could hold around 1500 troops underground without anyone noticing from the surface. They were extended for use during World War II. A guided tour of a few of these tunnels is provided as part of the admission price. It's amazing to see the tunnels where people lived without seeing the sun for years.
Just a bit further up the hill are all the requisite elements of a medieval castle. Dover Castle was really worth the trip down from London. In fact, I planned to stop by Dover then move onto Canterbury, but I spent so much time at the castle, I had to skip Canterbury completely.
On my way back to the train station, I decided I'd find some fish and chips to celebrate my last day in Europe. I found a little hole-in-the-wall shop near the beach in "downtown" Dover. I got two huge slabs of fried fish and like 2 pounds of chips (I couldn't eat them all!) for £3. I was amazed, as I'd been told it was virtually impossible to find cheap fish and chips in England anymore.
All in all, I had an excellent last day in Europe, and an excellent trip!
Thanks for reading.
Last Modified: Thursday, September 18, 2003
Chris Wyman (wyman@cs.utah.edu)