Stockholm - 2a

Unfortunately I adopted a 'no/as little as possible' cruft policy - so once I moved on from one place to the next, being semi-nomadic, I threw away the city maps ... ok, that makes it a bit hard to remember what the pictures were - d'oh

for now, some shots around Stockholm - part a

Stockholm - 1

first - its cold .. how cold ? - I had to wear my thermal undershirt here and in Copenhagen (where is was cold, and wet)



a word on the locals : They are a shy/'reserved' lot, but quite happy to talk
especially about culture and history, when they get going - these picture indicate how they must (or want to) see themselves

proving they do indeed have a sense of humour :-

Paris - One for Ross ...

as it turns out Ross-the-boss, I do have such a shot that you asked for .. et voila !



for those of you you hadnt heard about my previous time in Paris, I did a tour of Paris by Segway then - although they were an older model - the one I'm riding here 'R2D2', a newer one, doesnt turn by applying a differential to the right wheel - it's much smarter, the central core Im holding moves left or right in an circular axis I guess 'perpendicular' to the foot-platform. The newer models seem to have better battery life as well :-)

Paris by night

1 - cold

2 - trying to take night shots from a Segway, not brilliant - found it's better to 'park' the beast and use a rail (at least it wasnt as hard as trying to photo the Rialto Bridge in Venice from a floating pontoon using a coke can as a tripod)

Not sure about the bridge in the shot - if its the one I think it is, its a major example of reuse. Dont go looking for the Bastille when in Paris - you might see the monument (below) .. the Bastille was pulled down, and a lot of stone reused by common folk - what was left, the bigger blocks, some years later were used to make 'that bridge' ...

Paris by night

Paris : Babooshka Dolls vs this place ?

ok, its Napoleon's tomb .. thats right, the short guy with the big attitude, funny hat etc .. and the answer to the question is - Napoleon 'Blownaparte' is sealed within six concentric coffins ... wow - they really didnt want him to escape again did they ?

(whoops, will need to rotate some pics - sorry for twisting your necks)

Paris - Eat Ya Heart Out Claude !

Monet that is ... I'm not a refined art critic - I leave the oh ah's to my sister - to her credit she's got a degree in fine art. So its out with cubism, surrealism, and yep, sorry Claude - impressionism - this is realism, point the camera and get the shot, hopefully you wont get too many other schmuck tourists in the frame !!

Luckily, my little camera is quite good, healped by the weather and some decent sun :-) ... here's a shot of the placed he lived (Giverny)