Europe Trip

Brad in Paris

Scott and me at the Louvre

Brad and Scott at the Louvre

Notre Dame. Our hotel was near the Seine and this was our view.

This was Notre Dame again, but at night.

View from the top of a department store in Paris.

Scott at the Louvre

Brad, Scott and me at a cafe at the Louvre. We literally spent the whole day at the museum, from opening almost until closing.

Brad liked this statue because the figure in it is carrying a pet lion. I'm glad I took the picture with him in it so that people can get a sense of its size. This was also at the Louvre.

Scott, sticking his head between the pyramids at the Louvre.

Jean (Brad's mom) in front of Hammurabi.

Brad pretending to be taken into the gates of hell at the Rodin muesum.

For one day of our trip, we went to the Luxemburg gardens for a picnic. This is the whole Moore family in front of the Luxemburg palace.

Brad, Larry (Brad's dad) and Scott in front of the fountain at the gardens.

Brad and me on the top of the Musee D'Orsay.

The Musee D'Orsay is the second major art museum in Paris. It is a converted train station, which is why it looks so cool.

Brad and I went to the Eiffel Tower for our last night in Paris. I had been before (several times) but he had never been. This is a picture we took from outside.

Unfortunately, we got to the Eiffel Tower too late, and they only let us on the first and second floors. We never made it too the top! This is a picture we took looking up towards the top from the second floor. The white dots are strobe lights all over the tower. They only turned on this light show every once in a while (every hour?) but it was really amazing to watch when they did.

Brad and Scott in the lobby of the Warsaw Marriot.

Scott spotted this spraypainted poster-type thingy on a random wall in Warsaw. We think it's George Bush! If only we understood Polish....

Scott, playing with the art again at a modern art museum in Warsaw.

After just one day in Warsaw, we took the train to Cracow to spend the rest of my time in Poland. This is a view from our compartment.

Most nights while we were in Cracow, we ate dinner on the square.

The main Cathedral at Cracow.

A random street in Cracow

The oldest church in Cracow

This is the main hall, situated on the square in Cracow.

The official entrance to the old part of the city.

On this street, art students set up their work to sell.

Wawel Castle, the main attraction in Cracow. We spent the whole day there.

Brad and me in front of the Wawel.

This is courtyard of the royal palace at the Wawel. Inside are many beautiful rooms to look at (not pictures allowed there, though.)

On our tour of the royal chambers, we stepped outside briefly while in the palace. This is a picture down the hallway of one of the balconies.

This is a picture from our least healthy meal on the trip. We went to this place called "Peasant Kitchen" that was truly amazing. A few people had fried cheese as an appetizer. I had lamb chops for my entree, soaked in a deep butter sauce. This picture is of a tub of lard, and a tub of herbed butter. We also had beer every night with dinner.

This is a view of Cracow from one of the towers in the square.

In the square, there were scores of flower shops. This is a picture of one of them.

On one of our days in Cracow, we took the bus to see Auschwitz, the largest concentration camp used by the Nazis during the Holocaust. This is a picture of the entrance to the camp. In German is written, "work makes free", which was never true because prisoners were worked to death.

A picture of the grounds at Auschwitz

This is a picture of a reconstructed barracks, where prisoners had to sleep. They would put tens of people in just one of those sections.

While we were at Auschwitz we took the bus to the neighboring camp, Birkenau (also called Auschwitz II). It was built by prisoners during the war to be a death camp. People sent here were immediately put to death and did not work, as was more common at Auschwitz. I personally found the trip to Birkenau more moving than Auschwitz, because it was left exactly the same, and it was more than twice the size of the other camp. This is a picture of the train tracks leading directly into the camp. This is actually the view looking out once inside the camp.

This is one of my poor attempts to capture the size and creepiness of this place.

Another maybe slightly better attempt.

This last picture is just a pretty view from my airplane out of Warsaw en route to Italy (one of my several stopovers on the way home.) The mountains were much more amazing in person.