Since everything works now, I hope to be working my way through the Europe photos and giving them the appropriate titles and descriptions.

It was one heck of a ride. Toulouse, hot as it is, is a great city, and the Pyrénées are beautiful as well. The only real disappointment is the Cité de l’Espace, which I think would be more fun if I were ten to fifteen years younger. Or ten euro cheaper.

It was amazing to be there for the Tour. The lack of sleep as trucks roll by, horns blaring at all hours of the night, while meanwhile I’m freezing under a British Airways blanket on a beach towel in a ditch on the side of the road, then the waiting all through the morning, accompanied only by the local French language paper and the Aquarel caravanne preview paper, also in French, and whatever reading I brought with me, which quickly runs out. The sun breaks over to my side of the road, finally, and the temperature swings thirty degrees in ten minutes, eventually warming to what must have been over 100°F. Finally, early afternoon, some official cars start rolling through. All of a sudden, the caravanne has arrived! I collect my schwag, and then I wait again. Everyone looks down the road as more team and official cars go breezing by. Then two gendarmes on motorcycles. I already know who is up front; Levi Leipheimer’s brother, whose family I camped next to, has been checking on the TV on the RV parked across the road, and he is happy that it is fellow Gerolsteiner rider Georg Totchnig, though there is a detectable feeling of disappointment that it couldn’t be his teammate Levi. But that’s racing.

And behind the red cars, there he is. The stage leader. Then boom! He is gone.

A couple minutes behind, three riders: Armstrong, Ullrich, Basso. They breeze by.

Then individual riders, and perhaps groups of two. Levi Leiphemier. Michael Rasmussen. Haimar Zubeldia. Others. After a time, the peloton finally rolls through. More dropped riders. I cheer every one, because any one of them could drop me like a rock on a flat road, much less one with a 10.5% maximum grade. Finally, the autobus rolls in, with Thor Hushovd safely in the pack clothed in green. A few more riders. By now half of the riders in the Tour have come back down the mountain, rolling downhill as their compatriots struggle up, to meet the team busses in Ax-les-Thermes. Are these last riders within the time limit? How long has it been, anyways?

Finally the last couple of cars in the Tour train come through, with the sweeper van proudly proclaiming, in French, “End of the Course,” on a European-style road sign with the red slash through it just to make the point. And that’s it, the Tour has ended for us. Amateurs mount their bicycles as the few remaining pros try to descend safely with them. And the Tour autotrain starts to descend as well, the ceremonies having long ago been completed.

As I myself descend from my place nearly 8 km up the mountainside, all that remains of the Tour by the time I reach the base are the km-to-go banners, and a couple of gendarmes.

I had changed my mind about camping out the second night. The excitement of the Tour got me through the first cold night, but I didn’t look forward to a cold, lonely evening. After finding there were no rooms in Ax-les-Thermes, I got my train ticket changed to leave that night for Toulouse and went back to the hotel in which I had stayed before. Turns out I ended up in the same room (Hôtel D’Orsay, room 507, near Toulouse Matabiau-Gare SNCF, the train station). I slept solidly that night.

So I made it back to Oxford exactly when I anticipated.

Newest addiction that is sucking away my life: Sudoku puzzles. I’ve done two, including the “difficult” level one in The Independent on Sunday, which I picked up when I landed at Gatwick so I’d have something to do while I waited for the coach and then rode the coach for the two hours it takes to get back to Oxford. I think it took me about an hour to solve today. Like I said, sucking away my life.

Friday, Salisbury and nearby Stonehenge. Stonehenge wasn’t really on my list of things to see, and as I thought, it wasn’t all that impressive. Impressive is how it was constructed, not what it was for or what is left standing, in my opinion. Salisbury is a nice enough town, with a nice enough cathedral.

Saturday, things having settled down, I went with some people to London. After leaving them at Buckingham so they could watch the Changing of the Guard, I went off to do my own thing, rolling up to Mornington Crescent station, then back to the London Transport museum at Covent Garden (though the nearest Tube station was closed, along with most of the Piccadilly line), then I looked at Westminster Abbey from the outside, since it was closed to the public for the day.

Followed this with a quick tour of the Tower of London (did it in one hour, whew) and a DLR trip to Greenwich to see the National Maritime Museum (OK) and the Royal Observatory (awesome).

Met the group back at the Imperial War Museum, went to dinner at a reasonably-priced place in Soho (Cafe Emm), then caught the bus for home.

Sunday, I went to York. And I forgot my camera, so I had to buy a disposable when I got there. But it’s a cool town. Saw Clifford’s Tower, which is all that’s left of the castle, walked along the city wall, had a pint of Yorkshire Terrier, saw York Minster, the largest Gothic church in England, went to the Yorkshire Museum, walked a bit more of the city walls, and finally visited the excellent National Railway Museum.

(Yes, yes, I’m skimping on details. Boo-hoo.)

Finally, tomorrow I depart the UK for the weekend to visit southern France, flying into Toulouse in the Midi-Pyrénées and then taking the train on Friday into the high mountains of the Ax region. Saturday, I shall see the Tour de France. I fly back Sunday morning, and will get back to Oxford in the midafternoon. Once I recover from the inevitable sleep deprivation I’ll be sure to write all about it.

I’ve gotten photos titled from departure through Pisa. Of course, now I’m behind on weekend photo processing. Sigh. Still, for those of you entirely lost by my Florence pictures, you can now have your thirst for knowledge sated.

For more information, see:
BBC (newest at top)
Europhobia (newest at bottom)
The Command Post

After much not-getting-them-done, I’ve finally got caught up on photos up through the Continental part of my trip, that is to say, Paris and Bruges are now processed.

I haven’t taken many photos in England yet, though I have a couple from Oxford and my first London trip–bloody weather. Look forward to those, more from London, and Toulouse, Ax, and the Tour. And anything else I happen to end up doing.

Remember that if you’ve missed anything, you can get all my photos from the summer conveniently organized by city from my gallery. Soon, I will start going through and labeling the photos, but these things take time, y’know.

Last Saturday I daytripped London to visit a few things that I probably wouldn’t get to see (or see enough of) with other people. Went to the Cabinet War Rooms/Churchill Museum and spent nearly four hours at the Imperial War Museum, which combined took care of any WWII-history hankerings I’ve been having. I also got to catch part of the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham (before I got bored), walked across London Bridge so I could look at the much more famous Tower Bridge, visited Trafalgar Square, and went to Hamley’s, the world’s largest toy store. It looks like I’ll be doing a full weekend in London this weekend with a few friends, but since we’re driving in each day because it’s cheaper than booking rooms in London I might do a daytrip or two by rail, depending on how long it takes me to see what I want to see in London.

Classes are fine. Lots of reading for history (surprise) and the primary textbook is somewhat…convoluted…but I’m getting through it. The econ class has pretty interesting material. I know know one of the ways to make money in the foreign exchange market (taking advantage of currency price differentials in different markets), though we haven’t covered the more complicated stuff yet, except for a brief mention of Soros’ (in)famous pound bet.

Electrical outlets in Great Britain have not given me any trouble whatsoever.

Taken from the Schloßberg in Graz.

Work has begun on photos from Paris and Bruges, and should be done soon. Meanwhile, look over Graz, Vienna, Munich, and Strasbourg.

Had a pretty nice dinner with beef bourignon, probably misspelled, and then late that night electrocuted myself while trying to switch from my laptop to my camera battery charger, shutting off power to all the electric outlets on the second floor. Other than an odd stinging sensation in my right index finger for about a day, no ill effects to me, but there were a lot of people unhappy, though understanding, that their iPods were not charged for the trip to Paris. People were charging iPods and doing their hair in the hallways in the morning, which was actually pretty funny.

The night we arrived, after the welcome dinner, a group of us went ahead and headed over to the Eiffel Tower. After some confusion about Paris Visite three-day Metro passes, we all rode over there on the subway. However, since the top was overcrowded, none of us actually went up into the tower. We were there for twilight though and stayed until after 11, when it finally got dark. A short and futile search for créme brulée followed.

The next day, following an art lecture, we went to the Louvre. Is that museum ever huge. Lots of very interesting things there, including the Mona Lisa, which while iconic I personally do not feel to be all that impressive. I mean, yeah, it’s very good. But is it Leonardo’s best work? Is it the greatest painting of the Renaissance? I’m not so sure, but there it is all the same. Afterward, some of us went to visit Notre Dame (de Paris), which is on the Ile de la Cité, in between the banks of the Seine. Very cool. Possibly even cooler, if not as well known, is the Sainte-Chapelle, which was built by one of the Louis-es to house various relics given to him by the Pope, including part of the True Cross. The place is absolutely beautiful, with over 4000 sq. ft. of stained glass, enough so that the walls appear to be made of it. Really awesome.

After the next day’s music lecture, we went to the Centre Georges Pompidou, which is a museum of modern (20th c., and now some 21st c.) art, but not until after a long lunch break. So I headed up to Montmatre on the Metro along with trip leader Dan. When we reached the summit we split up, with myself going to Sacre Cœurs, which is the church that is at the top of the hill (very nice) before decending to the base to find the Moulin Rouge. On the way I stopped at a Champion grocery store and decided to go in and buy a baguette and pear for lunch. After waiting in line for 10 minutes, the lady at the register couldn’t ring up my pear because apparently you have to weigh and tag your fruits and vegetables yourself. Since I was already starting to run late, I didn’t have time to go back and fix it so I just stuck to the mini-baguette I had purchased. Got down to the Moulin Rouge, took a couple of pictures from outside, and quickly dropped down into the Metro station that is right there.

Get to Châtelet-Les Halles station, which is near the Pompidou, except for the fact that you come out in the underground shopping center of Les Halles. So at this point I have no way what the correct exit to take is, or for that matter where an exit is, and I of course pick one on the wrong side of the complex. At this point I’m starting to worry, since I’m running late for the meeting time and starting to run up on the time at which we’re supposed to enter. I walked back across the entire shopping center (well, the park built on ground level above it), saw the building through the skyline, and did make it in time. I also had time to eat my baguette.

Pompidou is a modern art museum. I will pretty much leave it at that. Did notice there were a number of school groups, of mostly second-third grade kids, which seemed kind of odd.

Had a Royale Cheese at McDonalds, fulfilling my debt to Pulp Fiction. Setting off on my own, I took the Metro to the Place de la Concorde, and then walked the Champs-Elysees, which was pretty interesting. At the Arc de Triomphe, some veterans and current French soldiers were visiting the Tomb of the Unknowns that is there.

Finally that evening, went to a jazz club for our final music class trip. Maybe twenty of us went to the same place, called Sunset, where we heard the Wasabi Quintet (which is oddly named as there are only four regular players). Nothing amazing, but then again it was a Monday night. The percussionist was pretty good though, and had one really awesome drum solo.

The final day, I went to the grocery store next to the hotel in the morning before we went off to the Musée D’Orsay. Turns out this is the only grocery store in all of France that does not sell baguettes. Sure, you can buy parbaked baguettes, but being without an oven they wouldn’t have done me much good. So I got a pear (finally) and “Sticks d’Alsace,” which is one way of keeping the Germans out of the pretzel business.

The Musée D’Orsay is a very good museum.

Afterward, took the Metro (on my own, again) to the Luxembourg gardens, ate lunch there, and walked to the Parthenon, which I did not go into due to lack of time and the fact they charged admission. From there I skirted the Latin Quarter, which looked pretty cool except for the fact some person or people had plastered over many of the roadsigns whith what I am sure was humorous or raunchy Latin phrases, making it difficult to find the Metro station I intended to depart from. Finally found it and headed to the Musée Rodin, which is in a nice Rococo towhnouse. Looked at lots of sculpture, and spent some time in the gardens, but the rose garden was not as impressive as I thought it was going to be.

After finding out what other people were doing, and seeing that no one else had this planned, I set off for the Eiffel Tower again with the intent to get to the top. I only had to wait in line about ten minutes to get a ticket to climb to the second platform, which is about 115 meters and 700 some odd stairs up. The more expensive elevator had a wait on the order of hours, and climbing the Tower is one of those experiences you can’t get any other way. Once to the second platform, I bought the supplement ticket to take the elevator to the top, which is only accessible by the lifts. Standing at the top of the tower is like nothing else I have done. It is so absurdly high, with the top platform at somewhere around 300 meters, and all you’re standing on is this mountain of steel spaceframe. It’s an unforgettable view.

Went with a group celebrating a couple of early birthdays (didn’t want to interfere with finals in Bruges) to have dinner. Had an escargot appetizer (thanks, Disney Cruise Lines!), beef with pepper sauce, and créme brulée. And an absurdly overpriced beer. Afterward, we headed to the Seine to do a cruise through the city. We didn’t all make it until about 2230, so we ended up on the day’s final cruise at 2300.

It just so happens that that day was the summer solstice.

It just so happens that in Paris, this is a good excuse for a party. So both banks of the Seine, and many bridges, were absolutely packed with partygoers of varying sobriety. There was yelling and screaming and the occasional person who decided to splash beer at us from a bridge as we went under, but it wasn’t a problem. It was an amazing thing, and one heck of a party.

The Metro was packed; because of the party, it would be running all night. At a certain point it would only go to certain stops where there was live music but some of us, myself included, were early enough that that wasn’t a problem. A wonderful final night in Paris.

So the next day it was off to Belgium and the city of Bruges (the French spelling, the prevailing local spelling is the Dutch “Brugge”). It’s a charming city, not very big, but quite a tourist attraction, especially for other Europeans and American college tours. It was historically important because along with Brussels a lot of money ended up there from commercial activities. Unlike Brussels, Bruges’ canals are still there, criss-crossing the city though with a network nowhere near as extensive as Venice’s.

Actually, on our first day there we took a side trip to Brussels to look at some Art Nouveau architecture. This wouldn’t have been a problem but for some reason we could not go directly, but had to go by way of Gent, and even then there was traffic that stretched the trip to over two hours long. We arrived in Brussels late for our tour guide, got lunch, and did an abbreviated version of the tour. Exhausted simply due to travel, most of us went back home on the bus, though a few others stayed behind and took the train back later. Worked on my art final paper that night.

Class the next morning, then finished my art paper (the particular internet cafe was not a fun experience), then I rented a bicycle and rode all around Bruges, literally. And rode through town, and such, until I had to return the bike and go to dinner.

Next day, took the music final, then went on a tour of the Hendrik brewery with the music prof and leader Dan. After the post-tour beer, got some quick lunch, went to see the Michelangelo in the church down the street (a Madonna with Child, and one of the few Michelangelos not in Italy), and then joined up with the music prof and leader Yvette and rented bikes again. We rode the 15-16 km or so up to the North Sea in a 8-10 mph headwind or so. Not fun. But we got there pretty quickly anyways and hung out at the beach for a short while before heading back with what was now a tailwind. Purchased some Belgian beer for export to the UK because it’s very good and that’s the cheapest I will ever see it, then went off to dinner and packed.

Bus to Oxford. Went through the Eurotunnel, actually at the same time as Group 3 who drove up early in the morning from Paris to Calais. But their driver is legally allowed to drive faster than ours (don’t ask, I don’t understand it) so they got to Oxford before we did.

Biggest shock: when we stopped for lunch, the prices were the same as they were in Europe. Except for the small detail that the Euro symbol changed to the symbol for the British pound. And the number was the same. Eeek.

So we got into Oxford eventually and moved in. I’m in Staircase 24, which interestingly enough is in a seperate building known by no other name. Dinner last night was pretty good, and I stopped by the campus pub a bit later for a pint of bitter and to do some socializing. Worchester (pron. “Wuhster”) College is a very cool place, and there will be photos coming soon, but I have to take some first! I’ve got photos up through Belgium though, and I’m processed up to Strasbourg. I’ll be working on Paris and Bruges photos this week.

And I started class today. Sounds like they will be fine. Lot of reading to do though.