I LOVE PARIS

Our first site was the Louvre...we were walking to it here.

The Louvre.

The Famous Mona Lisa in the Louvre...very small and disappointing.

This was my favorite thing in Paris...Notre Dame. I feel in love with gothic architecture after seeing this.

Lighting my donation candle in Notre Dame.

Perfect example of gothic archs.

The Arc de Triomphe.

The stairs on our way to the top of the Arc.

The sunset from the top of the Arc.

In front of the Eiffel Tower. (Stephanie, me, Marlise)

Every hour on the hour the tower lights up for a good 10 minutes. The lights get faster and faster as the time goes.

(Alan: NY, Meagan: CA, ME, Stephanie: KT, Marlise: CA)

View from the E.T.

The Nasty river that runs through Paris.

Thats how far away you were from me on February 3, 2008.

I liked this picture walking through Paris.

Of course the other side of town where Moulin Rouge is. It's not as cool as the movie makes it seem, but worth seeing!

What's next on my journey through Europe...

We made a video in Paris but I'm still editing it. As soon I finish it I will post it on the blog!

Madrid

I spent 3 nights in Madrid and unfortunately every where we went we weren't allowed to take pictures 70% of the time. Madrid is a huge city and there is so much to see. I only have a pictures of some of the monuments.

The Palace of the King of Spain from the outside. He doesn't actually live in the palace anymore, he lives in a castle just outside of Madrid. Now it is used as a museum.

The palace view from the inside of the LARGE court.

This wall surrounds the entire palace only all the other archs have gates on them.

The view of Madrid through one side of the archs. This view is from the bottom of the Palace and the Palace has 5 stories.

Another view of the Palace from the inside.

The Prado museum. They had a lot of Bosch paintings and he is one of my favorites. I really liked his work "The Garden of Earthly Delights" The story behind it is very interesting.

Plaza Mayor. The most popular plaza in Madrid.

The Main circle in Madrid.

Arte Renia Sofia museum. 1/4 of the building (which is huge) is dedicated to Picasso, unfortunately while we were there it was closed for remodeling. I wouldn't mind going back to see it.

I would come back to Madrid any day!

Segovia

Segovia's famous 2,000 year old Roman Aqueduct. It deinfitely something to see..it's huge!!

A plaza in Segovia. I've realized that Spain is filled with Plazas and they are all unique and beautiful.

For just 1 Euro this gumball machine will give you a Rubik's Cube. I thought that was a little odd and funny.

Just a building I thought looked cool in the middle of the city.

This picture is significant because right now in my architecture class I'm learning about Pinnacles and different kinds of archs. The pointy things on top of the building are pinnacles. and Roman archs as windows.

This was my favorite part about Segovia. This castle inspired Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty. That used to be one of my favorite Disney Movies.

Some really old canons. When you see them up close they all have things engraved on them.

The view from the top of Sleeping Beauty's castle.

SEGOVIA!

(Marlise: Valencia, CA Meagan: Berkely, CA ME, Stephanie: Louisville, KT)

Those are the 3 girls I do EVERYTHING with!

Toledo

A Jewish prison in Toledo.

The queen order that all the prisoners be let go and to show the good she did, she hung all the shackels of the prisioners on the outside walls of the prison.

The last standing Jewish synaggogue in all of Spain is in Toledo.

I really like all the tiny streets that are made of stones and rock, and the way the houses look all skinny and tall.

The main Government building in the middle of the city which is only used on occassion now-a-days.

The #2 biggest and most beautiful cathedral in all of Spain. The inside was amazing to see, completely breath taking. We weren't allowed to take pictures but I don't think the pictures would of done it any justice anyways. They had 2 ancient oregans that had a total of 900 pipes. They only use them twice a year, on Easter (the day it's celebrated in the States) and on Spain's easter which the Thursday before our Sunday Easter.

This is where we entered into the Cathedral.

This was writing on the outside of an ancient school. When people would get a degree form the school they would ask to have their names written on the building and only a few were chosen. Today you can still see some of the writing and it's from the 1600s.

A few scenic pictures of the city.

The main river that runs through the city.

This is the bridge to cross the river.

Just a short drive up a mountain you get the best panoramic view of Toledo.



Holy Toledo!