The Vatican set up for the Pope's Easter address the day before.
Inside Saint Peter's











View from the upper dome:

In the Dome


On the Roof of Saint Peter's


View of Rome from the Roof of Saint Peter's







Saint Peter's Square



Castel Sant' Angelo:
Commissioned by Roman Emperor Hadrian, and completed in 130 AD under Demetrian.
Originally a statue of the Emperor graced the top, but was replaced by and Angel in 590 after the Pope had a vision. This is the Angel that was on top from the 16th to 18th centuries. It is now in what is called the Court of the Angel.




You may recognize the current Angel with the sword from the previews for "Angels and Demons" I believe it shows it at night with dramatic lightning striking behind it.
Also in the Court of the Angel

The Castel still has Roman fresco's along with rooms painted by Michelangelo and Raphael. This castle has been kept up and restored through the centuries.
The Roman painting:




You were not allowed to photograph many of the rooms. So i was only able to get the fresco's in the hall ways.





The brigde leading to the castle is linned with huge Angels each holding a
pice of Christ's story.


Views from the Castle:



Piazza Navona and the Fountain of the 4 Rivers

Piazza del Popolo




Palatine Hill












The Forum









Roman statues on display in the Senate. Contruction for this Sentate began under JuliusCaesar.  more pics of the actual Senate can be found in my earlier post on Rome.


Where Caesar was creamated

Nero's Tomb
Some street Art. All along the ledge of a fence down a street. The artist himself
set along the ledge. i looked back at him sitting on the ledge once i realized he was the artist. Then when i turned back around he was a few feet in front of me
sanding holding a dog leash connected to a fake dog. He is apparently also a magician. Here he is w/ his art






And here he is after teleporting


Views from V.le Gabrilel d'Annunzio, the path from Popolo to Villa Medici.
 


Santa Maria Della Vittoria video's
Houses Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Theresa





The Alps from the plane:

There are more pics in the Rome 2009 Album, and also in the original Rome album frome the 2007 trip.

Have not posted here in a while. AJ is now in Iraq, and I am here in Germany alone for a year. I just got hired to be an ESL instructor so that will start soon. I also began taking German today! So, hopefully by the end of this year I will be speaking German freely!  I will post some pics of Schweinfurt soon. I post pics of travel but have not posted pics of this foreign city in which I now live! I have gotten to know the city better in this last month. I even went to the Stadtbanhof on Christmas night to see local rock bands play. I was waiting to take pics until winter passes... It rains a lot, snows a lot... but there are many beautiful and interesting places right here!  I will go on a photo taking walk soon. It is just been so cold!! 

We went to Prague over the weekend. Enchanting city.  As it is November the sun sets around 4:30 so the minimal daylight hours and the cold inhibited my picture taking a bit.  We arrived after dark on Friday, and stayed in a little hotel just off the Charles Bridge. We had to cross it to go into old town daily.
Old Town Square at Night: 



The next day we walked up the bridge tower to see the view of the city.
The stairwell:
 
View of Charles Bridge and Prague from the bridge tower



Immediately below the tower




Old Town Square





Astronomical Clock from 1410. The Orloj is composed of three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the sun and moon in the sky and displaying various astronomical details; Once an hour you witness "The Walk of the Apostles", a clockwork hourly show of figures of the Apostles in the 2 upper windows and other moving sculptures; and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months.


Full view of the tower with the Astronomical clock. The clock is on the left side, unseen in this photo. Sorry its a bit dark.


Still Old Town Square, These buildings face the clock tower



The self employed tour guide with tireless arms. He held that sign up without resting for the entire 40 min or so we spent having lunch, and i can only assume long after.






We took a car tour in a 1929 Praga and saw much more of the city.

Government building

across from:














Old-New Synagogue of 1270.  Oldest Jewish Synagogue in Europe. Second oldest in the world behind Jerusalem. One of the Prague's first Gothic buildings.











 
The Metronome that overlooks the city.  It was erected in 1991, and stands on the plinth left vacant by the destruction of an enormous monument to Stalin.

John Lennon Wall




There is an abundance of larger than life human form sculptures and relief sculpture incorporated into much of the architecture. Unfortunately i did not get many photos.  Many balconies were supported by sculptures of strong men holding them up.



The peeing moving statues.




  Cubist building

While there we saw a Dali exhibit and a Mucha exibit.  Both were incredible. I have never gotten to see any Mucha before now.
From the Dali exhibit:
 

We saw a performance at a Black light theater. The actors stand against a black background and all the set pices and props appear to float and move themselves. It was a version of Alica and Wonderland, and Alice spent most of her time floating and flying around the strange worlds.

Prague was very inexpensive. Small town prices in a large touristed city.  The least we have ever spent on a weekend trip by far.

Happy Obama Day everyone!
Here is a poster i snapped a pic of advertising a US election watch party in Amsterdam. 
Europe is excited. Seen a lot of Obama posters over here. In my Brussels post or in my Brussels Belgium album you can find pics of more Obama posters we have seen over here.

We took a day trip one Sunday to Nuremberg to see the zoo there not long ago. It looked more like a forest park than a zoo. All the walks to the next animal exhibit wound through cobblestone paths through the woods.  It was lovely. And i love the monkeys.
 














We saw a dolphin and sea lion show when we were there as well. (this is not the show)
The sea lions did everything, balance balls jump through hoops, etc..

What much of the zoo looked like:




We went downtown after the zoo, unfortunately  it was getting dark so i did not take many pictures
Nuremberg walking district: