Europe

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British Art and Architecture

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

All of the museums in London are free to enter, and the National Gallery is one among many worth spending some time in. (Another favorite of mine is the Natural History Museum.) Recently the museum put several forgeries on display (“National Gallery to reveal its fakes in exhibition”) that included works attributed to Hans [...]

Italian Art and Architecture

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

You’ll recognize the fresco below from T-12, but little can prepare you for the sight of Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment itself at the Vatican. You might take the virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel to give you some perspective. (Be sure to pan up to see the ceiling, too, where you might be able to [...]

C’était un Rendez-vous

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Here’s a really bitchin’ short film, C’était un Rendez-vous, shot in Paris in 1976. If you know the city, even a little, you may recognize several of its famous landmarks. If you don’t know the French capital, you’ll have your chance soon enough because we depart on our current tour in less than 300 days.
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Underground

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

Here’s a disgusting story from the first city on our tour next year: “‘Walls of fat’ removed from London’s sewers”. We’ll be spending some time underground next year in the London Tube and Paris Metro system, but they’re clean―London more than Paris―and safe. They’re certainly not as beautiful as this particular Swedish subway system, though [...]

Watersports

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Amsterdam is known too well for its tolerance of certain behaviors, probably to the point of caricature. Wakeboarding in the city’s canals is certainly against the law, but I ran across this video of some daring scofflaws challenging the tranquility of Amsterdam, our first stop after London on tour next year. (I’m not endorsing this [...]

Showcase 2009: Athens and Home

Saturday, May 29th, 2010

This post of photos from the final days of last year’s tour was too long in coming, but the anxieties of the end of the school year got the better of me. Anyway, after we disembarked the cruise ship in Athens, we began our tour of the Greek capital. It was hot, and the city [...]

Iceland’s Volcano

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

Here’s some old news but neat media. The recent eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano provided striking photographic opportunities. One of my favorites is this NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day showing the unbelievable power and magnitude of this natural event:

Find more photos at the Boston Globe’s Big Picture and Cool Pictures | Cool Stuff blog.
The [...]

Home, Home Again

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

I like to be here when I can.
Every time I leave Tucson for an extended period of time, such as when I left to teach in Asia and South America and the two times I traveled with students to Europe, I always appreciated the Old Pueblo more when I returned. No doubt you’ll get [...]

Showcase 2009: Aegean Cruise

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

Too long since my last European Showcase post and only one more to go after these images from our Aegean Cruise. After we reached Athens we boarded a ship that took us to the Greeks islands of Mykonos, Patmos, Crete, and Santorini, and with one port-of-call at Kusadasi, Turkey. The cruise was the perfect, relaxing [...]

Metro Ticket X-Wing Fighter

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

What to do with all those miscellaneous souvenir slips of paper you’ll collect next year on tour? Here’s a neat idea from the mind of Hubert de Lartigue I came across on the Internets for the patient and clever Star Wars fan who finds his or her pocket full of Paris Metro Ticket stubs: “Pas [...]

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