Old General Store

When you go to Pennsylvania Dutch country, there are many fun places to go. One such place that may tickle your fancy is the Landis Valley Museum. (Think Historic Williamsburg with a Pennsylvania Dutch flavor). You get to really appreciate the German influence on America through a guy that cooks bacon, another guy that lets you handle replica rifles, and a lady that loves to make things out of tin. This picture comes from our tour of the old general store. So if you're in for a good wholesome fun and history, you can't go wrong with Lancaster County.

Maybe this is what elves do the rest of the year...

Sometimes I wonder how far western pop culture really makes it around the world. Proof that you are never all that far from the comforts of home is Santa's hamburgers in Bangkok. Where else would you combine that jolly old elf in the red suit who brings me presents with delicious All-American hamburgers. I'm not really sure what they mean by "great tasting gifts", but after living in Uzbekistan I would call a hamburger a great gift. I have to confess that I didn't eat here and only took the picture because it's so funny (I actually ate at Hard Rock Cafe).

The Eternal City of Gelato

The Tiber River brings life to the city of Rome. The city has many great bridges that span across the river. This one is the Ponte San Angleo, which leads to the Castelo San Angelo and Vatican. If you cross this bridge and walk towards St Peter's, you'll see some souvenir shops and restaurants. The place to go is the gelato parlor. It is literally the best gelato Julie and I had in Rome. The first time there, we got some gelato, ate it outside on a bench, and then went back inside for another bowl! And of course on we were back in Rome, we stopped by again.

Reflections

Sometimes you can see the same thing when you look up and down. Most likely you may be the only person to notice this or it's something that doesn't last for too long. At the royal castle in Sintra, Portugal, we got a nice tour of how ornate living once was. This picture shows the chimneys from the kitchen (the identifying features of this structure for miles around). Sintra was a quiet small town (at least in the off season) that I would recommend to any travelers to Portugal. Walk around the town and go where the locals go to eat. If you can, try the squid - it was excellent.

Picture Perfect Day

I think it's ok to delve into the realm of self-portraits and self-promotion. Scroll down below and you'll see a lovely picture with Cherry Blossoms. It was such a nice day, I decided to go back to it again. You can see an awesome blue sky and the Washington Monument. Did you know that there are two different colors of stone in it? That's because there was a huge flood back in 1912 and that is the water mark from it....not really. It's because the construction of it was delayed by a little something called the Civil War. When they went back to the quarry, years had passed and the stones they got were a slightly different shade - true story!

Angels and Camera-lens

If you go read Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, you'll be taken to locales throughout Roma. We made our own little journey around town, seeing the churches and chapels mentioned in novel. There is a thrilling chase seen through the Castelo San Angelo. If you make through the castle to the top, you will see this angel waiting for you. It depicts the angel Michael and he and this castle have protected the Pope in times of barbarian invasions.

The castle was once the tomb of Emperor Hadrian and was used to guard the Vatican. If you want some nice pictures of St. Peters, I recommend going to here and you won't be disappointed with the view. And as a plus you get a military museum.

*For fun...can you tell me how many times I used the word angels in this post?

Veni, Vidi, Blog Entry

In the shadows of Mt. Vesuvius lies a town that was forgotten for centuries. This picture was taken in the courtyard of an old Roman home in Pompeii. Sure there are lots of references to the Roman empire in the media in the last few years. There's Rome, where we go back to the crazy times of Julius Caesar, for one. Also, our good friend Dr. Who went back in time to ancient Pompeii (and incidently caused the volcano to erupt) in his tardis. Even our good friends from Journey to the Center of the Earth made their way to the slopes of Mt V.

The day in Pompeii was really great. Taking the train from Naples was simple enough and gave us a nice day trip. One thing that is quite interesting about Pompeii is that there are stray dogs there. I had fun giving them names such as "Capt Awesome".

Hotira Maydon....let's remember

This is the "Remembrance Monument" in Tashkent. It symbolizes the Uzbek mothers who lost their sons in WWII. This will probably be one of many pictures of Uzbekistan that will be posted on here, but I thought it was nice to start with one dedicated to memory. I used to walk near this monument every week for an English club I taught, until they told me that the Ministry wouldn't allow me there anymore. That took away my reason to go by Mir Burger - how sad.

My Desktop

So, I might as well start my blog with the picture I chose for my desktop background. I've been a Washingtonian for a couple of years now, so this is a great way to show off where I live. This picture was taken during the Cherry Blossom bloom of 2006. You can see TJ (Thomas Jefferson) across the tidal basin. I have to say this was a great Spring day in the District.