We were making a bit of a mad dash back to Florence for sunset when I stopped to take this picture. Shortly after taking the picture, as we pushed on to Florence, I spotted a deer strolling through the vines of a vineyard near the road. I was shocked, I didn’t even know they had deer in Tuscany. It wasn’t until a half hour after that I realized it probably would have made for a good picture!
It was a cold morning in London, but I managed to drag myself out of bed to take this early morning shot of Big Ben from across the Thames.
The Roman Pantheon was built during the reign of Augustus. The word Pantheon is actually Greek, for all gods, and the temple was dedicated to all the gods of Rome. It was later converted to a Roman Catholic church dedicated to St. Mary and the Martyrs. This re-dedication has probably contributed to this being one of the best preserved of Roman buildings.
Last night, I arrived back home after a few days in Rome. We had a great time there and I can officially say that I found the absolute best, thinnest pizza in the world near the Piazza Navona. Following stuffing my face and consuming a fair amount of beer and wine, I retired to bed relatively early in comparison to my London schedule because I wanted to get up and photograph Rome at sunrise in beautiful light and without the tourist hordes, which were still quite prevalent despite it being the January low season!
My first stop was the Trevi Fountain which I marched straight to as I wanted to get the below picture during the blue hours before the sun had actually come up, so that I could include the lit streetlight.
It’s not easy to take photos from the top of the Shard as it is all enclosed in glass. As a result, I had to try to find a way to position my camera to avoid all the reflections of the people moving around behind me. We had arrived at just the right time though, as golden light bathed London below us.
On an early morning wander around Florence, I came across this archway. Something about all the different lines reminded me of one of Escher’s impossible paintings, so I took a picture.
My arrival in London went as smoothly as is possible. We landed early, my bag arrived quickly and I stepped onto the Gatwick Express to Victoria as the doors closed. Upon reaching my hotel, my room was already available and I was able to be in bed by 8am. That’s pretty good after an overnight flight where I hadn’t slept.
I had plans to meet up with some friends at the Shard and go up to the viewing deck. I wasn’t exactly sure how to get there from London Bridge tube station and my directions were that it’s a huge building, I’d have to try to miss it.
As I came up the escalator I had a thought that I’d probably bump into Amy on the way, who could help me find it. I have no idea why I thought that, or why I thought it’d most likely be Amy.
I walked out and looked up for the building but all I saw was blue sky. Then, I heard someone say my name. I directed my gaze down and found that Amy was stood three feet in front of me. I’d walked out and promptly looked straight over her head. We set off walking and, when we rounded the corner to see this, we knew we were probably heading in the right direction.
While hiking in the mountains in Romania, I walked into a field of leafy plants with a path down the middle. I got about half way across when I realized I was surrounded by thousands of these massive, alien-looking things. Thankfully, they weren’t very active.
Here’s another shot of the inner workings of the original Heineken brewery.
On my recent tour of Europe, I wasn’t particularly good at getting up early to take pictures. Partly because for most of the trip the weather wasn’t ideal but mainly because I tended to hang out way too late to even consider getting up early. Florence, on the other hand, inspired me. I couldn’t go there and not come away with some sunrise photos. So, I dragged my travel buddy up at the crack of dawn. We’d wander the empty streets of Florence before collecting our car to drive up to Pisa, down to Sienna, and back up to Florence.
The sunrise didn’t disappoint and I got this opportunity to take a super close up of Florence’s famous cathedral in front of blue sky and pink skies. Following this I bought two prosciutto on mini-croissant sandwiches for breakfast. It was a good start to the day.
