Marc's Public Blog - Trips to other locations

they had a stargate :)

When then took advantage of great sunny weather and unseasonably high temperatures during the winter to visit Paris:

Jussieu, one of Paris' main universities is being rebuilt from the ground up to remove all the toxic asbestos. Doesn't look shabby right now:

We then went towards Sacré Coeur to see if we could climb to the top this time, something I had tried 3 times already but failed due to chronic Xmas absentees, preventing staffing for ascent to the top. It was beautiful weather:

The views from the top were great that day:

Sainte Chapelle

Grand Palais and La Défence

After that we headed to the Panthéon, which I had never seen inside (bad me). Lots of famous people are burried in the crypt, and the foucault pendulum is cool:

and we then went through the jardins du luxembourg towards tour Montparnasse:

We unfortunately got to the top a tad late, just as the sun was setting, but we raced to get some pictures while the light was fading:

Pont Alexandre 3 and Grand Palais

Notre Dame

La Défence in the background

Louvre and Jardin des Tuileries leading to l'obélixe

Centre Georges Pompidou and Tour St Jacques

The next day we went to the Musée des arts forains and Court St Emilion

After that, we walked the Champs Elysées from the Obélix up to see all the little Xmas shops, and then went to see some of the displays in the last section:

Vin Chaud, Yum!

Piggie!

We then went to the Grand Palais to see a computer game expo and the faire in the main hall:

and finished the night with Duck Choucroute and foie gras

A few days later, with another nice day, we went to the Sacré Coeur for some great clear views of Paris and seeing their own Xmas shops:

Centre Georges Pompidou

More piggie!

We then went to the nearby Place du Tertre:

Yet another day, we went to Musée Grévin:

Then, we walked through Passage Verdeau, Jouffroy, and Passage des Panoramas, and we finished at the Louvre's shopping gallery:

That's all folks. 'till next year.

Daniel and I went to visit the local Brooklyn Transit Museum, History Museum, and Botanical Gardens. The transit museum had the history of subways in Manhattan, and that was pretty cool.

the old ads were fun to see

We went to see the Brooklyn Bridge at night

I then worked at the Google office for the beginning of the week while Jennifer was in DC and we met up and used the rest of the week to visit Manhattan after she was done working. One evening before she got there, I went to see the new show from Blue Man Group: the new show was a nice refresh although it was significantly shorter than the old one I saw in 2004...

On thursday, Jennifer and I went for our touring. We did midtown first

Grand Central Terminal

Radio City Music Hall

and its rockettes

St Patrick's Cathedral nearby

Steve Jobs had just died

We had a nice dinner at Buddakan that evening and went to see Spiderman which was entertaining.

The next day, with clear forecasts of rain, we went to visit the Natural History Museum and the Metropolitan Museum (each of which take more than a full day to see entirely).
The Natural History Museum has an insane amount of things to see. Along with the special expositions, it's tough to do it in one day, never mind half a day, but we got the highlights:

who knew that birds come from dinosaures?

We then crossed Central Park to get to the MET. The MET is another insane place that is impossible to see well enough in one day, never mind half a day, but we did the best we could and at least saw their impressive Greek and Egyptian collections:

They had plenty of other things though:

That evening, we had a really good tasting menu at Boulet:

nice little desert to finish it up

The next morning, we went to the Southern Tip (Battery Garden, Wall Street, and World Trade Center) but we started with Union Square Market:

and then went down to Battery Park:

line of people going to the statue of liberty

We are the 99% were still demonstrating at Zuccotti Park

And we went to see the new WTC being built

After that, we moved on to Central Park where we rented bikes and went around:

Cathedral of St John the Devine

It's huge inside

Columbia University

That evening we had dinner at Asiate Restaurant, which was supposed to have a great view of Central Park, but due to a strict dress code that wasn't clear to us, they "nicely" seated us far away from where we could see anything and the food on its own was between average to disappointing depending on the dishes and considering the view-less price.

That evening, we went to see Addams Family at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. It was entertaining, and we walked around Broadway after that:

The next morning, we went to walk on the new High Line park. It's a nice elevated walk between buildings.

After that, we went to the Rock to enjoy a nice panoramic view since the weather had finally lifted and cleared up for nice views:

I tried a couple of panoramas with my ICS phone

While I'm at it, a couple of other pictures I took from the google buildings:

After the Rock, we went to Greenwich, Little Italy, and Chinatown

This looks like a practical car for NYC

So is this one

the old St Patrick's

Little Italy is still there next to Chinatown

Chinatown was next

... and it was time to go back to the airport and go home. Despite the so so weather, we had a good visit.

So, after seeing Milan, we took a fast train to Bologna and I have a different page on the supercar factories and museums.

However, Maranello and Modena had plenty of other things to see. Thanks to the fantastic folks from Hotel Locanda del Mulino who set us up with a visit of Parmigino Parmesan Factory, Da Clara Balsamic Vinegar, and the Castle Rocca Di Vignola.

On the 2nd day, after seeing car factories all day, we started the with a thorough visit of the Parmigino Parmesan Factory, and learned everything about how they make Parmesan from milk:

impressive!

We then got a tour of the very small Da Clara Balsamic Vinegar producer. Vinegar is moved to every smaller containers when it becomes denser:

and since we still had some time left, we went to see Castle Rocca Di Vignola:

the crypt

We then went around a bit, and saw the Teatro Alla Scala:

and since the weather turned to worse after that, we saw the Da Vinci Museum:

the last supper

and we finished the day to visit the main pedestrian shopping street and Castello Sforzesco:

and we grabbed a night picture of the Duomo:

just to be safe, I used double routing :)

After a pretty drive next to the lake, we got to the panoramic hotel I found. It wsa not walking distance from downtown (but ok since we had a car), and it had a fantastic view.

nice view from our hotel room :)

After checking in, we drove down to a parking lot (easier said than done) and walked to downtown, where we grabbed a boat to Varenna. We grabbed some lunch and hiked to the top castle.

it was more than time for lunch

yum...

We then went back to Bellagio for more touring, and had dinner by a nice vista point:

The next morning, we had a nice breakfast on the "porch" :) and we took a Ferry to go to Villa Balbianello:

After lunch, we headed back to Bellagio for some hiking around the top of the island (it unfortunately was not that great a trail with so-so views compared to the trail length and difficulty in places.

When we were done, we drove back to Milan where we spent the night.

Welcome to Vancouver Airport

I went to get a few pictures from Prospect Point at sunset. The only problem was getting a ride back to downtown was hard since cabs didn't quite want to come there to pick me up, but oh well, the view was worth it.

Jennifer was supposed to join me friday night for the weekend, but unfortunately United screwed up with her plane, so she never made it. As a result, I went to visit stuff on my own during the weekend, and started with Capilano Park and then went up Grouse Mountain.

they're known for their long suspension bridge

they also just finished a fully suspended path on the clifside

I then took a quick cab to the bottom of Grouse Mountain, and instead of taking the gondola up, I climbed up the grind in about 1h, which is a respectable time I'm told (but it does kick your ass, it's pretty straight up).

the top

Grouse Mountain is a ski resort during the winter, but they have lots of attractions during the summer, which are worth the visit (on top of just the view of course):

They had a nice bird show:

Their bears seemed pretty happy:

Their lumberjack show was quite good too, those guys knew their stuff and competed on multiple skills for our amusement :)

their tree climbing skills were impressive too

balancing on a log until the other guy falls off

When I was done, I took the fun way down, parasailing. It was way way overpriced (a lot of money goes to the mountain for the privilege), but it was definitely fun and a great view.

then it was my turn

we landed in a park in the end

From there, I took a bus back and a ferry across back to downtown to have dinner at the Top of Vancouver revolving restaurant.

you can see the restaurant

I got day and night shots while having dinner

The next morning I took my rollerblades to go around downtown's waterfront path via Stanley Park.

They had a nice little aquarium in the park, so I went there.

I then continued the rollerblade tour:

went to the Grandville Island Market:

back to downtown:

and on my way to the airport, I went to see the very nice Bloedel Conservatory, which was small, but a lot of fun:

I love the colors on that one

And just like that, the packed 2 day weekend was over, and the tram back to the airport.

That's all folks...