London Express Trip 07/2009

The USO sponsored a one day trip to London by bus. We started in the evening around 8:00 pm. By the next morning around 5:30 am we were at Calais France and caught the ferry across the English channel.

Here we are coming up on the white cliffs of Dover. Way cool!

The ferry ride was actually one of the highlights of this trip for me...sounds crazy I know but I just really enjoyed it.

London bridge is falling down, falling down, no no wait a minute, OK it's just London bridge.

Big Ben is really Big!!!

Were going to see the changing of the guard in a minute if they ever come... come on lets get on with it already... we only have a day to see as much as we can see.

Buckingham Palace.

You lowly common people please move along, move along tisk..tisk cheerio and all that stuff.

OK, here they are and my camera...come on work will ya!

Now wait a minute I know your not one of the guards.

Very cool!

The Queen Mother.

Trafalgar square. The tower of London. This was a neat stop. We went inside and could not believe some of this stuff...it was over a thousand years old!

The Beef Eater who gave us a guided tour. They are real ex-military men who work in the service of the Queen protecting the crown jewels. The jewels were hard to believe and they were real.

Piccadilly Circus...way to many people just like a circus.

Yup that's a double decker.

We caught the bus at the Crimean War monument and headed home. A side note for this trip, we won't do the express bus tours again, way to much time on the road with drivers who you don't really want to trust.

Highland Games 07/2009

Highland Games in Germany... yes it is so.

You can't really see it but I'm trying to throw an axe.

This braney Highland stud let me have a go with one of the logs in the pole toss.

Uhggg......maybe I won't have a go with the log pole.

Rhine River Cruise 06/2009

This day trip was one of the funnest trips we've had so far. Just kicked back on a river cruise ship on the deck in lawn chairs and watched the beautiful castles and manors houses slowly roll by.

This is a toll castle in the middle of the river. If you owned one of these during the middle ages you were set for life as long as you could keep it with your army.

The picture doesn't do this justice but the red sandstone in this region of Germany is used allot and this church was a mix and a really cool contrast.

We explored one of the most famous castles in this region with real labyrinths and dungeons.

An ancient toll gate.

A modern toll gate.

This region is famous for wine. Germany actually produces more wine than any other country in the world but the reason they are not famous for it is they drink most of it instead of export it, seriously.

King Louie IVX of France captured the Rhine land and destroyed most of the castles and strong holds during the 16th century. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 is where the German states became united again and created the 2nd Reich. They won the war and this monument is called the Freedom monument celebrating the liberation of the Rhine land from France.

Kaiser Wilhelm was crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire after Frederick III who was the hero of the war.