Venice’s Grand Canal, looking out from the Rialto Bridge. Taken just after a massive downpour, though it was still raining slightly as I took these shots.

As we walked down the bridge (to the right-hand side of frame) we were surprised to see how quickly and how much the streets were flooded. People were eating meals in restaurants, while lifting their feet into the air. Waiters had donned galoshes and were continuing to go about their every day business.

The number of people you have to fight at the top of the Rialto bridge just to get a photo is insane. I had to lean quite far over the edge of the bridge just to make sure I didn’t get anyone else’s arms or other protruding objects into my photos.

Taken shortly after our arrival in Venice. We’d arrived on the train and made our way to the apartment rental agent in order to pick up our keys, but he wasn’t open yet!

Since the streets were mostly empty, Justine waited around while I took a few photos in the early morning sun. Justine is only just out of shot (in fact, she’s in the original uncropped shot) while I took this shot from a bridge.

The man in frame apparently stared Justine down as he walked past. Dirty old Italian geezer!

I remember the rows and rows and rows of boats lining Amsterdam’s canals. I also recall how funny I thought it was that even though this one was still moored, it has completely failed to do it’s primary purpose — that is, staying afloat.

The lighting made it difficult to capture this shot, so all the ones I took are a bit blurry and this was the best of the lot.

To me, this shot is almost all of Amsterdam in one frame. The canals, the bikes, the boats. All it’s missing are the upright but falling over buildings, there’s one in the top-right but it’s too hard to make out.

Two nights and three days was too long in Amsterdam. I loved the architecture; the canals and lifestyle were also unique but it wasn’t enough for either Justine or I to fall in love with the place.

Day Forty-Two
Paris
18 September 2007 22:51

Today we had originally planned to visit a castle around half an hour out of Paris but were so tired after yesterday at Disneyland we instead just bummed around Paris.

First, we headed to the Disney Store on Champs Elysee as there were a few things we’d see when we first visited that were curiously no at the Disney Park of Village next door.

After, we headed to Montmatre where we grabbed lunch — again two baguettes with meat and salad — and also bought a suitcase for our rapidly crowing souvenir colleciton.

Back at our hotel, we dumped the suitcase and headed out again.  On our way out the hotel staff gave us a small bottle of red wine; we weren’t sure why.

We walked down to the canals which weren’t far away.  I knew there are canals in France but not right in the middle of Paris itself.  We watched a boat go through a couple of the locks before moving on.

Our next destination was Hotel de Ville which seemed to be closed so we just wanted around the 1st and 2nd suburbs; finding a church we hadn’t seen before, we sat in the park watching some people play a few games of Petanque.

We did some shopping — it seems to be what you do in Paris — before ducking into a supermarket to get some food for dinner.

Tomorrow we head back to London for the second last leg of our trip which, sadly, is coming to a close.  We both agree that we could keep going but all good things must end eventually.