2009 the European year of Renovations

Apparently some of you were having trouble with my new images, I had it linked to the UK & Ireland album rather than the gallery as a whole. Apologies, fixed now however. Also there is one more album in there that may seem odd.

Dave and I have been encountering an abnormally large number of icons and monument under renovation. Even if they aren't an icon or monument they are a major feature in the landscape. Because of this I made a joke way back in London that 2009 was the 'European year of Renovations'.

Oh how I wish I hadn't. Fate may be fickle but her sister Irony is just plane mean.

The joke stopped being funny long ago when we noticed that a trend was forming. A large church in Bruges, the Law Courts in Brussels, a large statue out the front of Versailles as well as a host of lesser land marks. Most recently (and possibly the one I most bitterly resent) I can be quoted saying "if Charles Bridge is under reno i think i might cry a little."

If this were a letter there would be artful little tear stains right here.

picturesque

Just a note that I have up updated my gallery and it now has a somewhat more decent spread! It includes Bruges, Brussels, Amsterdamn, Copenhagen and Stockholm.

photographs

I have added my own photo gallery as well now. It contains photos from across the UK and Ireland. There may be some double ups with Mr. Young's pictures, but let me assure you his attempted plagiarism hasn't caused any lasting damage to our friendship. I'll continue to keep updating pictures periodically, probably in bundles of countries because its easier for me. Also, this is only a small fraction of the actual number of pictures I have so there will be heaps of stuff that I miss.

photographic update

Nothing major or exciting to report in this update, just a matter of keeping up with the blog and sorting out something I've been working to get up and running for a while now: Pictures! It has become apparent that we cannot include more than 1 image per post, in any easy fashion, so I've set up a Gallery that contains some of the photos that we've taken. This link will be to my select photos, and hopefully James will get something happening too.

Dave's Europe '09 Gallery

We've just returned to Manchester after a couple of fantastic days up in the Lakes District, staying in Windermere. The highlight of the trip was a day of mountain biking in the forest and countryside on the far bank of the lake. The scenery was like something out of a storybook, and in my opinion, has provided the best day of the trip so far. There's a few shots of the place in the gallery, so I hope you'll enjoy checking that out!

Just keep in mind that the photos may not necessarily be in chronological order! And I should probably note that a fair few of them are stolen from James' photo stock - as the man with the fancier camera, I've let him do a lot of the photography, but I see no reason not to reap the benefits of his hard work.