If it's Tuesday, This Must be Belgium - 9/16/08

Welcome back to Tuesday, as in "If it's Tuesday, This Must be Belgium."  Things have been crazy this week trying to get everything done before heading back to DC for a week of work and recalibration.  Starting to feel like a homebody here in Brussels as I haven't been out of town in a month.

This week I'm going to do a quick tour of some of my favorite places.  And this is just in the last eight years!  There is a lot more, but these were the photos I picked first so they automatically are now my favorite places.  :)

Since I've spent most of that time in and around Washington DC, we can start there.  Here is Great Falls, on the Potomac River, from the Maryland side.

Random picks here.  How about...Scotland.

Maybe Bangkok, Thailand.  This is the Grand Palace.

A wee bit of Florida...an egret I believe...

The British Museum (okay, the ceiling...I never said I was going to show you just touristy photos)...London, the UK

Speaking of museums...can't miss the Louvre in Paris (no fair making fun of the dorky guy...he's related)

Since we're showing water (see, fountains)...here's an interesting feature of Freiburg, Germany.  They have these little "rivers" running down many of the streets in the old city.

Okay, a slightly bigger river now...in the Petit France section of Strasbourg, France...

Tired of rivers?  How about mountains?  How about mountains with Great Walls on them?  Follow the winding wall.  Just outside Beijing, China.

While we're in the neighborhood, this little house was actually a "great house" in a tiny village outside of Hanoi, Vietnam.

Ah Prague, The Czech Republic, my new most favoritist place in the world

And my old (okay, still current) most favoritist (is that even a word?) place in the world, the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France

Of course, Macau was pretty cool too (Macau was a Portugese enclave on the southern coast of China, and just like the British-controlled Hong Kong about an hour east by boat, Macau is now fully turned over back to China, though both places are special economic zones (okay, too much history).  Here's an old Christian church front in Macau (only the face remains).

Naturally, my recent trip to Spain quickly gave me some new favorite places, like Valencia.

And Madrid (the bullfighting ring)

And Barcelona (the Gaudi side of the Segrada Familia)

Well, I did warn you that it was Gaudi. :) 

On to Rome, where my all too brief stop gave me a lot of very pleasant memories.  In fact, the Trevi Fountain was enough to encourage me to plan my official vacation next year back in Italy.

Needless to say, I have to include a photo from my new home town of Brussels, Belgium (I better...I'll be here for three years).

In conclusion [I always loved it when speakers say "In conclusion" because it meant two things: 1) their talk was mercifully nearly over, and 2) they usually ended with a really cool sunset shot, like this...

This was taken from my back deck on Valentine's Day in 2006.  The combination of red sunlight reflecting off the clouds with jet stream trails from some "secret" military run (I'm sure). 

With that I will bid you adieu until next week.  I'll be in DC for the week so not sure what photos I'll have access to, but I'll do my best.

Til then.

Posted at If it's Tuesday, This Must be Belgium,  International Travel (Here and Abroad) and Gather it All and Share it with Your Friends