I took two thousand still images using Canon 40D, and hours of video clips using Canon TX1.  For Canon 40D, I used an 8GB compact flash card whose contents were downloaded into my laptop each night, then the card reformatted and reused again.  The battery to 40D, BP-511, will last one day or more.  For Canon TX1, two 8GB SD cards covered all the trip, but the battery (NB-4L) needed to be replaced every day, sometimes as many as three a day.  I did bring a tripod, which I used during our evening cruise on River Thames in London, but it was impractical to carry it around elsewhere.  My 40D with two lenses already weighed me down.  Each night, as soon as we got into our hotel room, I would find a socket to charge the TX1 battery using an European adapter.  The laptop would last a couple of hours, enough for me to finish downloading the pictures without plugging it in.  Then before retiring for the night, I just plugged in the laptop for it to be charged.  The lense I used most with 40D was EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS.  Its zooming power and built-in image stabilizer enabled me to take a lot of pictures from inside our coach with limited sight and with coach moving fast.

All pictures posted here were taken by us. Those from Google, brochure, and the web were duly noted. Most of my posted photos are still missing captions because I do not have time for them yet.

• Day 2 (6-17-2009): Arriving in London, visited Big Ben and Parliament Buildings
• Day 3 (6-18-2009): city sightseeing, Windsor Castle, & Cruise on the River Thames
• Day 4 (6-19-2009): Taking coach to cross the English Channel, then to Amsterdam
• Day 5 (6-20-2009): sightseeing in Amsterdam, and canals cruising
• Day 6 (6-21-2009): Cruise on the Rhine, and a stop at Rothenburg
• Day 7 (6-22-2009): Passing Austria from Munich, then a stop at Cortina
• Day 8 (6-23-2009): Visiting Venetian glassblowers, then Tuscan (Venice-Florence area), and a Gondola boat-ride
• Day 9 (6-24-2009): Visiting Florence and Pisa the leaning tower
• Day 10 (6-25-2009): entering Switzerland and visited Lugano
• Day 11 (6-26-2009): a Swiss town Lucerne and a cruise on Lake Lucerne；group picture before heading for Paris
• Day 12 (6-27-2009): Visiting Paris, including the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and the Palace of Versailles.

Note: Day 1 was flying from PDX (Portland, Oregon) to JFK (Kennedy Airport in New York), then to LHR (London), while Day 13 was flying home from Paris.

Florence, Italy

Below from Wikipedia: Florence (Italian: Firenze) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany and has a population of 367,569 (1,500,000 metropolitan area).
The city lies on the River Arno and is known for its history and its importance in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance, especially for its art and architecture. A centre of medieval European trade and finance, the city is often considered the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance; in fact, it has been called the Athens of the Middle Ages. It was long under the de facto rule of the Medici family. From 1865 to 1870 the city was also the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.
The historic centre of Florence continues to attract millions of tourists each year and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982.

Florence is known as the “cradle of Renaissance” (la culla del Rinascimento) for its monuments, churches and buildings. The best-known site and crowning architectural jewel of Florence is the domed cathedral of the city, Santa Maria del Fiore, known as The Duomo. The magnificent dome was built by Filippo Brunelleschi. The nearby Campanile (partly designed by Giotto) and the Baptistery buildings are also highlights. Both the dome itself and the campanile are open to tourists and offer excellent views; The dome, 600 years after its completion, is still the largest dome built in brick and mortar in the world.[6]
In 1982, the historic center of Florence (Italian: centro storico di Firenze) was declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO for the importance of its cultural heritages. The center of the city is contained in medieval walls that were built in the 14th century to defend the city after it became famous and important for its economic growth.
At the heart of the city in Piazza della Signoria is Bartolomeo Ammanati's Fountain of Neptune (1563–1565), which is a masterpiece of marble sculpture at the terminus of a still functioning Roman aqueduct.
The Arno River, which cuts through the old part of the city, is as much a character in Florentine history as many of the people who lived there. Historically, the locals have had a love-hate relationship with the Arno — which alternated from nourishing the city with commerce, and destroying it by flood.
One of the bridges in particular stands out as being unique — The Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge), whose most striking feature is the multitude of shops built upon its edges, held up by stilts. The bridge also carries Vasari's elevated corridor linking the Uffizi to the Medici residence (Palazzo Pitti). Although the original bridge was constructed by the Etruscans, the current bridge was rebuilt in the 14th century It is the only bridge in the city to have survived World War II intact.
The church of San Lorenzo contains the Medici Chapel, the mausoleum of the Medici family - the most powerful family in Florence from the 15th to the 18th century. Nearby is the Uffizi Gallery, one of the finest art museums in the world - founded on a large bequest from the last member of the Medici family.Other important basilicas and churches in Florence include Santa Maria Novella, San Lorenzo, Santo Spirito and the Orsanmichele, and the Tempio Maggiore Great Synagogue of Florence.

The famous leaning tower. It actually was leaning, and needs monitoring and maintenance. For a diagram, see her. For an illustration, see here.

Below from Wikipedia: Pisa is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the Arno River on the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its Leaning Tower (the bell tower of the city's cathedral), the city of over 87,500 residents contains more than 20 other historic churches, several palaces, and various bridges across the Arno River.

While the Leaning Tower is the most famous image of the city, it is one of many works of art and architecture in the city's Piazza del Duomo, also known, since XX century, as Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles), to the north of the old town center. The Piazza del Duomo also houses the Duomo (the Cathedral), the Baptistry and the Camposanto Monumentale (the monumental cemetery).

Although intended to stand vertically, the tower began leaning to the southeast soon after the onset of construction in 1173 due to a poorly laid foundation and loose substrate that has allowed the foundation to shift direction. The tower presently leans to the southwest.
The height of the tower is 55.86 m (183.27 ft) from the ground on the lowest side and 56.70 m (186.02 ft) on the highest side. The width of the walls at the base is 4.09 m (13.42 ft) and at the top 2.48 m (8.14 ft). Its weight is estimated at 14,500 metric tons (16,000 short tons). The tower has 296 or 294 steps; the seventh floor has two fewer steps on the north-facing staircase. The tower leaned at an angle of 5.5 degrees., but after the restoration works between 1990 and 2001 the tower leans at an angle of 3.99 degrees. This means that the top of the tower is 3.9 metres (12 ft 10 in) from where it would stand if the tower were perfectly vertical. On January 7, 1990, after over two decades of work on the subject, the tower was closed to the public. While the tower was closed, the bells were removed to relieve some weight, and cables were cinched around the third level and anchored several hundred meters away. Apartments and houses in the path of the tower were vacated for safety. The final solution to prevent the collapse of the tower was to slightly straighten the tower to a safer angle, by removing 38 cubic metres (50 cu yd) of soil from underneath the raised end. The tower was straightened by 18 inches (45 centimetres), returning to the exact position that it occupied in 1838. After a decade of corrective reconstruction and stabilization efforts, the tower was reopened to the public on December 15, 2001, and has been declared stable for at least another 300 years.[1

When we came back home to USA, a poster at the customs says: We are the face of the nation. I cannot agree more. Police, as well as other officers of the law, are the true face of a nation. How the people are treated can be told easily by the faces of the police.

Seeing this smiling and shy Italian policewoman and her male colleagues, we know that their people are treated fair and well.

When, if I might ask, will the Chinese police be as likeable?

Updated November 18, 2015
网页更新 2015-11-18