The main train station in Frankfurt, Germany. The picture is being taken from in front of the hotel we stayed in.

The bathroom vending machines in the Irish pub were very helpful. Condoms, portable pussies, vibrating penis rings, and a random pack of "hot toys". Who could ask for more?

The church directly outside of Hauptwache in Frankfurt.

A rather bizarre statue outside of Hauptwache. Notice the cats crying and the rabbit playing an invisible flute or something. I presume this is based off of some fairy tale or something.

Another crazy statue, this one east of Hauptwache along the shopping area. The sexy guy in front is Satis.

This is a shopping center or something. And that is a black hole warp looking thing that actually goes through the building. The white in the center is the sky on the other side.

A very cool cathedral. Despite the sign on the left, this really isn't in Chicago.

A very,very, very old wall, part of the original Frankfurt city walls I believe.

This plaque was affixed tot he wall. It says it's the 'Staufenmauer', which means Staufen-wall. I presume that Staufen is a name, though it may have some other meaning. The plaque continues to say that it's the first city wall and is dated 12th century.

This is the kind of architecture most people probably think of when they think of Germany.

A very cool statue in the center of the square.

Some more cool architecture

Satis posing with a pretty creepy clown thing in front of the Alte Oper (Old Opera House).

The Alte Oper (Old Opera House). The right side is actually a tarp covering ongoing renovations.

Shiny found this graffiti very amusing.

Eschenheimer Tor, one of the original city gates. It currently resides in the center of a major road.

This is where I graduated high school. It wasn't called Pilipp-Holzmann Schule at the time. The original Frankfurt American High School logo is still there, in case the bald eagle and American flag don't stick out.

A closeup of my high school symbol.

Another neat statue thing.

A neat building at Grunenberg Park.

We stumbled across this in downtown Frankfurt. I don't even really know what it is, but I have no doubt it's ancient.

Another shot of the square with the cathedral in the background.

Another picture of the Alter Oper.

Shiny rolling her backpack in one of the parks bordering the Alter Oper.

Another picture of the Eschenheimer Tor. You can see the actual gate, which has now been turned into a store or tourist attraction or something.

This is B-Bank park, where I used to spend a lot of my time when I lived in Germany. The Bundes-bank is the large building on the right, and how the park got its name. The large tower is the Europa-turm.

Another image of the neat building at Grunenberg park.

Some sort of asian-themed section of Grunenberg Park. This has actually been here since I was in high school, but it's still pretty strange.

This was some sort of university or something that exists on what used to be the Abrams military base in Frankfurt.

Shiny doing her best impression of a nutcracker while standing next to a nutcracker.

This is the inside of the Hauptbahnhof. It's so large it feels like being outside.

Ox and I in a square in Antwerp. Notice the statue of the guy throwing a hand. Makes you go hmmmmmmmm.

Another picture of the square. Some very pretty buildings, I must admit.

Pretty awesome building facade.

Satis and Ox at the restaurant we went to.

Satis, Ox and Shiny at the bar with the ridiculous variety of beers.

Another cool statue.

The Antwerp train station.

The train station again. Pretty cool.

Another shot of the train station, with the added bonus of the back of Shiny's head.

Our hotel room in Antwerp. Yes, that is a huge painting of some Chinese emperor or something. Those are two very big eyes to watch us while we sleep. Creepy? Absolutely. It was a really nice hotel though.

Somewhere in downtown Antwerp. Awesome buildings.

Another statue. Love the pants.

The cathedral in Antwerp.

Some statues of people presumably building the cathedral. Must be nice to have chicks dancing around on the bricks while you're busting you butt. Ox mentioned that these were often maligned.

Another statue. This one is drinking a beer.

Ox, Shiny and I at dinner. Judging by my expression, that's our second bottle of wine.

There are some really bizarre things in Antwerp. This is a store display. WTF?!

I call my lamp "Gun".

ZOMGWTFBBQ. These pimp shoes can be yours for a mere 200 euros!

The red light district is that way.

An interesting contract between the old building in front and the new ones behind.

Satis in the 1st class chill bar in Frankfurt.

Satis waiting at the train stop. One of my nicknames is popeye... any guesses as to why?

Another picture of the laborers and their tauntress.

Another picture of the Antwerp cathedral

A shot of the canals, houses and tiny, tiny roads.

Another shot of the canal with a church or something in the background. There were bikes absolutely everywhere.

Houseboats and river boats were also quite common.

A large cathedral.

Satis in Amsterdam.

A royal palace, I believe. To the right is Amsterdam square. However, we'd basically run out of steam at this point, so we didn't go much further.

Our Amsterdam hotel. It was dated, but at least it worked and was clean. The room service was absolutely atrocious. We spent about 14 continual hours sleeping in that bed.

Another canal shot.

More of Amsterdam

Shiny posing.

Another shot of the palace.

Satis in the train station in Amsterdam, waiting for the train to Paris.

A Paris subway entrance near the Louvre. Only in Paris.

The Palais Royal across from the Louvre

Satis posing in front of the Louvre entrance pyramid.

A very awesome statue.

This is a piece of modern art that was being displayed among all the old Greek/Roman statutes. If you look closely, all the detail is actually letters and symbols and whatnot. Though you may not agree with the artistic merit, there's no doubt it took a very long time to create.

Another statue

Yes, he's riding a turtle

The Napoleon crown jewels.

A very bizarre painting... the temptation of St. something or other. Notice the freaky man-creature with 3 legs and one arm eating itself at the bottom left, or the fish-woman toward the middle, or the guys jousting with brooms while riding flying fish and birds with snakes in the top left. Very bizarre.

A shot of the Louvre pyramid from above.

Another shot from within the Louvre.

Not Salvador Dali, but very Daliesque.

How awesome is that?

A very beautiful painting.

The winged victory.

Another picture of Winged Victory.

Another shot.

Here's a shot of one of the halls of the Italian painters. It's amazing how crowded the Italian painters' area is in comparison to the French painters. Then again, the Mona Lisa is off to the right nearby, which may account for it.

The Venus de Milo

Some guy stabbing himself in the eye. Oedipus?

Outside of the Louvre

Satis again. Notice my Quebec t-shirt? No comments from the real French about the fake Canadian French. ;)

Outside the Louvre (north tunnel entrance).

Satis chilling at a cafe on a Paris street corner.

Satis and Shiny at the cafe, drinking Perrier.

The Palais Royal garden. Here we have a fountain of balls.

Another shot of the Palais Royal.

Another shot of the Palais Royal with the added bonus of Satis and pigeons.

A statue of Moliere at the start of rue de Moliere, which is where our hotel is situated. For such a tiny street, it's a pretty cool statue.

Satis and Shiny somewhere in Paris.

A crazy palm-slapping-face statue outside the church of St. Eustache.

The front of the church of St. Eustache

The Seine

The Palace of Justice. Sounds like something straight out of 1984.

Notre Dame cathedral.

A statue of Joan of Arc.

Inside Notre Dame. It's not all that wide, but it is very, very tall.

Another saint.

Very neat statue, especially with the light from the stained glass window.

Some more statues

Ox and Satis chilling in Notre Dame.

Ox and Satis just outside Notre Dame. Love the demon or whatever.

Satis and Shiny in front of Notre Dame.

Satis and another part of the Seine. Notice all the police? There was some sort of demonstration going on nearby, with a crazy number of police wearing some bizarre articulated armor keeping watch.

Along the Seine's banks, a break cool statue.

The Seine's river was green. Not just a little green. Neon green. Shiny insists it was dyed that way, while Satis was sure it's some sort of algae bloom. Turns out Shiny was right, though her supposition it was because of St. Patrick's day was wrong. It was actually dyed green for World Water Day..

Ox getting sucked into the Seine.

I believe this building was just in front of the Museum of Orsay.

I believe this is the national assembly.

The Seine and an obelisk.

That would be the Eiffel tower. It must be close!

It's even closer. Ox, however, has still not noticed it.

Some more cool statues flanking a bridge

Another image of the statues on the bridge.

Ox finally notices the Eiffel tower.

Chilling at a Cafe very near the tower.

The Eiffel Tower itself.

Another neat statue.

The front of the Sacre Coeur Basilica

The violence associated with the Christian religion is sometimes shocking if you step back and look at it objectively.

A DHL boat in Amsterdam.

The hallway leading to our room (at the end) in our craptastic Paris hotel.

The view from our hotel window. Inspiring.

That's just scary.

A neat fountain between our hotel and the Louvre

A street adjacent to the Louvre

Part of the Louvre. The architecture is really cool. Also, I don't know what the roof is made of, but it's quite shiny.

A very cool work of art.

Also very cool.

Neptune killing a horse.

This was in Napoleon's suites in the Louvre.

I'd love to have a formal dining room like this.

Another shot of the dining room.

Napoleon's bed. It's so short!

I may have a penchant for violent art.

This also belonged to the Napoleon collection.

A pretty wicked painting.

A closeup of an especially interesting part. That priest/abbot/whatever is holding his own head while blood squirts out of his severed neck.

More art.

Something about naked female angels walking on people is just intrinsically cool.

I don't know why, but I really liked this face, part of a larger painting.

Another image of the winged victory.

The Mona Lisa, behind doubtlessly bullet and bomb-proof glass and thronged by tourists. It's certainly well known, but honestly not all that impressive. There are many other paintings that I think are much better, but not as well known.

Shiny outside the Louvre

Shiny at a Parisian Cafe.

The fountain of Balls in the Royal Palace gardens.

Shiny next to a fountain in the Palais Royal Garden.

Another shot of the Moliere statue.

A night-time shot of the Cafe we ate at outside of the Louvre.

Here we have another picture of Shiny and Satis in Paris. I believe this is on the Rue Moliere with our crappy hotel on the left, across the street..

Another image of the bitch-slap statue outside of the Saint Eustache church.

Shiny and Ox waiting for a traffic light. Some odoriferous dog offal was nearby, leading to Shiny's unhappy expression.

A cool square.

Another neat statue.

The statue of Joan of Arc in Notre Dame cathedral.

Part of a larger piece, I found death very interesting and a bit creepy.

Shiny and Ox posing in front of Notre Dame

More pictures of the freakishly green Seine.

Ox...drowning again. :)

I found that pretty cool.

Another picture of the National Assembly.

Another image of the obelisk.

Ox wondering where the Eiffel Tower came from.

The Eiffel Tower.

A gargoyle at the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur

A cool statue at the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur.

Another shot of part of the front of the Basilica.

Another gargoyle.

A different view of the statue of Moliere.

French military walking around the east train station.

Another shot of the military patrol. Yes, they have assault rifles.

Back in Germany with Satis posing in front of the cool statue once again.

Another shot of the statue.

The statue again.

...

I was playing with filter settings on my camera and snapped this of Hauptbahnhoff from our hotel room.

Another shot, this time playing with exposure.

That guy looks like a hot dog to me. These guys were hanging outside an African shop, drinking beer, listening to music and just carrying on. They were quite amusing.

A night-time long-exposure shot of Hauptbahnhoff.