This one is for you, Tash Reid!

When we were in Moscow we visited Red Square several times. The thing that drew us back to Red Square again and again was St Basil's Cathedral. We didn't even go inside it. It was enough just to look at it from the outside.

I think St Basil's Cathedral is probably my favourite church in the world. To me, it looks like something out of a fairy tale. Like the type of castle a wizard might live in. I think if all churches looked like St Basil's then more people would go to church. Don't you think that St Basil's looks like a fun place to go?

On our first night in Moscow, we wandered down to Red Square late at night. Standing in Red Square, looking up at St Basil's was one of those pinch myself moments. It happened on a lot of our travels. I couldn't believe that I was actually getting to visit places that I've dreamed about visiting since I was little.

On our third day in Moscow, we walked through Red Square in the afternoon. It was the golden hour and the light was this beautiful honey colour. It's impossible to take a bad photo in such light.

It was here that I took my favourite photo of the whole trip. St Basil's and a heart shaped balloon. I heart St Basil's too!

More photos (slideshow) of Moscow on Flickr.

Our visit to Red Square was part of our Taste of Russia tour. We did a 9-day tour, travelling from Moscow to St Petersburg, with Intrepid Travel. Other entries from this trip include: Travel Pensieve: Novodevichy Cemetery.

This time last year, we were living in Paris... *sigh*. As part of a work contract I had to liase with a French software company based in Paris to learn how to use a software program. Andrew finished his London contract a week early so he could come and join me. For a few wonderful weeks we lived in Paris. Being a technical author is a little more exciting when you get to do it in Paris.

We enjoyed our time in Paris. I worked and Andrew was a tourist on weekdays. We both went sight-seeing on the weekends. We learnt that to be truly French you have to carry a baguette under one arm. We fulfilled this requirement by visiting the bakery every few days to pick up a baguette to have with dinner. We were Feeeeeeeerrrunch! (For some strange reason, to be French you also have to drive along with your right indicator on. That's a whole nother story though.)

Now we're home in Sydney. Enjoying the beautiful weather (yay!). Enjoying spending time with our family and friends (yay!). I'm working as a technical author (... um yeh). We're happy to be home but last year we were living in Paris (dammit!). Let me take a moment to get over this....

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OK.

On one of our touristing weekends we visited Sainte-Chapelle, which is on the Île de la Cité in the heart of Paris. Sainte-Chapelle is the royal chapel which once adjoined the Palace of Saint Louis. It was built by King Louis IX to house holy relics that he'd purchased from the Venetians. The Venetians made a tidy profit earning 135,000 livres in the exchange. To give you an idea of just how much money this is, the chapel itself only cost 40,000 livres to build.

Chapel equals church which usually earns a meh from the Wilsons. In our defence we did see a lot of churches on our travels. Every city, town and village in Europe has a church as a tourist attraction. As our travels continued, it took something extra special in a church to impress us. And Sainte-Chapelle is just that, extra special. The inside is breathtakingly beautiful.

Instead of walls, the chapel has stained-glass windows. These windows are quite tall; more than 15 metres high. There are 15 windows in all and they cover an area of 600 square metres. So on a sunny day, like the day on which we visited, walking through the chapel is like swimming through a sea of multi-coloured light. I tried to take photos of the inside to capture what it was like but it was too hard. The photos I took didn't do the chapel justice. In the end, I stopped looking with my camera and started looking with my eyes. I took memories instead that I still enjoy today.

Andrew did a better job with the photos.



So Sainte-Chapelle goes on my list of must-see churches. (You know, there is actually a list. Of course there is!) Make sure you see it when you're next in Paris.

More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

There is always a church post, isn't there?

Florence's main ABC is the Duomo. In Italian, Duomo translates to cathedral. I always thought it came from Dome. But no, duomo comes from the Latin "domus" meaning house. In this case, the house of God.

Florence's Duomo is Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. It's made of pink, green and white marble and the decorations on the facade are very elaborate. It looks like a giant wedding cake. Its "world's largest" is its dome. It's made of red brick and is the largest brick dome ever constructed. When the Duomo was built, it was the largest church in the Italy. Until the Pope got cranky and decided that the largest church should be in Rome and not in Florence. Ok, enough about the stats.

Because we're a bit meh about churches now, we usually visit them for one thing. To climb them. Andrew and Jess, conquering the churches of the world. At the Duomo in Florence, you can climb the bell tower or the dome. We choose to climb the Dome.

The climb itself is quite fun. It's not just one big spiral staircase (which I hate, because it makes me so dizzy).

The first part of the climb takes you out on to a narrow balcony under the dome which overlooks the inside of the church. The inside of the dome is painted with a representation of the Last Judgement. The scenes from hell are quite disturbing. There is a skeleton with a scythe rounding up people to send them to hell. A faceless monster chomps on naked men. It's rather detailed and we spent a bit of time taking it all in. The balcony is so narrow that it is one way only and no passing. We couldn't stray too long because of the people who were waiting behind us.

The second part of the climb is easy. Just normal stairways, back inside the walls of the church. On the right, the dome wall curves away from you.

The third bit of the climb is the fun part. You have to climb over the top of the dome. Climbing this stair case had a bit of an Alice in Wonderland feel to it. It's a staircase built into a curved floor. Going up it was quite easy. Later on we had to climb down it which was a little disorientating.

Finally, you climb one last steep ladder to emerge into the bright sunshine. The view from the top is impressive. But, of course it is. You're standing a top the tallest building in the city overlooking the beautiful city of Florence.





More photos on Flickr.

We're slowly but surely visiting London's tourist attractions and crossing them off our London list. A couple of weekends ago we decided it was time to do St Paul's properly (on my last attempt I didn't even make it to the front steps.)

We've had great luck with the weather and once again we managed to pick a beautiful, crisp winter's day for our escapade. The clear sunny day meant we had a fantastic view of St Paul's and a breathtaking outlook from the top of the dome.

The current Cathedral, designed by Sir Christopher Wren was built between 1675 and 1710 after Old St Paul's was destroyed in the Great Fire of London. Even today the dome is one of the major features of London's skyline. In the 18th century it must have dominated its surroundings and all of London.

Sir Wren was bit of a cheeky bugger. When his original design, including the dome, was not approved, he submitted a new design. The new revised design included a much smaller dome with a spire on top. This design was approved and Wren was given permission to make 'ornamental' changes by the King. Wren took ornamental to mean radical and he completely reworked the design to include the large central dome.

Design 1	Design 2	Design 3

We entered the Cathedral via the Nave, the long central section that leads to the Dome. The aisles on each side of the Nave are dotted with memorials devoted to military commanders who sacrificed their lives in the Napoleonic wars. The most famous being Lord Nelson, whose memorial includes a seasick lion (I think because Nelson got seasick every time his ship left the harbour) and the Duke of Wellington, whose memorial is a three-tiered marble monstrosity.

The already impressive view improves as you wander down the nave and underneath the dome. Standing beneath the dome, you have to crane your neck all the way back to get a real appreciation of the dome's magnificence. The inside of the dome is covered in trompe l'oeil frescos; scenes from the life of St Paul. You can see people peering down over the balcony from the Whispering Gallery.

Other highlights of St Paul's:

• Light of the World -- the cathedral's most famous art work by Holman Hunt. The painting depicts Jesus knocking at a door without a handle covered with brambles and weeds. The door represents the human soul. The lack of handle signifies that the door must be opened from within. God can only enter our lives if we invite him in.
  
  
• Mother and Child -- an abstract sculpture by Henry Moore. Viewed from different perspectives the sculpture shows conception, birth and nurturing.
  
  
• The Chancel -- the chancel is the most richly decorated section of the church. The ceiling sparkles, covered in glittering mosaics. In the Apse is the American Memorial chapel, dedicated to the 28,000 Americans based in Britain who lost their lives in World War II. (there is a Space Rocket, a tribute to American's efforts in space, hidden in the carved wooden panelling. I had to search for a while to find it.)

Our explorations of the Cathedral floor were finished we were ready to tackle the business of climbing the dome. To make it to the top, you must scale 530 steps, up narrow spiral staircases, visiting three galleries on the way.


After the first 259 steps, we arrive at the Whispering Gallery. The gallery is named for its acoustic properties. Apparently words whispered to the wall on one side are clearly audible from the other side of the gallery. Of course, when we visited on a Saturday, the place was crowded with people all trying this trick. Although, whispered conversation wasn't perceptible, normal conversation was. The security guard on the gallery level was actually using the walls as her PA system. She would speak loudly into the walls to ask people to get down off the seats. (oops! Guilty!) You could hear her on the other side of the gallery as if she was standing next to you.

We climbed another 119 steps up a stone spiral staircase to reach the Stone Gallery. This is the first outdoor gallery and is located at the bottom of the dome. After a quick tour around the promenade and a few snaps of the view we were ready to make the final ascent.

The final leg of the journey is up a series of steep spiral staircases. The staircases are made from wrought iron. This meant that as you were climbing them you could look up to see where you were going, or look down to see where you might end up if you tripped. We climbed the final flight of narrow stone stairs and emerged into the bright sunshine. The Golden Gallery runs around the highest point of the outer dome and is 280ft from ground-level. The view from the top is truly breath-taking. As most of the climb is indoors, I was slightly awestruck when we finally did surface. The platform is only a few metres wide so it was a bit crowded. To fully circumnavigate the Golden Gallery we had to squeeze our way past quite a few people.

I didn't have any problems climbing St Paul's dome at all. The score is now Jess 2 -- Spires of the World 1. huzzah!

After we'd climbed back down from the dome, we headed underground into the crypt. Although, not as crowded as Westminster Abbey there are still more than a few famous people buried in the Crypt at St Paul's. The most famous being Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington. Wren is also buried in the crypt. The inscription on his tomb reads 'lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice'. 'Reader, if you seek his monument, look around'. This beautiful dedication is heartfelt and true. St Paul's is a fitting testimonial to Wren's architectural genius.

The entrance fee for St Paul's Cathedral is £9. Our tube driver obviously thought this was a bit much as he jokingly called the stop 'home of the nine pound cathedral' when we got off at St Paul's tube station. Personally, I thought it was worth every penny. St Paul's is definitely on the must-do list for any London visit.

The harbour cruise was a good introduction to the tourist attractions of Copenhagen. On Day 3, we decided to take a closer a look at some of the more interesting sights.

Copenhagen offers a "free bike service" to its tourists. Scattered around the city at a number of locations are tourist bike depots. You can pick up a bike here by inserting 20 kroner into the bike lock. This is a deposit which you get back when you safely return the bike to a depot. We thought that this would be a good way to explore Copenhagen, so our first task for the day was to find a depot and thus our transportation for the day.

Unfortunately, it was nigh impossible to find two tourists bikes. We did find one bike all by its lonesome, but every other depot we passed was devoid of wheels. I was ready to give up after 30 minutes of searching. So, we returned our one bike to a depot and continued on foot. Strike 1 for Copenhagen Tourist Bikes.

Stop 1: Ströget
Ströget is Copenhagen's pedestrian shopping mall. We ambled down Ströget and window shopped along the way. Doing the mental conversion from Kroner into Pounds and then into Aussie Dollars made all the prices pretty steep, so we restrained ourselves from buying too much.

Although it is commonly called Ströget, this is not the name of the street, but its nickname. Ströget is actually five adjoining streets and it is apparently one of the longest pedestrian malls in the world.

The Danes are fond of that phrase "one of...". Append either longest, tallest, or biggest and possibly an "in Europe". They are obviously catering to the Americans who think that things are only worth looking at if they're number one at something. However, I think the glamour is lost when it is only "one of" the longest, biggest or tallest. I reckon the Danes are number one at making Danishes. Maybe they should concentrate on that *G*.

Stop 2: Statue of Bishop Absalon
We thought we'd take a closer look at Copenhagen's founding father. Yup... statue of a man on a horse...still there. You can read more about the statue here and about the man himself, here.

Stop 3: Vor Frelsers Kirke
The church has a spire with a spiral staircase on the outside. If you're daring enough, you can climb up to the observatory deck and then up the spiral staircase to the top of the spire. We'd noticed people climbing the spire, the day before, when we were on the harbour cruise. In a moment of insanity, I'd decided that it was something that I'd like to do. It seemed like a good idea when my feet were flat on the ground. I always seem to forget about my irrational fear of falling from high places.

The weather during the day had been quite strange. We experienced swift rainstorms followed by bright, sunny periods. We waited out one downpour in a bakery, munching on bread rolls and drinking orange juice (which is called Appelsin Juice in Danish).

During a sunny episode, we climbed to the top of Vor Frelsers Kirke. There are 400 steps to the top, including 150 steps around the spire.
The first part of the climb is a staircase. When we reached the level where the glockenspiel and Carillion is located, the path changed and we ascended a series of ladders, the gradient of which increased as we climbed.

Finally, we emerged into bright sunlight onto the observatory platform and were treated to what is probably the best view Copenhagen has to offer. From the Observatory deck, we climbed the spiral staircase that winds its way around the spire, all the way to the very last step at the top of the spire.

Have I mentioned my fear of heights? Well, not a fear of heights exactly, but a fear of tripping and falling down a ladder, a staircase or off the top of a church spire. I held on with both hands while out on the observatory platform. I climbed the Spire's staircase one step at a time, concentrating very hard on where I put my feet. It didn't help that the stairs were wet and slippery from the rain. And the blustery weather meant that it was quite windy at the top. My rain jacket caught the wind like a kite, and I had visions of flying off the top of the spire. I had to force myself to take every step; tempted to just sit down and refuse to go anywhere. Yeh, I'm really good with heights. Here's to climbing more church spires in the future!

Of course, Andrew isn't afraid of anything and he practically skipped up the Spire stairs. Well, he would have, but he's too manly for that. Actually, he swaggered up the stairs.

Although, it was a bit scary for me, it was definitely worth doing! The view of Copenhagen was amazing.


Stop 4: The Little Mermaid
Even though our guidebook says that the Little Mermaid is one of the most over-rated pieces of sculpture in the world, I feel that no visit to Copenhagen is complete without a visit to the melancholy sea princess.

While lunching, we'd noticed a pair of tourist bikes at a depot across the road. That's right, count 'em, TWO tourist bikes... TOGETHER. The Little Mermaid is a bit of a hike from the centre of town so we decided to nab the bikes and ride out to the point. It's been a while since I've ridden a bike, but luckily, it's like riding a bike so it wasn't too hard. Unfortunately, my bike was not in perfect condition. When I turned the wheel to steer, my pedals would catch against the front wheel. As long as I rode in a straight line, and didn't turn any corners, I was fine. I wasn't 100% confident though and the lack of helmet didn't help.

Although many of the roads have bike lanes, everywhere else, you're expected to ride on the road with the cars. The tourist bikes are painted bright colours, so I assume cars know to give them a wide berth. However, I would have felt more comfortable with a bright neon sign proclaiming, in four languages, "Warning! Warning! Erratic behaviour expected. Finds steering and stopping difficult"

My fear of cars meant that we rode mostly along the waterfront to get to the Little Mermaid. On the way we stopped at the house where Hans Christian Anderson lived for a period. We also made a brief stop at Amalienborg Slot, the Queen's residence. We watched the mini-guards walk back and forth for a bit. We never tire of that!

Once at the Little Mermaid we lined up to get the obligatory photo. Andrew climbed out to her perch and cuddled up to her for one extra photo. Tick! We checked the Little Mermaid off our list.


Stop 5: Really cool fountain
On the way home, we noticed this really cool fountain and stopped to have a closer look. We snapped a number of photos, without really knowing much about it. But thanks to Google, here is what I've learnt.

From:visitcopenhagen.com.

The official name is 'Gefion'.

According to an ancient legend, Gefion was the goddess who ploughed the island of Zealand out of Sweden. The Swedish king Gylfe offered the goddess Gefion as much land as she was capable of ploughing within one day and one night.

Gefion received help only from four oxen. She had transformed her four sons into immensely powerful oxen and had them plough so deeply in the ground that they raised the land and pulled it into the sea. This is how the island of Zealand was created.

The lake Vännern in Sweden approximately resembles the shape of Zealand, proving that there must be some truth in the story!




Finished
And our explorations for the day were over. We met Natalie at home and headed out to a local microbrewery for a few refreshing beverages. Andrew tried the Bombay Pale Ale and Natalie and I sampled the Çeske Böhmer, a Pilsner. Jess is drinking beer, Oh my! I am an Oktoberfest success story.