We decided to escape the wintery weather in Seattle this year by coming to Indonesia for January (our third trip here), including a long dive trip in the remote Raja Ampat region near Papua. Before heading out there we spent a few days in Bali and yesterday we hooked up with our good friend Ketut to drive around some of the places we haven't seen (we've been here a few times before). We decided to head out to the western portion of the island where Ketut's village is, and after visiting his family we headed up into the mountains to check out the rice fields and the incredibly lush and verdant foliage. Btw, the monkeys are Macaques and hang out by the side of the road on the way down the mountain.

All the photos were taken with a Canon EOS5D on aperture priority with an EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS lens (except the one obvious fisheye shot which was using an 8-15mm f/4.0L fisheye).

Click each photo for a 1024x683 enlargement.

Enjoy!

(2-foot wide Octopus during a night dive off Turneffe Caye, Belize)

Kimberly and I headed to Belize in November for our first dive trip in well over a year (we're not letting that happen again!) and spent a week on the Belize Aggressor III liveaboard dive boat. Doing liveaboards is the only way to dive - eat, sleep, and dive for 7 days! I did a bunch of courses during the week, including my very-long-overdue Nitrox and Advanced Open Water certifications, and 26 dives to make it up to 122 total dives. I managed to tick something off my bucket-list - diving the famous Blue Hole (down to 140 feet!). I also took a lot of photos!

Here I present my favorites from the week. Click on a photo for a 1024x768 enlargement.

Left to right below: Lizardfish; 3-ft Grouper who liked to be stroked.

Left to right below: Kimberly with her new camera rig; 5-ft barrel sponges.

Left to right below: mated pair of Banded Coral Shrimp; very small (1-inch long) Secretary Blennie that Kimberly found.

Left to right below: juvenile File Fish (about 2 inches) during a night dive; Brittle Star during a night dive.

Left to right below: Basket Star during a night dive - these guys are fun to feed by holding a light just by them and all the little worms and critters in the water swim to the light and and the Basket Star catches them; Brittle Stars in a barrel sponge during a night dive.

Left to right below: Large (9-inch shell) hermit crab; White-Speckled Nudibranch (about two inches long) I was lucky enough to spot in a sea-grass and soft coral forest.

Left to right below: Swimming with 8-ft Black-Tipped Reef Sharks - we really were that close!; looking up at a big shark.

Left to right below: the same shark again; swimming with a school of Jacks.

Left to right below: Speckled Moray warning me off; large (8-ft) Green Moray.

Left to right below: Now the Green Moray has seen me - Morays have terrible eyesight; a Jawfish - these guys live in little burrows in the sand and are very shy - I spent 1/2 hour lying on the sand waiting for this shot.

Left to right below: Lobster during a night dive - with mood lighting; solitary Banded Coral Shrimp during a night dive.

Left to right below: 4-inch Large-Eye Shrimp burrowing into the sand during a night dive; Speckled Toadfish during a night dive - these are really weird looking fish - very flat and wide - and extremely rare!

Left to right below: Octopus (same one as the picture at the start of the post) during a night dive.

Back in May when we were out in Chicago teaching one of our classes we had a spare day so we drove an hour west into the Illinois countryside to the absolutely excellent Illinois Railway Museum.

I've always been a big train fan, stemming from the days back in the early '80s when I used to take the train back and forth to Glasgow every day on the way to school. I think many people are really little boys at heart when it comes to trains - trains never lose their excitement.

We spent about 1/2 a day wandering around their huge collection and chatting with some of the volunteers responsible for maintaining the rolling stock and engines. Of course I took a whole bunch of photos and I'm sure many of you will enjoy them.

Click on the photos for a 1024x768 enlargement.

Enjoy!

Earlier today I took my Mum and Dad to walk around the beautiful Japanese Garden at the Washington Park Arboretum (part of the University of Washington Botanic Gardens) and I took along my camera to play around with leaves and light.

Below are a selection of photos, all taken with a Canon 5D Mark II plus a Canon 24-105 f/4L IS lens, mostly in Aperture Priority mode, some with manual focus.

Click the image for a 1600x1200 version - especially for the leaves - should make good desktop wallpaper :-)

Enjoy! Let me know if you like them.

I think this is a fitting blog post for Memorial Day here in the US. Last weekend we had some spare time in Michigan between client visits in Grand Rapids and Houston so we drove over to Muskegon on the east shore of Lake Michigan and visited the Great Lakes Naval Memorial and Museum. It's the home of the USS Silversides, a 311ft 1500 ton submarine that saw extensive service in WWII, sinking 23 enemy ships totaling more than 90,000 tons. You can read an extensive history of the submarine on Wikipedia. The cool thing about the museum is that you can get inside the submarine and go through it on your own time.

I'm a huge submarine fan as my Dad spent a long time on submarines (controlling the nuclear reactors) in his 32 years in the Royal Navy and I lived my childhood very close to the nuclear submarine base at Faslane in Scotland (Helensburgh is very much a Navy town). I spent a lot of time in the base itself over the years and have been on numerous submarines. Dad was very interested when I called him from the deck of the Silversides last weekend and is looking forward to these photos.

All photos are taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II (shooting RAW) with a Canon EF 24-105 f/4 L IS lens. I then used Lightroom 3 to do some white balancing and also played around with some free Lightroom presets I downloaded from onOne Software. All the photos here are using their WOW-Edge 10 effect which works really well for these photos packed with metal surfaces and the shadowy lighting on the sub. It also does a vignetting effect too.

Click each photo for a 1024x768 version.

Below: The forward torpedo room - look how there are bunks there in the room too, making use of all available space.

Below: battle notes in the officer's mess; dedication plaque.

Below: one side of the control room; diving controls.

Below: ballast tank controls; targeting indicator.

Below: engine speed controls (linked to the engine room); hatchways are pretty small for us 6ft+ tall people (although the deckheads were fine).

Below: ballast tank guages; the other side of the control room.

Below: some crew quarters; engine room. The submarine is driven by electric motors from its batteries. These engines just charge the batteries, and the engines are still operable.

Below: engine details.

Below: maneuvering room; aft torpedo room.

Hope you enjoyed these!

Back in April Kimberly and I flew to Munich to present a 2.5 day SQL Server track at the 2011 Microsoft-internal conference for the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) Premier Field Engineers. We had a great time presenting and after recovering from nasty colds we went wandering about in Munich city center the day before we flew home. It's been almost six months since I posted any travel photos here (I have a bit of a backlog) so I thought I'd post some of these.

Click the images for larger versions - these are 20 images from a much large album I uploaded to Facebook (see here).

All photos were taken with a Canon 5d Mark II with a 24-105 f/4 L IS lens. It's remarkable how much light the full-frame CCD captures compared to a good point-and-shoot - especially noticeable in the dim interior of churches.

Although I've bounced in Frankfurt airport many times, this was the first real trip to Germany for me (country #24 for me - aiming for 100 before I die). We're heading back again in a couple of weeks for another conference and this time we'll be hiring a car and driving around to see some scenery and castles (and take more photos!).

As with most European countries, the things I like most are the history and the architecture. In the absence of castles and other strongholds in the place I'm visiting, these are usually best felt from visiting cathedrals and churches - so that's what we did.

I also like beer and sausages, which is handy because that's one of the best combinations to get in Munich. We're sitting in the Muschelsaal (Shell Hall) of the Augustiner Bräu, Munich's oldest brewery that was founded in 1328 by Augustinian monks. I'm drinking their Doppelbock (I think) and eating their Sausage Special with sauerkraut - yummy!

Left to right below are the interiors of the Frauenkirche (the largest gothic cathedral in southern Germany, built from 1468), Michaelskirche (built from 1585), and Peterskirche (Munich's oldest public building, built in the 12th Century).

Left to right below, details from the cathedral: two figures from the tomb of the Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV who died in 1347, plus a medieval tomb marker.

Left to right below are a carved wooden screen from the cathedral, and a cuckoo-clock shop. Yes, we bought some souvenirs, but not a cuckoo clock.

Left to right, another view of the fabulous interior of the Michaelskirche, and a 1000-yr old reliquary.

Below are shots from the crypt under the Michaelskirche, which reminded me very strongly of the Kaisergruft (Imperial Crypt) in Vienna. Kimberly's straight in front of me.

Below are an exterior shot of the Augustiner Bräu and the Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall, built from 1867). In the tower is a clock that re-enacts two 16th century stories every day at 11am.

Below are two reliquaries from the Peterskirche.

Below are two shots of the Marienplatz (St. Mary's Square), one of the central city squares since 1158. On the left is looking from the west, with the Neues Rathaus on the left, the Heiliggesitkirche (red spire), the Peterskirche (green spire) and the Mariensäule (column with a statue of the Virgin Mary). On the right is looking from the east, with the Neues Rathaus on the right with twin towers of the Frauenkirche behind it. 

Below is Kimberly at a flower market in the east end of the Marienplatz.

Hope you enjoyed these!

This is the last (and longest)  post of my bald eagle shots from last week in Haines, Alaska. I'm calling this one "the many faces of bald eagles". When you spend a lot of time watching them close up, you realize just how varied their expressions can be and there's a temptation to anthropomorphize them.

All photos were taken in RAW at 5184x3456 with my Canon 7D, additional details given with each photo. The photos shown here are as taken, no zooming or cropping, with slight black/white setting in Lightroom. You can see in the shot of Kimberly below just how close we could get. You don't need camoflauge clothing and lens wraps to get good wildlife shots (I think that stuff looks daft), you just need patience and an understanding of the wildlife behavior. We sat in the same small area for 6 hours a day and waited for the eagles to come to us.

Click on all photos for a 1024x768 enlargement. Full size images available on request. Be warned if you're squeamish - a few of the shots have half-eaten fish in.

Above: 1/2000sec at f/4.0, ISO 200. EF500mm f/4L IS lens, on tripod.

Left to right below: 1/4000sec at f/4.0, ISO 400. EF500mm f/4L IS lens, on tripod; 1/5000sec at f/4.0, ISO 400. EF500mm f/4L IS lens, on tripod; 1/2000sec at f/4.0, ISO 400. EF500mm f/4L IS lens, on tripod.

Left to right below: 1/640sec at f/4.0, ISO 400. EF300mm f/2.8L IS lens, handheld; 1/400sec at f/4.0, ISO 400. EF400mm f/4 DO IS lens, handheld; 1/1000sec at f/4.0, ISO 800. EF400mm f/4 DO IS lens, handheld.

Left to right below: 1/60sec at f/16, ISO 200. EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens at 70mm, handheld; 1/320sec at f/4.0, ISO 800. EF400mm f/4 DO IS lens, handheld; 1/250sec at f/4.0, ISO 200. EF500mm f/4L IS lens, on tripod.

Left to right below: 1/320sec at f/4.0, ISO 200. EF500mm f/4L IS lens, on tripod; 1/1250sec at f/4.0, ISO 200. EF500mm f/4L IS lens, on tripod;  1/1250sec at f/4.0, ISO 200. EF500mm f/4L IS lens, on tripod.

Left to right below: 1/1250sec at f/4.0, ISO 200. EF500mm f/4L IS lens, on tripod; 1/1600sec at f/4.0, ISO 200. EF500mm f/4L IS lens, on tripod; 1/500sec at f/4.0, ISO 800. EF500mm f/4L IS lens, on tripod.

Left to right below: 1/6400sec at f/4.0, ISO 800. EF500mm f/4L IS lens, on tripod; 1/4000sec at f/4.0, ISO 400. EF500mm f/4L IS lens, on tripod; 1/4000sec at f/4.0, ISO 400. EF500mm f/4L IS lens, on tripod.

Left to right below: 1/2500sec at f/4.0, ISO 400. EF500mm f/4L IS lens, on tripod; 1/1600sec at f/4.0, ISO 400. EF500mm f/4L IS lens, on tripod; 1/1600sec at f/2.8, ISO 800. EF300mm f/2.8L IS lens, handheld.

And that's the end of the phot blog posts from last week. Hope you've enjoyed the shots as much as I enjoyed taking them and reviewing them.

And thanks for all the kinds words in your comments!

Two more blog posts to go - this one has my favorite flight shots from the week.

All photos were taken in RAW at 5184x3456 with my Canon 7D, additional details given with each photo. The photos shown here are as taken, no zooming or cropping, with slight black/white setting in Lightroom.

Click on all photos for a 1024x768 enlargement. Full size images available on request.

Above: 1/1600sec at f/2.8, ISO 800. EF300mm f/2.8L IS lens, handheld. My favorite flight shot of the entire week.

Left to right below: 1/1600sec at f/4.0, ISO 400. EF500mm f/4L IS lens, on tripod; 1/640sec at f/4.0, ISO 800. EF400mm f/4 DO IS lens, on tripod; 1/640sec at f/4.0, ISO 800. EF400mm f/4 DO IS lens, on tripod.

Left to right below: 1/800sec at f/4.0, ISO 800. EF400mm f/4 DO IS lens, handheld; 1/3200sec at f/4.0, ISO 400. EF500mm f/4L IS lens, on tripod; 1/1600sec at f/4.0, ISO 400. EF500mm f/4L IS lens, on tripod.

Left to right below: 1/1000sec at f/4.0, ISO 400. EF500mm f/4L IS lens, on tripod; 1/1250sec at f/2.8, ISO 800. EF300mm f/2.8L IS lens, handheld; 1/1600sec at f/2.8, ISO 800. EF300mm f/2.8L IS lens, handheld.

Left to right below: 1/1600sec at f/2.8, ISO 800. EF300mm f/2.8L IS lens, handheld; 1/1600sec at f/2.8, ISO 800. EF300mm f/2.8L IS lens, handheld; 1/2000sec at f/2.8, ISO 800. EF300mm f/2.8L IS lens, handheld.

Left to right below: 1/1600sec at f/2.8, ISO 800. EF300mm f/2.8L IS lens, handheld; 1/2000sec at f/2.8, ISO 800. EF300mm f/2.8L IS lens, handheld; 1/1600sec at f/2.8, ISO 800. EF300mm f/2.8L IS lens, handheld.

Hope you enjoy these!

Today we got really up-close-and-personal with the bald eagles up here in Haines, AK. It was a toasty 22F out on the river delta but the light was stunning, coming directly from behind us over the mountains, but without being too glaring.

Click on all photos for 1024x768 enlargements. 

This was taken with my Canon EOS 5D Mark II using a Canon EF500mm f/4.0L IS lens, 1/2000sec at f/4.0, ISO 400.

This morning before we left there was a pretty spectacular sunrise, as these two shots below show, taken from the front porch of the B&B we're staying at. Both were taken on the 5D using a Canon EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens, 1/400sec at f/2.8, ISO 200 at 200mm.

In the morning I was trying for some portrait shots (like the one at the top of this post). I have far too many to post as the eagles have a huge variety of facial expressions, but the two below are pretty indicative - grumpy and aggressive! These two shots are both with my 7D and the 500mm f/4L IS lens, with 1/320sec and 1/400sec at f/4.0, ISO 400, respectively. If you go to the higher resolution image of the screaming bird, you can see a puff of breath just above the right-hand of the bird's head - it was *cold*!

In the afternoon I was messing around with reflections on the river, trying to be artistic, which involved hand-holding the camera and wading into the river to get close to the birds... these three were taken with the 5D and an EF300mm f/2.8L IS lens. From left to right the exposures are 1/1000sec, 1/2500sec, 1//800sec at f/4.0, ISO 400, respectively.

I just love the middle shot above as the eagle swooped over the river.

More shots to come tomorrow hopefully - another great day in the weather forecast!

This week Kimberly and I are in Haines, AK honing our photography skills using the numerous bald eagles as subjects. We're up here with photo-pro and friend Jon Cornforth, getting excellent advice. This week we've been taking the best photos of our lives thanks to Jon's tips and tricks!

A bunch of you at the conferences over the last few weeks asked for us to post photos so this is the first short post with some cool images. The eagles up here are amazing! There's a late run of coho salmon in the Chilkat River and the eagles gorge on them, congregating about 20 miles north of Haines on Highway 7, not far from the Canadian border into the Yukon Territory. They're so lazy - they wait for a raven or seagull to pull the dying salmon out of the river and then displace them to feed.

All these were shot with my Canon EOS 7D. Although it has a 1.6x crop-factor compared to my full-frame 5D Mark II, it can shoot 7 frames per second compared to the 5D's 5 frames per second, which makes it better for stopping the action when shooting wildlife. For all these shots I used a Canon EF 400mm f/4.0 IS USM lens, giving an effective focal length of 640mm (with the 1.6 multiplier from using the 7D). I'll post some other shots from later in the week using super-sharp 500mm f/4.0L IS and 300 mm f/2.8L IS lenses. I was shooting in aperture-priority and playing with the ISO setting as the light changed to get a fast enough shutter speed to stop the action, and we'd also micro-adjusted the auto-focus of each lens with each camera body for optimal image sharpness. We had to stop by around 2.30pm as the higher ISO setting to compensate for the low light makes the images too grainy.

Click on each photo below to get a 1024x768 version.

The photo on the left below is a classic portrait shot. This was taken almost at the end of the usable-light portion of the day and was 1/400sec at ISO 800. The photo on the right is of two eagles fighting while one is displacing another at a salmon. Check out how one of them is lying on its back with its claws in the air so it doesn't get attacked. The shot was 1/1600sec at ISO 800, with good light early in the morning.

The sequence below is of a juvenile coming in to land on a log. These were again taken towards the end of the day when the light was fading. They're all 1/400sec at ISO 1600, which is why they look a tiny bit grainy. These were shot without using a tripod so I couldd more easily follow the birds flying into the area. I'm particularly pleased that I captured this sequence!

Let me know if you enjoy these - I'll post some more later in the week!

It's been six weeks or so since I posted anything technical here - my summer vacation from being online, and your summer vacation from having to digest my ramblings!

It's also been a loooong time since I wrote a detailed Where In The World Are Paul and Kimberly tagged blog post, usually deferring to Facebook albums instead. But this summer we took a seriously cool trip that I want to share in some detail, so this is the first of three posts. This one's on Alaska, the next one will be on the Russian Arctic (part of the same trip), then one on Nome, AK and its environs, and the last one will be on Beijing (business trip we took straight afterward).

Click on the photos for a larger version. I make no apologies for the huge number of photos in this post :-)

As always Kimberly planned our trip meticulously - I hate doing that stuff and Kimberly loves it. It started out as just doing the Russian trip but then we decided to wrap two weeks in Alaska around it and take the kids along for the first part, as none of us had been to Alaska before. Our rough itinerary in Alaska, starting mid August was:

• Fly into Anchorage from Seattle
• Spend a day driving up to Denali National Park (238mi) and hang out there for three nights
• Spend a day driving down to Seward (363mi) and hang out there for three nights
• Spend a day driving to Homer (169mi) and hang out there for three nights
• Head back to Anchorage, send the kids back home
• Fly to Nome, AK and then embark on Russia trip (more in second post)
• Two weeks later head back from Russia to Nome and hang out there for three nights (more on that in the third post).

The map below gives you an idea of where we were in the first part of of the trip in Alaska (with thanks to Google Maps).

Anchorage - Denali

My first view of Alaska was mountains and sea lochs peeking through the low clouds from our Continental flight up from Seattle - it looked drab and misty. We picked up our rental SUV (GMC Yukon Denali XL, just like mine at home) and headed to the Captain Cook Hotel - nice place, recommended. The next morning we headed up to Denali National Park. The day started out dry and then became pretty drab so we took a detour about half way to the little town of Talkeetna. It's a bit touristy but has a couple of old trapper cabins to explore, and some good places to eat. We lunched at the Kahiltna Bistro next to the railroad line - great burgers and beer! The clouds started to clear as we approached Denali giving some spectacular photos, then we spotted the Anchorage-Fairbanks train and chased it for a while (it goes *really* slowly). Our good friend and fellow MVP Don Kiely drove down from Fairbanks to hang out with us so we met him for dinner at the Grand Denali Lodge, which is a complete eyesore but has a great view and also does good food and beer. We stayed about 7 miles south of the Park entrance at the Denali Cabins - rustic but recommended.

Left to right top: a moose wandering around in downtown Anchorage, posing in front of the train in Talkeetna, awesome clouds and sun. Below those are two shots of the train we chased.

Denali National Park

Next morning we all headed into the Park to check out the excellent visitor center and the sled dogs. In the winter much of the travel around the park by the rangers is by sled dog, and the sled dog kennels are open every day. Incidently, Don has 28 dogs, many of which are huskies, and runs a charity for abandoned sled dogs - Second Chance League Sled Dog Rescue - check them out and give a donation!

Below are the girls getting up-close-and-personal with some of the Park huskies.

After that Don had to head back up to Fairbanks and we had a few hours to kill so we drove into the Park as far as you can in a private car (about 14 miles).

Below left to right: more fabulous scenery, sun-dappled water, caribou stag.

After lunch we'd arranged to charter a helicopter from Era Alaska Flightseeing Helicopters to do their Glacier Landing Expedition. It takes off from the Nenana River (Athabascan for 'good place to camp') and heads off into the enormous Yanert Icefield, where the views are just *stunning*. We landed at the top of the glacier and had about 20 minutes to wander around. Absolutely phenomenal!

The next day we took a 13 hour coach tour (through Denali Backcountry Adventure) into the Park (the only way you're allowed in), all the way to the end of the road at Kantishna Lodge, 92 miles in. It sounds like a bit of a nightmare, but we were the first ones on the bus at 6am so got excellent seats at the front. We saw all the big 5 - bears, caribou, wolves, Dall sheep, moose - thanks to the crappy weather in the morning. I didn't take any photos that day - Kimberly will post some.

Denali - Seward

After not having seen Denali herself (only tourists call it Mount McKinley) we'd resigned ourselves to missing out, but just as we went past Cantwell about 20 miles south of the Park, the weather totally cleared and we had stunning views all the way down to Seward. Pretty long drive (although not as long as Seattle-Banff in one day - 700 miles) but the kids never complained once. Btw, if you want somewhere good to eat, don't stop at the Denali Princess Lodge, the food and service sucks - the only bad place we ate at.

Below left to right: Denali from Cantwell, various jagged mountains from a rest stop, Denali from 100 miles further south.

Below left to right: Denali in my rear-view another 50 miles south, the view from our excellent cliff-top cabin in Seward, just as the sun was going down.

Seward

Seward is an excellent little town down on the Kenai Peninsula about 120 miles south-west of Anchorage. For breakfast, go to the Marina Restaurant across the from the harbor. It's a small greasy-spoon cafe which the locals use, but great breakfasts. For dinner you won't beat Ray's Waterfront for excellent food and beer - reservations essential as it's the busiest place in town. Kimberly had organized a cool place to stay called A Cabin On A Cliff which suited us perfectly. We heard from the locals that it had rained for 60 days straight before we arrived - how lucky was that?!? The weather stayed perfect the entire time we were in Seward and Homer.

The next day we went on the 6 hour National Park Tour with Kenai Fjords Tours. I can't recommend this strongly enough - you *have* to do this if you're in Seward. The wildlife and scenery were stunning. We saw sea otters, bald eagles, puffins, guillemots, orcas, Dall's porpoises, Steller sea lions and humpback whales. We had a brand new tour boat with about 80 people on board, but plenty of space, and it zipped along at 30knots (twin 1500hp CATs on a catamaran - from talking to the captain).

Here's the route that we took (borrowed from their website):

Lots of photos of scenery, orcas, us, sea lions, and various glaciers are below. We got to 1/4 mile from the Aialik Glacier (it's not permitted to go closer because of the danger from calving ice causing huge waves) and hung out for about 25 minutes. The glacier was just enormous - about 100 feet high and a mile across. In the final photo I managed to capture a large chunk dropping into the water - it makes a huge cracking noise as it tears away from the glacier.

The next day we took in the excellent Alaska SeaLife Center (the only public aquarium in Alaska) and then headed out to the Exit Glacier (from the Harding Icefield), which you can walk up to on foot.

Homer

The next day we drove from Seward over to Homer on the other side of the Kenai Peninsula. Kimberly had rented a house right on the tip of the Homer Spit - a 5 mile long spit in Kachemak Bay. We fell in love with the place straight away... We ate every night at the Land's End right on the end of the spit (think sea otters and seals while you eat) and you have to go visit the Salty Dawg Saloon - the inside is plastered with dollar bills, quite neat.

Below left to right: our friend Jackie who owns the excellent Boardwalk Bakery on the spit, unloading the catch, outside the F/V Time Bandit store (I'm a huge Deadliest Catch fan...)

Below left to right: heading out to do buoy maintenance (we'd watched them assembling an awesome looking solar-powered buoy), the ferry arriving from Dutch Harbor (where it had left 3 days earlier) - part of the extensive Alaska Marine Highway ferry system, the view from our rental house across the bay into the wilderness area (with a seal at bottom right). 

Walking with the Grizzlies

The undoubted highlight of this first part of our trip was the grizzly bear expedition (and that's up against some very stiff competition from the glacier helicopter tour in Denali and the Kenai Fjords tour from Seward). We flew with K Bay Air (totally recommended) down into Katmai National Park and landed on a beach. We then hiked into a river delta where there were about 15 grizzlies fishing for salmon. We got within about 40 feet of them and they weren't in the least interested in us. There has never been a case of a grizzly attacking a group of 6 or more people (there were ten of us) as we appear so much larger than them. We saw grizzly cubs and at one point I counted 13 bald eagles in a 25-degree arc of binocular viewing. Absolutely stunning! Look down to the photo I took over the kids' heads and you'll see just how close the bears were to us - no massive zoom lens tricks here!

Below left to right: view of Homer spit from 2000ft, cool ridge line heading down to Koyuktolik Bay, Kimberly and our friend Jackie.

Below left to right: the monsters with their polar-bear Global Warming Sucks hats they picked out, the active volcano on Augustine Island, huge lagoon glacier in Katmai National Park.

Below left to right: mother grizzly and two 2010 cubs, this is how close they were, feeding a cub after gorging on salmon.

Below left to right: the two planes we flew in on with balloon tires for safe beach landings, Ushagat Island in the Gulf of Alaska, mountains in the Katchemak Bay State Park and Wilderness.

End of part one...

Finally we drove back up to Anchorage to drop the kids off for their flight back to Seattle (flying unaccompanied was one of the highlights of their trip!) - the Alaska Airlines stewardess told their Mom they were the best-behaved kids she's ever seen - that makes me proud. We then headed back into Anchorage to meet the rest of the group heading out to Siberia the next day. More on that in part two next week...

I hope you've enjoyed reading about our adventures and looking at the photos as much as I've enjoyed reliving it all putting this together. Drop me a comment and let me know if you have - I need the encouragement to do the next section - this one took me four hours! :-)

Hey folks,

Just a quick note to let you know that Kimberly and I will be offline from this weekend for four weeks. We're going on vacation - taking the kids up to Alaska to explore for two weeks and then Kimberly and I are taking an ex-Russian ice-breaker with Heritage Expeditions over to the Kamchatka Pensinsula in Siberia and up into the Arctic Circle to Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean.

The island is a polar bear breeding ground (actually with the densest population in the world) and fabulous bird life (see the Fauna and Flora tab here). We'll be tweeting and updating our Facebook pages from our sat-phone while we're up there, and we should have some fabulous photos to share here when we get back.

In the meantime, Brent will be holding down the SQLskills fort - any queries sent to either me or Kimberly will go unanswered until we return. Give him hell! :-)

Hope you enjoy the rest of your summer!

Cheers

A couple of weeks ago, Kimberly and I spent a week on the *excellent* live-aboard dive boat Cayman Aggressor IV, diving off Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brac in the Caribbean (diving is our #1 hobby and passion). The diving was absolutely fabulous, and we'd both strongly recommend the boat and location. The crew and fellow divers were great folks, which made the trip all the more enjoyable - and we got to meet and hang out with the editor of Sport Diver magazine, Eric Michael, cool guy with a pony-tail :-)

Although Kimberly's an accomplished underwater photographer, this was the first trip where I dove with my own camera gear and I took a bunch of videos. I've uploaded the best videos to YouTube and thought I'd share them with you too.

1. 2m30s video of me swimming 150 feet through a sunken Russian destroyer off Cayman Brac. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6seLk9tO5M
2. 45s video of us tickling and stroking one of the large friendly groupers (you've got to see this to believe it!). See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boxfknLyZ2Q
3. 52s video of Kimberly with the friendly grouper. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue7GZTjoEoo
4. 22s video swimming through a school of fish. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeKqMEFAZsk
5. 23s video of swimming through a school of fish. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT0-PeWz-vM
6. 1m45s video of the friendly grouper again. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCIKDkjgccI
7. 47s video of a turtle swimming underwater. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBIyzgmznqo
8. 30s video of a squid swimming at night. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtoMEM9qS4M
9. 47s video of octopus swimming at night. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0MWUh30oFc
10. 31s video of juvenile drumfish dancing. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUH21CCvsuQ
11. 45s video of swimming through a school of fish. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQSMUHTZsyI
12. 43s video of another swimming turtle. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeQFRluKMyo
13. 34s video of very large tarpin. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBjHISvG0kk
14. 22s video swimming through the wreck of the Doc Polson tugboat. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jusl6bLdt08

The camera I'm using for now is just a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5, but it takes great shots and video. We've got a pro video camera but the tricked-out housing prices are out of control...

Over the next few weeks we'll both be uploading a bunch of photos too - but it takes time to mess around with them in Adobe Lightroom, and we took over 4000 shots altogether...

Enjoy the videos!

For the last few weeks we were in Australia, teaching classes with our sister company SQLskills.com.au. After we were done with work we headed out to Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock) in the remote outback of the Northern Territories for a long weekend. We'll both be posting a bunch of photos from the trip, but to start with I just uploaded a 2 minute video I took of an excellent didgeridoo player. He was playing for a group of us doing the Sounds of Silence dinner, watching the sunset at Uluru. Fantastic!

Click the image to go to the movie on Facebook (no login required).

Enjoy!

I've finally gotten around to tidying up and posting a bunch of photos from the second half of our trip to Europe trip in September. Warsaw's an excellent place (although we were repeatedly told that Krakow is better - we'll see when we go next time) with a lot of cool history to soak up. We spent a day wandering around the old town (heavily reconstructed after WWII) and the Royal Castle (totally reconstructed). We also saw some of the old 3-metre high containing wall from the Jewish ghetto during WWII - very interesting and thought-provoking.

I've uploaded two albums to Facebook (no login required):

• Tour of the Royal Castle - see http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040519&id=1293146061&l=dca686cead
• Wandering around the Old Town - see http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040630&id=1293146061&l=a8107c0aa5

 Here are a few examples: part of the enclosure wall from the Jewish ghetto, church bell tower, statue of Chronos in the Royal Castle.

And a few more: tank track from the remote-controlled German tank that destroyed the Cathedral, larger view of the room containing Chronos, Plac Zamkowy (Castle Square) with the Royal Castle on the right.

Enjoy!

Fall really is crazy travel season for us - a week after returning from our trip to Ireland and Poland and now we're in Australia for a few weeks. This evening we went for a bird-watching walk around Albert Park with our good friend, partner, and fellow MVP Greg Linwood, who's our host while we're here. We saw 20+ species of birds (of which 17 were new to me), including 3 species of cockatoo and, finally, my first glimpse of wild PENGUINS!

I've adored penguins for a very long time and it's always been a dream of mine to see them in the wild rather than a zoo. Well, today another bucket-list item was ticked off. There's a little-known colony of Little Penguins right in Melbourne itself, at the end of St. Kilda Pier (here's a website with some info).

I've uploaded a bunch of photos to Facebook, that you can view at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040551&id=1293146061&l=f6e55ca540 (no account needed).

Here are a few examples (Eastern Rosella, Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo, Little Penguin).

How excellent - penguins!!! :-)

On the last day of our week in Dublin we headed into the city centre to check out some of the sights. One of the things I always like to do in a city is find a cathedral as that's usually one of the oldest buildings and encompasses a lot of interesting history. Dublin has two, but we only had time to visit St. Patrick's.

I've uploaded a bunch of photos to Facebook - you can view them at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2039962&id=1293146061&l=227e371cc4 without needing a Facebook account.

Here are a few examples: Trinity College, pubs in Castle Market, St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Enjoy!

 

At the start of September we took a trip out to Kalaloch and Cape Flattery. I've been there quite a few times but it was the first time for Kimberly. As usual we took loads of photos and I've put three albums up on Facebook. Here's a small selection from each album.

Birds and beasts on the Olympic Peninsula (click the title for the FB album, no login required)   

Kimberly and Coco on the Olympic Peninsula (click the title for the FB album, no login required)

Stunning scenery on the Olympic Peninsula (click the title for the FB album, no login required)

Enjoy!

This week we're back down in Houston with a client and had a spare day so we decided to do the loop from Houston down to the Bolivar Peninsula and around through Galveston. You can see some photos from our previous trip here a couple of months ago in the post Bird watching on the Gulf Coast of Texas.

This time we saw a few new bird species plus some very cool beasts and boats. You can checkout the full album of 40+ photos on Facebook (no login required) here.

Here are a couple of examples.

Enjoy!

This week we're in Cleveland teaching on-site for a private client. We came a day early to recover from the journey and see some of Cleveland's sights - neither of us having been here before. Kimberly's foot is still very sore and so we decided to do something where she could sit still and not have to walk far to get to and from the 'thing'. We took the Goodtime III tour up the Cuyahoga River - if you're ever in Cleveland it's well worth the two hours to do it. Huge numbers of interesting bridges and views.

Here are some example shots:

I've uploaded 4 albums of photos to Facebook, that you can get to without being a member:

• Some stuff in the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame Museum (5 photos) - see here.
• The William G. Mather maritime museum (8 photos) - see here.
• Graffiti along the river (7 photos) - see here.
• The river cruise itself (67 photos) - see here.

Enjoy!

It's been a while since I did a Where In The World Are Paul and Kimberly blog post, so here's one from a trip we did at home yesterday. We took the Bainbridge Island ferry across Puget Sound and toured the area around Sequim, WA to see the lavender farms and coastal scenery. Here's an example shot of the two-tone lavender fields at Purple Haze lavender farm.

I've uploaded the whole album to Facebook - check it out at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031434&id=1293146061&l=b050bc54c9 - no login required.

Enjoy!

This afternoon we headed down to Lake Storey in Galesburg, IL to chill out and get some sun. While the kid's were splashing about in the lake and Kimberly was soaking up rays, I went on an hour long nature ramble along the lakeside. I saw lots of cool stuff - herons, turtles, frogs, dragonflies, woodpeckers, and more.

I've put a bunch of photos up in a Facebook album - you can get to them here (no login required). Here a three examples for you.

Enjoy!

PS Should mention - camera is a Panasonic DMC-TZ5 with a LEICA 10x optical zoom. Which I'd had one our 20Ds with the 300IS lens...

On Friday we had a planned spare day in Houston after spending the week onsite with a client. It was the 3-year anniversary of our meeting for the first time at TechEd US 2006 so we decided to go on a road trip! We headed down to the Gulf Coast and along the Bolivar Pensinsula, then across the ferry to Galveston and back up to Houston, stopping at the Hard Rock Cafe (my 12th) for dinner.

The birdwatching was just stunning. We went to the Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary (one of seven in the area owned by the Houston Audubon Society). It's home to a huge colony of Roseate Spoonbills, various Egrets, and Anhingas (look like Cormorants). Then we headed along the coast, being amazed by the damage from Hurricane Ike - gas stations, houses, and grocery stores reduced to concrete pads, and then hit Port Bolivar to take in some of the sloughs and marshes around there.

I've posted a bunch of stunning bird photos on my Facebook page - here's an example, a Great Egret with chicks - check them out on Facebook here (no login required).

Enjoy!

In this trip to India (teaching for MS again) we're in and out, with no time for sight-seeing, but there's always time for bird-watching! I got up early this morning and got some photos of some excellent birds. I've included a couple here, and the rest you can check out in the album on Facebook (anyone can access it) at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023153&id=1293146061&l=d34686d782.

(Edit: here's another album from the next day, with a *pair* of owls! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023240&id=1293146061&l=07cb46ce3e)

The bird on the left is a Spotted Owlet, and on the right is an Indian Pond Heron. Click the images for larger versions. Enjoy!

In February this year we stopped off in Bangkok on the way to and from teaching in Hyderabad. On one of the days we did some sight-seeing, including the Imperial Palace in Bangkok. I took a bunch of photos of the wall paintings in the outer courtyard and I've posted an album up on Facebook (easier than a big, bloated blog post here). You can get to the album at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020899&id=1293146061&l=5c4c559fa5 (even if you're not on Facebook).

Here's an example:

Enjoy!

In January I finally got to visit India for the first time. I've always wanted to go as my great-grandfather was in charge (I believe) of the British Royal Artillery armoury at Dum Dum, West Bengal (where the dum-dum bullet was invented) at the end of 19th century. This was Kimberly's 4th trip, but the first that we'd gone together - teaching for Microsoft.

India is a very interesting place - full of extremes in almost any dimension you care to name. Hyderabad (where all our the trips have been to) is a boom town - with a strange mixture of gleaming, brand-new high-tech buildings next to people living in make-shift tents by the side of the highway. In fact the area where the Microsoft campus is (along with WiPro and Infosys) has the nickname 'cyberabad'. Anyway, Hyderabad is around 500 years old and we explored some of the history over one of the weekend we were there. As usual I took a bunch of photos and thought I'd share some of them here. As always, click on the photo for a larger version.

The three photos below are all views from our hotel room (Marriott Hyderabad - recommended). The hotel's next to the Hussain Sagar Lake which was built by the sufi saint Hazrat Hussain Shah Wali in 1562 as a drinking water reservoir. It was pretty windless while we were there, making for some excellent reflections. The middle and right photos work better in the larger versions - it was hazy because of all the air pollution. In the right-hand photo is the 58-foot statue of the Guatan Buddha that's on an island in the middle of the lake.

The left-hand picture below is of some of the cool rock formations around the city, part of the Deccan Shield area. This link has more info from a group trying to protect the rock formations from destruction due to building work. The middle picture is one of the ubiquitous auto-rickshaws that I've seen in a bunch of Asian cities now. We rode in a similar one in Bangkok a week later and found out they're called tuk-tuks there, because of the noise they make! In the right-hand picture, you can see the one good (?!) thing about the air pollution - incredible sunsets.

The next four photos are from out wanderings around the Qutb Shahi tombs, the tombs of the Qutb Shahi the rulers of the old city of Golconda (just to the west of Hyderabad) from 1518-1687. Top-left is Kimberly along with Arjun, our driver for all the trips to India. Top right is the tomb of the fith ruler, Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, who died in 1612 and founded the city of Hyderabad. Below is a view and detail of a mosque on the site.

 Next up we went to the Golconda fort, built by the Qutb Shahi, but dating back further to 1143. It's a good climb up to the top of the fort and a very large, impressive complex. There were several thousand Indian visitors to the fort that day, plus me and Kimberly, so we caused quite a sensation. The left-hand photo below is a detail close-up of one of the doors into the fort. The middle is a shot of fort from the entrance, and the left is of me trying not to be intimidated at the top of the fort by 100 uniformed school-children waiting to descend and with nothing else to do except watch me walk up and down on the phone to my parents in the UK, and laughing at me, or my baseball cap, but probably both! In the background you can see lots of construction cranes.

Just outside the top of the fort is a Hindu temple with an excellent painting of Kali, the goddess of death and destruction, of which I snuck a photo. Next to it is a typical street scene when driving along, although this is a pretty quiet street - rush-hour driving was pretty wild at times.

On the way back we stopped in Bangkok for a few days and I've got some photos of there too, but we're going back to India and Thailand again in 5 weeks so I might wait until then to blog those.

Enjoy!

The first of the long-promised photo posts (with lots of Wikipedia links) - click on photos for larger versions.

Over the holidays Kimberly and I went to St. Lucia in the Caribbean for a well-earned and highly-anticipated break - sun, relaxation, and scuba diving for a few weeks. St. Lucia is almost at the far south-eastern end of the Caribbean, so we were only a couple of hundred miles away from the coast of Venezuela. We almost didn't make it - Seattle was hit with a foot of snow the day before we were due to fly out and the airport closed 12 hours after our first-leg flight left for Charlotte. It was very hot, being only 13 degrees north of the equator - great for lying around and reading books, which was basically what we did when we weren't diving.

We stayed in a cool hotel called Jade Mountain (first picture below), which had great views of the Gros and Piti Pitons (the mountains in the second picture below - 2000+ ft high volcanic plugs). The hotel is part of the larger Anse Chastanet resort, built in the grounds of an old plantation on the north-west coast of the island, and includes a top-notch dive centre. Unfortunately the sun rose behind the hotel and went down behind a headland, but that still made for some fantastic sunrises and sunsets.

Every so often a cruise ship of some kind would come by and anchor at the nearby town, Soufrière, where Napoleon's Empress Josephine spent much of her childhood. In the last week we were there, two of the coolest ships in the world came by on the same day. The one on the top-left below is called The World, and is basically a floating set of luxury condos that cruises endlessly around the world for those wishing a nomadic lifestyle (and with lots of money!). The second ship is my favorite - it's called the Maltese Falcon, a 289-foot racing yacht owned by billionaire Tom Perkins. We saw it first in San Francisco bay last October while we were there teaching a workshop, and we were amazed to see it in St. Lucia while were there. If you click on the link, one of the features on the ship's website is Tracking - click that and it'll show you where in the world the ship currently is (at time of writing it was in English Harbour in Antigua). It's one of the most sophisticated yachts ever, with computer controlled spars and masts, all resting on giant gimbals. The sail plan is also controlled by computer and can push the yacht along at over 17 knots - an amazing hull speed for a yacht that size. The ship on the bottom-right is the 140-foot brig Unicorn, a replica of an 18th century pirate ship that was used in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies - it's docked in the harbor of Soufrière.

Just outside Soufrière in the cliffs is a bat cave where the majority of the bats on the island live. The whole bay and surrounding town is part of giant volcano caldera and in the hills you can get right up into some of the active sulphur springs - the top-middle photo is boiling mud. The next four photos are flowers in the excellent botannical gardens.

For once Kimberly didn't have her monster underwater camera gear with her so I figured I was experienced enough (57 dives at the start) to cope with a camera and good buoyancy and rented one for the last 8 dives we did. So now I'm as hooked on underwater photography as Kimberly! Below are nine of the best photos I took. The first three below are (left to right) - a crinoid in a barrel sponge, an octopus that was unusually calm and playful, and a pair of banded coral shrimp in the hold of a sunken cargo ship (my first wreck dive).

The next three below are (left to right) - a largescaled scorpion fish, a very large lobster, and a sea turtle that we accidentally woke up.

The last three below are (left to right) - a spotted moray eel snatching an yellowline arrow crab, a long-spined Caribbean sea urchin, and I'm not quite sure what the last one is although she looks familiar...

As I said above, when we weren't diving we were reading. I'm a pretty voracious reader and finished 12 books while we were away, all of them very good:

• Revelation Space. Start of a very good set of sci-fi books by Alastair Reynolds - I've since bought all his other books.
• I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell. Nasty, nasty book - debauched and horrifying. Hugely entertaining though!
• Basilica: The Splendour and the Scandal: Building St. Peter's. The story of the various popes and architects who replaced the 1000-year old wooden church built by the Romans, finishing in the late 1500s.
• Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade. Just as the title says.
• The Secret of Lost Things. Good debut tale by Sheridan Hay - kind of wordy but a worthwhile read. Picked it up because its about a bookshop and I love books.
• Eon. Vintage sci-fi by Greg Bear - hadn't read it in 15 years.
• Mademoiselle Boleyn. Robin Maxwell's portrayal of Anne Boleyn's early years in the French court - she's one of our favorite authors of historical fiction.
• Ghostwalk. Strange story, but lots of info about Isaac Newton's dalliances with alchemy in the 17th century - kind of a murder-mystery.
• The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas. Paul Theroux is one of my favorite travel writers - in this book he takes a series of trains from Boston down to the middle of Patagonia.
• Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West. Telling the story of the various battles between the Persians and the Greeks around 500 BC. Interesting descriptions of the Spartan and Athenian societies.
• Eternity. Sequel to Eon.
• Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England. Biography of the sometime wife of Edward II in and around the 1300s by Alison Weir - one of my favorite historical biographers.

Ok - so I'm a total history nut... 

All in all, a very relaxing time! Hope you enjoy the photos and be sure to check out some of the books.

As you'll have read last week, we were in Vienna all week teaching. This was Kimberly's first visit to the city (and country), I was in Vienna for a couple of weeks back in the late 1990s. We both had a lot of work to do over the weekend before heading to Barcelona for TechEd EMEA (where I'm posting this from), but on Sunday we took some time off to do some sight-seeing. The main event of the day was seeing a performance of the Lippizan stallions at the world-famous Spanish Riding School. We splurged on front-row seats which were well worth it to be right-up close as they performed. The level of control and skill of both riders and horses was amazing!

On Monday I didn't have as much work to do as Kimberly so I left her working in the hotel and went out wandering through the city to indulge my passion for historic architecture, and ecclesiastical architecture in particular. I'm not religious at all but I love the feeling of age and antiquity you get from really old churches - and Europe is filled with ancient churches, especially Vienna. So in the space of one afternoon I managed to tour around 11 churches in central Vienna, plus the Imperial Crypt. Below I've included some photos from my wanderings, with some notes about each of the churches I visited. Click the images for larger (1024x768) versions. Enjoy!

(Ok - this turned out to be a lot longer than I first thought, but was fun to put together - Wikipedia is excellent!)

Dominikanerkirche (Dominican Church)

This church was founded by Dominican monks in 1237, and enlarged extensively through the rest of the 1200s. The present church was built in the 1630s by Antonio Canevale, including ceiling frescoes by Carpoforo Tencalla and Rauchmiller.

The images below show: the High Altar; the pipe organ; the ceiling frescoes and amazing ceiling detail.

Jesuitenkirche (Jesuit Church)

The Jesuits moved their headquarters here in 1620s and the church was redesigned by Andrea Pozzo from 1703-5. One of the most striking features are the spiral marble columns on either side of the side-chapels. The ceiling frescoes, again by Pozzo, use a clever trompe l'oeil effect (painting images that make a two-dimensional surface look three-dimensional). In this church I was able to go into the crypt, which is still in use for burials.

The images below show: the ceiling dome with the trompe l'oeil effect; the High Altar; the spiral marble columns; down in the catacombs.

Franziskanerkirche (Church of St. Jerome) 

This church was founded by Franciscan monks in 1603 on the site of a medieval convent. The interior is full-blown Baroque style. The High Altar, again by Andrea Pozzo, uses the trompe l'oeil effect - only the front of the structure is three-dimensional. The church contains the oldest pipe organ in Vienna, designed by Johann Wockerl in 1642.

The images below show: the vaulted ceiling; the High Altar centerpiece; the pipe organ.

Annakirche (Church of St. Anne)

There has been a chapel on this site since 1320, although the present church dates from 1629-1634 and was renovated by the Jesuits in the early 1700s. The ceiling frescoes are by Daniel Gran, as is the painting of St. Anne at the top of the High Altar.

The images below show: the High Altar; the ceiling frescoes.

Malteserkirche (Church of Saint John of the Täufers)

This church was founded in the early 1200s by the Knights of Malta who were invited to the city by Duke Leopold VI. The current church is from mid-1400s, and was rebuilt in 1800s in the Baroque style, although much of the Gothic interior was retained.

The image below shows the simple interior, common to the older Gothic style, with the High Altar.

Kapuzinerkirche (Church of St. Mary of the Angels)

This church is one of the youngest I visited, founded in 1617 by Capuchin friars, who traditionally look after the Kaisergruft under the church.

The image below shows the church interior looking at the High Altar. 

Kaisergruft (Imperial Crypt)

The Imperial Crypt was founded in 1619 by Emperor Matthias as the resting place for the remains of the Hapsburg family (the hereditary Holy Roman Emperors). The remains of 138 Hapsburgs are here, including Emperors, Empresses, Archdukes, Archduchesses, and many members of their families. The most recent burial here was in 2008.

The images below show: an example sarcophagus; a Death's head adornment on the sarcophagus with an Imperial crown.

Augustinerkirche (St. Augustine's Church)

This church was built in the 1300s and has the best preserved Gothic church interiors in Vienna. One of the highlights is the tomb of Archduchess Maria Christina, created by Italian Neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova after her death in 1798. The tomb is of course empty as the remains are in the Kaisergruft.

The images below show: looking through the Nave to the High Altar, with the fabulous Gothic interior; Maria Christina's tomb.

Michaelerkirche (Church of St. Michael) 

The earliest parts of this church date from the 1200s, and the choir dates from 1327-40. The Neoclassical façade was added in 1792 by Ernest Koch, with the porch topped by Baroque statues by Lorenzo Mattielli from earlier in the century. The inside has some great Renaissance and 14^th-century frescoes. There's a fantastic crypt under the church which was closed when I went, unfortunately - something to do on the next trip.

The images below show: the Neoclassical exterior of the church; one of the original doorways from 1220; the High Altar with amazing sculpture; surviving frescoes from 1350.

Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral) 

I could write several pages on this one as there's so much to see inside and outside the Cathedral. There's been a Romanesque church on the site since 1147, with unsubstantiated views that there's been a church there since the 800s. The only parts left of the original 12^th-century building are the two towers and the entrance (called the Heathen Towers and Giants' Doorway, respectively). There was major period of expansion from 1359 to 1440, where a new church was build around the old one, and then the old one was dismantled. One of the highlights inside is the Pilgram's Pulpit - a Gothic pulpit, supposedly carved by Anton Pilgram, with the Four Fathers of the Church (theologians representing four physiognomic temperaments). On the north aisle, the altarpiece is the Wiener Neustädter Altar commissioned by Emperor Friedrich III in 1447 for the monastery at Wiener Nuestadt and moved to the Cathedral in 1885. The wooden panels open out to show biblical scenes. The High Altar was created by Tobias Pock in 1647. One of the things I did ten years ago was a tour of the Cathedral catacombs and I was looking forward to doing it again. The catacombs are quite extensive, with Royal burial chambers, early grave rooms where wooden coffins were stacked up to the ceiling, and mass-burial chambers from the last time the Black Death took hold of Vienna.

The images below show: the stairs on Pilgram's Pulpit; close-up of some of the Pulpit carving; two of the Four Fathers on the Pulpit; looking down the Nave and Choir to the High Altar; the Wiener Neustädter Altar.

Peterskirche (St. Peter's Church)

There has been a church here since the 1100s, but the current church is from 1700s. It was modeled on St Peter's Basilica in Rome, mostly by Gabriele Montani. The interior is amazing, packed full of Baroque carvings and frescoes - so much so as to be almost overwhelming. For me the most interesting things were two skeletons of early Christian martyrs, brought back from the catacombs in Rome in 1733 by Cardinal Kolonitz and dressed in Baroque finery. The frescoes in the dome are by Johann Rottmayr and the High Altar was designed by Antonio Galli Bibiena in the late 1600s.

The images show: one of the skeletons brought back from Rome; frescoes in the dome; looking through the oval Nave to the High Altar.

Kirche am Hof

This church was founded by Carmelite friars in the late 1300s, and I just happened to stumble upon on while making my way back to the hotel. I couldn't find much info on it in English.

The image below shows the excellent Gothic interior.