And here's the 350d doing one last good portrait shot of my new 40d, using my Canon 50mm 1.8 lens.

Here's the Naoimh Ciaran II, or as it's commonly referred to, the Cape Clear Island Ferry. We'd a rough crossing over, but the boat didn't seem to mind at all.

One of the RNLI Lifeboats coming in from training into Baltimore Harbour.

That'd be me. Fending off sea sickness.

Cape Clear Harbour itself, nice anc calm waters, and right next to the beach.

Roadsigns next to Ciaran Danny Mac's pub, showing the distance in miles to places like London, San Francisco, and Murmansk.

The view of an abandoned house at the top of the Island, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

Herself getting new wallpaper for her Laptop :)

An absolutely beautifully restored, and brightly painted David Browne tractor. Probably the best kept vehicle on the island ...

... especially when compared with the likes of this. The Island doesn't need Insurance on vehicles, or Tax, or NCTs, so you end up with cars like this, being driven on a day to day basis. Some cars don't have exhausts, some cars don't have glass. There's a famous story that a VW Beetle ended up on the Island after it was deemed too sick for the mainland. The gearbox in the Beetle had packed in, all except for one gear - reverse - and apparently the owner was seen reversing around the Island for a few years in his bright red VW Beetle. I didn't believe the story, until I looked over some of the old photos on the Ferry's internal walls, and right there, was a red VW Beetle.

The main street in Zakopane again, there's plenty of other photos of Zakopane the town itself in this blog entry from our trip before.

This is the villa we stayed in on the east side of Zakopane. We picked it at random, and it turned out to be incredible. Previous guests included the Japanese Embassy, and some South African delegates too. It's called "Willa Ulka", the W being pronounced like a V in Polish.

And here's the view from our balcony.

This was the start of our trek into the mountains. We had only 1 litre of water which we discovered in 30 degree heat, with 9 hours of trekking ahead of us wasn't enough at all. Thankfully, there was a rest house at the top of one of the mountains. Here you see the Horse and Carraige drivers offering lazy hikers a trip half way to the base of the mountain. We decided to walk, and it gave me the opportunity to shoot off over 200 photos all with glorious skies and mountainscapes.

Gosia doing her best to get a tan!

Looking back towards the entrance to the National Park, we'd only walked about 30 minutes at this stage.

Just a long exposure shot of one of the many streams and rivers running through the National Park. I dipped my feet in on the way out after 9 hours of hiking, and the water was ice cold.

Herself looking forward to buying some more water, about 2 hours into the journey.

One of the mountains jutting out from the forest. Incredible views like this wherever you went in the Park, it's like Gougane Barra, but on steroids.

Thankfully, here was the respite at the top of one of the mountains. Ornak House, where you could get food, beer, refreshments, relieve yourself in a civilised fashion, and oogle at the incredible looking Polish girls all on school tours. The house itself was very traditional, all wood and stone, and was overlooking a huge valley and mountains covered in snow. It's also one of the last convergence points before various off-shooting paths to the other mountain passes.

Here's the path we took to a lake at the top of the nearest mountain. Most Polish people go to Morskie Oko, but this was much more secluded. We were on our own, apart from two middle aged ladies who probably weren't going to move for at least an hour after trekking so far.

Back in Zakopane, we went to many many restaurants at night time. As the tourist (And by tourist, I mean Polish tourists) season was in, there was bardzo muzaka goralskie, or lots of Polish traditional mountain folk music, which is brilliant. Best enjoyed with Vodka, or Okocim Mocne (7.5% local beer).

This is the symbol of Dusseldorf, a boy cartwheeling. There are two legends about this tradition, the first is that a boy held on to a broken wheel on Prince Jan Wellem's coach to stop it falling off in 1678. He was given a gold coin. To this day boys in Dusseldorf turn cartwheels for money. The second is that when, in the year 1288, after the Battle of Worringen, Dusseldorf received its town charter, the children turned "wheels of joy".

Myself and Gosia in Marktplatz.

Some of the winding streets around the Altstadt.

So my camera was switched off when a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti roared past, by the time my camera was turned back on, I was cursing to have missed it, when this beautiful Lamborghini decided to put on a show for me. Yum! This section of Dusseldorf is the expensive part of town, with about 10 Brown Thomas store clones.

Ice-Cream Chocolate Fondue in the Haagen-Dazs store. The poor girl took 20 minutes to make this, and it took us 30 minutes to eat it. Simply explained, on one side you have fruit, and brownies, and on the other, you have lots of little ice cream balls. Gorgeous!

The obligatory Mini shot.

Here's a shot of the riverbank, all along the river bank, you have floating restaurants moored up, fixed restaurants actually on the terra firma, and there was even a circus. Everyone eats outdoors and enjoys the weather, and the local Alt beer which is smooth, and delicious.

This is herself saying "I'm hungry, put the damn camera away", without actually needing to say anything at all ...

This is the river cruise boat we took for an hour along the Rhine, and we had yet more Alt beer on board, along with some Bratwurst sausage and curry.

Here's the tower at Burgplatz, everyone meets up here, sits along the steps by the river, and watches the street entertainers. The city tours leave from here, as do the horse and cart trips.

This is the communication tower, and at the top is a Restaurant that rotates once an hour.

Dusseldorf is very famous for it's architecture, and there are conventions each year for architects. Here are some buildings by the river that won several awards, if you look closely, they're all leaning at different angles.

An organ grinder, and his (stuffed) monkey. I had to give this guy some money, being a kindred spirit and all that!

Yes it's a soppy shot. Sue me.

And the fairground by the river. I won a teddy at the gun range, but the weirdest thing was going past the Waltzer, and listening to Joe Dolan's 'Good Looking Woman' being played at full volume. Guess it's not just The Hoff that the Germans love, eh?

About 2 minutes walk from out apartment was the river Tiber which flows right through Rome, and is part of the legend of the Romulus, Remus, and foundation of the city. We walked the entire river one night, the buildings were incredible, and there were still markets open, and no antisocial behaviour whatsoever. But even here in the middle of the river, the attention to detail was magnificent, ever bridge, every pillar had some form of sculpture on it, and buildings which were in prominent places were design to a fault, as if the owners knew people would be looking at the abode, and wanted to impress.

5 minutes after the bridge, we got a pleasant surprise. We spotted a Polish car, then 2, then 5, then 20, and came to a wall with Polish notices fixed to it. The penny still not dropping, we bumped into a group of Polish people selling Polish DVD's and Magazines, and it was only then we turned around to see this Polish Church where Mass had finished, and people were spilling out to buy a little bit of home.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, or as it's also known, the Wedding Cake. This building is immense, housing a Museum of Military artifacts, and giving you an amazing vantage point over the plaza around it.

Here's one view of the local area from the steps of the Tomb.

The very famous Trevi Fountain, which is constantly swamped by tourists. About 3000 euro is thrown a day by visitors continuing the legend that if you throw a coin in to the fountain, you will return to Rome again. The money is collected each night, and used to fund a subsidized supermarket for the needy. Apparently if you throw 2 coins into the fountain, you'll get married soon, and if you throw 3, you'll get divorced soon.

The centre figure of the fountain is Oceanus, and this is one of his Tritons guiding his chariot, and taming his seahorses (Hippocamps).

2 minutes further down the road I saw this, and had to snap it. Obviously someone watches Orange County Choppers and had seen Paulie's Black Widow bike, and decided to build a 1/3 replica using a moped engine. The attention to detail was both fantastic, and funny.

Myself and the Missus at the Spanish Steps.

St. Peter's Basilica/The Vatican. We did the whole tour here, down where the Popes were interred, including the recently buried Janus Pawel II (John Paul II) who was Polish, so Gosia enjoyed that, and of course, we went for the 20 minute hike to the Sistine Chapel to see Michelangelo's Creation of Adam ceiling mural. The weird thing though, was that en-route to the Sistine Chapel, there were people with the largest boils, cysts and leisons I'd ever seen lying on the ground, writing in pain begging for alms right outside the Vatican.

The spiral staircase coming down from the Sistine Chapel. I'd love to Rollerblade down this :)

A shot from inside the Colosseum.

Another shot from inside the Colosseum. In the distance you can see a replica of the wooden floor that would have been in place over the entire centre. Underneath were the chambers were slaves were kept, lions, and Gladiators. You can still see where the condemned scrawled their names into the walls before they were led to die in the hope their names would be rememberd.

And of course, the Colosseum outside.

A shot from the balcony of the Colosseum.

The Arch of Constantine, was dedicated in AD 315 to celebrate Constantine's victory three years before over his co-emperor, Maxentius, outside in the grounds of the Colosseum.

The Pantheon at night time. This place was very eerie, almost like being in Rome 2000 years ago, but at night time, the ambience was too good to miss out on.

This is the main Hotel in the centre of Zakopane, everyone working there wears period dress, and the food is very traditional - and tasty! Next time we go, we're staying here, it's a little more expensive than the B&B we stayed in, but well worth it for the ambience. This is typical of the building design in Zakopane

This is the Zakopane equivilant of Mahon Point shopping centre, lots of little stores selling gifts, food, and clothes, and a river running through between them with little humpback bridges, it's like something from Lord of the Rings.

Another period building, but this time a restaurant where we had some serious fish and chicken. Yum!

Horse and Carts are everywhere, and the mountain people (Or Goralski) all dress in costume.

Before the railway station to take you to the ski resort at the top of the Tatry Mountains, there was an enormous farmers market, where you could buy anything handmade, leather goods, dairy produce, or here, a stall selling kitchen utensils and toys made from wood.

Here's a cheesmaker selling wares, even though those look like textured wooden toys, they're actually traditional smoked cheese, with patterns pressed into the outside. You'll find these on the front of most Polish tourist books.

And here's a breakfast shot from Poland. We had pancakes stuffed with berries and fruit, and topped in chocolate and jam. All for about 5 Euro, to jest bardzo pisne!

And on to Krakow. Here is the main square in Krakow, in between the two churches in the famous Cloth Hall shopping arcade that goes back centuries. All around the square were bars, restaurants, and shops. A few of the shops were being rebuilt on the outside, but so as not to spoil the look of the square, they had photos taken of them pre-construction, printed onto lifesize banners, and draped in front of the building, so the construction could continue, and the ambience would not be ruined. There were also dozens of pidgeons gorging themselves on anything they could find, about 20 horse and carts for hire, and a TV station holding an outdoor music festival here in the square.

Just another shot of the main square.

These guys rock. 4 Accordians of varying pitch, each able to play a portion of what a full church organ could muster. And they were playing Baroque classical music. Much to my delight, they launched into Bach's Toccata and Fugue, and when there was a run of notes up the scale, where one accordian reached it's upper limit in pitch, the next would take over seamlessly. It was like listening to a church organ, but instead it was these 4 guys in perfect sequence. Bought their CD, and it's every bit as good as the live performance.

This crew followed us for ages. Turns out they were involved in a promotion for the Microsoft Zune MP3 player.

And of course, the reason why we went over in the first place. The Christening of baby Marta. From left to right, my extremely hot girlfriend Gosia - the Godmother, Piotrek - the Godfather, Kasia & Marta, and Kasia's partner, Maciek. The ceremony was much more formal, and intense than an Irish Christening, and the meal afterwards literally went on for hours. We were sitting in the local Chinese restaurant for about 5 hours, and the staff didn't have an issue with it. Apparently it's the norm. Christenings go on for a day, Weddings for several days!

Gosia's parents, Basia and Jurek.

And one last photo of course, myself and Gosia at the top of the Tatry Mountains in Zakopane!

A very tricked out long wheel base cruiser on Piotrkowska street. This is the main street in the City of Lodz, and is over 4kms long. They claim it to be the longest shopping street in Europe. The buildings here are just fantastic, old school 18th century over the top architecture, and as you can see the background, evey 200 metres or so, there's an outdoors beer cabin that serves food too. Could you imagine these on Patrick's Street in Cork? They'd be fantastic. Found an Irish Pub on this street too with the most expensive Murphy's I've ever had, but more on that later.

How's this for ingenuity? This is a tour bus. It has headlights, indicators, even a PA system for Music and the guide to give our his info on the area, but the incredible thing, is that everyone sits down into a bar counter, where they can have a cool drink, and they pedal together to move the tourbus. 20 people pedalling! I want one!

The obligatory MINI shot. There's not many new MINIs in Poland, but this is the Cooper S special edition known as the Checkmate. It was 33000 Euro in Ireland, which is expensive enough, I can only imagine how much it cost in Poland, where the average industrial wage is about 250 Euro per month.

I like this photo. The road sign kinda says "No, you can't go down the scary derilict street" ... but it reminds me that while Poland is undergoing a huge economic, and visual change, that there are still people, and areas that haven't felt the tide turn yet.

This is probably the coolest thing in Lodz. This was an old Cotton Mill that was empty, run down, and abandoned. And they turned it into a state of the art shopping centre called Manufaktura. It's about 8 times the size of Mahon Point, with the best of shops, restaurants and bars. In fact, it would leave most of Ireland's shopping centres looking like they were designed in the past.

An interior shot of one of the long shopping aisles within the centre.

Just to prove the lack of forward thought in Ireland, here's the outside of the shopping centre in a huge courtyard. There's a beach. That's right, a beach! Complete with beach bar, volleyball nets, and all around the perimeter, there are themed restaurants and beer houses. People stay here long after the shopping centre has closed, there's music being pumped out through speakers in the plaza, and fountains that squirt water, and change water colour timed to match the music. There's a huge outdoor TV on one of the walls, and at weekends, they have beach party's here ... so instead of going to a nightclub, you throw on your shorts/bikini and head down for some cocktails and dancing. Now that's living!

Babewatch! You didn't think I'd forgotten about Babewatch did you? Inside the shopping centre they were having a combined Salsa Dance competition and a Dog Show. Here's a gorgeous specimen ... the dog of course, right?

The Irish Pub on Piotrkowska. It has absolutely nothing to do with Ireland, and looked more French than anything. There's a roadsign for Kenmare, and they sell Murphys. That's about as Irish as it gets. So here's my Missus drinking my Murphys.

SatNav is a weird and wonderful thing. I lived for the few days being ushered about by the voice of 'Karen' in my Satnav. And on the way back to Katowice Airport, she didn't steer us wrong. I got immensely worried though when she brought me through a forest, where the tarmac eventually disappeared, we came across an old Nazi border checkpoint complete with German signage, and the the skies opened up with a Thunderstorm from hell. Before the Thunderstorm though, we did manage to stuff ourselves with Blueberries growing in the area. Funnily enough, after taking me on this mystery tour, the SatNav did eventually get me to the Airport!

One of the many strange sights on the Motorway from Lodz to Katowice. This is an old passenger jet that's been converted to a restaurant. And it's not the only one. outside another Gospoda (Or family small restaurant), there was a Russian Fagot (And old single engined fighter plane, pre the MiG) just sitting there, looking very sorry indeed, complete with missiles underneath. Other oddities on the Motorway, were literally dozens of people selling jars of Blueberries. Kids, Pensioners, all up at the crack of dawn picking berries in the hopes of selling them and making some badly needed money.