Vienna Elephant Ride

My first day in Vienna and Ive found a ride. A tour of Vienna on an elephant, a fairly small elephant, but still an elephant. This is the start point on Maria-Theresien-Platz. The building behind the elephant is Naturhistorisches Museum, Natural History Museum. Opposite this is the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Art History Museum. German is full of long words, it should be more like Welsh and use short easy to spell words like Llanfairpwllgwyn.......... Maybe not.

Gatwick Airport

Off on another trip. This time traveling from Gatwick Airport. I've never been here before. Its a bit of a palaver getting here, a train ride then a long walk and a funny little train takes you to the airport - why didn't they just build the station and airport closer together? It's not like they both date back to Roman times. Luckily they have a lounge here and it is fairly quiet at the moment. Means space for me to relax and rest my wings. As a plane will be flying for me I can treat myself to a glass of champagne.

Rhinoceros Ride in Newcastle

I was pleased to find a dragons only tour in Newcastle. I was a bit surprised to see it was on a rhinoceros. When I think of rhinoceros I don't normally think of Newcastle. Not that I think of them that often.

Anyway, he showed me around the town telling me the history of places. I'm not sure whats of interest in this photograph though.

Newcastle

This is Newcastle on a nice sunny day. I'm flying close to Baltic Art Centre with the river Tyne below me. The closest bridge is the Millennium Bridge, the one further back is the Tyne Bridge. You can just see the Sage Music Centre under my back foot.

Baltic Art Centre is in the old Baltic Flour Mill which was built in the 1950's. The flour mill closed in 1981 and was converted into the art centre in the 90's. There's a few floors showing art and at the top is a viewing gallery withgreat views. If you don't fancy the art you can go straight up to the viewing gallery in a lift without needing to go in any of the galleries.

The Millennium Bridge was opened in November 2000. It tilts to let boats go under and looks pretty good when it does, looks like a blinking eye. It takes longer to walk across than you expect because its very curved, which gives the space for boats to go under when it 'blinks'.

The Tyne Bridge opened in 1928. It looks a lot like Sydney Harbour Bridge. I expect thats because it was built by the same company, its just a bit bigger. A lot of kittiwakes live under Tyne Bridge. They are very noisy and make quite a mess underneath it, I usually fly over it rather than take the chance.

York

Back to York and a meeting with the Emperor Constantine. He was declared Emperor by his fathers troops close to this spot, the Roman barracks is under York Minster (strange place to build a barracks). Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople, it's Istanbul not Constantinople now, though the city was called Byzantium at the time. Naming it after himself shows how modest he is.

More Whitby Abbey

Here's another photo of me at Whitby Abbey. I suppose I'm 'in' the abbey here. It looks all very dramatic. If it was cloudy or there was a storm I could make the photo black and white and it would look even more dramatic. But I would get wet and thinking about that I've gone off the idea. I've had a bit of a look round but didn't find any vampires. Lots of people taking photos but no vampires. Might be a bit sunny for them.

Whitby Abbey

This is Whitby Abbey, well the ruins of Whitby Abbey.

Whitby is on the Yorkshire coast, not that far from York. I'm resting my wings here after the short flight over from York. Its a lovely site. Very popular with photographers, film makers and Dracula.

The first monastery was founded here in 657 by Oswy, the Anglo-Saxon king of Northumbria.They had funny names back then. This monastery was destroyed by the Danes. It was rebuilt during the time of William the Conqueror. This time it lasted until Henry VIII and his Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1914 it was shelled by two German battlecruisers. They were aiming for something else, but it does seem to attract trouble. I don't think I'd live in a cave here, don't know what would happen. Though I think the Danes and Germans are less prone to attacking Yorkshire now.