William

When Cynthia and I took our European vacation in 2005 we decided to take William the Sheep and take pictures of him in front of various sites we visited.

In fact, he has his own subject tag here at baldheretic.com as well as his own photo gallery.

We have every intention of taking him on our next vacation for more photo opportunities.

As I was vanity searching on the web I found an interesting site. It’s an online Russian real estate magazine. One particular issue happens to jump out at me…

William

That’s William in the hotel bed in Paris.

I know I am usually pissed off when I see someone hot-linking or stealing one of my images…
But this is kind of cool.

You can see the original at www.sob.ru/issue242.html

Roma!

One and one half hours by high speed train from Florence to Rome the day before yesterday.
This place is BEAUTIFUL! The weather in Italy has been just perfect.

Here is William at the Leaning Tower of Pisa from our side trip the other day.

William and Pisa

We had time to go to St. Peter’s Square which is right around the corner from our hotel. St. Peter’s Basillica is truly wonderous to behold. The largest church in Christendom, pictures cannot do it justice.

St Peter's

St Peters

St Peters

Today we stood in St. Peter’s square and received a blessing from the Pope. And yes, there is a picture of William and the Pope as soon as I can get it uploaded. He is now a “sacred” sheep.

By request

Shefsatyr, look in the gallery (www.baldheretic.com/gallery) for another angle on the grandfather shot.

For the fans of William the Sheep here is a picture of him when he helped me do my laundry in Paris on our last night there. It was quite difficult following the French instructions and purchasing the correct detergent.

It was a successful (if not harrowing) experience. On the upside I have an increased reserve of clean underwear and socks!

Cynthia even composed a poem….

Saturday night
In Paris, France
Washing and watching
Jay’s underpants

William

Amy, tell Arianna that William was found in Scotland when we travelled there two years ago and hope to return one day…but for now he is happy touring the world and seeing things no other wee Scottish sheepie has ever seen. His optimisim and enthusiasm is carrying the day for us when we find ourselves road weary.

Venice!

Venice Picture Gallery

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The night train from Paris to Venice was an experience to say the least.
We shared a cabin with a Nigerian man who was friendly enough but seemed out of place on a train to Venice.

We made conversation and then bedded down for the night.

As the train rolled through the darkness I dosed off and dreamed of bizarre train sequences from various WWII movies. Then, at 4:00 am I was awakened by a knocking on the cabin door. We had stopped and a uniformed Italian policeman was asking us questions. He was most interested in the man from Nigeria. The conversation was mostly in Italian (which the Nigerian man spoke fluently) and the policeman searched his luggage thoroughly. After about 45 minutes he was done and he left. I fell back asleep as the train pulled out and continued us on our journey.

We arrived in Venice around 8:30 this morning.

I found my way to St. Marks and got a picture right where my grandfather stood in 1919.

Spanning the generations

One of the sites we were anxious to see was the so-called “Bridge of Sighs.” Legend has it that this bridge received it’s name because the prisoners who passed through it on their way to the prison cells on the other side would most likely see the beautiful sight of the lagoon and the island of S.Giorgio and freedom for the last time.

This is probably an apocryphal tale but it makes a great story.

William was happy to see it.

William at the Bridge of Sighs

The food here is awesome and the weather is magnificent. We leave the day after tomorrow for Florence.
Cynthia’s ability to speak Spanish is helping us in many ways since the languages are very similar.

Finally got some IO

Found a cafe that will let you connect USB devices so I am adding two pics taken yesterday.

Yes, I AM a tourist.

William the sheep is overjoyed to be in Paris and see the sights.

William

We stayed up late so I could use the tripod and get this shot

Lights

Oh yea, before we left Bruges, Cynthia got the hookup at the Dumon Chocolate Shop. This place is pretty amazing. It went a long way toward lifting her spirits after the “incident.”

We went to the top of the tower today and we also walked to the Arc d’Triumph. Tomorrow is the Louvre.

Baa!

One of the common threads of our trip to the UK two years ago was the sheep. Cynthia thought they were sooooooooooooo cute and commented (with a smile) each time she saw them. When we were crossing the field to go to Hadrian’s Wall we had to walk through a field of sheep to get there. We got more pictures of the sheep than we did of the wall. There is even a tuft of wool in our photo album from the trip.

Being the considerate mate that I am, I made it my mission to find the definitive sheep souvenir to give to Cynthia so she would have it as a keepsake of our time there.

Cynthia hates tchotchkes so a plastic sheep figurine would not do it.
She is not a big fan of the t-shirt so that was out.

My best bet would be a stuffed animal or plushy.
Of course it couldn’t be just any stuffed sheep.
It would have to have “cute-appeal.”
Over the years I have proven myself capable of picking out a good stuffed animal.

It was at the very top of The Royal Mile right as you start the downhill trek from Edinburgh Castle that I hit pay-dirt. We had just browsed around The Edinburgh Woolen Mill and we coming out on the street to go to the next shop when I spotted a wicker basket containing some very cute (and very small) stuffed sheep.

One was quickly purchased and presented to Cynthia and she treasures it to this day.
I was tasked with naming it. We were in Scotland and before I could catch myself I blurted out William Woolace”¦an unfortunate pun. It stuck.

William will be joining us on our trip to Europe.
He will have his own Journal and I offered to capture him in still life at various locations as we travel.

Something like this:

Still life with William Woolace

Yes, I am a sentimental and sappy dorkus malorkus.