Blog Archives: Photography
New Year’s Eve in Times Square
Me in New York on New Year's Eve This past weekend I went to New York City with my friends Joe and Lesley. We went to New York to do some sightseeing, attend a performance of The Book of Mormon, and to go to New Year’s Eve in Times Square. I’ll write about the sights of New York a little later, but for now here’s a note about New Year’s Eve.
Chaos in Times Square on December 30 We wandered around Times Square a bit on December 30th and it was packed with people. Times Square is located at the intersection of two nearly-parallel streets, 7th Avenue and Broadway Avenue, with the cross streets being 42nd through 44th Streets. Times Square itself is like a bow tie between the two angled avenues.
1 Times Square The ball drops on top of 1 Times Square, a relatively short building at the south end of Times Square. In the picture at left, the pole that the ball drops down is visible, directly above the top Toshiba screen. It’s not a long drop, even though it looks like it is on TV. There’s a building directly behind it, so all the activity and the crowds happen north of the ball.
Ryan Seacrest on the main stage in Times Square For New Year’s Eve, there are several stages in Times Square. The main stage is closest to the ball and that’s where Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest is hosted. When we were in Times Square on December 30th after dinner, we caught Ryan Seacrest on stage rehearsing for the big night. He waved to us (personally).
Looking down 7th Avenue on New Year's Eve People apparently start lining up for New Year’s Eve around noon in Times Square. At 4pm the police start closing 7th Avenue and Broadway Avenue north from Times Square as people fill up the spaces. The crowd control is exceptionally well done. We arrived on 7th Avenue a bit after 7pm and got a spot between 55th and 56th Streets, but over the course of the next few hours the police gradually compressed people so that we eventually made it down to 53rd Street. Still 10 blocks north of Times Square and packed with people, and more people behind us all the way up to 59th Street.
In the picture above left, you can see the ball as a three-quarter circle halfway between the two upper-most video screens. The ball should actually be slightly higher and it moves up and down a little during the night, but it only drops basically from the bottom of the top-most video screen to the top of the next video screen. Not very far.
Surprisingly, there isn’t much going on while waiting for midnight. At 10 blocks up, there are no speakers, no screens, and no entertainment, so you have to make your own. You can see the big screens in Times Square, but only barely, so only occasionally could we recognize who was on the big screen. People partying in apartment buildings above us occasionally stepped on to their fire escapes to entertain us.
Happy New Year! They do countdowns to 8pm, 9pm, 10pm, 11pm, 11:20pm, and 11:30pm. And then the big countdown starts at 60 seconds to midnight. At midnight there are fireworks at both Times Square to the south and Central Park to the north. Confetti fills the air in Times Square, but not as far north as we were. And just like many New Year’s Eve parties as you start getting older, people started clearing out around 2 minutes after midnight.
New Year’s Eve in Times Square is certainly a unique experience. If I were to do it again I would probably go all out and stake out a place right in Times Square starting at noon, bringing a small folding chair and lots of things to entertain me. And right now I’m curious to watch a video of this year’s broadcast to see what was actually happening while we were on the street.
Happy 2012!
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Amsterdam
Tour boat on the canals I was in Germany for two weeks, so I skipped town on the weekend in between to go up to Amsterdam.
Twilight on the canals I spent two days wandering all around central Amsterdam. There’s a convenient museum and transit pass, the iamsterdam card, which gave me access to dozens of museums and historical buildings in Amsterdam. The van Gogh museum was of course fascinating. I hadn’t known that van Gogh was active as an artist for just 7 years. Astounding!
Garden of a canal mansion, Amsterdam The canals are pretty, although occasionally inconvenient as you have to plan your walking around where there will be bridges. I visited an old mansion on one of the canals and was shocked to see such a large garden behind the buildings. From the street, Amsterdam seems a city of buildings and canals, but there are gardens hiding behind every apartment, apparently.
Any trip to Amsterdam is incomplete with walking through the curious Red Light District. Strangely, it’s centred around the old cathedral, and there are windows with girls in them facing on to the cathedral square, which was quite the contrast.
Me at Zaanse Schans A short train ride from Amsterdam Centraal gets you to Zaanse Schans, a park featuring historic Dutch country buildings and windmills. There are 8 windmills, all of which are still functioning. 
Millstone of a dyemill I visited two: “The Cat”, a dye mill, which grinds the various pigments that become dye, and “The Seeker”, an oil mill, which grinds nuts to make cooking oil. The millstones are massive; I wouldn’t want to get my fingers caught in one of those.
A few more pictures from Amsterdam are available in my gallery.
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Oslo, Norway
Last weekend I visited Oslo, Norway, the third capital city on my Scandinavian tour.
Oslo City Hall I arrived in Oslo on Friday afternoon and spent some time exploring the city. Oslo is a bit less scenic than the other Scandinavian capitals I visited, but still has some neat things to see.
Oslo City Hall was constructed in the first half of the 20th century. 
Oslo City Hall great hall and staircase While the outside of the building is lacking in elegance, the interior is spectacular. There’s a grand hall in the centre which is where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded each year. The hall is decorated with three giant murals commemorating the 20th century in Norway. The meeting rooms on the second floor are also all decorated with murals, making it a fascinating government building.
Gokstad ship, Viking Ship Museum In Oslo I met up with my friend Paul who lives in London and a couple of his friends, who all flew in for the weekend (apparently people in Europe do that). We had a fun weekend with good food and drink, and a little more sightseeing as well. One stop was the Viking Ship Museum. It showcases three Viking ships which were recovered from burial sites. Apparently powerful rulers would have themselves buried in their ships with treasure. The ship you see at left was an ocean going vessel, the type of ship that might go from the British Isles to Iceland to Greenland to Newfoundland. I cannot imagine days or more on the open sea in that. I’ll take the Queen Mary 2, thank you very much.
The Monolith, Vigeland Sculpture Park 
Garden and The Monolith Oslo’s highlight is clearly the Vigeland Sculpture Park in Frogner Park. Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland convinced Oslo city council to pay his living and working expenses in exchange for him spending his working life designing sculptures for this park, and the result is fantastic. All of the sculptures are of people in various poses and conglomerations. The monolith (at left) towers over the park, but there are hundreds more statues throughout the park, and the locals seem to love it.
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Copenhagen, Denmark
The next stop on my Scandinavian tour was Copenhagen, Denmark’s capital city.
Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen All of the Scandinavian countries are still constitutional monarchies, so in each of the capital cities there are castles and palaces to visit. Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen is no longer used for royal functions but houses the Danish crown jewels and is a fine example of Renaissance architecture. 
Golden toy soldiers The crown in the vault was shiny (they wouldn’t let me take it with me, sadly), but I thought the young prince’s golden toy soldiers were the coolest thing in the collection: you wouldn’t want to have to tell mom and dad that you lost one of those.
The Little Mermaid, Copenhagen Copenhagen’s most famous historical figure is Hans Christian Andersen, and they do not hesitate to celebrate that. In the harbour is a statue of the Little Mermaid. I haven’t fully read the original version of The Little Mermaid; while they all live happily ever after, they don’t all live happily ever after together, as in the Disney version.
Nyhavn (New Harbour), Copenhagen 
Lego version of Nyhavn Next stop on my walking tour was Nyhavn (also called New Harbour; one thing I’ve learned on my trip is that English and the various Scandinavian languages are all Germanic languages and thus have some similarities; “havn” in Danish is “harbour” in English, which, literally, is a haven for ships). I appreciated the Lego version of Nyhavn on display at the nearby Lego store.
Fountain of Charity in Gammeltorv Another stop on Rick Steves’ walking tour was Gammeltorv square. The highlight of the square is this water fountain. Had the book not pointed it out to me, I would not have noticed, but take a look at where the various streams of water are coming from. In the Victorian era they decided this fountain was too scandalous, so they stopped the water coming from the naughty bits and elevated the fountain so no one could see, but now it’s been restored to its original state.
State chamber, Christiansborg Palace Christiansborg Palace is still an active government building. The second Christiansborg Palace burnt down in the late 1800s, so they rebuilt it in the early 1900s, and now it houses the Danish parliament, prime minister’s office, supreme court, and royal reception rooms.
Jason, Bertel Thorvaldsen Next door to the Palace is the fantastic Thorvaldsen Museum. Bertel Thorvaldsen was Denmark’s most famous sculptor, who worked in the first half of the 19th century. I did not know of him before visiting Copenhagen, but I’m very impressed with his work. So were others, apparently: his tomb monument of Pope Pius VII is the only work by a non-Italian inside St. Peter’s Basilica, for example.
Mercury, Bertel Thorvaldsen 
Mercury (Socks), Elmgreen and Dragset Among the highlights of the Thorvaldsen Museum is the sequence of statues of figures from Roman mythology: Jason, Mercury, Ganymede, and so on. But making the exhibit far more interesting was a matching series of photographs created by a pair of modern artists, Elmgreen and Dragset, of the various statues with a few bits of clothing on. For example, you can see my photo of the statue of Mercury at left, and their photo of Mercury wearing sports socks at right. Some of the partially clothed photos were a bit risqué — rather than being classical sculptures were one is not aware of the nudity, a figure wearing a pair of socks is now strikingly in a state of partial undress. But as I learned in the exhibit’s guidebook, Thorvaldsen’s original nude sculptures in the 1800s would have been considered risqué as well, as the moral conservativism of the Victorian era covered the world with fig leaves.
See the rest of the statue series and more pictures from Copenhagen in my Scandinavia gallery.
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Heidelberg, Germany
View of Heidelberg from Heiligenberg mountain A couple of weekends ago I went to the small German city of Heidelberg for the weekend. It’s an old city that was mostly undamaged in the various wars, and thus its old town preserves many of the old buildings. While there, I met up with my friends Heather and Chris who live not too far away in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Pharmacy museum... with an alligator We mostly spent the weekend wandering outdoors, looking at the various shops, climbing (small) mountains, and enjoying the outdoors. It was a little chilly, but we had a good time. Heidelberg is filled with little peculiarities. For example, up one of the hills is an old castle (you can see the castle in the first picture of this entry). The castle contains, among other things, an apothecary (pharmacy) museum. We learned in the pharmacy museum that the alligator is apparently the animal traditionally associated with pharmacy, so it was common for pharmacists to hang a stuff alligator in their shop. 
The Small Vat Also in the castle was The Big Vat, used for brewing large quantities of beer. The picture at left is not a picture of The Big Vat, it’s a picture of a smaller vat in the same area; The Big Vat is too big to fit in a single picture. If you were invited to a party at the castle, you knew it was going to be good.
Thingstätte amphitheatre On the other mountain across the river, there’s a famous walkway up the hill called The Philosophers’ Walk. Since we were all academics (and in fact two of us were Doctors of Philosophy) we philosophized as we hiked. Our most brilliant thoughts were about building a house on a pair of cable cars: you could just move up or down the hill whenever you wanted. Patent pending. At the top of the hill we found an oldamphitheatre built by the Nazis for propaganda events.
Packages from the German Packaging Museum Back at street level, there were still more peculiarities to be had. One of them was the German Packaging Museum, a small museum dedicated to packaging. Yes, the packages things come in, and how their designs have changed over the years. It was actually more interesting than we expected, and a fun way to kill an hour.
Schneeball display While we were walking around town on Saturday, we saw this shop selling “Snowballs” (“Schneeballs” in German) which were chocolate (or otherwise) coated balls of dough. We didn’t get a chance to have one on Saturday but were hankering for one on Sunday. Unfortunately, the Schneeball store was closed so we feared we wouldn’t be able to have one. After an afternoon of walking, however, we found another shop selling Schneeballs and each of us excitedly bought one. We headed back to our hotel to enjoy our snack. The first bite was okay, but less than a quarter of the way through our snowballs we all wanted to give up. I saved mine for “later”, and “later” became “the garbage bin”. But if we hadn’t found the store selling them, we would have been wondering the whole time what we had missed, and now we know.
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Walt Disney World trip 2011, part 2
(Part 1 of my trip to Walt Disney World was posted a few weeks ago.)
Laura, Cecilia, and I at Cinderella's Castle On Sunday morning, we slept in, had a late brunch sitting casually around the table in our pajamas. After the marathon, Cecilia, Laura, and I went to the most magical part of the most magical place in the whole world: the Magic Kingdom. Frontierland and Adventureland were our destinations: 
The Haunted Mansion Cecilia loves the Jungle Cruise (so do I, to be honest; bad puns are a weakness of mine) and Laura wanted to go on the Big Thunder Mountain Railway rollercoaster. Next we hit my favourite Disney ride, the Haunted Mansion, which managed to break just as we were about to get on. I was a bit disappointed that it wasn’t decorated for Christmas; when I visited Disneyland at Thanksgiving in 2005, the Haunted Mansion was decorated à la Nightmare Before Christmas, which was fantastic.
With Goofy in the Magic Kingdom Donna joined us a bit later in the park and we stopped to get our picture taken with Goofy. He recognized our Goofy race shirts and congratulated us on our running! The Main Street Electrical Parade was that night as well, and we watched from a good spot over in Liberty Square.
Shooting star over Cinderella's Castle We stayed for the fireworks over Cinderella’s Castle. I was hoping that it would start off the same way all Disney movies start, with a shooting star arcing over the castle, and I was very excited when it did. 
Fireworks and trails over Cinderella's Castle The show was great and went out with a bang.
We had planned to head home after that, it having been a long day, but then discovered that the Magic Kingdom was staying open late for resort guests. I take Disney theme parks pretty seriously, so anytime there’s a chance to stay in the park with fewer people in the lines, I say go for it, and we did. We managed to get through a ton of rides quickly, with what must have been a world record short lineup for Space Mountain: only 5 people in front of us! Finally we went home for a well-deserved sleep.
Tomorrowland The next day we went back to Magic Kingdom. We made our way casually through the park, giving a nod of the head here and there to the other people wearing their half marathon and marathon shirts (it was “Marathon Monday”, where everyone who completed the marathon got in for free). By the afternoon, we were a bit tired but discovered what was possibly our team’s favourite ride of the entire trip: the Tomorrowland Peoplemover. The best part of it? You get to sit down. We liked it so much we stayed on it for a second round. We had a special dinner on Monday night at the Polynesian Resort to celebrate Laura’s magical birthday.
Main Street USA at night Tuesday was departure day for most people (but not me). Cecilia left first thing in the morning, and then Laura and Donna and I went back to Epcot to explore the World Showcase and go on some of our favourite rides. They left in the afternoon to catch their flight, but my flight wasn’t until the next evening. Being at Walt Disney World on your own is a bit weird, but I made the most of it. I did a quick walk through Downtown Disney, and then 
Shimmering fireworks over Cinderella's Castle I went back to the Magic Kingdom to take some more pictures, especially of the fireworks (since I hadn’t brought my good camera with me the day before). I wandered around the entire forecourt of Cinderella’s castle and scoped out what I think was the best spot and then plopped myself down early to reserve it. I didn’t have a tripod so I had to stabilize the camera on a railing, but I think the pictures came out fairly well.
Play-Doh and the '60s at Pop Century Resort Since I was going to be solo the last night, I had decided to switch to a different (cheaper) hotel. I picked the Pop Century Resort, which is pretty new and one that I hadn’t stayed at (or seen) before. I spent my last day at Walt Disney World going back to do things I hadn’t done. 
Me at Disney's Hollywood Studios My main stop was Disney’s Hollywood Studios, as we had missed a few things when we went there earlier in the week. I wanted to go on the new Toy Story ride, which is a shooting video game and was a lot of fun. I also went into a new exhibit on Walt Disney which was very interesting. I didn’t know he had won a special Oscar just for the creation of Mickey Mouse.
And that was the end of my trip to Walt Disney World. Take a look at all the pictures in my Walt Disney World gallery, or just fly down and see it for yourself.
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Berlin, Germany
Me at the Berlin Wall I’m currently in Germany visiting the Center for Advanced Security Research Darmstadt (CASED) at the Technical University of Darmstadt for research. While I’ve been working hard on research during the week, I’ve been away on the weekends exploring Germany. I flew through German airports many times (all flights lead to Frankfurt — or at least all Star Alliance flights seem to) but had never been outside of an airport in Germany until this trip.
This past weekend I visited Berlin, capital of Germany and one of the great cities of the world. I was not disappointed.
From the perspective of the mildly historically inclined tourist, German and Berlin history, as demonstrated by Berlin tourist attractions, is divided into roughly four time periods: 1) before World War II; 2) World War II; 3) the Cold War; and 4) unified Germany.
Brandenburg Gate at dusk 1) Before World War II: Now I admit there’s a fairly big period of time covered by this first category. But on my sightseeing I didn’t experience too much from this category. The most obvious example is the Brandenburg Gate, constructed in its current form in 1788-1791 and restored recently in 2000-2002. Going back even further, Berlin features a great collection of world history museums, with extensive Egyptian and Roman collections. Or so I’m told: when I tried to go to them on Sunday morning, each of them had a 45 minute line-up just to buy tickets. My time was best spent elsewhere.
Walking through the field of stelae of the Holocaust Memorial 2) World War II: A short walk from the Brandenburg Gate is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a newly constructed memorial (opened in 2005). Taking up a whole city block, the above ground portion features a forest of grey concrete slabs of varying height. Underground is a memorial with displays and historical information. It’s a solemn memorial to the devastation caused during the Holocaust and tries to commemorate the 6 million Jews murdered.
Insignia for concentration camp prisoners I found the nearby Topography of Terror museum more informative, however. It describes the methods of the National Socialist party in coming to and maintaining power and implementing their agenda. I found it quite chilling how organized and precise their plans were. At right is the detailed system of insignia for identifying prisoners in concentration camps.
Jewish Museum Berlin, designed by architect Daniel Libeskind My third main stop in the “World War II” category was the Jewish Museum Berlin, in a famous building designed by architect Daniel Libeskind. Strictly speaking, the Jewish Museum covers the history of Jewish people in Germany for over a thousand years. I place it into the “World War II” category if only for the nature of the building itself: stark, grey totalitarian architecture, marking the immensity of the loss in the Holocaust. Unfortunately, the building is a bit of a disappointment and ill-suited to holding a museum, a case of form over function. I’ve not been to the Crystal at the ROM in Toronto, but it was designed by the same architect, and I wonder if the same holds true there.
Guard post at Checkpoint Charlie 3) The Cold War: Slightly less depressing than World War II, but not much. Berlin was divided among the Allied Powers after the end of the war, with sectors controlled by the French, British, Americans, and Soviets. The Soviet Union closed the border in 1952, but between then and 1961 approximately 20% of the East German population (3.5 million people) migrated to West Germany. On one night in 1961, East German authorities sealed the border using a primitive barrier — made of barbed wire and fences — stretching 156 kilometres around the Western sectors of Berlin.
Berlin Wall Memorial with death strip separating East and West Berlin Crossing was only allowed at a few locations (including the now-famous Checkpoint Charlie) and mostly for westerners: it was nearly impossible for East Germans to cross. Nonetheless, they still tried, and the barrier was continually upgraded until it was finalized in its 1980 form. In that form, there was an initial wall on the East German side, followed by an electric signal fence, trenches, barbed wire, watchtowers, large open gravel spaces, spotlights, and an additional final fence. This nearly impassable area was known as the “death strip”, and 136 people died in and around the area of the Berlin Wall during its existence.
Art commemorating deaths at the Berlin Wall, on the Berlin Wall East Gallery Portions of the wall still exist in a few areas of the city. There’s a Berlin Wall Memorial which preserves a portion of the death strip. Stupidly, you can’t actually see the preserved portion. It has two walls the were meant to be impassable, and, instead of leaving the cross-section open to view, it’s blocked by even taller memorial walls in that stark, totalitarian style of German memorial architecture I mentioned earlier. There’s a viewing platform across the way that lets you see into the preserved portion, but it’s a poor substitute for seeing it at ground level.
(Unrelated side note: Often while walking around Berlin, I’d hear Ronald Reagan’s famous “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” line echoing in my head.)
World clock in Alexanderplatz Not all of the Soviet-era remnants are doom-and-gloom, however. There’s a fascinating hands-on museum on life in the DDR (as East Germany was officially known), featuring artifacts from behind the Iron Curtain. The museum was far too small for the number of people interested in it, but one of the best I visited in Berlin. Did you know that nude beaches were popular in East German as a way to rebuke the authorities? And there are lots of Soviet-era architecture and designs throughout the city, including this world clock (at left) in Alexanderplatz, a plaza near where I was staying.
Reichstag 4) Unified Germany: Berlin has lots of fascinating modern architecture. One of the highlights is the glass dome of the German federal parliament building, the Reichstag. The new German republic was declared here in 1990, and restoration began shortly thereafter so it could hold the parliament in the new German capital. The restoration included a glass dome in place of a copper dome, and it’s apparently the most popular attraction in Berlin. So popular you need a ticket weeks in advance which I, alas, did not have. But it still looks pretty from the outside.
Potsdamer Platz Germany since 1990 has also invested heavily in public transportation, and I must comment on how incredible the train system is. Many of the stations are fantastically brand new, trains run frequently and regularly, and the high speed trains are comfortable and smooth. If only Canada and the United States had the political will to make such an investment.
The rest of the pictures from my trip to Berlin are in my Germany picture gallery.
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Walt Disney World trip 2011, part 1
Besides running far too much, my recent trip to Walt Disney World also involved visiting the theme parks. Although I consider myself a bit of a Walt Disney World expert, it had been nearly 10 years since I was last at Walt Disney World, so I was looking forward to seeing the parks and to taking some pictures.
Our cabin at Fort Wilderness Because there were four adults going, and because we wanted to be able to cook our own dinners on the nights before the races, we stayed at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Cabins, a resort I had not stayed at before. It had a master bedroom with a bed and two bunk beds for the girls, plus a Murphy bed (that pulled down out of the wall) in the living room for me. Fort Wilderness was a bit out of the way, but nice and quiet. It had the usual buses to the theme parks, but with a boat serving the Magic Kingdom across Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon.
When we arrived on Thursday, our first order of business was to pick up our race kits at the Marathon expo at the ESPN Wide World Of Sports, which I’d never been to. While the Disney resort offers a comprehensive bus service between all its different resorts and parks, we had a bit of trouble getting to the Expo, but eventually made it there where we picked up our various race shirts (3 shirts for half marathon / marathon / Goofy) and I bought a new running belt.
Spaceship Earth at Epcot The first park we visited was Epcot. Future World has seen some changes since I was last there. There are two new rides, both excitingly intense rides: the Test Track, where you ride a kart through a variety of accelerations and speed tests that supposedly simulate car testing, and Mission: Space, which is a “training simulator” for a mission to Mars. This was one of my favourite rides. 
Mission: Space at Epcot They simulated G-forces by spinning, although it didn’t actually feel like spinning: I was amazed with how lift-off really felt like we were launching upwards with, according to Wikipedia, 2.5G of force pushing on us. That night we attended the Fantasmic! Light show over the World Showcase Lagoon. I come from the school of Disney theme park visitation in which you need to identify a good spot at least 20 minutes before any parade or fireworks show, but apparently early January is a quiet time at Walt Disney World: even once the show had started there were still lots of good places to see the show.
Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom On Friday we went to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the newest and largest of the theme parks. It had only just opened when I last visited WDW in 1998, and not all of the park had been finished at that time, so I was very interested to see the complete park. I enjoyed the Kilimanjaro safaris in Africa. In Asia, which had not opened when I was last there, the top attraction was Expedition Everest, a roller coaster on a mountain. 
Me and the Tree of Life at Disney's Animal Kingdom The roller coaster’s climb to the peak gives a great view and is the highest point in Walt Disney World (and the second highest “mountain” in Florida).
My favourite part of Animal Kingdom is its centre icon, the Tree of Life, the trunk and roots of which features carvings of hundreds of animals. I love just walking around the base of the tree and looking at all the carvings. 
Carvings on the Tree of Life Another highlight of the park was the Festival of the Lion King show in Camp Minnie-Mickey, considered the best live musical show at Walt Disney World. 
Hanging out with Mickey Mouse at Disney's Animal Kingdom After the show we hightailed it over to the nearby character stands to get our picture taken with Mickey. Since the park is also a zoo, it closes earlier than all the other parks, which was good for us since we needed to be up early the next morning. We headed back to our cabin for our oats dinner and an early bedtime.
Saturday morning we ran the Half Marathon, as I wrote about earlier. 
Tower of Terror on Sunset Boulevard Rather than lay about in the afternoon in preparation for the marathon the next day (as would have been wise), we headed to Disney’s Hollywood Studios (formerly called the Disney-MGM Studios). 
Final stunt at the Lights Motor Action Extreme Stunt Show There’s a new and exciting roller coaster, the Rock’n'Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, and the ever-popular Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. One of the highlights was a new show called Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show, which has lots of car stunts and revving motors. Cars go vroom vroom! Again we headed out early to get back to the cabin for another pasta dinner and an even earlier dinner.
More to come soon in part 2!
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