Denver, CO

I have been a little busy lately, and I totally apologise for my neglect of this blog; I've been to busy having fun (and working). I'm on a trip to the USA for a summer school, and did a little travelling before it started. Our first full day of the holiday was a Sunday in Denver, which was lovely and quiet (plus jetlag meant we did get up a little earlier than most sane people!). It is a lovely city, though we kind of thought it was mainly for residents and less for tourists; or at least on a Sunday, some of the main sights were closed. Though we did get to see the Big Blue Bear:

He looks into the Convention Centre (the lobby bit, not the bit where you'd actually give a presentation. That would be intimidating, having a 40-foot, blue concrete grizzly bear watching you), and is officially called I See What You Mean, but he does seem to just people-watch over the lobby. There are worse ways to spend your time I guess.

Here is a bit of a shot of some Denver skyscrapers (sorry about the guff on my lens in the top-left); so not how UK cities work but still very photogenic.

We spent most of the morning in the Denver Art Museum, which is brilliant and we got tired before we ran out of things to look at. There was an Yves Saint Laurent exhibition on, which we went to. So. Many. Pretty. Dresses.

Denver is not far from the Rocky Mountains, and as soon as you get above the level of most buildings they start to dominate the view to the west. Beautiful (though unusually cloudy).

We had a good long wander around most of the city centre, did a trip to REI and walked through the 16th Street Mall and did have just enough time to pop into this amazing bookshop (but sadly not enough time to purchase anything).

I did enjoy Denver, with it's lovely laidback feel and love of beer, food, and activity; people seem to cycle and walk more than I had expected. But there were bigger things to come....