Place de la Concorde, PARIS, FRANCE

The Place de la Concorde. The 3,300-year-old granite obelisk at its center was a gift from Egypt, where it once stood in the Temple of Ramses at Thebes. It’s kept company by two fountains representing the rivers and the seas. On this spot, in 1793, Louis XVI lost his head via guillotine. Over the two years following, 1,343 more people (including Marie-Antoinette) died by the “National Razor”. Later, the square was given its present name as a gesture of reconciliation after the violence of the French Revolution.

Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle, EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND

Edinburgh Castle, Military Tattoo. The tattoo refers to the drummer’s task of calling the military to arms. Today, the tattoo summons hundreds of musicians from across the world to Edinburgh each year. At dusk, the castle creates a magnificent back-drop, bathed by a changing array of colors. The castle’s great oak gates sweep open to the swell of the pipes and drums. As the bands march out in hundreds across the drawbridge, they rouse the crowd with the precision of their complex movements and musical synchronicity.

The Parish of Saint Cuthbert, EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND

The Parish of Saint Cuthbert. Christian worship has been celebrated continuously on this site for 13 centuries and several churches have stood here. Grand monuments to the dead create morbid yet magnificent alleyways in the church courtyard. The modern interior is a surprise given the well-worn, chipped, exterior and aged cemetery.

The only spook I saw in the cemetery was this critter who popped suddenly into the camera frame for his moment of fame.