EMH log entry: It's day three of my tour of Europe's art museums and historic landmarks. This continent is rich with culture, and a holodeck simulation doesn't come anywhere near the real thing. This morning, I visited Cappella Sistina - the Sistine Chapel. Only a portion of it has been widely reproduced with passable quality: The Birth of Adam. But that is only a small fraction of what the great Michaelangelo accomplished a millennium ago. The entire interior is dense with detail - both the walls as well as the entire ceiling - and busy with actions leading up to and reveling in Mankind's creation. To see it all right there, the way it was meant to be viewed and appreciated, was an absolutely breathtaking experience. I am entering this log as I sit in a busy outdoor café in view of San Pietro basilica. The next stop on my tour of "Musei Vaticani" will be to the Ethnologic Museum, which holds artifacts and sculptures from many cultures around the world accumulated by missionaries (not unlike had the Borg created a shrine to house cultural examples of each race they assimilated. It is ironic that the Borg come to mind while I sit in the midst of a locale known for its passions). Following a few lesser museums and the Vatican Observatory, it's on to Vienna Austria via transporter and the Sigmund Freud Museum. There is a lecture this evening I don't want to miss. I've only been contacted once by Mister Paris for advice on a medical procedure, but thus far I've been left to enjoy my shoreleave uninterrupted. Sometimes I've utilized the transporters, and sometimes I've taken the rail system (which I highly recommend through France and Switzerland for the sheer beauty of the countryside). My tour winds up tomorrow - day four. Then, it's Home Sweet Sickbay once again. Sure I had to blackmail Paris, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I would not have been able to enjoy this whirlwind of culture otherwise. And no doubt the anticipated smoothness of my return - not to mention those uneventful reports coming in from Sickbay - will earn me future extended away missions in my own right. I had better be going if I want to keep with my itinerary. Doctor signing off for now.