Rome, Italy Day 6

2/22/08
Today we did the Vatican. It was much, much larger than I thought it would be. I could not believe it’s enormity. And built in the 1500’s… it’s just amazing. It took 120 years just to build the basilica that is the main gather place. Designed by numerous people including Rafael, Michelangelo and Bernini. Bernini did most of the sculptures. Bernini is my favorite sculpter so far. His work is great and so amazingly detailed. I’ve really enjoyed seeing all of the Caravagio paintings as well. They both have made me excited again about art. Anyways, our docent Tim, gave us a very nice tour of the Vatican. He gave us just enough history to not be overwhelming but very informative. 5 hours blew by quickly. I learned how important Julius II was. We saw the sisteen chapel which blew me away. Taking nearly 12 years to complete, Michelangelo has such amazing abilities to tell a story through one huge image. I was flattered by the enormity and the richness of the colors of that ceiling. What an honor to get to see that. Definitely amazing in it’s vastness.
After the Vatican, we had lunch with Tim and we all had pizza. Pam, Jan and I walked from there to do a bit of shopping. We picked up some brown boots for Jan and some candies and gifts for others. We headed back to the Visconti Palace Hotel and dropped off our things and were on to piazza del pompello. This is a large square that has multiple fountains and lots of people. We wanted to make sure we got to see 2 additional Carravaggio paintings before we left Rome. We’ve seen so many of them and I would love to get to see ALL of them. The two we saw at St. Maria’s Basilica were the one of Peter being crucified upside down and the one of Saul, falling from his horse and God’s light shining down on him. Now we’re headed to dinner with Diane and Dave.

Rome, Italy Day 5

2/21/08
Villa Borghese was a great place to see some Bernini sculptures. This was the only real tour we did without a guide. We did rent audio guides that we listened to throughout the walk. It was nice to see some of Caravaggio's paintings. This is probably one of their largest representations of his paintings as they had an entire room of them. We were not allowed to take photos, but I got a few anyways in secret.

Rome, Italy Day 4 - Pompeii

2/20/08
Today was our big day in Napoli (Naples) and Pompeii. This has been the piece of our trip I’ve been looking forward to the most. Not only did we get to walk in Pompeii, but we got to see Napoli and some of the amazing artifacts from the great explosion. We had first class tickets on the train from Rome to Naples. It was about a 2 hour ride through the countryside. When we got to Naples we were shocked to see how dirty the city was. Lots of garbage and not a lot had been cleaned very well. We met our docents and headed toward Pompeii. The short van ride gave us a good overview of a lot of the city. Quite modern in parts and very close to the water.

After getting onto the grounds, we got our tickets and were on our way. We really enjoyed the walk around the grounds. We got to see their amphitheatre, the homes, business’s and brothel houses of Pompeii. It was interesting. The mosaics and craftsmanship were outstanding. Not only did they have a system of catching rain water right in their courtyard, but they had ways of draining waste, walkable sidewalks, cobblestone streets and marble floors. Pompeii was huge. Too vast to just walk in one day. We saw only parts of this huge place. Our docent wanted to make sure that we got to see all of the highlights and we sure did. We saw where a palace was and the casts of the bodies they found. They even found a dog that could not get away from the blast because he was tied up by a chain.

After leaving this great historical place, we headed to the downtown part of Naples. We had pizza with our docent at her favorite pizza place. It was really nice to have a traditional napolian meal. Great buffalo mozzerella cheese that Pam and I both loved.
From here we wandered around the dirty city of Naples and ended up at the Museum dedicated to Pompeii. It was great to see some of the artifacts and mosaics that we saw represented in Pompeii. They were so advanced 2000 years ago. Even dentist tools that still look the same as they do today. After this, we said our goodbye’s… promised to come back some day and see everything else, and headed back on our 2 hour train ride.

Rome, Italy Day 3

2/19/08
We got up early this morning to go on a food tour of Italy. We met up with our Docent after a little trouble with our Taxi going the wrong way. We walked into a typical market in which had everything like an American market and much more. We viewed things we'd never seen before including peeling an artichoke with a knife, horse meat people could buy and zuccini flowers. It was a fun experience because she did all of the buying and we got to have lunch after our tour. We had cheese, salad, meats and drink.

I wish I could type more, but I don't have the time. Off to the Vatican this morning.

Rome, Italy Day 2

We decided to do a few tours this week with a company called Context. Our first tour included an overview of ancient Rome and the original palace's and temples the Roman's had built around the 2nd century AD. These ruins we dug out over a period of 150 years and have become some of the most visited spots by tourists in the world. We walked through the coloseum and got a real indepth description of the different workings of that massive structure. We were told that the coloseum actually had battles with ships inside. They had such an elaborate system of acqueducts that they could actually flood the ground floor in bring in ships to battle to the death.

After our 5 hour journey around anceint Rome, we headed toward their newest gallery to get a view of the city from the top. 5 hours was surely not enough time to see everything, but is enough time to see a lot. The Gallery we headed to next was called, Mon. A Vitt. Emanuele II and Romans call it the White Cake, and they hate it. It's a beautiful building, with great columns and amazing bronze chariots on top. The only problem with it is that it is bright white. There is not another bright white building in view which makes it stand out quite a bit.

The view from the top of this building was amazing. Not only could you see forever up there, but you got a great idea of the vastness of the city. Rome is about 5 million people and they had 26 million visitors last year...needless to say, it's a big city.

Paris, France Day 3

2/17/08
We got up really early this morning and headed for the airport. With a 36Euro cab ride, we reflected on how to make this trip a little more cost efficient next time. If the US dollar were better, we probably could have made out a little better. But everything is 1.6X more expensive. YIKES!

The airport ride was fine... we had a little to eat before the ride and it held us over until we got off of the easy jet airplane and headed for our hotel. Rome was a great city to fly into. Italy is extremely beautiful with lots of mountains and the great ocean along the side of the plane. We met up with the group, including Pam's mom, and headed out on the town. We walked over to the Spanish steps and battled the crowds for a minute and got an ice cream. We then walked to dinner at a famous Roman Pizzaria. It was fabulous. We waited for about 30 mins. outside and 45 mins. for our food, but it was worth it.

Paris, France Day 2

2/16/08
Today we visited the Eiffel tower for most of the day. It was an amazing experience. The tower is really amazing in person. Its incredibly large and really intricate. It means so much to us to have seen it. Once the sun goes down it glows like “a ballroom gown” as they say here. We began our day in the Jardin de Luxemburg again today because it is a sunny day and when we were there yesterday, we didn’t take time to explore it. We walked further into the garden and were pleasantly surprised to see not only fountains, but huge grass landscapes and chairs to sit and relax everywhere. We noticed how fit the French are. We’ve seen very, very few fat people. It seems that everyone is out jogging or exercising. We were surprised to see so many groups of people doing martial arts in the park. We took a few photos and moved on. We went straight for Saint Sulpice. The meridian line goes right through the middle of the church and it was made famous by the Da Vinci Code. It was a great church with a lot of great architecture. It was a little more run down than the others were, but it was still beautiful. We then went to the modern art museum and the George Pompedeau centre. We had lunch from a vendor on the street. I had a hot dog in a great piece of bread covered with cheese and Pam had a sandwhich with goats cheese. We sat next to the fountain and enjoyed our meal… then headed to the day’s destination, the Tour de Eifel.

Paris, France

2/15/08
We arrived in Paris last night to find our hotel only a few blocks from the metropolitain station. It’s a fine little hotel with all the basics. The room is larger than the one we stayed at in London and we have our own Bathroom! Last night we wandered around a little and saw our neighborhood. We had some dinner at a local restaurant. We both had chicken and some kind of cooked cabbage. Definitely not what we expected. We woke this morning and had some great croissant eu chocolat. We walked to the Jardin de Luxumborg and had our breakfast and Oranges Pressees (OJ). It was very, very cold. Maybe 30 – 40 degrees and windy. Today we walked and walked. More than 23,000 steps. We left the park and headed on the metro to Notre Dame. We got a little lost but eventually found it. What a huge place… and incredibly beautiful. Then onto Musse de Louvre. The courtyard was amazing… just like I hoped it would be. It was larger than I remember seeing in the movie. We left there and walked down the mall. Ave des champs-elysees is a multiple mile stretch of artwork and parks between the Lourve and Arc de Triomphe. Tons of fountains, beautiful trees and statues. It seems as if everywhere you look there are more and more buildings that would be the most outrageous and elaborate building in the united states and there are tons of them here. They just seem to be more elaborate around every corner. So many of them we don’t even have time to even walk past them.
After leaving Ave de Champs-Elysees, we took the metro back to our hotel for a little nap and resting time. We woke to it being dark and headed toward Basilique du Sacre-Coeur on the Montmartre. This basilica on the top of Paris’s largest mountain has an incredibly beautiful church. Not as elaborate as Notre Dame, but just as beautiful. It was great to see the gigantic jesus on the ceiling in mosaics. Though we weren't allowed to take photos, Pam and I managed a few. We wandered the little streets and saw great little ivy covered houses and the last remaining vineyard in Paris. This area was called Bateau-Lavoir and was once home to the famous painter Picasso. We headed back down the hill and took the subway south east to an area called Place d’Italie for dinner. Everything seemed quite expensive so we ended up having dinner and drinks at a pub with some of the locals.

London, UK day 2

2/14/08 1600h, On Eurostar from St. Pancras, London to Gare du Nord, Paris.
We got up early, took our showers (down the hall) and ate a traditional English breakfast, which consisted of O.J., toast, bacon, a poached egg, sausage, and baked beans. Traditionally blood pudding is also on the plate but luckily there was none on ours. It was quite good, but the bacon was soo thick and the baked beans with breakfast was a interesting addition. Pam had tea and I coffee, it was a nice breakfast. We emailed a few people from our laptop using the hotel’s wireless service and headed out for the day.

We decided to walk to our desitnations with our pedometer on Pam’s hip. Well, 22, 500 steps later we saw quite a bit of London. We first went to Picadilly Cirdus. A busteling area with lots of shops, lights, and people. The center, complete with a fountain toped by a naked cupid, reminded us of a mini Times Square. We wandered around and kept seeing new things in the distance. We really only had a few things we wanted to hit before catching our train to Paris, but everything was so interesting. We stopped by an umbrella shop that has been in business since 1830. They had some pretty cool walking canes as well. We looked into a custom hat shop that is famous for their mens hats. At $100 to $300 per hat we decided a picture may be a good souvenier instead. We headed toward Parliament, but ended up in Trafalgar Square, adjacent to the National Gallery, and Nelson’s Column. From there we meandered down Whitehall Street and arrived in perfect time to catch the show at Horse Guards Palace. Next we detoured by Big Ben, which started to ring as Jake took Pam’s picture. We looked out over the Thames fom Westminster Bridge.

We eventually arrived at the Houses of Parliament, along with hoards of school children. As we admired the intricate architecture and decorative finish work we turned to see the backside of Westminster Abby where Princess Diana was married. Everything was so amazing, beautiful, and historic. However it was bitter cold and we had to catch the train so we headed for the bus stop… the only problem was, we couldn’t find the correct bus and we were miles from our destination. We wandered around, asked a few people and checked the bus routes and finally made our way onto a double decker bus.

We jumped onto the train and are on our way to Paris… oh how excited we are!

London, UK

2/13/08

Today we arrived in London and found our way to the little Central Hotel. We stayed across the street from the check-in desk on the top floor, Room 19. It was a cute little place, shower and toilet down the hall. Our room was tiny. It barely fit the double bed and a small dresser. It actually had a little sink in the room (the kind with 2 faucets… one for cold, and one for hot). That proved difficult when trying to wash your hands and not burn them.

We found London to be quite expensive when using the US dollar. We bought one-day subway passes for 5 pounds each (which totals about 10 US dollars each). We rode the subway around, visited Convent Garden, Buckinham Palace and got to see a few other cool buildings including the one that looks similar to an egg. Pam says it looks like a pickle. We’ll leave it at that. We saw the London Bridge and the Tower Bridge. They were so beautiful at night all lit up. It was quite cold though… so we hurried back to the subway and back to our hotel stopping only for a late night snack. It appeared we bought too much food, so we left our cheese outside on the windowsill to stay fresh over the night.