Praha

We took a night train from Krakow to Prague, which was OK.  We were in a room on the train with four beds, sharing with an Australian couple.  It’s kinda crazy to say, but we think the Thai trains might be the best!   In the Thai trains, the beds were bigger, a man came and made your bunk for you, and you got your own little area rather than just sharing a room.  Nothing against the European trains, but when you look at the price difference, the Thai trains really do give you great value (but don’t get us started on Indian trains!)

We had three days in Prague and really enjoyed our time here.  We think it is likely the most beautiful city we have been to on our trip in Europe (except for Stapleford of course).  Neither of us expected anything from Prague (Praha in Czech, which we both thinks sounds better than Prague), and we were very happy and surprised with how wonderful this place was.  It is located on a river, with nice paths to walk along, and the buildings seem to have been built during different time periods, so you get to see lots of different styles that all meld well together.  There is a large castle on the hill overlooking the city that has beautiful views. It is the largest castle in all of Europe.  We filled our days wandering the city and trying not to get too lost as the old winding streets were confusing, as we tend to do, as well as partaking in a Prague walking tour. In most of the big cities there are companies that put on free walking tours. The catch is you are expected to tip them at the end as to what you thought the tour was worth.  We think this is a better system rather than being out $50 euros and not knowing if the tour will be any good.  Prague also had great tour ideas as one company has classic cars that would drive people around the city to complete the tour rather than walking. City tours really show you the details of a city, as well as teaching you interesting little facts you wouldn’t find in a guidebook.  One of the creepy things we learned on this tour was why all the Jewish sites are so well preserved in Prague, compared to other cities that had the synagogues and Jewish areas all bombed and destroyed during the war.  Well, Hitler, in his master plan, was preserving Prague, so that once the Jews were exterminated, “the master race” would visit Prague, essentially turning the city into a living museum, and we would learn about this race that no longer exists….CRAZY!!

The highlight of our time in Prague was indulging in the local culture.  Yes, we decided you can call beer a culture when the citizens drink more than a few liters of beer a day!  We lucked out and were in Prague for the Czech Beer Festival, which had more than 70 different types of beer on tap.  It was set on an exhibition grounds, with a few separate tents with entertainment, local food and beer.  We had a really great time here—it was packed full of tourists and locals alike, and you really got a feel for Czech bar culture.  We each tried a number of different beers, and although things were all written in Czech (so we couldn’t ask for the same beer again if we wanted to!!) and all the beers we tried were amazing.  This is skipping ahead a bit, but the reason we would prefer Czech beers to German is that the Czechs really do multiple types of beer well, while the only beer we really enjoyed drinking in Munich was the wheat beers.  If you ever get the opportunity to sample Czech beers, we would highly recommend it! 

Our second night out in Prague involved adding information to our beer indulgences—we went on a beer tour!  Our tour guide was Czech and had great insights into Czech beer making and beer culture (as well as great hockey knowledge of the Czech players). It was a fun night as the semi-finals of the World Hockey Championship that featured Czech Rep. vs Slovakia. A giant video screen was setup in the middle of the main square of the city for everyone to watch the game and wear their old Robert Reichel jerseys. The Czech’s did not win the game, but there was also no riot!  The other event on that night was the finals of the Champions League Football tournament (no idea what this is but people were very into watching it on TV!).  Lots of good sporting events and the rest of the people on the tour were German and very excited about the game as Europeans love their soccer.  One thing we learned—Budweiser is a region in Czech.  We all know of Anheiser-Busch and the Budweiser beer we drink at home, well there was another company, from the town Budweiser, which also made a beer.  There are tons of lawsuits about this, and apparently it was stated that Budweiser will be a protected title in Europe—like you can’t call sparkling wine “Champagne” unless it’s from the Champagne region, so they market it as “Bud” in Europe.  Neat, huh!!  Bet the real Budweiser tastes better than Bud, but that’s another story all together!  We went into some really neat local Czech pubs, they had bands playing traditional music with horns and accordions and people loved it.  Lots of great stereotypes experienced for us too.  One of these clubs was particularly interesting—it was called “Propaganda” and was full of Communist articles.  During communism, citizens were forced to have pictures of Stalin and Lenin in their homes.  Well after this fell, everyone wanted the pictures gone.  Some smart people picked it all up, and now one man has created a bar full of authentic communist articles.  A bit creepy, but neat to see.

One of the many picturesque squares in this town.  This particular tower is known as the "Powder tower" because when Praha was a walled city, this entrance contained all the gun powder.

Gardens of the Praha Senate.  We randomly wandered into this garden area and it was beautiful--lots of lush greenery complimented with ponds and fountains over a few kilometers.

This is a square within the walled area of the castle.  The castle was monstrous (see next pics) and was very beautiful within its walls.

View of Praha from up on the castle.  In this pic you can see a bridge crossing the river.  This is the Charles Bridge, famous for being the initial crossing point between Eastern and Western Europe.

Pic of us from up on the castle, overlooking the city.

Long pedestrian street leading to the local museum.  Lined with beautiful buildings--we told you this place was pretty!

Yet another square in Praha, bustling with tourists.  This one is particularly busy due to an ancient marvel of essentially a glorified coo-coo clock!  Just to the left of the picture you can make it out, but this clock also tells the date and season as well as the time.  Kinda underwhelming compared with the technology we have today, but a pretty big deal in the olden days!

View of the castle from done in the center of Praha.

Hockey lives here!

Bar maid line at the Czech beer fest.  All the servers wear a traditional Czech outfit that has a particular effect of emphasizing all the good parts of your figure!

Picture of one of the Czech beer halls.  Notice the server in her traditional outfit, but more importantly--she just delivered three liters of beer to the table!!  You will commonly see them walking with six or seven liter jugs around to different tables.  Also note the pics at the back of the hall--the Kingston Memorial Center has a pic of the Queen in this position, but in the Czech Republic, you are free to honour other beautiful things!

Ang enjoying a delicious Czech beer.  Looks like a manly stout, eh???  Well  its actually like the most wonderful strawberry juice you have ever had....now if only beer came in this many flavours in Canada!!

Picture of one of many squares in Praha, but this time during the Czech/Slovakia hockey game.  FULL of people, game on the big screen, and no cars were burned at the end of this evening!

Picture from Propaganda bar.  This is a map of all the big NATO spots, as well as all the nuclear weapons in the world.

Poland

After our last time in London (which there will be one more stopover before going home!!), we took an early morning flight out to Krakow.  Yes, a bit of a different destination, but we really wanted to get a bit of Eastern Europe into our trip, so Krakow it is!!

We had two quick days in Krakow as we were trying to visit a few different countries in a short period of time through central Europe.  As always, the food and drink were a fun part of visiting a different city and country.

For dining in Krakow we enjoyed the typical foods of beat root soup, perogies and sausages to name a few. The soups in Krakow were fantastic as we sampled many different combinations of compared to what we had back home.  

Our time in Krakow wasn’t filled with the fun and games of our last few stops—this stop was to focus on seeing some of the saddest sites of WWII.  We took a day trip out to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest extermination camp of WWII.  This was a very moving day, and lets you know just how twisted the Nazis ideas really were.  They took us through buildings where prisoners were held, showed us some torture rooms for prisoners who weren’t behaving, which included a suffocation room (only a tiny window for air, when the room is full of men) and a standing only room (literally the size of a small closet, for four people to stand in).  They showed us rooms and rooms full of belongings that were confiscated by the Nazis—remember, the Jews brought all the belongings they could bring, because they were starting a new life, not being exterminated.  Auschwitz was one thing, but Birkenau, just a few kilometers down the road, was a whole other place.  This was seriously HUGE—land that housed little huts for the Jews as far as the eye could see.  You were able to stand on the unloading platform, where the trains came into, and walk from there to the gas chambers.  The Nazis were smart enough to try and cover their steps, blowing up the gas chambers before being found, but you can still see the pile of rubble and get out the basic floor plan of what the gas chambers were like.  As sad and moving as this day was, it was a real eye opener and we were glad to have gone to see this.

On our second day in Krakow we walked around ourselves for a large part of the day and then participated in an organized city tour in the afternoon. The main part of the old city itself is like other European cities that contained a medieval fort situated on top of the highest point in the area. The city square situated beside the fort had some beautiful cathedrals that we did not have time to visit on this trip.  We went into the castle in Krakow that is situated at the top of the hill to view the art, clothing, and weapons of the time period.

The city walking tour contained a visit to many of the Jewish sites of the city as Krakow was a major Jewish center for hundreds of years.  One of the more comical parts of the tour included a visit to a bridge that is now popular to hang locks. This trend is based on a book written in 2002 which included a romantic story which included the lock hanging. You hang your lock on the bridge with the one you love, and you’ll have love as long as the lock remains hanging.  The tour guide joked that part of the lock ritual is to throw the key into the river after locking it on to the bridge, but to make sure to keep the second key in case things do not work out.   

Also on the tour we visited the factory the Schindler’s List movie was based upon. It is now a museum. It was an interesting museum as it documented the occupation of Krakow during WWII and how the lives of the Polish people were changed. This was interesting as it had personal letters, pictures and first-hand information of people from the period.

We enjoyed the experience that the town had a minimal touristy feel to it except for the main square. It was great to visit somewhere and in most of the city experience the culture first hand and not in a way that is presented for tourists. 

One of many plazas throughout the town.  Always full with vendors, restaurant tables, and people just relaxing and enjoying the views.

Ang posing with a women pretending to be a statue.  People are getting pretty creative to get your money these days and this was one of the better ones we've seen--literally looks like a statue until you put money in and then they move.  Who can resist the lamb???

Only remaining portion of the wall to the Jewish Ghetto.  People use it as a memorial .

Pic of one of the streets of Auschwitz.  There were literally just rows and rows of these buildings that would house "prisoners" as well as used for Nazi work.

Pile of glasses confiscated from Jews when they arrived.  There were a few demonstrations like this in Auschwitz, one of the most moving was full of hair--after they had finished with the gas chambers, they shaved the women's heads and then packaged the hair up to be sent away for money.  When the camp was liberated, over 7 tons of hair was found, all packaged, ready to be shipped off for profit.

Picture of one side of Birkenau camp, view from the guard tower.  The camp went just as far in the other direction, amounting to a huge area.  You can see some whole buildings in the front, but behind is just chimneys of buildings that have since fallen over but just the chimneys remain.

From the East to the West back to the East!

Last time we wrote to you we were on our way to Athens.  Yes, that was a long time ago, and we do apologize for the delay--again!  Only a few more weeks of travelling left, so this may end up being one of the last posts!  Greece and London below--enjoy!

Greece; May 2 to 8
We took a quick flight from Rome to Athens on the 2nd of May.  Originally the plan was to take a train down to the coast of Italy, where we would catch a ferry and start our "Greek Island Hopping" portion of our trip, since we do hear so much about this type of travel.  Well, for your information, Island Hopping in Greece, especially outside of peak tourist season of July/August, is not as simply as it sounds!!  We were essentially unable to navigate our way by boat from Italy down to Crete (where we had another flight booked back to London), so we ended up doing the cheater version of travel and jumping on a plane from Italy.

We arrived into Athens later in the day, so essentially didn't accomplish much other than taking a nice walk around the harbour, enjoying our first (of many!!) gyros on a patio and managed to meet up with Ang's cousin Susannah, who decided to come for round two of Majoros travels.  The very next morning we caught the early ferry from Pireaus (just outside of Athens) down to Santorini.  We spent three days on Santorini and really really enjoyed ourselves.  Most importantly we got some hot weather! The temperature has been between 10 and 18 degrees for most of the time we have traveled in Europe. It was nice to finally sit in the hot sun by the pool we assumed we would have been doing for a lot of our time in Europe during Spring.

After a seven hour ferry ride, we arrived at the island of Santorini. Santorini is a small island, built by lots of volcanic activity over the years.  The views are amazing from essentially anywhere on the island--blue blue water as far as the eye can see!  We rented a car and toured around, stopping at both the black and red beaches, and visited a wine museum showcasing the wine industry on Santorini.  We enjoyed many a beautiful sunset from the balcony of our hotel,and sampled some of the best greek food we have ever eaten before.  We took a boat trip out to climb atop the volcano just off the coat of Santorini. At the small island beside the volcano, there was a "hot spring" we could go swimming in after we went to the volcano. It was more of a mildly warm spring as the water was not very hot. It was different than the previous hot springs we  visited as tourists had to swing 15 meters from the boat to the hot spring on the side of the island. This was fun and only a few tourists had to be fished out while swimming back to the boat, so it worked out for the best.  The volcano is technically still active (reminded us a lot of the geothermal areas of New Zealand!) and it was neat to see how the island has been shaped by these different eruptions.  Our final event on Santorini involved a 12km walk along the ridge of the island, from the main town (where we were staying) down to a little fishing village, renowned for their sunsets.  We enjoyed some delicious seafood right at the port, and this was a great way to top off our time on this island.

View from the ferry as we are coming into port.  You can see that Santorini is an island, with steep cliff faces all around.  The white dots on top are the houses/towns.  Santorini is a popular spot with tourists, so lots of cruise ships dotted the harbour.

This is again from the ferry, but a close-up on the main town, Fira.  You can see the  long road up --switch backs the whole way!  There are about four or five main towns on the island of Santorini, where the buildings are all packed in like sardines, but other than that the island is quite sparse.

Picture of the path for people to walk down to the red beach.  The colours were just stunning on the beach--with the blue of the water against the red of the sand.

Sunset over the caldera, taken off of the balcony of our hotel.

Picture from on the volcano.  You can see the two different colours of ground--a lighter brown in front, and then the blacker colour at the back.  The different colours represent different eruptions that helped form the island.  There were about three major eruptions that make up this volcano. In the background your can see Santorini off in the distance.

The pool at our resort--lots of good times had here!  The blue in the background is the sky, but also the ocean in the distance--you just see the blue water leading into the blue sky!

View from just outside of the town of Fira, on our walk to Oia on the edge of Santorini.  You can see how the island wraps around in a crescent shape.  We started at the middle of the crescent, and walked to the north west end of it.

Its hard to capture how beautiful this walk was, but you are literally walking along the top of the cliff edge, and following the curve of the island down to the bottom.

This is the fishing village in Oia where we enjoyed one of our many delicious seafood meals!

Lobster spaghetti--delicious!!

Our island hopping adventure took us from Santorini to Crete, one of the biggest Greek islands.  We stayed in two separate towns on Crete, and got to cover a lot of this beautiful island.  Our first day, we took the bus out to a local archaeology site called Knossos.  This was apparently the home of King Minos and where the stories of the Minotar originated from.  This is apparently the location of the first people in Europe, and they have done a good job of reconstructing some of the sections and with the help of our tour guide, we were able to piece together what historians believe to have gone on in this area.  We took a bus essentially all the way across the island, to the town of Chania.  This is a picturesque little port town, and we really enjoyed soaking in the sunshine as well as the culture.  Our final Greek day was spent where all Greek days should be spent--on the beach!  We enjoyed the sun and then took a late flight out to London, for our second (but not final!) stop in London.

Picture from Knossos.  Lots of ruins, but some of the parts have been reconstructed by archaeologists to give you a better feel of how things may have been over three thousand years ago! Unfortunately, there was no one dressed in a minator suit for tourists to pose with to take cheezy pictures.

Posing with the ruins!

Chania harbour.  Now, look very carefully in the distance.  Yes, those are mountains, and yes, there is snow on them!!  Never thought we would see snow in Greece.  Apparently it is quite cold in winter (well around 10oC) and in the mountains you get snow.  But they looked at us like we had two heads when we asked about skiing!

Beautiful waterfront path in the Chania harbour, leading down to the lighthouse.

This was a little alley we found in Chania.  It had such a nice feel to it--and lots of stray cats and dogs to keep us company!

London, England; May 8 to May 14
You may be asking yourselves, why did they end up back in London again??  Well, we had two good reasons (three if you count Susannah and Patrick!!), so read on to find out why!!

We arrived late late late  from Crete, but had to be up in early early in the morning, because we were going to meet THE QUEEN!!  Yes, you read this right!  Susannah might have the worlds greatest job. She works as a clerk in the House of Lords for the UK Parliament, and was able to get us tickets into her building for the opening of parliament.  Every year or so, they have a fancy gathering to open parliament, and the big feature of this is that the Queen comes and reads a speech about what will be accomplished in the next term.  We weren't sure how big of a deal this would be, but when we could barely walk out of the subway station without having our tickets and passport out to prove we were allowed through the barricade, we knew this was going to be cool. There were women wearing fascinators, men in white wigs and of course soldiers in big  black British hats!  This was likely the coolest thing we have done on our trip thus far, and we have to send a major thanks to Susannah for arranging all of this!!  Anyways, I'll leave the rest of this story to the pictures.

This is the view from Susannahs balcony at work (well, her friends balcony--Susannahs office is actually kinda back in a corner, but it would be used as the Queens safety room if something should happen!!  Cool huh!).  This is before the festivities began.  You may recognize Westminster Abbey across the street (where the royal wedding took place!) and we are within a courtyard of parliament. 

This is the British soliders walking in, wearing formal dress.  You can see the barricades on the side of the road, and people stuck outside (could only be so lucky to have a cousin to get you on the inside!!) 

The marching band coming in.  They entertained us while we waited, playing everything from swing music to the Indiana Jones soundtrack!

First carriage--carried the crown!!  So very sparkly!  We got to sneak a peak of the Queen while she was walking into Parliament, and this is seriously bling!

The maces used in the ceremony-- apparently not as important as the crown as they arrived in a fancy car rather than a carriage!

The horses came before the Queen.  It was impressive to see the  Queen's cavalry arrive and even more fun to see some of the horses get unsettled and not want to stay in formation.  The pageantry of the event was fantastic.  

Bess and Phil coming in their carriage!

Proud Canadians watching our Queen from the balcony!

We watched the festivities from the balcony as the Queen and her entourage arrived for the ceremony.  When she was inside giving her speech, we entered into the courtyard where the carriages and some of the cavalry were waiting for her until she finished her speech.  This is a courtyard that housed the carriage and then entire procession.  We were able to walk around, pose with the horses and speak with some of the staff. This is us next to the carriage that carried the crown.  We were a few feet away from the Queen's carriage when they had to go out to collect the Queen again, so no pics of that one! Security was good enough to get some pictures, but we did not want to push our luck and try to get pictures with all of the carriages. 

The ladies in waiting--Princess Anne. It was great to see the Queen, but the entire entourage that goes with her is just crazy!

This is Susannah showing us where she works.  She is acting out what happens when there is a vote in Parliament--she takes down this board and writes down all the names of the Lords who either agree or disagree with the vote (different hallways for assent and dissent)  We have a ton of neat pictures from inside the House of Lords, but since we likely weren't supposed to be taking pictures here (actually at one point we were told to put the camera away!) we decided not to post them.  So you'll have to look at all our pics when we get home to get the full feel of our day with Royalty!!

We then had two days to tour London, seeing the sites.  We did lots of walking, including some Rick Steves tours, as well as hitting up the Tower of London and the British Museum.  Aunt Maureen was in London for one afternoon, so we made a second trip to Parliament and enjoyed a drink on the terrace overlooking the Thames. We were able to meet up for drinks and dinner with some of the girls we met on our cruise in Australia who live in London, so that was a special treat! Our Friday night was an extra special addition to our time in London--we got tickets to the Wizard of Oz!  This was an amazing show, and its always fun to take in the theater in London.

Quintessential London--double decker bus in front of Parliament!

Susannah and Ang enjoying a drink on the House of Lords terrace.  Note--we are sitting on a peers only bench!

Now Saturday was our second reason for returning to London--we got tickets to the Rugby 7s tournament at Twickenham in London.  Steve originally thought this would be fun because of the rugby, but when we got to London we learned that this is actually a huge day of partying.  The theme this year was 70's disco, and boy did they ever do this well!  There is no Halloween in England (well, not celebrated by adults anyways) and apparently this is just a shame--cause the costumes at the rugby were intense! It was if we were at a costume party for fifty thousand people and a rugby tournament was going on in the middle.   Although Canada didn't play at this event (there are about 12 different rugby 7's events making up the whole tournament, and for some reason Canada didn't participate in this event) we had a great day enjoying the sport as well as the atmosphere. People in Britain are also allowed to drink beer on the street! Everyone had beers in their hand as they walked to the stadium. No brown bags needed here.   We will post these pics shortly--they are on another camera and we have to upload them!!

More adventures to follow--we just spent three days in Krakow, Poland and are enjoying our first day in Prague right now!  We also have run into another holiday weekend in Europe. The Czech Beer fest in Prague!  One Alex Street has made the bold claim that the Czech make the best beer in Europe so we should be in for a treat.

European Holidays...

Happy Labour Day!!  You may think we are crazy, as Labour Day to us takes place in September, but apparently all across Europe, May 1^st is Labour Day.  This was a big shocker to us, arriving in Rome without a reservation, but more about that later!!!

Florence, Itay; April 25 to 29

This blog was started on the train from Rome to Florence, and we are continuing it on a plane to Athens.  We spent four days in Florence with our cousin, Alex, and had a wonderful time in this city.  Florence is a great Renaissance city, filled to the brim with beautiful masterpieces of art.  We visited both the Uffizi Museum as well as the Accademia Gallery and really enjoyed our time there.  We have to let you in on a little travel secret—we’ve been travelling with Rick Steves!  Well, his audio guides anyways!  He has made a number of audio guides for the major European cities and sights, which you are able to download onto an MP3 for free.  We found that our time at the museums was truly enhanced by having these guides, as we aren’t really art aficionados.  But he takes you through the major pieces in the museums and gives you background information about the time period and details of the artists life that really enhances your time there.

Other than art, we enjoyed many great Italian meals and lots of wonderful wine.  We started things off by Alex picking us up at the train station when we arrived, and the three of us ordered pizza from a tiny corner restaurant with an amazing pizza oven.  We took our pizza (and local Italian wine!) to one of the many Piazza’s in Florence and enjoyed our dinner with many many locals.  We arrived on Italian Independence day, so the square was alive with locals and a band was playing live music.  We then capped it off with some Italian gelato and made our way over to Al’s apartment.

We had two days in the town of Florence which we filled with art galleries, Rick Steve’s walking tours and heading up to the little town of Fiesole to see Al’s University.  You head up the hill, overlooking Florence, and the views alone are worth the bus ride!  It was great to have Al showing us all these local secrets, cause otherwise we would have had no idea how beautiful the area surrounding Florence is. We are not really art or museum people, but the art galleries in Florence were great.  A big part of the draw in Florence is the museums and they lived up to the hype.   One of our highlights from our time in Florence, and all thanks to Al, was being introduced to the weird and wonderful world of Italian coffee!  Italy is known for being a country of big coffee consumers, and we figured this all out!  Each little corner shop has an espresso machine, one worth at least a few hundred dollars.  They all drink top notch coffee--be it espresso, americano or cappuccino.  The best part is, a coffee is not a $7 affair as it is in North America, but rather a reasonably priced addition to a morning breakfast.  Steve fell in love with a morning cappuccino, so we'll have to see how the Greeks do coffee!

The famous bridge in Florence, the Ponte de Vecchio.  This bridge is famous for being very very old, and also for still having working shops built right into the bridge.  Very picturesque!

The view of Florence from up on the hillside, where Alex's university is located.  This was our view as we ate lunch on their patio.

Steve and Ang posing on the courtyard of one of the buildings of Alex's university.  The university has bought large properties and villas around the Florence/Fiesole area as they have needed to expand, and Alex's building is located in such a villa.  It has a very nice garden, complete with it's own orange trees (although, these oranges are VERY sour!!)

Candid shot of Ang in the town square of the town of Fiesole.  

Panoramic shot of the Florence skyline from the town of Fiesole--breathtaking!

Steve posing with Michelangelo's David--a truly stunning statue that is huge!  The Accademia gallery was well worth the visit to see this.

Pic of Alex in the Florence morning market.  Please note, Al refused to pose for any other pics, so we had to catch this one candid!!  We really enjoyed visiting the markets, sampling all the fresh produce and local treats.

Our final day in Florence, we took advantage of the proximity to a small town with lots of character, Siena.  We took the bus to Siena and enjoyed exploring churches, the large central town square and walking along the old town wall.  One neat thing we found in Siena was a wine collection called “Enoteca Italiana”.  All of the Italian wine makers have gotten together to make these collections, and this particular establishment contained all 1600 types of wine grown in Italy.  They let you go down into the cellar, and all the wines are divided into the area where they are produced.  Upstairs was a nice tasting room, and here we decided a trip to Sicily is in order next time—their wine is just delicious!

Ang and Steve atop the stone wall which was once the fortified wall of the city of Siena.  You can see the Basillica in the background.

View of the skyline from atop the stone wall.  Steve is enjoying the view!

Another skyline pic.  Seriously--this place was breathtaking!  Here you can see an old fortified building/castle, just beyond the houses of Siena.  Also note the hills of Tuscany in the background.

Ang posing with one of the Enoteca Italiana wine displays.

The storage area of Enoteca was quite impressive.  Like we said, they have over 1600 wines from Italy in this area, so the cellar just goes and goes.  

A final piece of Florence info and an important update for the Logan family—we got to spend some time with ultrasound photos, as Al and EJ just announced they are expecting a baby boy!  This makes the third great-grandchild for Nanny in 2012, with Tim and Gen expecting their second girl anytime now, and Jeffrey and Shevaun awaiting their second in July.  We were happy to share this news with Al in Florence, and look forward to meeting all the new arrivals once we are home!

Rome, Italy; April 29 to May 2

Now onto our last Italian blog (and we are definitely writing this with tears in our eyes (or maybe with tears in our stomachs...)—this country is wonderful! The food is delicious!)  So as we hinted to above, we arrived into the capital of Italy on a huge national holiday.  Yes, Labour Day isn’t that big of a deal in Canada, but apparently in Europe, it’s a big deal.  This would be like arriving into Ottawa on June 29^th and being confused about why you couldn’t find cheap accommodation!!  Oh well—live and learn!  We ended up going to about 10 hotels before we found one with room, and we had our first travelling sucker moment—we paid WAY TOO MUCH for our room, but what other option did we have??  Our first night, we set out onto the town of Rome and wandered around looking at the major sites.  We stopped by the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain, finding that all the people who had booked into these hotel rooms were at these very sites enjoying them!

Our first full day in Rome, we had hoped to see the Vatican.  We were planning one and go do the Coliseum first, but just as we were about to leave, a tour guide asked us to join a tour of the Vatican.  Normally we aren’t too interested in this (especially since we had Rick Steve’s to guide us through!) but we listened to her for a few minutes, when she informed us that everything was closed tomorrow due to the holiday. The lineup waits were three to four hours long to enter the museums.  Yup—we now had to try and cram all of Rome’s sites into one day, instead of the two we had thought we had!  So enter our second tourist sucker moment—we had no choice but to join the tour, to get line bypass, in order to try and finish all the sites we had hoped to see.  But, it was definitely a great morning, getting to see the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel with our guided tour, as well as quick entrance into the St. Peters Basilica.  We really enjoyed our time here, and only wish we could have spent longer to more fully appreciate everything we were seeing. We were satisfied in the end that we took the tour, but the line by pass in front of thousands of people was worth the extra money. There is no way we would otherwise would have been able to get to the different sites.

Our afternoon was full of hustle and bustle too, as we then quickly jumped on the metro and made our way to the Coliseum.  We arrived around 530pm, with just enough time to get in and enjoy it at approaching sunset. We really enjoyed this experience, and are glad we could fit it all in.  We didn’t have enough time to get into the Forum or the Pantheon, but this just gives us lots more reasons to return to Rome! We visited the major sites, but just as impressive is walking on the streets.  It’s a city with beautiful buildings, the site of ruins crammed on top of each other and in between new buildings, makes Rome a great place to visit even without the tiresome experience of crowds at the major sites.

Our final day in Rome was spent enjoying the streets of Rome, as all the sites were closed as it was Labour Day in Europe.  We made a point of getting up early, to get to the major sites before the crowds arrived.  We got some great photos of the Trevi fountain, and found it much more enjoyable without a thousand of our closest friends!  This city really is amazing—every corner you turn, there is another beautiful Piazza with a fountain or some piece of art, a beautiful building, or some other Roman ruins.  We made a point of stopping in all churches we walked past as we read some of the best sites are little known spots such as churches not marked on the major tourists tracks—some of these buildings are just stunning!  There are obviously the big churches that the guide books mention, but literally ever few blocks has a church with some major works of art—Caravaggio’s and sculptures by Michelangelo, that you can enjoy without all the crowds of the art galleries.  Our evening was filled with another hour of Rick Steves, this time a walking tour through one of the original neighbourhoods of Rome known as the Trastevere.  We really enjoyed hearing the stories of how this city began, and ended off our evening at a quaint little Italian restaurant.  This place was run by a family, all the cooking done by the wife and the serving done by her husband and her son.  They only had about 10 items on the menu, and made nightly changes depending what was available at the market.  We had an amazing meal and were able to try an Italian delicacy made with a recipe dating back to Julius Ceasars time.  It was a delicious pork dish, very rich in flavor, and its evident why this recipe has survived thousands of years!

A view of the top of the front facing of St Peter's Basilica. J.C  flanked by the apostles (Judas is replaced by John the Baptist).  The ring around the square on top of the columns (see columns in photo below) also have statues on top of them.

Our tour guide walked into the photo as it was taken. The people in the shot in the distance is  line up to get into the  church. The lineup to get into the Vatican museum is equally as long. 

This shot is from the balcony inside the Vatican from an area within the museum that was only opened to the public in 2008. It was interesting to see the large park in back of the Vatican City within the giant urban city of Rome. 

Out tour guide pointed out that this piece of art was a gift to  JP II when he was the Pope.  It represents the fact that he was the most traveled Pope in all of history. 

The crowds of people within the Sistine Chapel. It was a real shame they let people cram into this area.  It was chaos with people jockeying to look at the ceiling and elbow through to get to their tour group.  The paintings were impressive on the ceiling though!

The the far right bronze door of St. Paul's Basilica that is only open  for one year at a time, every 25 years. Don't worry, there are two other large doors to enter into St. Pauls. This one did have impressive art work on it. 

The Colosseo! It's one of the many sites that is much more impressive than the pictures do justice.   .  

The view outside of the Colosseum in the direction of the forum.  

Take me out to the ball game?

A picture of the Coliseum facing the opposite direction of the  picture two shots above. We really enjoyed the city lit up at nighttime while enjoying vino and pesto.  Its amazing to think that we all consider the Colosseum to be a major piece of history, yet the Romans just drive by everyday!

No we did not edit out the ten thousand tourists that are normally standing around this fountain. We  went to the fountain early in the morning to get a snap shot without the crowds.  The Trevi Fountain is one of the more under rated sites in Rome. 

We are trying to show in this shot how these great sites such as the fountain,
Pantheon and  many others are  packed into neighborhoods. One can see the shops and apartment buildings that surround the monuments. It's fun to try and find the spots in the confusing city. We would wander with the map trying to get to the next site and then all of a sudden you turn a corner and there it is. 

We are writing you this on our flight to Greece, where we will spend the next week in the sun (cross your fingers we get some nice weather—finally!!)  And our travel companion returns—Susannah is back!  We think the lure of another cameo on the blog was an opportunity for she just could not pass up. We are excited to have her and can’t wait to see what trouble we can find in Greece!