Jul 2007

Our second day in Rome began with an early start and exploration of the Vatican Museums and Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel (not before however we waited in line for 1.5 hours and witnessed a moped-er crash into an unsuspecting tourist).

Seriously, the line was insane!

The Vatican Museums were filled with all sorts of relics, paintings and sculptures. The highlight of the museums was definitely Michelangelo's ceiling of the Sistine chapel. The ceiling is absolutely gorgeous and huge and took Michelangelo three years to complete. The ceiling depicts nine books of Genesis, and most notably God's Creation of the World. A very famous portion, showing God reaching out and giving life to Adam is one I tried to capture (semi-illegally) in the photo below.

Too bad the only one that wasn't fuzzy has my face in it... ah well, Murphy's law.

The ceilings in the Vatican Museums were phenomenal.

The lonely nun, the only one I saw in the Vatican.

After exploring the Vatican Museums we continued on our whirlwind tour of Roman sites (not before I was left however... I fell asleep in the museum and got ditched... but don't worry, I found an internet cafe and met up with everyone in a few hours... which turned out to be a general theme for the trip).

One last shot of St. Peter's Basilica

Where are all the people, pigeons, markets... as dead as you will ever see St. Peter's square.

First up was the Spanish Steps. Apparently these are the widest and longest staircase in Europe and we had planned to get lunch and eat on the steps, the blazing sun however, deterred our desires to eat on the steps and instead we enjoyed lunch and gelato in the shade followed by some fun in the fountain.

Our next stop was to see the Trevi Fountain, the largest fountain in Rome. Legend says that if you throw a coin into the fountain, you will return to Rome. In order to ensure our speedy return, we all fully supported the tradition and threw good money into the fountain. On a side note, apparently throwing two coins means a marriage will occur soon, and three coins means divorce, sorry mom, I only threw one coin in. A cool fact is the 3,000 Euros thrown daily into the fountain are collected each night and used for Rome's needy.

Following the fountain, we headed to the Pantheon. The Pantheon was built in 125 AD and is remarkably well preserved. It was originally created as a building for all of the Greek God's, but is currently used as a Christian church. The Pantheon is huge and is the largest non-reinforced concrete dome in the history of architecture. Originally, the Pantheon's ceiling was covered with bronze, but as with the Colesseum, it too was melted down to create St. Peter's basilica. Along with being a church, the Pantheon is also the burying place for many famous people, including Raphael (of course I am generally only interested in where the TMNT are buried). Of interest to me, was the Pantheon's draining system. Because of the hole in the ceiling (which allows for better air circulation) there are many small holes in the floor allowing for water drainage.

After asking various souvenir vendors for food recommendations, we headed to grab a quick dinner in Rome. Per recommendation, we found a great place, slightly outside the city centre and enjoyed a great family style Italian dinner which proved to be a great finale to our Rome experience.

When we first arrived in Rome two things became unmistakably clear, first, I do not speak any Italian, and getting around Italy without being able to communicate was going to be an interesting experience. I was actually quite ashamed of myself, here I was in a country that does not speak English, and I couldn't speak their language and was expecting they could speak mine (here I go, being a typical annoying American) and second, pay phones in Italy were extremely confusing, and many Euro coins were expended in vain attempts to phone a friend in Rome.

After a few unsuccessful attempts to use the phones and find transport into Rome, including a group of cabbies trying to trick us into taking a taxi all the way into the city (crazy expensive), Nicole and I were able to find and get the last two seats on the bus into the city center. Once inside Rome another thing became clear, Italian drivers are crazy! Lanes at intersections are completely arbitrary and if you feel like the person in front of you is going to slow, you simply pull up to the side of them, creating your own lane and wiz by them at frighteningly fast speeds when the lights turn green.

Even with the alarming driving procedures, Rome is a fabulous city with many things to see.
Our first morning Nicole and I headed out to explore Vatican City and in particular, St Peter's Basilica. A huge church, the basilica covers almost 6 acres, and is considered to be the burial site of Saint Peter (particularly, tradition holds that Peter's tomb is below the baldachin and altar).

Along with housing the apparent remains of the apostle Peter, the basilica also holds the tombs of many Popes and other prominent Catholic figures, including the most recent Pope, Pope John Paul II. In the main hall of the basilica there are many statues and monuments to various Popes and other important Catholic figures.

In the middle of the basilica, is the statue of St. Peter Enthroned. It is Catholic tradition to visit the basilica and kiss\touch the right foot of the statue, and because of this the foot is almost completely eroded away. In fact, the left foot is now beginning to be worn down as well due to so many people visiting the basilica each day.

Near this statue and directly beneath the main dome of the basilica, is a huge monument, covering the supposed grave\remains of Peter. The monument is huge (30 m tall) and is covered with bronze, supposedly taken from the Panthenon.

After we explored the interior of the basilica, we, keeping with the pay to climb tradition of Europe, opted to climb the dome, or cupola 120 m (394 ft) to the top. We, being adventurous, and more importantly cheap, opted for the without lift option and trudged to the top.

The view from the top was fabulous, as you could see much of Rome and all of Vatican City.

After decending the stairs, we met up with Brooke and her mother and headed to see the Roman Colosseum. This was really fabulous, and included my favorite subway stop in Rome, because when you came up from the subway, the Colosseum was huge and the first thing you saw.

The Colosseum was created between 70 and 80 AD and was the host for gladiator fights and other public events. To me, it was phenomenal that a building of this size and architectural complexity was created so long ago, and for the most part is still well intact today, nearly 200 years later. Even more impressive was the amount of thought and planning that went into this ampetheatre.

The Colosseum had a seating capacity of 50,000 but due to the effectiveness of the planning, all spectators could be evacuated from one of the 80 doors within a manner of minutes. Seating worked by rank, with the most important people (Kings, Popes, senators etc) sitting in the first level all the way to commoners, slaves and women sitting in the highest level. Originally, the seats were covered\created with marble and went nearly to the top (with the top level being standing room only) but the marble was all stripped by the Pope when St Peter's Basilica was created.

Yes, I was calling Jack Bauer, the Colosseum was under attack by crazies!

Another interesting thing about the Colosseum was the intense underground labyrinth that housed the animals and gladiators. Traditionally, the gladiators were Roman prisoners and if they won their battles they would be granted their freedom, that is if they could survive.

Apparently we didn't make it out...

After the Colosseum, we went on to explore the Roman Forum. This was the center of old Rome, and is still in large part well preserved.

The Roman Forum was fabulous, lots of old ruins from when Rome was first inhabited, Brenda and Nicole paid for a walking tour, Brooke and I however, decided to just wander about.

My favorite spot was the Palantine hill. It was so beautiful.

Taking a breather in the Museum on Palantine hill.

I cannot even express how much I wanted to be the head and hands behind this statue. My efforts were thwarted however by a crazy guard who was giving me the evil eye.

After the Forum, Nicole and I were so exhausted that not even our insatiable hunger could steer us from going to bed.

As we had only 3 full days to spend in London, and the first was clouded with my jet lag, we had a lot of ground to cover in the next two days. On Sunday, we got a relatively early start and decided to see London and Tower Bridges before going to church later in the afternoon.

Much to my relief, London Bridge was not, as I had been so told in my youth, falling down, and is still fully assembled in London. Contrary to popular belief, the London Bridge, other than being the London Bridge is not that cool. Other than being a place from which to look at Tower Bridge and relive child horrors of a bridge falling down, it is pretty much a normal, nonaesthetically pleasing bridge. The lack of beauty however, did not detir our picture taking spirits however.

Following our walk across London Bridge we made our way down to the Thames river bank in attempts to walk up to see the more aesthetically pleasing Tower Bridge. We however, were of course side tracked by a huge cathedral and enormous doric tower that beckoned us to come climb it.

The tower was built after the fires of London in attempts to beautify the city. For only £2 we were able to trudge up the 311 steps of the winding staircase to get a fabulous view over looking London.

In case you were wondering, 311 is a lot of stairs

Of course, not before we snapped a few photos of our beautiful selves.

This tower is not for the faint of heart... or legs, the 311 stairs up the spiral staircase is intense... I could definitly feel the burn. The view in the end however, was worth it, and we could see most of London.

Our last full day in London started early, with another stop at Westminster Abbey so I could experience the sundial. While we had seen it earlier, the clouds, and obscene amounts of Tour de France fans inhibited my opportunity to fully see the dial in action.

Pic of dial. This photo was taken at 10:13 am... apparently it does not take into account daylight savings time, but other than that, it works fairly well. It works by standing on the line closest to the current date. An as always, I am interested in sciencey things...

After the sun dial I made my way to the changing of the guards. This was a drawn out ordeal, involving the queens guards dressed in fabulous attire, walking back and forth, and the band playng prodominantly American tunes, with such ditties as Staying Alive, the Pirates theme and Copa Cobana.

I'm pretty sure here the band was playing the National Anthem... only shortly after the Copa Cobana.

Their hats were definitly the best part here...

After the gaurd change, Nicole and I enjoyed a leisurely walk through the parks surrounding Buckingham palace.

We took this picture right before some guy came and tried to make us pay to sit in the chairs... nothing is ever free, especially in London.

Also a plus about the gardens (or minus depending on your view), was the many pelicans walking around and swimming in the lakes. I found it particularly amusing that they had signs discouraging the feeding of the pelicans, as aposed to the ever popular don't feed the pigeons signs.

Me and Buckingham palace in the background. Not to shabby of a house for the Queen eh?

Following our jaunt around the palace, we headed to the London Eye, a huge enclosed ferris wheel allowing tourists to see nearly all of London from a bird's eye view, as the line was horrendous we opted to do the Eye first thing in the morning, before we flew out to Rome and instead happened upon a brilliant fountain.

This is me, inside the fountain, it is really fun, we had a few close calls, but luckily, no one got to soaked. There were however, a few sopping children running around... hmmm, the fact that I am amused by the same things as are small children... what does that say about me?

Continuing in our super mature nature, following the fountain, we found a skate park. It was nestled under a bridge, with only a few skaters there, so I didn't feel to bad showing my moves.

What do you think? Quit my day job right?

Continuing in the 'run yourself into the ground' while traveling Europe trip motto, next we headed to Tower Bridge. This bridge, which is much more elaborate than London Bridge (which in all honesty isn't saying much) looks like it was stolen from Disneyland. The spires are great and I love the blue accents.

Disneyland right? The castle, white and blue trim, I was expecting to see Sleeping Beauty walk out at any moment.

Here I am, wearing the bridge as a crown, do I look regal or what?

After the bridge, we rushed to St. Paul's Cathedral, where we attended a service (key word here, FREE to the public... great way to get into cathedrals by the way) for the beneficiary's of St. Paul's. St. Paul's was goregous, very elaborate, and the service was very nice as well, complete with a boys choir that was very enjoyable.

After the service, in a seemingly vain attempt, we hurried to Shakespere's Globe theatre, in hopes that we could buy standing room tickets for the evening show. Of course, since we went 1 hour from show time, the tickets were completely sold out, but as we had not much else to see and were feeling lucky, we decided to wait in the cancellation line in case people canceled. While it did not look promising, we were eventually able to conjure up 1 standing room ticket (for free even, thank goodness for flakey high school students who don't show). Because we had been running around all day, and were exhausted to say the least, this was not a bad thing, as I watched the first half of the show, and Nicole watched the second half.

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Photo of the layout within the Globe theatre

All in all, the Globe was marvelous, while not Shakespeare's original theatre, it is an exact replica, and the standing room tickets are great, you can easily get right up to the front of the stage without much trouble and as long as you can bear standing for 3 hours, are a steal at only £5 (sadly, this is cheaper than a one day underground ticket for this ridiculously priced, but fabulous city).

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Potentially copyright-infringing picture of the stage, close huh?

As is expected, once the show was completed we were completely exhausted. I have taken Bree's place of falling asleep in random places, as I mastered the art of sleeping in subways during my stint in NYC. I happily napped the entire ride home and fell to sleep almost as quickly.

The next morning, before our flight to Rome, Nicole and I enjoyed the London Eye. While potentially another opportunity for London to rob poor tourists, this was a rad way to see London. With a bird's eye view we could easily see all the places we visited, and got a good feel for the layout of the city.

Following the eye we made one last stopover in Trafalgar Square, to get pictures with the lions. The park nazi did her best to keep us away from the statues, but to no avail, we foiled her attempts and got pictures anyways! (which are not on my camera and will be loaded later)

Our last stop in London was to Portobello road. We had hoped to find the riches of ages, but were unfortunate to find that the main markets ran only on Saturdays (it was Tuesday). Instead, we meandered through the open markets (still quite a few) and ate yummy falafal pitas. Seriously, one of my favorite foods right now, if you've never had one, you should get one.

I will write more later, but for now, enjoy the photos...

ENGLAND PHOTOS.

07-07-07... perhaps the luckiest day for the next century, and the day our European adventure began. Two days ago Nicole and I gathered our bags and headed out to the SLC airport to embark on a three week long European excursion. Our puddle hopper flight into Houston went off without as much as a hitch; however poor weather and delays in connecting flights caused concern for our flight from Houston to London. Apparently, a plane from New Orleans, carrying 84 connecting passengers for our flight, was late because of weather, and since weather was less than desirable in Houston as it was, we were forced to wait... fully boarded on the plane, like prisoners, for the connecting flight to get in before we could head out for London. While I was initially quite pessimistic about the whole situation, dreading an uncomfortable night spent in the Houston airport (or a cramped 777 rather, as we could not get off the plane), all was not lost as we were able to take off from Houston and arrive only two hours behind schedule in London.

Upon arrival in London, as happens with international travel, we were immediately herded through customs. I was fortunate enough to get the only grumpy English customs agent, and after she chewed me out for a good while, I was able to sneak into England (not before however, I was fighting Australian flashbacks and quite frustrated with the entire country).

After we gathered our bags and passed through the most non-obtrusive claims/declarations system to date (slowly England was winning its way back into my graces) Nicole and I were faced with a brutal reality; namely, the weakness of the dollar. The pound is really strong, commanding $2.25 US, so needless to say our exchange rate was a less than pleasurable experience. On top of the dollar being worth so little, it turns out London is ridiculously expensive. Just to get a train from the airport into the city center was £15!

Nicole and I upon arrival to Victoria Station in London

Even with the grumpy customs worker bent on keeping me out of London and the ridiculously steep prices, London is fabulous! The city is filled with amazing architecture, art and history. Shortly after arriving, Nicole and I met an old college friend and his fiancé Elodie in the city. We had a fabulous time exploring London during the afternoon, and Matthias made it his duty to insure I didn't fall asleep on the Tube (the jet lag, or lack of sleep rather, was killing me, it was seriously hard for me to keep me eyes open at times).

All of us in front of Buckingham Palace

Along with experiencing some of the traditional London sights, it so happened that the Tour de France race was actually being held in London and while this also translated into loads of people and underground delays, it was overall a cool experience. An interesting point about this bike race, apparently it is a big deal here, who knew? All along the roads where the bikers were racing were loads of people, watching and cheering as each of the bikers passed by. While I am yet to know if people were cheering for particular racers or everyone in general, it was quite a phenomenon to see so many people out to watch the England portion of the famous race.

Seriously, these guys are moving, check out their entourage, complete with police escort and all

Now, not that the racers were not amazing, they were, and they were biking surprisingly fast (it's crazy how less impressive it appears on TV, but they were really hauling). But even so, I was content to watch a few racers go by, and then move on. Apparently biking is high class entertainment here though, as people stood out clapping, making noise with noise makers for the entire race portion (for hours and hours...blocking my view mostly). I don't understand it; maybe I don't have high cultured tastes when it comes to athletics. Either way, my favorite part of the race was this sign reading "Le de Tour France", which I thought was brilliant considering how far out of our way we had to trek because of the race. We hoped the company wrote the logo in such a way to avoid copyright laws...

Le deTour France... at least I think I am funny

Along with the race we also were able to see the more traditional sights.

Apparently, Big Ben is the name of the bell within the Clock Tower. Regardless of name however, it was impressive.

Westminster Abbey is huge! The building takes us more than a city block and is very ornate.

The Cathedral of Westminster is also very impressive with ornate carvings galore.

Our first day in London was a success, we saw much and I was mostly able to fight off the urge to sleep (Matthias hitting the glass helped however). Tomorrow holds more excitement and London adventures, until then...