Tonight we are on the blessed little isle of Ireland. Early tomorrow morning we take a train tour that takes us to Cork and Killarney. We stay over night in Killarney and then we see the Ring of Kerry. Eventually it is back to Dublin.
I last left off with our last night in Rome. The next morning we had to get on an Italian train to Florence. We had a meeting with David. Liz was suppose to join us but she had some work to accomplish. So we kind of entered Florence unprepared. The train ride was about 90 minutes or so; Florence is about 100 miles from Rome. We made our way to gallery we were going to. We even found the place Liz suggested for lunch. We saw the Cathedral of Maria del Fiore. It is beautiful. The outside is intrinisic carvings and tile work. You expect the same from the inside, but it is rather sparse inside. The kids and Mr. Shiny did not go in because they were not appropriately dressed. Then we ventured to the academic center to see Michelangelo’s David. Yes, he is big and you can’t take any pictures in the Gallery. We did see some other cool sculptures and paintings also.
Then we stopped at McDonalds. Not to eat (although we ate at on in Rome), basically we stopped for a snack and to get our luggage from one train station. Then we had to go to another train station to get our overnight train to Paris. We had a little compartment on the train and it had little beds. The kids loved it. There were 3 levels of bed. Jasmine climbed to the top level with her iPod and books and settled herself in right away. Jane would only go the 2nd level. I ended up on the bottom below Jane which was rather clastrophobic. The kids slept fine. We had to wake them in the morning. Mr. Shiny and I did not do as well. Neither of us could get comfortable and I kept feeling my body jiggle when we went around bends. Although we didn’t sleep much it was pretty cool. We reached Paris in the morning.
I have to get to bed now because we have to be up before 6 tomorrow.
We have made it to Disneyland Paris, but we left off with our exploits in Rome. The day after our Vatican focus, we went to the Vatican in the morning to do some souvenir shopping. We just wandered in and out of stores. We didn’t really buy too much, just a few gifts. We also ventured around Rome using public transportation on our own.
We went to the Pantheon, once the home of Gods, now a Catholic church. We walked to the Pantheon with Mr. Shiny leading the way. Again, we seem to walk a bit farther than needed. Jeff made sandwiches so we ate outside the Pantheon. We actually came across a cool little piazza that was having an art fair. Jane took pictures in the Pantheon. Then we had to make our way to the Borghese estate. We were meeting Liz at the Galleria Borghese and then having dinner with her. We had some time before then so we decided to make a trip to the Rome Zoo. We hopped on the public bus and actually got to where we were going. I wonder if other people stop at all these zoos? We go to zoos because of our animal loving child. Zoos are kind of odd tourist places. They are more or less for local people but they get their share of visitors. I worked at one of the Chicago ones while I was in high school and college. Most people visiting a zoo probably live within 100 miles of the zoo, so we were really a fish out of water (couldn’t resist). We aren’t at the zoo for more than 20 minutes when Jane turns and falls. Security and first aid are non existent at the Rome Zoo. Mr Shiny eventually got some disinfectant. A call to Liz got us bandages and more disinfectant. Jane’s knees were totally skinned. After she calmed down we looked at more of the zoo and head to the Galleria Borghesia. Again, Liz shared her talents with us. We saw a lot of nice sculptures.
We had Italian pizza for dinner, after we walked several miles (or so it seemed). We took another bus to the Castle. Then walked back to our room. While we were walking we stopped to see the film crews of Angels and Demons. Jasmine and Mr. Shiny stuck around to see if anything was going to happen. It’s filming, so of course nothing happened. We had to be up early to go to Florence in the morning. We’ll save Florence for another trip.
The next day was our day in Vatican City. As long as Vatican City is in Italy, Italy will have tourists. Mrshiny and I started the morning with a archeolgical tour under the Vatican. This tour is done in small groups and no more than 100-150 visitors are permitted per day. Pope Pius XI started to excavate the tomb of St. Peter. St. Peter is buried under the altar at St. Peter’s Basilica. Actually he is buried under several altars that have all been built on top of each other. On the tour you can see a little bit of the bones of St. Peter. Its a long involved story which I don’t have time to really write down because Jasmine is breathing down my neck to get on the computer. The girls spent the morning with Gulia, so they had some down time which was probably needed.
After the tour, we saw the tomb of Pope John Paul II. We also went inside St. Peter’s Basilica. Pictures of La Pieta by Michelanglo do not accurately portray the beautiful sculpture. Mr. Shiny and I wandered around the Basilica. We saw St. Pius X. Yes, his body is one of the body’s on display along with Pope John the XXIIIrd and one of the Innocents. I was amazed at the lack of Mary sculptures.
Later in the day, the whole family went to the Vatican museum. Liz provided us with her tour guide talents. My kids have learned a lot about art in a couple short sessions. We saw the Sistine chapel. The guards at the Sistine Chapel seem to make more noise than the visitors. The Sistine Chapel is somewhat of a dizzy experience. Your eyes pop all around looking at parts of the ceiling. There is so much to see.
I remember we ate dinner sometime after the Vatican museums, but I can’t remember if we did anything else that day. By night time we all are usually fairly tired. We do a lot of walking.
Well, I better turn over the computer or my child may take up a parisien revolt and set the insane people free a the Bastille.
We finally got some pictures posted. The photo album is at http://picasaweb.google.com/jmcquad/Europe2008 .
I am going to try to upload some pictures into the photo album on jmcarey.com .
It is 8 am in Paris (in the midwest US it is 1 am). We got into Paris yesterday morning and got internet access last night. We had no internet access in Italy, so sorry no updates from Italy.
So where have we been and what have we been doing? I think we were in some kind of race to walk around Rome. We did a whole lot of walking. Taxis are expensive and taxi drivers are known for taking customers for rides.
We arrived in Rome about 9 am. We all slept some on the plane (which was our plan). In order to avoid jet lag, we had to stay up that whole day in Rome. So, the first day, we had breakfast with Jeff’s friend, Liz and her daughters and son. We then headed to our apartment. Rome is expensive. Renting an apartment was a better deal than a hotel. The apartment was large. There was a super market down the street, so we were able to buy breakfast food and drinks, and lunch meat. The first day in Rome we wondered around with the idea of getting to the Trevi fountain. We never did find it that day. Walking through Rome is like walking through Chicago using only the alleys and streets that are named in honor of someone. Then lay those streets out like it is Riverside. We did see the Piazza Popolo and some obelisks along the way. We made it an early night because all were tired.
The second day in Rome, started off running. We met Liz and her daughter, Gulia, at the San Angelo Castle. The popes lived there at one time. Liz is an art historian in Rome, as well as one of their premier tour guides. We went to the forum and the colisseum. She had the girls rapt attention with the stories of the founding of Rome. They might learn a thing or two on this trip. After that we found the Trevi fountain. Jeff then decided to lead us back to the apartment with some shortcut he figured out from the map. I will leave that whole experience up to your imagination. We then went to mass with Liz’s family and her mother. Liz’s mother is the US Ambassador to the Holy See (also known as the Vatican). We had dinner at the ambassador’s home. The girls played out in the garden with Liz’s son, Josh. It was a very nice evening.
Well, I think I am going to stop there. I need to get the girls up so we can go to the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre today.
Somehow each of us is going to fit 2 weeks of clothing into 1 carry on bag. Can we do it?
I’m sure no one will sleep tonight. We will all be too hyper.
Stay tune for items far more exciting than packing.