Yum yum yum yam yum yam yum?

Sadly, this will be the last foreign edition of the blog. What a trip, though. Also, there
will be no pictures again tonight, as they all require resizing to squeeze through the cable
to Google's US servers, and once again, I'm exhausted. We'll post hundreds of pictures on Kodak gallery or Snapfish or something like that when we get home.

This morning, we got up at 5am, walked through the dark to the Metro, and rode it to the
stop near the Vatican. Walked through the streets to St. Peter's Square and got there about
30 minutes before the Basilica opened at 7am. The square was empty and we watched the sun
come up and illuminate the front of the Basilica. Cold, but an experience I'll never
forget. So beautiful.

Through security, and into the church itself. Wow. The scale of the Church is
something that is hard to believe. Incredible in decoration, scale, beauty, spirit,
everything. Once again, I won't try to convey the spirit of this place. You'll see our
pictures when we get home, but that's only the start of it.

From there, we walked out to the sun continuing to rise of St. Peter's Square. We walked
about a mile or so to our next stop, which we thought opened at 9am, but actually it was
7am. So we got a cup of coffee and some pastries to wait. Once we realized our error, we
entered the Museo de Purgatory. Fascinating place hidden in a back room of an incredibly
beautiful church that houses artifacts hundreds of years old. The belief is that when
someone is in Purgatory, they can be prayed for by the living, and enough prayer will get
them out of Purgatory and into Heaven. Consequently, these deceased folks appear to the
living to appeal for their help, and often leave marks behind. So this museum has all kinds
of artifacts that have finger and hand prints burned into them by apparitions of people in
Purgatory. Each apparition and artifact has been attested to by a witness, and there are corroborating stores. Fascinating and weird.

From there, we walked to Castel St. Angelo, a fortress that was originally a tomb, but later
housed Popes and Papal treasures. We learned a lot, then got the best views to date of the
city from the 6th floor terrace of the ancient building.

We walked through an open-air market and bought a couple souvenirs, including a crepe
filled with Nutella. YUM!

Took the Sheite Boos for the last time, and got off at the Forum. We walked around the
ancient Roman capital and got some great pictures before stopping for lunch. Amanda claims
she had the best pizza ever, and I'm inclined to agree. I had a fantastic panini.

Walked to the Metro station, and took that to Piazza di Barbarini. From there, we walked
around the shops near the Trevi Fountain for a while, before heading back toward the hotel.
After a quick stop at the Hard Rock Cafe for a beer and another quick stop at our new
favorite wine bar for some Italian coffee (YUM again), we made it back to the hotel.

At this point, we tried to go up to the rooftop bar again for a drink and maybe dinner, but
the place was reserved for a wedding. We got seated by the host, then kicked out and
apologized to. So we took our money somewhere where it was wanted. This was the Cafe di
Strega. Amanda had Spaghetti Carbonara, and I had some kind of large spaghetti with lots of
seafood. Awesome, as always. The waiter was very friendly, but spoke very little English,
He asked repeatedly if we liked our food by saying "Yum yum yum yam yum yam yum?" Kinda
creepy, but funny.

From there, it was back to the hotel for packing, blogging and sleep. Tomorrow we're off to
our next 2 exotic locations: Atlanta, GA for 3 hours, then Lexington, KY. All good things
must come to an end. And we miss the dogs and birds! Talk to you from the US! Goodnight!

Red...Head...Red...Head...On your left

Yup. We do all this awesome stuff and I name my blog entries after trite comments heard on the street. Oh well, it works. And this one will be short; I'm tired and we NEED to be up early.

Rome, full day 2. Up early-ish, walk to the Metro, and down the tunnel where all the beggars have their deformities on display for you to see. Took the train to the Vatican. Walked a while to get to the entrance of the Vatican Museum, and got in a line that was between 2-3 hours long, before realizing that our pre-paid tickets got us up to the front of the line, making our wait about 90 seconds. Awesome. Book everything online ahead of time if you ever go anywhere.

Saw the Vatican Picture Gallery, Museum, Sistine Chapel, gift shops (about 8 of them), and then mailed some post cards. It's not really worth talking about the experience, because you really just have to see it. I know, I keep saying it, but unless you stand where the Popes have been elected for the last 500-600 years and look up at the work of Michelangelo, Rafael, Bernini, and Botticelli, you can't imagine how it feels. Certainly my late-night blogging isn't going to do the trick. There's no picture taking allowed in there, by the way.

So, off to St. Peter's Square. Also incredibly impressive. We didn't go in the basilica, as the line was huge. Getting up early tomorrow to get there before they open at 7.

Gelato.

Back on Sheite Boos to the Spanish Steps. Beautiful and festive. Walked through a Metro station with a very long tunnel and shopping complex, bought some wine and bottled water and snacks for the room. Walked back to the hotel to drop them off.

Lunch at a street cafe again, this time pizza. Fantastic.

Took a stroll through the park to the Borghese Museum, which was booked solid until Tuesday. Major disappointment, and we should've reserved online. Boo.

Walked back to the Spanish Steps so we could get the Sheite Boos. A couple foreigners (well, foreign to the US, I think) saw a red headed woman and said "Red...Head...Red...Head...On Your Left!" Weird. Took the Sheite Boos to the Pantheon, which was closed for an hour and a half because Mass was being performed. Passed the time with more gelato and a Peroni. Finally got in and it was awesome.

Walked to Piazza Nuovo, then just barely caught the last Sheite Boos back to the hotel for the day. Stopped for dinner on the way (caprese salad, onion soup, Amanda had gnocci with gorganzola, I had lasagne). Back to hotel. Shower, blog bed.

Told you it would be quick. Pictures tomorrow. G'night.

Sheite Boos

Slept in this morning (7:30!) then began the day's Birthday adventures. Stop 1 was a walk to Trevi Fountain. What a fantastic piece of art. It's a lot bigger than it looks in any pictures, and it's in a plaza that's small enough that it makes it hard to get a picture of the whole thing. Then we threw in coins to ensure our return visit to Rome. Here's Amanda tossing hers.
While in the plaza, we had a delicious and healthy break fast of gelato. Amanda had coconut, pistachio, and mint chocolate chip. I opted for Nutella, tiramisu, and pistachio. MMMMmmmmmmmmm. From there, we bought tickets for another of those hop-on hop-off bus tours that we're all so familiar with at this point. The nice lady said there were big green signs at all the stops, the bus runs every 10 minutes, a great audio tour, and a loop takes 2 hours. So we rode for an hour and got almost nowhere, due to a pedestrian being struck by a car and loaded into an ambulance. We aborted the bus tour at this point due to the slow progress and the annoying Turkish family of loud cell phone talkers and unsupervised children that had taken over the bus. We walked back to the hotel to get our bearings, then walked up the street to catch the bus again. Stood where it looked on the map like a stop (it actually was), but there was no sign. So we walked up the street to the next stop that had no sign. Waited a good 30 minutes, no bus. So, we started walking to a 3rd stop, where the bus crosses its own path, thinking there would be a frequent bus.

Stopped for lunch at this point. Went into a small street cafe and shared fantastic pizza, grilled veggies (peppers, eggplant and radicchio), and some fried balls of rice, spinach, and mystery meat. Fantastic food. I could live in Italy for the food alone.

So we finally found the bus and rode it around for a while, riding past orange trees right on the street:
This cool looking fountain:
Many old buildings and churches:

and finally got out when we turned a corner and saw this:
Wow. Another moment of "pictures don't do it justice." Seriously. You HAVE to come here and see this.
Due to our pre-planning and forethought, we skipped the 45-60 minute line and entered the Coliseum for free using our Roma Pass. No words for the history you can feel in this place:
There's a ton of pictures to see. We'll show you when we get home.

From there, we got back on the bus, which has about 30% of the audio tour plugins working, and thought "What a crappy bus tour." Then some Germans came on board and sat next to us. They couldn't get the audio to work either. Apparently "Sheite Boos" is the German pronunciation for "Shit Bus." Awesome.

Passed the Italian Flavor Flav:


Back to the hotel and had a Birthday drink on the top floor at the fancy-shmancy bar that has fantastic views of the city. The tall walls are the Vatican:
From there, we had dinner in a glass-enclosed cafe on the street. Caprese salad like I've never had, spaghetti with clam sauce for me, "old Roman" style lasagna for Amanda. Fantastic.

Back to the room to settle in for the night. No turn-down service tonight? Sheite Hotel.

Catch our Vatican trip report tomorrow. Good night!

Buon giorno, Roma!

We cut it close at Heathrow this morning. Well not uncomfortably close, but if the inbound aircraft weren't 20 minutes late, it may have been uncomfortably close. Two and a half hours of screaming kids and a rambling cab ride later, we arrived at what Amanda has described as "the fanciest hotel I've ever stayed at." Linen sheets, marble everything, great staff so far. Too bad we won't be able to afford more than a drink at the restaurant on the roof with spectacular views of Rome. Oh well, I'm sure we'll see it from the top of a double-decker bus for a better price and with better commentary.

We walked up the street and got our getting lost out of the way, then finally found the Hard Rock Cafe. Yes, cliche, but I get a pin whenever we're near one. Ate dinner there since we didn't have a good feel for the lay of the land yet. Then we walked around, bought a couple bottles of wine for the room, and checked out the menus at all of the wonderful street cafes. Can't wait to try some fantastic food tomorrow. Now we know where the Metro stop is, where stores are, where the closest place for gelato is, and that some streets are barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side.

Back at the room, we caught the new episode of Lost on TV (fantastic). Love that show and Desmond is great.

Watched the hotel's own channel for a while about the famous people who stay here, what the concierge can do, how the pasta is all hand made, and on and on. Now it's time for bed. Apparently there's a channel on TV for putting kids to bed. This is on loop. Goodnight!

London

Good morning from London!  Just as we're getting ready to leave I realized we haven't updated in awhile.  Yesterday we went to Buckingham Palace, and since the Queen was there we couldn't go to the Palace itself, but we did go to the Queen's Gallery & the Royal Mews.  On the way in, we noticed news crews set up everywhere, so of course we had to know what was going on.  Turns out Gordon Brown was there having tea with the Queen as a formality of the election. We actually saw him leaving & snapped a few pics of him as the car went by.  And we were interviewed by BBC radio about the different government systems.  Pretty neat. 
So after that, we took the tube to Harrod's & wandered around for awhile, then went into Hyde Park to see the Princess Diana Memorial.  From there, another ride on the tube to Abbey Road to cross the famous crosswalk...

From there, we came back to the hotel for a formal afternoon tea.  Too fancy for me :-)
So we're about to leave for Rome now.  Check back later!

This blog lives up to it's name!

So we arrived yesterday in London after a short, pleasant, uneventful flight. We took the Heathrow Express from the airport to Paddington Station. Didn't see Harry Potter. Took a taxi to the hotel, which was, well, less substantial than I paid for. I know rooms in Europe are smaller, but this wasn't that well kept up. The guy at the front desk apologized for the room 4 times before we even saw it, and offered to upgrade us the next night, as they were booked solid the first night. So, wanting to not stay in the room, we walked to Picadilly Circus and had a look around. Then, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe which is only a block away, and went into "The Vault." This is an old bank vault that has since held Diana's wedding dress (she had it fitted here before her wedding) and now holds Jimi Hendrix's flying V:
Among other items were the harpsichord that the Beatles recorded many hits on, Jeff Beck's '57 Esquire, and Les Paul's original recording guitar, which I got to hold (OMG!):
After this awesome experience, we found a pub and had a few pints of English ale and Guiness (go figure), then went back to the hotel. There is a small cafe at the hotel, so we had some dessert and champagne, before heading back to our ghetto-fabulous room. Some of the amenities included a vintage 1942 hairdryer:
A fantastic floor-standing "air conditioner" that pumped air through a tube in the window:

And a shower that was literally "recently" renovated in 1926:
So we woke up, showered and dressed, and re-packed our luggage that was supposed to be "magically" moved to an "Executive Suite" while we were out for the day, and left. I advised Amanda to take a rain coat since there was a 70% chance of rain. Apparently in London that means it will rain for 5 minutes in the morning and then be sunny but freezing.

Anyway, we took a taxi to the London Eye, for which we had 10:00 am passes. This might be a good time to mention the weird taxis here: they look like old-tyme British cars: think PT Cruiser but bigger and more British. Inside, there's 2 seats, a great deal of room, and 2 more jump seats that fold down. And an intercom to talk to the driver. Pretty cool. So we arrive early at the Eye, split a blueberry muffin and some Cokes at an Indian fast food joint, then stand in line to pick up our tickets that were pre-purchased. "Be in line 45 minutes before your flight." Our flight was 10:00 am, and the office opened at 9:30. So we had 3 German teenagers invade our personal space in the freezing rain for 15 minutes singing stupid songs, and then it happened: one of them said in a perfect accent and perfect pitch, almost as if the soundtrack was playing through his mouth: "I'm...too sexy for my shirt....." Awesome. So we rode the Eye and got AWESOME views of the city:
After the Eye, we took a taxi back to our hotel for warmer clothing, then caught the "hop on-hop off" double-decker big bus that took us around Hyde Park and we stopped at Speaker's corner, then saw a bunch of stores that were closed on Easter. The bus took us through Tralfagar Square, by Big Ben and Parliament (again), then through the part of London that burned in the Great Fire. We got off at St. Paul's Cathedral, which was packed with Easter Massgoers. Walked a few blocks to the Cheshire Cheese (AWESOME and famous pub) which was packed (in the 2 of 8 rooms that were open on Sunday) so we moved on and had lunch at Ye Olde Cock Tavern, established 1549:
After lunch, we got back on the bus and rode around some more, including across London Bridge and Tower Bridge:
We got off at the stop for the Tower of London and took some pictures, but didn't go in. We talked to a guy at the welcome center who said it was packed and that we'd never see it all in the 2 hours that were left open. So we'll return tomorrow AM. Normally, they open at 10:00 on Monday, but they're opening at 9:00 since it's Easter Monday, and a lot of people don't know that. Hopefully we'll have the place to ourselves for an hour tomorrow. After another (warm) pint at a crappy pub, we got back on the bus and rode around the eye, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, MI5, and Scotland Yard. Returned to the hotel to check on this new room. Thankfully, we were "magically" moved to a really nice suite with a modern bathroom:

So back out on the street again to Hard Rock for dinner and we saw Eric Clapton's guitar that he had hung over a booth at his favorite burger joint, thus starting the Hard Rock Cafe phenomenon:
As cliche as Hard Rock is, this is where it started, and this is the best. It's really cool. And our waitress had apparently been battered recently, which was distrubing. So back to the hotel for blog and bed.

Tomorrow we'll check out the Tower of London, and we have tickets to see the longest running show ever, Agatha Christie's The Mouse Trap, in it's 58th year (at 7:30 pm). There's talk of taking the train to Paris for the day in between, but that may or may not happen. Cheers!
- Jon

Good Friday in Dublin

We woke up this morning feeling refreshed and at least partially adjusted to the time change.  Ahhh....time for one of these famous Irish breakfasts that we've heard so much about.  Too bad all pubs in Ireland are closed on Good Friday- one of only two days of the year that this happens, and coincidentally also one out of only two days that we're visiting.  So it was a perhaps less traditional but still delicious Irish breakfast at the hotel restaurant.  Jon got to try the black and the white sausages, along with rashers, broiled tomatoes, button mushrooms, eggs, and potatoes.  The highlight of my breakfast came courtesy of Nutella on a croissant.  They say Guinness tastes different here... I'd say it tastes a little different,  but the Nutella really does taste different here and it is heavenly.

With our bellies full of carbs, chocolate, and various pork products, we set out to see the Book of Kells. The walk from the hotel seemed much longer when it was 40degrees and pouring rain.  Brrr.  The Book of Kells was really neat, but the Long Room at Trinity College was the most amazing room that I have ever been in.  Wow.

Then we went to Kilmainham Gaol- super crazy jail where many political prisoners were held and/or executed.  The museum there boasts many exhibits of belongings of the prisoners, as well as a section on the psychology of man... My Lost buddies may recognize one of the names of the philosophers we found there.

From there we headed to Grafton Street for some window shopping, then the lack of pub hopping combined with stores closing at 7pm led us to take a Ghost Tour.  That's right, a cheesy tour of Dublin in a ghost bus with a crazy guide stopping at creepy spots in Dublin.  As you can see, we were terrified...

So now it's 11:30pm and we're packing up to leave for London in the morning.  Jon wants to get to the airport early, as the pubs there re-open at 5:30am.  Have to have one more pint of Guinness before leaving...
Good night!