ROME!!

Warning! Many photos coming your way!

We boarded the Trenitalia train at 1pm on Friday and reached Rome 4 hours later. The train stopped briefly in Bologna and Florence before the final stop in Rome. The Italian Countryside was beautiful! The train was definitely a great way to travel! We got to the hotel around 7:30 pm and walked over to the grocery store next door. This store was the equivalent of a Super Wal-Mart here in the States, and we were able to get some food for dinner. We took the night easy and waited to go into the city until Saturday.

Boarding the train in Venice

Our hotel/Wal-Mart dinner! Cheese, crackers, salami, and cold lasagna.

The hotel we stayed at was about 10 miles east of Rome, so we took the Subway into town each day. The weather was pretty crummy on Saturday, but that didn’t stop us! We got into the city around noon and started wandering. Rome is the best place to wander because everything you see is historical! All of the buildings are so architecturally different from anything else I have ever seen, and it’s all beautiful! We saw the Baths of Caracalla, the Roman Forum, the Coliseum, Piazza Venezia, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona, and the Pantheon! We sure put in some miles! We had a delicious lunch by the Trevi fountain and pooped out around 6pm. It was a great day!

The Baths of Caracalla

The Roman Forum

Coliseum

Piazza Venezia

Trevi Fountain

I got pooped on at the fountain!

Spanish Steps. There were so many people out all weekend!

On Sunday, the plan was to go to the Vatican and see the Pope! We reached Saint Peter’s Square around 11:45am and Pope Benedict XVI made his appearance at noon! There were so many people in the Square – I would estimate 20,000! It was a pretty cool experience! Here is a link for the video we took. I uploaded it to youtube!

There were so many people waiting to see the Pope!

Pope Benedict XVI in the Papal Office

Just the two of us - plus thousands more!

Kevin takes some awesome photos!

After the Pope’s quick blessing we went over to Castle Saint Angelo. All of the past week Rome was promoting Culture Week, and many of the museums and monuments had FREE entrance fees! Castle Saint Angelo was one of them, so we went in (even thought it was something we had done in the past).

Castle Saint Angelo

The angel on the top of the castle pointing to the "Illuminati Lair" from Angels and Demons

Overlooking St. Peter's from the Castle

Then we decided to go back to St. Peter’s and actually go into the Basilica. We decided to go up to the top of the cupola – again something we have done in the past – so we hiked the 550 steps to the top and certainly enjoyed the view.

Kevin stopped for a beer on the way back

The Swiss Guard

On the way up to the top of the cupola

The ceiling of the basilica

Finally at the top...a ladybug decided to land on the frame of my glasses. Look above the left lens.

What a beautiful view!

This is the very top! You can see the heads of all the people.

Inside St. Peter's Basilica

Here is a better view of the size of the basilica. They can fit up to 60,000 people at once!

In the Confessional - maybe not the most appropriate photo, but I thought it was fun.

We had a late lunch and then went to the Capitolini Museum. This museum housed a lot of sculptures and paintings that were a part of the Vatican collection for a while, until a past pope donated some artwork to the museum. We started getting pretty tired after walking and climbing so many steps, so we walked back to the Coliseum to get on the subway back to the hotel. It was another great day!

One of many huge statues at the museum. Of course this was one of Kevin's favorites.

This is one of the most famous statues at the museum. It is a statue of a She-Wolf who suckled Romulus and Remus - and the newly added, JPC!

I think this is one of my favorites from the whole trip!

I am so glad we had the opportunity to go to Rome for the weekend! Venice was great as well, but Rome is so much better! We had an unplanned, extended stay in Europe and I think we made the best out of the situation!

We are home now and are so happy to be back! Fortunately there were no delays or problems getting back to the States yesterday! There seemed to be many extra travelers in the airports due to the travel issues from the week before, but we made it home without any additional problems, so I am certainly not complaining! It was a great trip and I am so glad Kevin and I were able to enjoy the experience together!

And the Adventure Continues...

So we left off on Tuesday, when we expected to be on a flight Wednesday morning back to the states.....wrong! We made some phone calls on Tuesday night to confirm our flight for Wednesday, only to find out that only one of us was booked on the flight, and since the flight cost was $2100 per person, neither of us left Venice. We were then rebooked on a flight leaving Tuesday, thats right...next Tuesday, from Venice to Paris, Paris to Minneapolis, and Minneapolis to Colorado Springs. At that point Derek (Kevin's Boss) suggested flying out of a different city, possibly Rome, to see if it would get us out of here any sooner. We now have a CONFIRMED flight from Rome to Chicago, and Chicago to Colorado Springs leaving Monday, April 26th! The good news about all of this:

- We get to come home one day early
- Since we are flying directly from Rome to the States, we shouldn't have any more problems with the Volcano (Southern Italy was not hit nearly as bad (if at all) as the rest of Europe)
- And we get to leave Venice and explore a new city! Don't get me wrong, Venice has been very good to us, but it is a little bit small and there is only so much to do here.

All of this being said, we have purchased our train tickets to Rome for tomorrow (Friday) and we will be spending the weekend there until we leave to come back home. We have definitely been able to make the best of our time here, but it will be so nice to be able to sleep in our own bed, spend some time with the cat-dog, and get back to work. Unfortunately because of the delay, I have missed out on a week long sub job, but I am sure I will be able to make up the missed time (especially with the long-term job beginning the following week, and lasting for the remainder of the school year)!

I have told many people that if I could return to any one place that I have already been, it would be Rome; so at this point I am ecstatic that we are boarding a train tomorrow and going to ROME! I am also really looking forward to seeing the country-side of Italy. The train ride is about 4 hours and we will be in Rome tomorrow around 5:30 p.m.!

That's all for now! As always, we will keep you posted if anything changes!

P.S - I apologize for the lack of photos, and I realize the photos from the previous post did not come through, but the photo upload function on the blog does not seem to work with this wireless network. I will try to upload some photos in Rome, but I can't make any promises. I can promise to fix everything when we get back home! Just be patient. :)

Stuck in Venice Now!

So when I posted that we were stuck in Munich, I was really just joking! We thankfully made it out of Munich and into Venice on the first standby flight we were re-booked on, making our time in Munich a whopping 4 hours (apparently a lot of people on our standby flight, had a hard time making it to Munich). We arrived in Venice the day we were supposed to, and now it seems we will be here for 3 extra days. We were supposed to fly from Venice to Lisbon on Sunday, April 18, but it turns out, we are totally skipping that part of the trip and (hopefully) coming back to the states no earlier than Wednesday, April 21, one day later than planned. Of course all of this is dependant on the outcome of the Iceland Volcano! Only time will tell! I guess we could be stuck in worse places, right?

So many cancelled flights in Munich!

 

There were lines of people every where, trying to get re-booked! Fortunately we didn't have to stand in any of these lines!

It is now Tuesday afternoon, and from what we can tell, we should be able to make it out tomorrow! Our flight is scheduled to leave from Venice and fly to Rome, and then fly from Rome to Miami. They are starting to open airspace in Northern Europe for domestic flights. The Venice airport was closed through today, but they too are now allowing domestic flights to leave. Hopefully this means we can make it to Rome tomorrow - I do not believe Rome has been as affected by the ash cloud, as they are further south - which hopefully means we should not have any problems getting back to the states! What an adventure! Again, only time will tell! Here are some photos for your enjoyment!

Kevin was having some fun with his new camera.

In case of a fire...this is your exit! I love it!

Gondola's on the Grand Canal

We went on a date - complete with wine, cheese, crackers, and cards! So romantic!

The other half of the date :)

In Saint Marc's Square! Finally a picture of the two of us. Thanks to the American tourist we saw!

Kevin in front of Dodge Palace

Our new snail friend that we found on the way back to the hotel. 

Kevin refers to this as the "money shot" of the trip. It is a great picture!

Pizza with French Fries! What more can I ask for?!?

We have definitely tried to make the best of the situation. If we have gotten nothing else out of our extended stay, the food has been phenomenal! Certainly can't complain about that aspect! We are going to enjoy our (hopefully) last day here and fingers crossed, will be on our way home tomorrow! I will try to update again if anything changes. 

Stuck in Munich

Hello from Munich! Kevin and I are on our way to Venice for work, and because of this lovely ash cloud from the Iceland Volcano, we are experiencing some issues! No news yet on what will happen, other than we lucked out by flying into Munich! All of the other major airports in Germany (and Europe for that matter) are closed! So far everything in Italy is still running close to normal as well! We are on standby for our next flight, because our flight in this morning was late, but hopefully we will make it! Will keep You all posted!

Really I just wanted to create this entry because the keyboard here in Germany is fun to figure out! Have a great Friday!

Spring Break Part 1

Two weeks ago, Kevin and I spent the week in Melbourne, Florida with his parents! We all flew in on Monday (Kevin and I came in from California, and Bill and Lynn from Colorado) and prepared for a week of fun!

Monday was a very casual day. We took Bill and Lynn to the climbing gym, checked them into their hotel, and then had a nice home cooked spaghetti dinner. Very easygoing, but great way to start the week!

Bill and Lynn in front of On the Edge

We got a little bit of a late start on Tuesday, so we decided to explore the thriving city of Melbourne! We drove around the city and stopped at the beach, although it was pretty cold out (for Florida) so we didn’t stay long. We took a nice afternoon nap and then went to see the team at the gym. We finished the day with dinner at Sonny’s BBQ. Another easy-going, and relaxing day!

We got an earlier start on Wednesday, so we decided to go up to the Kennedy Space Center. I was the only person who had ever been, so I think it was a great experience for Bill, Lynn, and Kevin! We started with the bus tour that took us to the Launch Pad Observation Deck and the Saturn IV building. The tour also went to the International Space Station Center, but we bypassed that because Kevin had a conference call (which ended up being cancelled when we got back to the visitor’s center). We spent a short amount of time at the visitor’s center and left for the day.

All of us in front of the NASA sign

Me and my new spaceman friend. I have a picture just like this from when I was 5! Such great memories.

Kevin and I in front of the launch pad

Close up of the launch pad. You can see the shuttle Discovery on the pad. It is scheduled to take off on April 5th!

Muscle men!

This is the Saturn IV rocket. These were used for the missions to the moon!

And here is one of the many gators we saw throughout the day!

That night, we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day at a local bar called World of Beers. It was a great way to celebrate the holiday!

On Thursday, we drove up to Coco Beach and went shopping at the Original Ron Jon Surf Shop! This store was huge! We did a little shopping and then walked over to the beach. It was still a bit chilly, so we only stayed for a few minutes. Then we decided to try and find some Manatees at a Manatee Park – again, I think it was too cold and we didn’t have any luck. We went back to Melbourne and after a quick nap, we went back to the gym so Kevin could climb. While Kevin climbed, I ran on the treadmill – 3 miles! It was so nice to run at altitude! We had a delicious Indian dinner and then called it a night since we had a 7am flight the following morning. Kevin and I flew to San Juan on Friday and Bill and Lynn flew back home.

Super cool sand sculpture outside of the Ron Jon Surf Shop.

We all had such a great week! It was so fun to spend some time as a “family.” I hope we can all do it again in the future!