Happy Bastille Day!!

Fireworks

Saturday-Monday, 14-16 July, 2012

We are in the beautiful city of lights, Paris.  We found our apartment--it is in the 12th arrondisement near Gare de Lyon.  (Do you know that I even found a web site that pronounced arrondisement for me?  Isn't the internet great?)  It is a nice area and our apartment (or flat) is lovely.  We are on the 6th floor (remember in Europe the first floor is one floor above the ground floor) and the lift does not work.  We schlepped our bags up the stairs to find two rooms plus a beautiful bathroom awaiting us.  We have the world's tiniest balcony and big old-fashioned huge windows in our bedroom.   The sun is out for now, we are hoping for a sunny day for the Bastille Day fireworks tonight.  We don't have blanket or towels we can sit on for the fireworks and they're very long.  We'll bring a picnic dinner with us to get there early enough to get a good seat.

Notre Dame from the "backside"

Back to our flat; one bedroom with a cot to make up in addition to the double bed.  In the main room, the couch cushions fold out to make a bed.  The kitchen is along one wall--dorm fridge, two burners, and a microwave.  The shower is uber clean.  The owner said that the previous tenants had trouble with flushing anything down the toilet, so everything, including toilet paper must go into a plastic bag to go out with the trash.  Kind of gross, but what can you do?  We have wifi, a washing machine across the landing from us, and no need for air conditioning!   It is in the low 60s right now!  We even got to use the comforter last night an take warm showers!

Found a house in Monmartre that had a boo-boo

It is starting to rain--again.  The one drawback to the weather.  Last night we walked to Notre Dame in the rain, then to the street where our apartment was located last time we were in Paris.  We called it "Party Street" (it's official name is Rue de Huechette).  It is only a block long, lined in restaurants.  The Greek restaurant next to the door of our apartment building was gone--Anneliese was sad--the man always standing out in front would call out to her each time we passed and sometimes talk to her while we were punching in the access code.  It was fun walking down the street again.  Then we walked back to our apartment and dry clothes.   Our neighborhood has many mansard roofs and little balconies and looks very Parisian.

Today we took the Metro to Monmartre.  We were accosted by vendors again.  After telling one 5 times "NO!", I decided that the next time I would look into their eyes, say NO once and if they continued to bother me, I would slap them.  We walked up the stairs to Sacre Coeur at the top and, as we were resting, it started to pour.  We ran for shelter under the awning of a building (with about 100 other tourists) and sheletered our family under our two umbrellas.  Then we went down the stairs and back to our apartment.  I rested because my head ached terribly, while Randy and the children went to the grocery store for food for our dinner picnic in preparation for the fireworks.

Sacre Coeur

We took our picnic, took the metro, and found a space in the Champ de Mars (a public green space between the Eiffel Tower and the military school  (École Militaire).  This is the best place to watch the fireworks and fills up fast.  We arrived around 7:00 and were lucky to find a spot between many others already there.  We found some extra towels in the laundry closet and "borrowed" three--brown and black to sit on since the ground was wet from the several rainshowers throughout the day.  The sky cleared as we sat there, but the food made me nauseous so I didn't eat.  My back eventually got sore sitting there too (in addition to my head).

Waiting for the fireworks

By around 10:00, the crowd was getting restless and at 10:30 they started chanting "start, start" (in French, of course).  They finally began at 11:00 and everybody stood for the entire 1/2 hour show.  The theme was disco and a large disco ball was suspended at the first level of the tower.  There were no cool light effects with the tower as we saw three years ago, that was disappointing.  But the fireworks were fantastic and at one part it was such a funny memory to look around and see thousands of people singing the words to YMCA and doing the hand motions as the fireworks went off overhead.

After the fireworks, we walked at least halfway home (I was becoming more sick), because all of the metro stops were packed.  We walked along the river and finally found a metro stop that wasn't as packed as the others, then walked home from the one by us.  Once we reached our apartment, I brushed my teeth and crawled into bed and awoke the next morning achy, nauseous, with fever and chills, and with a monstrous sinus headache.  I was miserable.  I stayed in bed and Randy was superdad.  The children and I made a list of all of the things they wanted to see and Randy took them on the metro to go see them all! The list included the courtyard of the Louvre (with the pyramid entrance), the rose line, inside Notre Dame, buying souvenirs, and sitting in a cafe people watching.  They accomplished all of those except going into Notre Dame because the line was ridiculously long (and we saw it several times the last time we were in Paris).   When they came back, they were quiet and had a late dinner before packing their bags and taking showers.  I groaned and dozed.  I tried eating a few bites of a croissant and a few sips of OJ but that was a very bad idea--they stayed down for less than a few minutes.

The next day I had no choice but to get up, shower, and pack before the forced march to the metro station.  Randy was very sweet and carried my bag, held my hand, and talked to me to distract me as we slowly walked.  We took the metro to the RER (non-metro) train to the airport, then went through two hours of security before we boarded our plane to Dublin.  Then, in Dublin we had to go through pre-screening for customs which was weird because they showed us photos on a screen of the bags they had listed for us and we had to verify that they were ours before they would load them on the plane.  And everyone in the airport had to check our passports and scan our boarding passes.  Then, on the plane from Dublin to Chicago, just as we were over the Atlantic, there was a medical emergency on board and we had to turn back to the Shannon airport where the paramedics had to come on board.  Well, then they were worried about the plane, because planes are designed to land with empty fuel tanks and ours was very heavy.  They had to have maintenance people check out the plane, then refuel, and an hour later we were on our way.  We landed in Chicago an hour late, went through immigration, took the shuttle to the Alamo office, and picked up our rental car.  Since I was still not in a good place, Randy drove us home.  We arrived home at 1:00 and by 2:00 I was in my bed.

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene...

We leave our hobbit hole

Thursday, 12 July, 2012

Verona's town gates

Today we spent the day in Verona.  Up early, walk to the bus, and then a three hour train ride.   It is past Florence, near Venice.  It is a very cute town, Italian and ancient.  Piazzas and campos everywhere.  They, like most Italian towns, have an amazing number of churches.  Verona, however, charges for most of their churches.  We had to make the pilgrimage to the fabled Romeo and Guillietta balcony.  Annie and I stood in the courtyard and quoted the lines from the balcony scene from the play!  That was fun.  And there is a statue of Juliet, that for some reason, everyone goes and gets a photo of themselves touching her breast--Randy read it was some sort of fertility thing and that mostly women do it (although that wasn't the case when we were there!).  Since I don't need to worry about fertility things at this point in my life (!), I declined.

Guilietta's balcony

Juliet herself (with a very shiny breast)

We did visit two churches.  One  because Joshua said that it was very pointy and narrow and that he had to see inside!  The other was the duomo.  They both had a lot of painting on the walls and in the side alters.  The painting is very elaborate and colorful.  The first church had a lower church in the basement--almost as large as the main church.  The duomo also had a lower church as well as a baptistry and another building with a chapel, and plastic windows to see 6th century foundations and mosaics that were found from a previous paleo-christian church that was once located there.  Those were neat to see.

Ancient mosaics under a church floor

The town puts on a Shakespeare festival, performing two of the plays and puts on an opera in it's own coliseum, so we saw the sets and some of the props for those performances.

After seeing those, we wandered the town, enjoying the traditional Italian feel of it.  We took several breaks in parks to waste time until our night train to Paris.  We left our big bags at the train station and each had our small bags with us.  We stopped at a grocery store for fruit and snacks for the train and at a cafe for dinner on our way back to the train station.

Walking down the streets of Verona

We reserved a couchette for our trip to Paris--it has seats that fold around to create six bunks.  Unfortunately, right after the train left the station and we were making our beds up, a man came in that had reserved the sixth bed.  So we had less privacy, but he got the bed we weren't going to use--one of the smaller bottom bunks (we had already made the other beds up).  I don't know if he spoke much English.  We were getting ready for bed when he arrived.

Friday, 13 July, 2012

Well, during the night we spent many hours at one of the stations  (fixing some mechanical problem or something) and a few more hours at  another station which delayed the train.  Then, when it was ready to go, daytime trains were running so they had to reroute to go around them.  We ended up going through quite a bit of Switzerland and France to get to Paris.  We ended up in Paris almost 7 hours late. They kept offering bottled water and brought around croissants and later candy bars for everyone.  Luckily we also brought food so we weren't starving, but it was a long time to sit and read in a small space.  And the flaps under the toilet bowls didn't close so they smelled horrible!  Our train to Verona had been a more modern train and much nicer.  This had air conditioning, but the air didn't reach the top bunks so we had to open the window flap at the top for awhile (which is very loud--you hear every passing train and station.  Unfortunately, we were supposed to meet the man renting us the apartment at 10:00, but we weren't there until after 4:00.  We called his phone from the realtor's office next door but it went to messages.  Then the realtor came and let us in the building so that we weren't outside waiting in the incoming rain.  Oh--about the weather--sixty degrees and cloudy!  In fact, by the time we went out walking it was in the 50s.  It was nice taking a warm shower and getting out to feel chilly!

Odds and ends

Sunlight coming through the oculus at the Pantheon

Wednesday, 11 July, 2012

Well today was Children’s Day part 2.  Though it was a hard thing to do:  come up with things to see that cost little or no money.  We went back to the Pantheon--they wanted to see it again.  Then Annie bought more postcards (yes, that was on the list) and we had to get stamps (we went to the Vatican post office so our postcards will have a Vatican postmark).  Then we went to the little museum in the Victor Emmanuel monument which was also free.  The museum was about all of the wars and revolts in Italy from the early 1800s to today.  The statue of Victor Emmanuel on his horse is supposed to be a big deal, so here's that photo:

Last night Randy and I went for a walk while the children stayed in the apartment.  We stumbled upon a band concert in a small little piazza.  They were playing “Come Back to Sorrento” with a native Italian singing the words in Italian.  Right behind them was the flat front of a church and behind the audience were several curved apartment buildings about one room deep--like elbow macaroni.  Acoustically it was ideal, and my eyes going upward from the musicians, sweeping up the stone church to the stars above and the music in my ears--it was kind of magical.  We’ve gone out walking every night and it is amazing that no matter where you walk, there are people--way past 10:00 even during the week, with lit up ristorantes with sidewalk dining every other block or so, even in the darkest little alleyways.  People are everywhere--it reminds me of Paris--except much hotter--even late at night.  

Tomorrow we leave early in the morning for Verona (as in Romeo and Juliet) where in the evening we will board a night train for Paris--arriving there in the morning.  We will need to walk with our bags a few blocks to catch the bus to the train station to catch the train for Verona.   They are supposed to have a bag check person there that you can leave your bags with, but you need to be sure to get them before the bag check person leaves at the end of the day or your bags will have to stay there until the next day.  We’ll have to stay on top of that.  We are all beginning to look forward to returning home.    

The Ancient Romans revisited

Tuesday, 10 July, 2012

Today was ancient Romans again.  We took the train (actually 2 metro trains and a regular train) to Ostea Antica.  It used to be a city right on the sea and next to the Tiber River.  Prime location.  It was the port city for Rome.  However, the port silted in over the millenia and eventually, Ostea wasn’t on the sea anymore.  So it was abandoned.  Well, a castle was built nearby (probably with some of the materials from the abandoned city) and a small town grew.  Now, you can go visit the abandoned city.

partial mosaic

It was much like Paestum, in that you could walk around the ruins, but there were more tall weeds, so that wasn’t as easily done.  But walking around old homes and shops and going up to terraces to see the city from above were cool (and very hot!).  We wandered slowly, drinking a lot of water to replace the water we were sweating out.  Unlike Paestum (which was Greek), there were few ostentatious temples, but one grand governing building with a huge staircase leading up to it.  There were still some limbless, headless statues and some pillars.  One building had a great sign.  The sign identified it as a restaurant.  In one room, it had marble counter for customers, paintings and mosaics on the walls, built-in sinks, and an oven.  In the back, there was a space for al fresco dining (eating outside)  in a nice area complete with a fountain.  Very cool.  It had a forum and many public baths, and a recreation space, as well as piazzas.  The town had it’s own aqueduct for water (to central wells spread out in the city).  Very worth the trip (although the long train ride was very hot and not air conditioned).  

Part of the exercise grounds near the forum

The Capitolinium

Part of an old restaurant

The patio of the restaurant

Did I mention that it was really hot?  I don’t think I’ve mentioned our “air conditioner.”  It is a unit above the door that we have had in other apartments before (including in Venice).  It works well, but this one does not.  It says 16 degrees (60 F) but it is not--we are sitting at the table sweating and dying in our beds (hot air rises).  It does not even take the moisture out of the air.  The directions ask you to turn off the air conditioner when you are gone so that the condo owners (that share the courtyard) don’t have to hear the condenser (which is located there).  We can’t do that.  If we leave it on constantly it is a few degrees cooler than outside.  We tried turning it off and opening the windows--but that was even worse because there is no wind in our courtyard.  It is still and you can smell the recycling and garbage containers out there.  So we have no relief.  Looking forward to Paris--the forecast is for rain :(  but the highs are in the 60s!  : )  Hoping we have some of our “extras” there.  Air (if it is hot or wet), wi-fi, washing machine, dishwasher.  I’m tired of sweating 24 hours a day.  Though seeing Rome has been great!  I am already do some preliminary planning (thinking) for the Italy unit I will teach in October.  

Walking back from the metro station, we stopped to look at a church that Randy found on a walk he took by himself yesterday up on Capitoline Hill.  He called it Liberace church--and I could only laugh and agree when I walked in.  Like many Catholic churches that reclaimed their roots and wealth after the Reformation, it is filled with side alters, huge pulpits, gilt and gold, and this one is filled--absolutely filled--with chandeliers!  Big glass ones!  I’d like to see it with them all lit up!  

See all of the chandeliers??

Have they heard that less is more?

Since the children did such a great job planning Monday, they get another chance tomorrow.  They can plan anything we missed or that they want to see again (as long as the admission prices aren’t horrible!).  And we will stop at some more souvenir stands since it is our last day in Rome.    

What remains to be seen. . .

Americans abusing monuments--what a cliche!

Monday, 9 July, 2012

Today is Monday in Europe.  Many museums are not open today, so we adjusted our schedule.  We walked to see several things we had not seen yet.  Our trek began with a small church near the Piazza del Popolo.  It was only open until noon before a four hour siesta break.  Sure enough, at noon, some guy came through saying “closed, closed!”   Then we went to the Piazza del Popolo.  It has a huge obelisk in the middle (probably the work of the illuminati!) with lions spewing water out their mouths.  Everywhere in Rome (Italy, actually, but Rome is the worst) are the men walking around trying to sell things and some of them won’t take no for an answer.  Usually, avoiding eye contact or saying “no” while looking in their eyes works.  But today, one gave me three of the roses that he was selling, I tried to give them back and say ‘no’, but he said, “yes, yes, gift” and refused to take them back then engaged me in a conversation.  Then he pulled a thin string bracelet out of his pocket and I refused but he said no, no, just from me to you and tied it around my wrist, then did the same to Shelby.  Well, now he asked me to get my husband’s attention, and I said, no, he won’t give you money.  So he got his attention, and, of course, Randy wouldn’t give him any money so he asked for the roses back and left.  They are everywhere--often getting in your way.  Most are selling roses, scarves, and umbrellas and these light up slingshot things at night.  Then, of course, are the sellers of fake designer purses, designer sunglasses, dancing magnetic dolls, wooden bowls, and every kind of art.  Then there are the wagons with multitudes of cheap souvenirs everywhere and performance artists.  Yikes!  Oh--and don’t forget the beggars prostrating themselves over half the sidewalk with a cup for coins and often a holy card.  But anyway, I digress....

This was inside the church--creepy-huh?

The 10 story obelisk in the Piazza

Some of the monumnets in the Piazza.  The park is behind that terrace at the top

Then we walked above the Piazza del Popolo to a large area containing many parks and walked for awhile, then took a break to do a pass-around story.  The children love these, and we do them most often on vacation.  Those are the stories that one person starts, then passes it on to another person, sometimes right at a cliff hanger that the person has to be creative to continue.  We go around many times until someone ends the story.  Sometimes they get silly (there is still the legacy of Steve the Cracken and his girlfriend Betty the Hammerhead Shark) but Randy insisted that today’s contain no magic or fantasy.  

In the park

After the relaxing park, we walked through an old section of city wall, past the famed Harry’s Bar, and down the Spanish Steps.  They are huge, in several different sections, and end down at a fountain.  

The Spanish Steps

Then on to a museum of Leonardo daVinci that Joshua was dying to go to.  It had some models of some of his sketches, some that were just to look at, and some that you could turn, or move.  The children loved that it was interactive, and Joshua loved that it was daVinci, one of his idols!  He did a presentation on daVinci’s life in second grade (complete with timeline) and enjoyed seeing models of some of the things we read about when he was researching his presentation.

DaVinci's design for a carillon

This is an armored tank--4 people to move it, 4 to work the weapons

Flying ideas

Back to the apartment for a rest and a visit to our favorite internet cafe to upload our last two blogs (they were closed yesterday).  Today they insisted that Randy buy a drink, so first he nursed it while using the internet, then I did.  

The Children's Day

The oculus of the Pantheon

Sunday, 8 July, 2012

Last night, the children were given the task to plan our day today.  The three of them pored over the guide book and map and, keeping in mind entrance costs, plan our day.  They even wrote up a list complete with rest times, and Annie carried the map to direct us through the city.  It was very cute and a great activity for them.  They felt more a part of the planning, and it taught them to be more familiar with Rome and how to plan trips and be flexible.  

We started out going to to Castel Sant’Angelo.  We had walked past it, but had not entered in before.  One thing about entrance fees to many places in the European Union.  Some give discounts for children (or even free!) or for families.  Many however, only give discounts for children, students, and teachers that reside in the EU.  So for our children, we have to pay full adult price.  Hmmmm--doesn’t seem quite fair.   So anyway, we saw the museum in the castle.  We weren’t expecting much, so it was fine.  The Castel began it’s life as a place for the remains of Emperors (Hadrian’s was the first), because in ancient Rome, the emperors bodies could not be buried in the city walls.  Then, the castle elements were added and a wall leading to the Vatican for the pope to escape through to the castle in times of trouble.  All over Rome, we keep saying, “remember in Angels and Demons . . .”    We did a lot of that at the Castel Sant’Angelo.  Evidently in the distant past, there was a plague and the pope was holed up in the castle.  The archangel Michael appeared to release the people from the plague.  There is a stone and copper statue in the courtyard and another done in gold leaf on top of the castle of St. Michael.  The art was nice, but not wow.  It was fun seeing inside the castle and going up on the terrace to get great views of Rome.  Although, since we had been indoors, I had my glasses on instead of my sunglasses, I felt like my eyes were on fire and were going to melt out of my head--they hurt so much!  Had to switch back to the sunglasses.  

The view of Rome--see all the domes!!

The children then led us to Piazza Navona to the Fountain of the Four Rivers (another A&D reference) where we took our photos, then moved on to the Pantheon.  I didn’t get any photos of that from the outside, but the inside has a huge dome with a large oculus inside (an opening, or eye, in the center of the dome).   From Randy, from when this dome was built, it was the largest dome for 1500 years until the dome of the cathedral in  Florence was built.  It has squares in the dome that appear to be done for aesthetic reasons.  They are, but also for structural reasons--they take some of the weight out of the dome.  Also, the stone used in the top is a lighter stone and is cut much thinner.  I believe it was built as a pagan Roman temple, but now has a Christian (Catholic) alter and pews in one area--darn Christians, taking over everything!  ; )   If you continue the curve of the dome to create a sphere, the bottom of the sphere would touch the floor in the center of the room.  Pretty cool for people with no formal education or power tools!   The Romans were amazing!

The light from the oculus shining down in the Pantheon

From there we went to Piazza Barberini to see the Church of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception.  They had a small museum of the Capucchian friars and then you went into the crypt.  Reportedly, during the French Revolution,  a group of Cappucciani from France escaped to Rome and stayed at this church (they had a huge organization with hundreds of acres then) and had to hide out in the crypt.  Well, one of them decided to “express” himself and created art, complete with symbolism using the bones from the many friars that had been buried there over the years.  I think he was losing touch, but who am I to judge?  There are many rooms with the celings and walls “decorated” with symbolically rich “art” made of bones.  To tell the truth, it was kind of weird.  Not worth the money for admission.  We had heard of a similar thing in Paris (except not art), but this was just weird and kind of creepy.  We weren’t allowed to take pictures, so I can’t share this with you.   (Lucky you!!)  Ooops--I just found out that Randy took a sneaky photo of the bones, so for those of you that don't read his blog:

Some of the "art"

Aren't they great?

Ancient Rome

Near the forum

Saturday, 7 July, 2012

Well, today was a sore feet day.  Anneliese and Shelby and I discussed feet:  dead feet just don’t have any feeling in them, dying feet still feel the pain.  We all have dying feet!  

In this city with so much ancient history all over, the lack of importance placed on ancient walls, pillars, etc.  is just weird.  It is hard to get used to.  In one area we walked last night, we saw some ancient walls and pillars--with just a fence around them.  Further down the street was another pillar in the middle of the sidewalk.  The sidewalk just went around it!  In another country, there would be at minimum a plaque placed on it with brown signs pointing the way for tourists to find it.  In Rome, it is simply taken for granted.  Just part of the backdrop, like the souvenir shops.  

One thing that is great about Italy (aside from all of the obvious things!), is the availability of water.  When we were in Venice, I saw a public water spigot and asked Randy if he thought it was potable (drinkable).  He said that the guidebooks all say that the public water from spigots is drinkable.  So we filled up.  They are all over Italy.  Some have beautiful little carved shapes that they come out of, others have troughs underneath, some are just a spigot coming out of a wall.  But all are for public water consumption.  Great places to fill up the water bottles (we have at least three with us at all times).  The water is sometimes better than tap water and is usually cold.  Very refreshing.  There are even a few in St. Peter’s square in front of the Basilica.  Good way to combat dehydration and heat stroke as well as save money on bottled water.  A little cool water on a hot day goes a long ways. 

First today, we went to the Forum and Palantine Hill. Rome started out as an overnight stop on the salt road.  The area had seven hills and the village was built between them.  Then, the temples for deities began to be constructed on hills and houses and shops joined them.  Eventually, the hills were moved for the growing city.  Capitoline was the hill of the government and Palatine was another--I believe that might have been for the immigrants and plebs, but don’t quote me on it.  

The forum is on the right

Enough of the history lesson, we went into the area of the forum, Palatine hill and the settlement around that area.  Most of the ruins are here.  Our ticket also included the Coliseum, where we planned to go next.  We went to the forum first because the lines at the Coliseum are supposed to be unbelievably long and if you already have a ticket, you don’t need to wait in line.  So, we waited in an extremely slow line at the forum--no shade.  By the time we got our tickets, I had to go sit down because I was so dizzy. 

Looking toward Palatine hill

But in we went and wow, cool ruins.  It was hard to see where things were.  Again, their signage is not very good.  They have information placards here and there, but nothing is labeled.  Even the forum was hard to make out.  The house of the vestal virgins was labeled and that figured in a huge section in my book on Rome, so that was cool to see.  The vestal virgins were (mostly) young women (virgins) who took over caring for the temple of Vesta and making sure that the fire did not go out.  They made a lifelong pledge to care for the temple and to remain chaste.  (I suppose someone had to do it!)  They were considered sacred women, very elevated in society and no one sought to defile them.  

Courtyard of the house of the vestal virgins

I would have loved more labels.  Signs would direct you toward an area to see something, but then the thing was not labeled.  We’re still not sure if what we saw was the Romulus and Remus hut that Joshua and I wanted to see.  But, on to the coliseum.

Inside the coliseum

We got to sail past most of the line, we just had a small wait to go through the turnstile and we weren’t made to go through security either.  Nice.  The coliseum has a lot of interesting facts about when and where it was constructed and why.  The Emperor Nero, had a large pool in front of his house.  The subsequent emperor, can’t-remember-his-name, wanted the people to see him as supporting their needs, so he built the coliseum for recreation of the people and part of it covers the lake that Nero had created.  It seated over 70,000 people.  It is still pretty awe-inspiring, though there are few seats still left.  You can see down in to the labyrinth of the area below the stage, though there is a bit of stage to show you where it was.  I believe I read that it took 244 men to operate the winch to get the animal cages up for the animals to enter the arena.  I read that the word “arena” means sand in Latin.  The coliseum was built in sand.  I also read an interesting bit (the children had already learned this) that the lower level was flooded out sometimes and ships were built there for plays and shows about water battles!  Makes the Guthrie seem lacking!  

The area below the floor

Pretty fun to see.  Then back to rest.  A nightly walk took us to Trevi fountain.  

Only in Rome do they have a headless statue adorn a cash machine!

Trevi fountain at night