Sunday, September 30, 2007
We've landed
Friday, September 28, 2007
Barcelona / Madrid
We used the subway to go to the game mainly just following the droves of FCB jerseys to the stadium. Here are a couple of things I learned from the game:
1.) FCB is way better than Real Zaragosa. The final score was 4 to 1 in favor of FCB but it might as well have been 20 to 1 the way they dominated the game.
2.) I should have bought a Messi jersey. Before the game I bought a Henry jersey who is their center forward but he didn't convert any of the 4 scoring oportunities that he had. Meanwhile Messi scored the first 2 goals.
3.) You are apparently supposed to to whistle really load when you are mad at the refs.
4.) When you are really mad at the refs you pull out a white hankerchef and wave at them.
5.) They really love their soccer in Spain. Very very few people left early in what many would consider a blowout in soccer terms.
The seats were great and we had a blast and we went to the game by ourselves. Kind of a scary thing to do when you don't know the language very well.
The next day we left for Madrid. Nothing much happened that day as it was a long drive, but we did get to sleep a lot which we really needed since we didn't get back from the game until 1:00 that morning.
Well I have to get ready for dinner so I'll have to finish the update on Madrid later.
Adios!
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
2nd row midfield at FCB
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Yes I do like really thin pancakes.
Monaco was great. We got to walk around and see Princess Grace's tomb, the starting line for the Monaco Grand Prix, Prince Albert's palace, and of course the casinos in Monte Carlo. We each went with 20 euros and expecting to lose it. Adrian had no problem losing hers quickly while I was able to come away with 34 so all in all we only lost 6 euros. The lights of Monaco were beautiful as well as the really expensive cars that were parked in front of the old casino. I think Adrian could have stayed there for hours.
The next day we slept in a bit and spent the day on our own. We walked to the contemporary art museum in Nice to find that it was closed on Mondays. So we took a walk around old town and stopped by the beach to jump in the Mediterranean. We didn't stay on the beach very long because it is a stone beach and not a sand beach. Instead we spent a nice relaxing afternoon at the hotel's pool and solarium on the top floor. It had a beautiful view of the coast line. Adrian likened it to being on the top of a cruise ship without all the wind. The quote of the day from Adrian "I never realized how much seeing bathing suit tops make a difference when determining if some people are male or female...". She said this as we were walking down the Nice beaches where tops are optional.
That night we had a really nice French dinner in the old town area near our hotel. Today we left Nice and headed to Barcelona with a stop in Arles. I just found out that thanks to some of Adrian's business contacts we will be going to the Barcelona Champions league soccer game on Wednesday evening with a 100,000+ crazy soccer fans. More on that from Spain.
Au revoire!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Bonjour! From Nice
For our first night in Florence, we took the optional Tuscan dinner excursion which turned out to be great. Adrian likened it to an Italian version of a Luau. We ate outside at this place outside the city of Florence. They provided singing and excellent food. For the main course they brought out the flaming remains of a cow(I'm sure I'm not doing it justice with that description). We enjoyed the dinner and some great conversations with the people at our table. All the older people on our tour have really enjoyed us and some have even invited us to stay at their houses should we ever be in the area.
The next day in Florence was a busy one as we did a walking tour throughout the city with our local guide. We got to see Michaelanglo's David, the inside of the Santa Maria Croce (the duomo), the Ponte Vechio, various other buildings and the Ufizzi Gallery (famous for its collection of Rennisance paintings like the Birth of Venus). On the way back we ran across a lost couple from our tour and brought them back to the hotel. At this point we have noticed that our tour guide is not always the best at giving directions, he told the group the hotel was 3 bridges past the Ponte Vechio when it was actually 4. We went to bed early after a long day and prepared to leave Florence in the morning.
This morning we stopped by Pisa to take a few pictures of the leaning tower. We didn't have much time there so Adrian and I rushed to the tower with the hopes of climbing it if the line wasn't too long. We arrived to find the line was very short, only a couple of people, but the price to go up was 15 euros per person, which would have been about 50 dollars for the both of us to go. We deemed that it wasn't worth it since we would only have time to be at the top for a couple of minutes. We took our token holding up the tower pictures and boarded the bus for Nice.
The drive from Pisa to Nice is really amazing and Adrian loved it. The mountains are on the right and the Mediterranean Sea is on the left. All along the way, small tiowns are tucked away in the mountains. We did have to drive through several mountains which (I think) made Adrian nervous as she is very clostraphobic. We have now made it into France and the town of Nice. Tonight we head to Monaco.
On a different note, sorry if the pictures are not very goodn but it takes a while to upload the high res ones so we have tried to take a few low res ones for uploading while we are on the trip. We also do not have control over how they get posted from here so if it is rotated there is nothing we can do. We plan on uploading more pictures once the trip is over.
Au revoir!
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Rome to Venice travel day
We got up early this morning to head to Venice. It was a long bus drive but apparently we made good time because we made a stop by the historic distric of Venice before heading to our hotel, which was not in the original plan. We took the attached picture on one of the many bridges and bought a few things. We also enjoyed a couple of great gellatos on our walk. After some negotiating we picked up a purse for Adrian and headed back to the bus.
Our hotel is outside of the historic Venice town center so we had our group dinner at the hotel Resaurant. After dinner we went for a walk with some people from our group and headed 1.5 miles in one direction not finding anything but some amazing homes. And now we're back in the room getting ready to fall asleep and prepare ourselves for tomorrow's day in Venice.
Salute!
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Rome continued - Under construction
When we finally woke up at 6:00 we got ready for our first real day in Rome. The day started by going to the Vatican Museum. Our local guide took us through quickly as we saw some of the highlights and ultimatley made it to the Sistine Chapel which was just as amazing as I had remembered it. We then headed to St. Peter's square as we found out that we would not get to go inside St. Peter's Basilica because the Pope here. This was a major disapointment because I that was one of the most memorable parts from my first trip and the view from the top is one of the best in "Rome". Since we couldn't go in the Pope blessed us even though we aren't Catholic. Okay, so maybe the Pope blessed us because he blessed everyone standing outside for his Wednesday blessings. Either way we left and headed with the group to the Colliseum and the Roman Forum.
We didn't stay too long at the colliseum, but we stayed long enough totake few pictures and look around. After the guide gave us the run down on the forum, we left the group and headed out on our own. We started by spending some more time at the forum. We then left the forum and headed past the Victor Emmanuel Monument. Once we got there we saw that the monument was under construction so it wasn't as impressive as I wanted it to be for Adrian. Anyways we left and headed toward the Piazza Navona to see the fountain of the four rivers. On our way we stopped in a small restarunt for pizza. We continued on our journey with full stomachs.
We finally arrived at the Piazza Navona to find the fountain of the four rivers was drained and under repair. Again Adrian missed out on seeing a truly amazing sight. We left and headed to the Pantheon.
As we walked down the small alley like streets, we came upon the amazing grandour of the Pantheon. Finally something that wasn't under construction.
We left and head to the Trevi Fountain. Once we arrived we made our way through the mob of people to toss our coins in and hope we one day will return. We left the fountain and headed to the Spanish steps passing down the via condotti (which is the Italian equivilent to Rodeo drive, and non we didn't buy you anything, or us for that matter). We arrived at the steps and rested. The attached picture is from our time there. Guess what, the obilisk at the top of the steps was under repair. From there, we left and headed back to our hotel with a great scenic walk through the Burghese Gardens. All in all the day turned out to be great, and we still haven't finished it off with dinner. Sure everything didn't turn out as we had planned, but we're in Romen and when in Rome...
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
64
We arrived safe and sound and have made it to the hotel. I am thankful that the flight is over, that no screaming children were sitting next to us and that we have our luggage. The weather here is partly cloudy with some rain showers. High 75.
Oh, the hotel has Adrian's favorite color carpet and very eclectic style.
Salute!
Monday, September 17, 2007
Lessons Learned
FWA
Update from the airport:
We are sitting in the Fort Wayne International Airport with all systems a go to Cincinnati and then Rome! We will enjoy our last supper in Cincinnati.
Questions you might ask:
Where's Nemo? He is safe at home with Michael Whitton, who is house sitting for us.
Have you ever been to Europe? Adrian has never been and David spent a month there in 2001. Neither of us has been to Spain though!
How will you update the blog? Adrian has an international phone with email capabilities (Blackberry) and will be updating via email.
That's it for now. Salute!
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Saturday, September 15, 2007
Confessions from Adrian
Today's agenda:
- Laundry
- Wal-mart
- Wash the S2000 (I can't leave her sitting in the garage dirty :) )
- Get over this cold fast
- Unpack from Oklahoma and Repack for Europe!!!