TravelStream™ news feed for member egggreg on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/egggreg en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:47:03 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/egggreg/1/1212612600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/egggreg/1/1212612600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/egggreg/1/1212612600/tpod.html Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:47:03 -0400 Europe 2008

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Chicago, Illinois, United States


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Rome, Italy

Today is our last day in Rome. It wasn't a very eventful day as we saw all of the big sights during the prior two days.

The sky was overcast and it rained on and off all morning into the afternoon. The temperature dropped considerably from the past couple of days. The sun came out in the afternoon and it turned into a beautiful day.

We started the day by taking the Metro to the southwest side of Rome and then we walked north and then back to our hostel. As our first stop of the day we went in seach of a secret keyhole at the top of Aventine Hill. We heard from a couple sources that you go to the top of Aventine Hill and find a large blue door that was the door of the Priory Knights of Malta. You look through the keyhole and see a secret garden with trees framing a mystery sight. You can ask us if you want to know what it was so we don't give the secret away to those that don't want to know.

From there we walked north and walked through the Campo de Fioro which is an outdoor market with mainly food stalls. We then walked through the Piazza Navona which is another square. We then went back to the Vatican City in search of a Bible. The one souvenir I wanted to get in Italy was a Bible from the Vatican City. Not a Bible from a souvenir shop outside of the Vatican City. We didn't find out yesterday but there was a bookstore there that I wanted to check out but we didn't have time yesterday. But when we got back today they had changed the security around due to a lot of cars that were being police escorted from the Vatican. So in order to get to the bookstore we would have had to have waited in line again to get into St. Peter's Basilica just to walk through to get to the bookstore. It wasn't worth the wait. You would think it would be easy to get a Bible at the Vatican but we never saw one. If you want a cross, rosary, or a picture of Mary or Jesus there are a lot of those.

We then wandered a bit and accidentally walked right off of the map. So we were a little lost for awhile. But we were able to have a conversation mainly in Italian to ask for directions and we got back on track.

Then we grabbed lunch and went to the Piazza del Poppola. And from there we went to the Ara Pacis which is a tribute to peace built by the Senate during the reign of Augustus. Next to the Ara Pacis was the Mausoleum of Augustus. Greg liked both of these because he studied them in school this past semester.

After that there really wasn't much else left to see in Rome. So we wandered the streets, did some shopping, and sat by the Trevi Fountain for awhile.

Now it's time to pack up and get ready for the trip home tomorrow. It's been a good trip. We have seen a lot of great sights, transitioned successfully from one culture to the next, and found our way in countries in which we didn't speak the language.

Check back in a day or two for some picture updates.
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Rome, Italy

First, I want to let you all know that there probably won't be anymore pictures uploaded until we get back on Friday or Saturday. We can't upload pictures at this hostel due to the security settings.

Today was our big day at the Vatican City. The Papal Audience was at 10:30AM. We arrived at the Vatican City around 9AM. By the time we go through security and found seats it was about 9:30. It was already very hot out and very sunny. We sat using an umbrella as shade until the Pope arrived.

The Pope entered St. Peter's Square on a white truck. The truck circled the square a couple times and he passed a few rows in front of us twice. Then the truck dropped the Pope off on a stage in front of St. Peter's Basilica.

We sat about a quarter of the way back from the stage to the end of St. Peter's Square. We couldn't see the Pope too clearly but there were video monitors that we could see as well.

A few prayers were said in English and other languages, I'm not sure which languages. Then the Pope gave a speech in Italian. We couldn't understand it but he spoke about Gregorio a lot. And he said the numbers 5 and 8. But beyond that we aren't sure what he talked about.

Then various priests representing different languages took the podium. For example, an English speaking priest took the podium and addressed the Pope and the English speaking audience. That priest then told the Pope which English speaking groups were represented. Then the Pope addressed that group in that language, in this example he spoke English. This process went on for just about every language possible. And it lasted a long time.

After all groups had been announced, the Pope and the crowd said the Our Father in Latin. The prayer was printed in Latin on the back of our tickets.

After the Papal Audience was over we needed to get out of the sun so we left the Vatican City to have lunch. After lunch we went back to the Vatican City and went to St. Peter's Basilica. The Church is massive. The ceilings are very high and the dome is even higher. The high alter is under the dome and is 7 stories high. There are various tombs and memorials to past popes throughout the Church.

We then climbed the 511 or so steps to the top of the dome. It was the highest climb we have done so far and in the heat we were exhausted and dripping in sweat by the time we reached the top. We had a great view of St. Peter's Square from the top. And we could see the domes of other Churches and one giant monument that I'm not sure what it was. But it was hard to make out the Colosseum and the ruins.

The Vatican Museum was the next stop. It was getting late so we hurried through the museum until we reached the Sistine Chapel. We had downloaded a podcast for the Chapel so we were able to pick out the meanings of the different scenes on the Chapel ceiling and walls. My neck hurt after looking at the ceiling for only a few minutes. I can't imagine how Michelangelo did that for 4 years.

We caught a Metro train to the stop near the Spanish Steps. There was scaffolding covering the building at the top of the steps so the view wasn't picture perfect. But I sat on the steps for awhile and then we both sat near the fountain at the bottom of the steps for awhile.

Then we walked back to our hostel and grabbed a gelato on the way. Greg is getting annoyed with the European streets. There apparently wasn't any sort of planning done when they mapped out the streets. The streets aren't clearly marked. But Rome seems to be a little better than Florence in one respect. In Florence each street had two names so you had to search the side of the buildings to make sure you found the right name that matched the name on the map. Oh, all of the street names are on the side of buildings about 10 feet off the ground and are often faded. So we wander around a lot but we eventually end up somewhere.

Only one more day in Rome.



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Rome, Italy

This morning we took the Eurostar train from Florence to Rome. It was a quick 1 hour and 38 minute trip. We first walked over to our hostel to drop off our bags. The hostel is a few blocks from the main train station. We have a room with two twin beds and a private bathroom. It's the largest room we have had this entire trip. It will be nice to spread out a bit.

After dropping our bags off we immediately headed for the Colosseum. It is quite amazing to see such a large stadium made of stone and other materials that is still standing after almost 2000 years. The crowds weren't as bad as I had expected.

From there we went to the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. The Palatine Hill has the ruins of some old palaces, one of which was Augustus' palace. Then we walked over to the Roman Forum which was where business was conducted thousands of years ago. There isn't much left that is intact but you can see lots of old stones and marble around the grounds. There are a few Roman columns still standing.

By this point we were burning in the heat. It reached about 90 degrees today and there wasn't much shade at any of these sites. I even carried my umbrella to use to shade myself. But we are still a little burnt anyway. The rest of the day was spent resting in every shady area we could find and filling our water bottles in every fountain we passed.

We moved on to the Pantheon. This building is very impressive. From the outside it looks like an old brick building. But when you walk inside and see just how emormous the dome is you are amazed. And the interior is still in good condition. There is an oculus in the middle of the dome that is the only light source for the building. This is still an active church. We sat in the pews for awhile to rest and enjoy the cool air.

Then after a gelato break we headed for the Trevi fountain. It is a very large fountain surrounded by buildings. We threw a coin in the fountain to ensure our return to Rome.

Then we picked up our tickets from the Church of Santa Sussana to see the Pope tomorrow morning. From there we trudged back to our hostel.

So far Rome seems pretty chaotic. The traffic is heavy and moves fast. There doesn't appear to be any lines dividing the lanes of traffic and people drive everywhere. There are a lot of scooters and motorcycles too. There aren't many crosswalks so you just have to run across the street and hope they stop. But other than that Rome seems to be a good city so far.
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Siena, Tuscany, Italy

On Monday, we took a bus tour to the towns of Siena and San Gimignano in the Tuscan countryside. It was our one and only tour experience. We boarded a bus with many other people all wearing matching stickers. We followed a tour guide throughout Siena but we were on our own in San Gimignano.

Siena is a cute town with a lot of history. The town is small but is further broken down into 17 sections or contradas each contrada has it's own history with it's own town hall and museum. The Campo Square is the main square in the town where the town hall is located. We didn't have time to climb the tower here since our tour group was meeting up soon to move on to the next town.

San Gimignano is an old medieval town. It's very small and we easily explored this entire town in less than an hour. At one point in time the town had over 70 towers. There are 14 towers remaining and we climbed to the top of one of the towers. From here we had a great view of the countryside of Tuscany and all of the vineyards and trees. Tuscany is very beautiful.
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Luxembourg City, Luxembourg

On Tuesday morning, we took the train from Paris to Luxembourg City. Luxembourg City is a very small, very beautiful town. Everything is within walking distance. There are tall stone walls that separate the town which is on the top of the cliff to the valleys below. In the largest valley there is a stream with some great walking trails. We stayed at the Mercure hotel across from the train station. It was a very nice hotel and the last hotel on our journey. From here on out we are in hostels.

We walked around Luxembourg and saw just about all of the local attractions. We went into the Notre Dame Cathedral which is much smaller than the Notre Dame in Paris but has very beautiful stained glass windows.

We then walked over to two of the plazas. We first went to the plaza near the Grand Ducal Palace and then we walked over to see the Palace. There was one guard keeping watch out front. The second plaza was the Place d´Armes which is an open square with a lot of restaurants and cafes. We ended up eating dinner in this plaza later in the day.

Luxembourg has a lot of history dating back to 963AD when they first started building fortifications around the city to protect it from outsiders. There are some old remaining stone forts and several miles of underground tunnels remaining that were used over the centuries during the wars. These are called the casements. We explored the casements and saw some the old tunnels that were used during the wars and saw some old cannons. Most of the tunnels have openings that overlook the lower suburbs of Grund. There were some tunnels that went well below the surface of the earth. As you descend down into these tunnels by walking down narrow spiral staircases the air gets colder and you can see moss growing on the walls.

After the casements we took an elevator down into the lower suburb of Grund which was very cute with narrow winding streets.

After that we walked around the rest of the town, which only took about another hour, then grabbed dinner. By that point we had seen everything, and some things twice.

All in all, we enjoyed our time here. Luxembourg is a very prosperous small town. We small more cafes and pastry shops here than we did in Paris. There were a lot of business people in suits. And most of the cabs we saw were Mercedes or BMWs. Everyone was very friendly and most people spoke almost perfect English. Though the native language sounds like a mixture of French and German.
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Florence, Italy

We arrived in Florence today at 6am had breakfast then waited til 8:30 which is when places started opening. We climbed the 400 steps of the Tower of the Duomo to get a magnificent view of the city. After that we went to the baptistery. Then we visited the first of three museums of the day. The first museum was for sculptures from the Duomo.

Next we went to the Galleria dell Accademia to see Michealangelos David. It was much larger than I was expecting and it was my favorite thing Ive seen so far. After that we checked in to our hostel and had lunch. We then went to the Galleria degli Uffizi which has the largest collection of Italian paintings. At this point I had spent enough time in museums for the day.

Greg
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Munich, Bavaria, Germany

This was our last day in Munich and we managed to see a lot. We started off the day with a wonderful breakfast of pastries and Greg had a bratwurst in the Viktualienmarkt. We then went to the Frauenkirchen (or as I call it, the Frow-en-gerkin). The towers weren´t open when we were here the other day so we wanted to get back to climb the towers. The view from the towers was exactly what I thought Munich would look like. From ground level, Munich is very modern. But from the towers you can get a better view of the traditional red roofs and all of the cathedrals.

We then signed up for the hop-on-hop-off bus tour that circles the city and let´s you get off the bus at a few different stops. We got off the bus at the Nymphenburg Palace which was the summer home for the one of the kings. We drove past the Olympic Park from the 1972 games and saw the BMW headquarters. We then got off the bus at the Englischer Garten. This is a spectacular garden where all of the muncheners seem to hang out. It was a beautiful day today and the garden was packed with people laying around, playing frisbee, hanging out in the biergarten, and even surfing. There is a part of the river that generates waves when the water rushes out from under a bridge. There were about 8 surfers there taking turns riding the rapids. We walked through the garden and found the Chinese tower which was surrounded by a biergarten with seats for thousands. In the tower there was a Bavarian band playing.
From there was walked back to the city center and had dinner in an outdoor cafe. We are now at the computer lab killing some time before our train leaves. We are taking the night train to Florence tonight and will arrive in Florence about 6:15 Sunday morning. Hopefully we´ll be able to upload some pictures from Florence.

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Munich, Bavaria, Germany

On Friday we boarded a Deutsche Bahn train to the town of Fussen which is about two hours south of Munich in the Bavarian Alps. In Fussen we boarded a bus which took us about 10-15 minutes outside of Fussen. This is where the Neuschwanstein Castle is located. This castle was built by the mad King Ludwig II. The castle is beautiful both inside and out. We spent a lot of time walking around the outside of the castle and the areas nearby. To reach the castle from the town below you have to hike up a steep mountain road for about half an hour. Then you reach the castle. From the castle we followed a trail for another 15 minutes or so until we reached Mary´s Bridge (Marienbrucke). This is the place to get the best photos of the castle. You are standing on a bridge high over a ravine and waterfall with the castle in the foreground and the beautiful valley towns in the background. From Mary´s Bridge we kept hiking up the mountian a bit further. There was a tree blocking the path so we followed the crowds that had left the path and were using tree roots to help them climb up the side of the mountain. It was worth it when we reached the top because the views were breathtaking. You could see the castle and the towns below.

We toured the castle after our hike. The castle was only partially completed in King Ludwig´s lifetime and the rest of the castle was never finished. There was a lot of detail put into each room. The theater room has specially designed ceiling tiles that are sort of like a guitar with two wood panels and space between so they reverberate when music is played in the room.

We enjoyed getting out of the city for the day. It was nice to see the countyside and all of the little towns along the way. We could tell how advanced Germany is when it comes to the environment. We saw a lot of houses in the country that had solar panels on the roof. And we have seen a few wind turbines too. Within Munich there are also a lot of buildings that have grass growing on the roofs.

This was a very enjoyable day and it was one of my favorite days of the trip.

After returning to Munich we went back to the Hofbrauhaus for some meat and beer. What a great way to end the day.
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Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Today we started off walking to the Deutsches Museum but stopped along the way as mass was ending outside the Rathaus for Corpus Christi. After that we waited around the Marienplatz for the Glockenspiel to play. The Glockenspiel is like a life sized music box that tells a story. There are two levels of figures that move. We both enjoyed it.

After that we walked to the Deutsches Museum and had a pretzel along the way. The museum wasn't as impressive as I was expecting. The model train wasn't operating and was significantly smaller than that at the museum of science and industry in Chicago. The museum was designed to be interactive which we enjoyed but overall the Chicago museum is better. We were there for most of the afternoon then went to the Frauenkirche.

The Frauenkirche is a large cathedral with two onion topped towers. Christine enjoyed it but I thought it didn't compare to the other cathdrals we had already seen.

It is cold here. Yesterday we were wearing almost everything we brought but today wasn't as cold. At least it hasn't rained.

We ended our day at the Hofbrauhaus again. I finished my beer in only 50min tonight and Christine got farther than last night but couldn't quite finish it. We both had meat again because which I love but Christine wasn't too thrilled about it. She says you either eat meat or you don't eat at all in Munich.

-Greg
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