All roads lead to Rome...and all waterways lead to Venice?

Our kids had a long break from school. Here in the UK they have long spring breaks...or or properly called Easter holiday. We decided that 3 1/2 weeks off is too much in one place so we headed for Italy! First stop was Rome. We were able to spend 5 days in Rome.

Throughout Europe, hotel rooms are usually laid out differently. Typically rooms sleep 2 people only, sometimes 3. To get 4 people to fit in one room you usually have to search for accommodations that have "family rooms". Needless to say, we have difficulty with our size family. This time in Rome we opted for searching for apartment rentals. Scott was able to find one that had two nice rooms with adequate beds and a kitchen. But the one very strange thing about this apartment was the barbed wire toilet seat...can you imagine? Okay, it's encased in plastic...but still! Sometimes (especially after walking through shopping stalls) you definitely wonder about Italian fashion designs! The location was very near a train station and bus line-so we really couldn't complain! The big bonus (from Bryce's viewpoint) was the internet cafe located right below us on the ground floor. Bryce is really into internet communications with his friends back home...a typical teenager.

Some unexpected travel fun also came from Christina. She had a book called "This is Rome" by Miroslav Sasek. I had no idea what an impact on our vacation that simple childrens book would have. She had read ahead and looked at the pictures so when we came across something that was depicted in her book she would get quite excited and talk about it at length. Every night we would pull her book out and look over what we had done for the day. The humorous thing was that it sometimes helped us choose what we were going to see!

On Monday, March 31 we took the early flight so we had a good portion of the day remaining after we landed. We decided to go to the COLOSEUM (Christina's favorite) and because it was a convenient bus ride away. It is amazing to be among such historical monuments. It also is amazing to see the sheer size of structures that could be built so long ago. The coloseum actually was built over a lakebed...so the foundation isn't the best and it still has stood for thousands of years. If you factor in that it had been pillaged of many of the supporting metal connections and stonework it isn't surprising that a lot of it collapsed with earthquakes. Even so, it is an amazing structure.

The next day we finished up the Coloseum area with a tour of the PALENTINE HILL and walked through the ROMAN FORUM. At the far end of the Forum up the hill we visited the MAMMERTINE PRISON where Paul was thought to have been kept before he was killed (as seen on "the indestructible book" dvd). Right outside the prison, the kids talked Scott into some ice cream...that was the start of a week long (daily) obsession with Italian ice cream. Long discussions followed as to which flavors were best and which combinations were best. A lot of sharing and "I should have got that one" followed.

What I found most amazing about Rome was how new and old are mixed. A busy metropolis with subways and tall buildings can share the same wall as an ancient Roman acqueduct or monument. It is completely interwoven.

We were also able to visit the PANTHEON. Last time we were here with Bryce we just walked by because it was closed for some reason. Now we were able to see what we missed inside. I think it was my personal favorite Roman structure. I was amazed at the engineering that has allowed the dome to endure the ages so well.

Ever since we came over here to Europe, Bryce has commented on how he would love to drive a mini-cooper...I don't think so! When we were here 11 years ago with Bryce we got a cute picture of Bryce next to the "iddy-biddy tar"...things have changed.

The next day was Wednesday so we decided to go to the VATICAN. We thought it would be interesting to see the Pope if possible. (Bryce also really wanted to see the Pope-mobile)The weather was nice and it had been decided that the POPE would do an outdoor mass outside St. Peter's Cathedral. So we were able to see him! It was quite different for us to be part of a Catholic mass with it's grandeur and formality. I was left wondering what Peter, a simple fisherman, would think of this church that was founded on his (Peter) being the rock of the church. But putting that aside, we were able to visit the VATICAN MUSEUMS (the Sistine chapel). The museum went on and on with priceless artifacts and works of art. The hallways were seemingly endless with their massive paintings, frescoes, marble statues, tapestries...anything and everything of extreme value.

We finished the packed day with a trip inside the St. Peter's church. It was absolutely breathtaking in its wealth and grandeur. When you enter the cathedral you are taken aback by the vast space and height all in beautifully carved and fluted marble. The floors are beautiful marble inlaid slabs. There is gold highlights everywhere. Far in the distance you can see a canopied altar of gigantic proportions (maybe 3 storys tall). Within the naves on either side are more chapels, famous paintings and insets dedicated to various popes. There is no part of the church that doesn't have painstakingly intricate detailing. We have spent the past 6 months visiting castles and famous beautiful churches and I was very taken aback by the magnitude and splendor of work here.

Unfortunately, my knee was bothering me a bit so I stayed behind with Christina while Scott, Bryce and Madison climbed 327 stairs to the top of the dome. They enjoyed the exciting climb and the fantastic views.

The next day we were able to see a very interesting view of dome of St. Peter...through a keyhole! This is one of the sights that Christina's book told us about and we followed up with going to see it. It's located on one of Rome's seven hills- the AVENTINE. It was fun to discover a little known sight.

The following day, Friday, was the last full day in Rome and we decided to .... drive to POMPEI! We rented a car and Scott braved driving in Italy. Along the way we marveled at how Italian drivers seem to ignore the lanes...like lane lines are pavement grafitti. We also were amazed at the roads and garbage problem near Naples. Garbage in bags was litterally dumped on the side of the road so that the lanes had to bulge out around the piles. Not that any part of Italy would be classified as clean...but this was REALLY bad. And the potholes were ENORMOUS. There was a long stretch where traffic was reduced to one lane (both ways had to share a small path through the pits in the road). Our GPS obviously directed us through the bad side of town. It also was a rainy day which was a bit disappointing, but once we got there we had a picnic lunch and set out to see the famous city of Pompeii. I honestly was expecting a museum display with a lots of molded forms of people. Although it had a few forms of people, the most impressive part of the site was the enormity of the cities infrastructure. Madison and Christina tried out the accoustics of one of the ampitheaters there. (Yes, the city had at least 3 Ampitheaters!) Another interesting discovery was that the typical houses each had open courtyards with water pools and sometimes fountains in the middle.

The stones of the road actually had wagon wheel ruts! The 3 big stones in the middle served as pedestrian bridges when the weather was rainy and the roads were like rivers.

We had a chance to see their usefulness...although Bryce still preferred the challenge of jumping over the puddles himself!

Our last day in Rome was Saturday April 5. We finished up some of the sights we missed...the SPANISH STEPS. We had previously went to TREVI FOUNTAIN because the kids wanted to make sure that they would come back to Rome someday. (If you throw a coin over your right shoulder that is supposed to mean that you will come back again someday).

Then it was off to VENICE! The kids had been really looking forward to the seeing the canals and boats. We were however, a bit disappointed at the extreme cost of the public boats. I guess they have to make what money they can to repair the infrastructure... Anyway, we opted to purchase a carefully timed 24 hour pass on the boat/bus/rail system. This meant we had to walk all the way to our hotel. The kids were tired but after a lot of ups and downs over stair bridges with our rolling luggage we made it to our hotel. We were VERY pleased with the accommodation. The kids quickly forgot that they were tired and hungry with the elation of their kingly room. Bryce was in heaven with a king size SOFT bed all to himself. In the morning we were surprised to see that the room had a canal view also. They had just begun a 6 month repair to the canal behind us so it spoiled the view a bit, but it also was interesting to watch them work!

We headed off to SAN MARCO (St. Mark's) SQUARE but were stopped by a gondola man. Since it was Sunday morning, he convinced us that it was the best time to go on a gondola ride. He claimed that Sunday morning there aren't motorboats to contend with as well as delivery boats and garbage barges...etc. So we went and weren't disappointed. He had excellent english and we thoroughly enjoyed a long ride.

Next came the birds. Madison aptly sang "feed the birds...euro a bag...euro...euro...euro a bag". The kids really enjoyed their time here. Actually we ended up feeding the birds several days... Christina never quite braved the aggressive pecking so she wisely opted to put the corn kernels on her shoes and watched them eat.

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That evening we enjoyed a nice meal along the Grand Canal next to the Rialto bridge. I don't think the girls will ever tire of spaghetti.

We were able secure a spot to go on the secret itineraries tour at the DOGE'S PALACE (right next to St. Mark's Basillica). It was well worth it! We were able to get a tour of the prison Cassanova escaped as well as a structural view of the roof rafters. Okay, that doesn't sound that exciting unless you're an engineer...but it was pretty amazing when you later saw what it supported. We also got to go through secret doors that were hidden in the panelling...COOL! If you plan on going to Venice sometime just plan ahead...because the tours fill up quickly (only 25 per tour). That afternoon we took the "bus"-boats to both MURANO and BURANO. We didn't spend much time in Murano...just caught a quick glass blowing demonstration. We then hopped a bus-boat to Burano which is the lace/fishing island. It is much less crowded with brightly colored houses that aren't as tall. It actually seemed CLEAN!

Our hope was to end on the island LIDO to play a bit on their beaches. We rode the boat over and were surprised that it is an island with...ROADS! We caught a bus to the beach but found them closed....so we consoled ourselves with ice-cream :-) A dual scoop of banana and strawberry won the contest, with a close second with mint and stractilla (chocolate chip). But then again there was a creamy cherry-berry/vanilla that was sooo good.

We woke to light, misty rain that continued thoughout the day. Even so, we really enjoyed just walking through the city streets and shopping. The kids had found Italy soccer balls at a store on the RIALTO BRIDGE that they wanted as souveniers the day before and this last day in Venice we finished with a sweatjacket for Bryce and some glass heart necklaces for the girls.

We explored a fishmarket and we all enjoyed some fresh fruit. But as we were leaving the market, Madison had a very close-call. We were all walking along a sidewalk (Madison trailing behind Jeanne) between a fish stand and a building when we heard a big POW! We all jumped around and there was Madison standing frozen. People came running around the stand and looked at her. At first I thought she had accidently knocked over something big, but there wasn't anything knocked over. Then the stand worker kept looking up, so we all looked up too... but we didn't see anything. Madison then started whimpering and saying how her eye hurt. It wasn't until we saw the shattered rock/plaster that we realized that a piece of the building fell right in front of Madison. We think that it was big enough that it could have knocked her out. Scott carefully removed the chunk of plaster from her eye and later a chunk from Jeanne's hair. We reported it to a tourist office who assured us that it would be taken care of because they have strict reporting of any building facade faults.

Again, we are made thankful for God and his protecting hand.

Guess what our last meal in Venice was...CHINESE! Okay, not typical...but we had been eating pasta and pizza for a week and we all were ready for a change (even Jeanne!) Christina made a funny remark that the older kids are still laughing about. She turned over her bowl of rice to dump it onto her plate and it came out with a plop. She said "plop...like a hairball". We laughed for quite awhile. How do kids come up with their comments? What a great vacation!

Mercedes #2

This past weekend (Easter weekend) we drove to North Wales to pick up my replacement van. It is almost identical to my previous van...except even better! It has 30,000 less miles, tinted windows, a hands-free kit for cell phones, a small refrigerator and it even comes with an umbrella! I guess I had a base model before :-) These Mercedes vans are difficult to find and are quickly sold when posted to the internet. Fortunately, Jeanne was able to locate it online and put a deposit quickly. We had to drive 3 1/2 hours to pick it up...but worth the while.

Wales was fascinating! We crossed the border and didn't know it until all of the road signs changed to two languages...english being the second! Welsh words are very strangely spelled. They seem to have an overabundance of consonants (and sometimes vowels). Llandudno Junction is where my van was located and right next to it was Conwy Castle and the walled town of Conwy. It was beautiful. The first thing we noticed though was the low tide. It was amazing to see boats stranded on huge sandbars. Deep fissures formed in the sand from the retreating water. Almost the entire bay was left dry. It definitely made us wonder if a tsunami was coming because it seemed so abnormal. But apparently it isn't. That is very normal for North Wales. I took a picture of what we thought was low tide and then later high tide. It was quite a difference. The first evening we walked around the town and had fish and chips at a highly recommended restaraunt.

On Sunday, we enjoyed a family Easter service and then went to explore the Castle and see the smallest house in the UK (wow!). There was only room for Scott and Bryce to sit down and another person to shimmy up the small ladder. Upstairs there was a tiny bed. Can you believe that a 6' 3" man lived there last?

After that we officially paid for the van and drove through Snowdonia national park. Wales is definitely a place where we hope to go back and visit.

On the way home we even found some snow for the kids to have a snowball fight. Snow is one thing that Bryce particularly has missed from Illinois. Especially since this year has been a really snowy year back home and his friends have enjoyed teasing him for what he has missed. At least Madison was able to make a miniature snowman!

On our way home we stopped by Bolsover Castle. There was a square castle that sat high on a hill. It had lots of paneled rooms and winding walkways. The views from there were amazing. There also was a large castle ruins. I was surprised to find out this castle was only 1 1/2 hours from our home!

A Sad, sad day

Tuesday morning after I (Jeanne) had dropped the kids off to school she came home for a few minutes and then left again for a Christian book club meeting. It was on a fantastic book called Stepping into the shadows. The subject was why women want to convert to Islam. However, for some reason I took the country roads instead of sticking to the main roads that I like best. And Tuesday was not the day to go out for a country drive. The fog was thick and dense...and combined with the frigid temperatures that meant ice. My well loved van slipped off the road and into a small ditch with a hedgerow next to it. The road was barren and no one passed for a full 20 minutes. I was quite flustered and called Scott. He helped pass on phone numbers of who I should call which then lead to about 30 minutes on the phone.

Meanwhile some of the friends I was to meet (Cathy and Janice) carefully drove to be of support (very nice of them). I was finally done on the phone with instructions and information so the insurance person told me to collect my things and wait with my friends in their warm car down the road. My van was lodged against the thorn bushes (remember UK drivers sit on the right side) so I had to get out the passengers side. Just as I shut the door another car came racing around the corner. I couldn't tell that it actually was out of control but knew that I had to get out of the road FAST! So I jumped in front of my van. I remember thinking I hope it doesn't hit my van and then wanting to turn around and see where it slid and then I don't remember seeing anything-I only remember hearing things. First came the colapsing thud of car hitting car...then came a "ooof" from me as I was hit by my van and then various crackling noises of branches being snapped...then I remember hearing Cathy yelling "call 911..no 999" which as I was opening my eyes in the thornbush I found extremely humorous. 999 is the UK emergency number.

But I was perfectly fine. I stood up out of the thorn bushes without a scratch. My car had been pushed forward about 4 feet and right in front of my front bumper the other cars tire marks can be seen. She hit my van in the rear corner and spun 180 degrees beside my van and then continued forward (or backward) down the road and landed in the same ditch. She climbed out and came running toward me as I was getting up and gave me a huge hug. She of course was spinning and didn't see much either. The other driver did have a very sore leg where the steering wheel hit her thigh.

I did have a bit of a stiff neck and eventually went to get checked out at the hospital. The doctor just said tylenol and ibuprofen for the sore muscles that I would probably get later...and I did. I figured out I was hit by my van on my rear end (good place actually) and landed on my left shoulder in the ditch/hedge.

But God was absolutely in control. There was a very small area where I would not have been hit by the other car. A few seconds earlier and I would have had whiplash, a few seconds later I would have been walking down the road with no where to hide. I feel fortunate to have friends that are willing to come and help after being here such a short period of time. And although this may seem silly, I am thankful that the other driver was so nice about the whole situation.

Where I landed in the ditch (you can see a slight indentation).

Scott went and picked the kids up from school and Christina came running in first and wanted to give me a kiss. Then Madison came in and offered one of her fantastic head-rubs. Then Bryce came in and asked how my day was... I said "uhhh, SMASHING!". He liked that line and then went and made me a cup of hot chocolate.

:-)

I sure have wonderful kids!

:-)

We were able to go and see the car today (Saturday) and pick up some things that were left inside the vehicle. The damage estimate is over 14,000 GBP which is about $28,000. In the US it probably would have been around $14,000. Needless to say, my van is being written off. It will probably be an insurance nightmare with the two separate accidents though. The other amazing thing is how good my cell phone takes pictures!

You can see some of the tire marks of the spinning car

The major damage

and the other car

Malta

We were able to obtain a cheap air tickets to Malta for half-term break...so we decided to go. Malta sounded interesting. Little did we know all of the amazing sights that we would get to see...








We soon found that Malta has a very interesting medieval history of knights along with ancient "prehistoric" temples, biblical sights, curches, and natural wonders.

We left London Luton airport late afternoon and arrived 3 hours later in Malta. It was dark so we couldn't see much when we drove to our hotel. The main island is so small that the airport landing strip is about 20% the length of the island. The roads are confusing and not well maintained so it was a bit of an adventure to find our hotel. But one thing about a small island is that you can't get too lost! The hotel was amazingly inexpensive also since it is winter. The room we had would cost 4 times more during summer. It had two balconies that overlooked a wide 5 story staircase.

The first day was beautiful. We enjoyed the sun and pleasant breeze along the coast. The kids wanted to play along the ocean among the tide pools and gentle waves. (little did we know that it was to be our last warm day). We got to see the city of Valletta and the Palace of the Grand Master. At the royal armory the most amusing armor to me was the smiling helmet.

Madison and Christina were able to convince Scott to pay for a horse carriage around the town which made the girls very happy!

Christina and her "MR. BEAN CAR".

The day finished up with a trip to the Blue Grotto. The kids enjoyed playing along the rocks so much that we didn't realize that we missed the actual Blue Grotto. The sun was setting and it was absolutely beautiful.





(Actually, the last day we were able to drive back and see the actual rock formation that is called the Blue Grotto. We just missed being able to ride a boat because they decided to close early due to the cold winds. )

That evening we were able to celebrate valentine's day with Christina helping provide the music for the dining room. Christina played a single note to the music and actually did a great job! The pianist told her that she could help him if she finished the food on her plate. All of a sudden she wanted to eat! she did a fantastic job!








The next day we woke to the sound of water.




We didn’t think much about it until we opened the curtains. Our balcony was overlooking a massive waterfall! They designed the stairs to act as drainage for the island with two functional stairs on either side. The rainfall flows down the large middle section. We found out that the weather was supposed to clear up some so we decided to still try to go to the island of Gozo.

We took the ferry with our rent-a-van across the channel to see Gigantia (a 5,000 year old temple site with giant rocks set in place) and the Azure window. The latter being the family favorite of the whole trip. The Azure window refers to the blue sky and bright blue water that can be seen through a natural arch formed by the rocks. There were plenty of rocks and caves for the kids to climb up and around. We found out later that some earthquake tremors were felt in Malta earlier that day- but we didn’t see any evidence from the waves (whew!). But the kids did find all sorts of sealife in the tide pools. And Christina was quite the trooper climbing rocks and jumping across gaps in the weathered rock. They even climbed through a cave/tunnel from close to water level that emerged up above.











It was a fantastic day!

On Saturday the winds picked up and the waves grew stronger. But being another rainy day we decided to do try to find indoor things to do. So travelling to Rabat we found St. Paul's cathedral. We actually were looking for St. Paul's catacombs and came in to find a beautiful cathedral. Beneath the cathedral was St. Paul's grotto. It had iron gates across a room. Thinking it wasn't what we were looking for we went back up. Outside as Scott was asking directions a man walked up and said that he had taken a quick lunch and was back. He invited us below. We almost refused but decided to go down. He gave a tour and then opened up a side door that we had missed.

It was where Paul was kept as a
prisoner by the Romans after the shipwreck on his way to Rome. It was amazing being in the same place where Paul spent some of the last months of his life. It also is amazing looking at the entire country and how it was changed by one person.


We then found our way to the catacombs. The kids enjoyed the tunnels and exploring.
















Having a little fun in the fishing town of Marsalokk.





The last day dawned with cold stiff winds. Undaunted, the kids begged to go back to the tide pools near St. Pauls Bay. Very close to this spot is where it is believed that Paul was shipwrecked...with waves like these it is understandable!




The cathedral in Mosta claim to fame is that during WW2 a bomb was dropped Sunday during church services through the dome and fell amongst the church members. The bomb failed to explode and no one was harmed.

Lastly, we visited the Tarxien Temples. These were huge and were very close to the Hypogeum which we visited earlier but weren't allowed to take photographs. It was an interesting tour though!
We ended the trip with dinner along the sea...not too glamorous as it was just sandwiches. But it still was a nice end to a great trip. Our flight didn't leave Malta until 9:40 pm which put us back at home at 3am.

Our First Visitor!

Jan 23-Feb 7 Grandma "Honey" visits

Jeanne's mom was able to obtain cheap tickets and come to visit us! Flying to the UK during the winter months is pretty cheap compared to the summer flights! We enjoyed her visit and the kids enjoyed her wonderful hot breakfasts!

We were able to try a couple of quaint pubs for lunch. Just for clarification...pubs here are non-smoking eating and socializing centers for villages. They are usually in older buildings with plenty of charm. Their menus consist of local traditional recipies and of course tea and coffee. They typically have a "bar" section but it isn't seen as a primarily drinking establishment. The hamlet that we live in is so small that it doesn't have a pub and is therefore considered by many to be a hamlet instead of a village.

We were able to take a short trip to London one weekend with Bonnie. It was our first trial run at going down to London. We drove to Potters bar train station since we had a car full and then rode the train from there into downtown London. We were able to ride the subways and see alot of the sights...Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, The London Eye. We were hoping to catch a theatre but found that we need to plan ahead. We were however able to see some of the British museum. Jeanne was quite excited to see the actual Rosetta Stone! It is the archaeological find that enabled the hiroglyphic writing of ancient Egypt to be understood. It is very exciting to see such an important item in history!

Jeanne's mom said that her most favorite thing about visiting was driving and seeing the countryside. But she also enjoyed watching the British real estate shows that show a lot of the home styles.

Her first flight home was cancelled so

we were able to keep her one more day! It really worked out well as she was able to catch a better flight out the next day. The kids were able to say goodbye when we dropped them off in the morning at school.

Grandma loves their uniforms!