Greece and Italy Trip - March 20-31 2008

Apologies to all that the blog hasn't been updated in a while. Chuck's been good at updating it for our first year of our assignment so I guess I better start pitching in a little.

Our first big trip for 2008 was 11 days in Greece and Italy. This was our first trip to Greece and our 3rd trip to Italy. I know -- what a hard life!! Our friend Jim from Binghamton joined us on this trip. The first day was a whole lot of fun trying to meet up at Athens airport. As is typical for the Europeans -- a strike was being held our day of arrival in Athens. And as luck would have it the air traffic controllers decided to be part of the strike. So our flight from London was delayed about 4hrs, but our friend Jim was supposed to get in to Athens at 4pm didn't end up getting in until midnight. Poor guy -- and that's after taking the red eye from the US.

Below is a picture of me and Jim at the Parthenon. You can't go to Athens without seeing the Parthenon!! In the usual fashion it was all covered in scaffolding - just like many of the other historic buildings we see on these trips.


One thing I remember about Athens -- is that right around the major tourist attractions was very nice, but the neighborhoods quickly turned ugly within maybe a mile or two radius. Eating was very frustrating as well. We couldn't even look at a menu without the owner or whoever hounding us to come in. But I'm sure it's just their culture.

Our first two days in Athens we hung out at the major tourist attractions in the heart of the city. On the third day we took a day cruise to three islands off the coast of Athens. Because I waited so long to post -- I only remember that one of the islands' name was Hydra. Here's a picture from that day.
The three of us enjoyed the Greek Islands the most (more than Athens). If I were to return to Greece the islands are where I'd go.

After three days and a half days in Greece we shuffled over to Italy on EasyJet. We flew in to Milan in the early evening. It was Easter Sunday so everything was pretty much closed. Milan looked pretty dumpy anyway so I'm glad we only stayed there over night.

From Milan we took Trenitalia over to Venice. The train ride was interesting - there was this Italian grandmother and grandson sitting next to me. She kept looking over my shoulder as I was going through Venice information on my laptop that I had downloaded. She kept translating for her grandson. Again -- I attribute it to a cultural difference. For the amount of times we were to Venice we actually did manage to do some new things that we hadn't done on our first two trips. This time we climbed to the top of St. Marks Basillica -- not a high climb -- but again something we didn't do before. We also went into Doges palace. Doges palace was essentially the seat of the governnment in Venice in the early days. Very interesting tour through it -- was glad we did it.
From Venice we made our way to Florence -- my favorite of all the Italian cities. Again we did the usual stuff in Florence -- the Duomo (Chuck and Jim climbed to the top), The David, Piazza di Signorina. We managed to do the Uffizi gallery this time. We had done the Uffizi on our first tour of Italy but not last summer when we went. And of course we climbed to the top of the hill overlooking the city (Piazza di Michaelangelo) for one of the greatest views of Florence.


This Italy trip we also managed to do a quick 1/2 day side trip to Pisa. Again - we saw Pisa on our first trip to Italy but not our second. Chuck wanted to climb to the top of the leaning tower but you needed reservations ahead of time and the time they had available was just too late in the day. We only planned to stay late morning to early afternoon so it wouldn't have been worth it. Plus they ripped you off on the price they charged to get to the top. We did manage to into the cathedral and baptistry this time on our trip to Pisa. Last time we just saw the outside sites and didn't bother to go in.


After Florence we travelled to Rome for our last stop of the trip. Our first full day in Rome was all about the Vatican. Learning from our last trip to Italy we decided to join a tour of the Vatican since as usual the line stretched for a good 1/4-1/2 a mile. We paid around $60 per person for the tour. Chuck got his wish of climbing to the top of the Basillica. It was a great tour -- lasted 4 hours and learned a great deal about the Vatican. Our last day we spent touring ancient Rome -- the colleseum (of course), the forum, and the circus maximus.

London February 20, 2008

Since we moved to England it took a while to meet new people and make new friends. However, it was an easy process once we met with some of Tom's co-workers. Aided by the facts that we are similar in age and we've started a weekly poker night where we change who hosts and get to see how everyone lives (all the while honing our card shark skills). Well, one such person is Anne, who's husband Ray works with Tom, and also happens to come from the Buffalo, NY area. We've become quite close since we've met one another, and it was Anne's idea to take a field trip, so to speak, up to London during a work day. It was during her children's February break and wanted to see the city, and wanted someone who had actually been there to accompany her on her first jaunt to the metropolis. Here we are barely out of London Victoria train station when we walked down the street and ran into Buckingham Palace. This is the side entrance facing south. We were lucky enough as we walked by to see a carriage exiting the gates transporting some foreign dignitaries.

Here is another shot of the carriage as it came onto the street.

Here is the Victoria Memorial which stands in front of Buckingham Palace on the East Facade.

Here is a cute shot of Anne with her two boys standing in front of the Palace, yes there was a slight chill in the air that day. After we left the Palace we headed for Green Park and came across the Wellington Arch. I had walked through the arch several times on separate visits to London, but I hadn't realized that you were capable of climbing the structure to the top until Anne suggested it. She even has a membership to "English Heritage" which gets you into a predetermined number of tourist attractions across the country. With her membership I was able to accompany her and her children up to the top without having to pay an additional entrance fee. Here is a shot of the horses that are perched atop the arch.

After we left the arch, we continued on to Hyde Park. I mentioned to Anne that I had been there several times but I had never seen the Peter Pan statue that I heard was hidden somewhere on the grounds. So we took some time to find the statue which was quite a snap once we found a map of the park grounds (with the statue's location marked).

Once we left the statue we headed for the Diana, Princess of Wales memorial. The fountain was added to the grounds in 2004 and is noticeably more modern. Below is a shot of Anne and her two kids.

And here's a shot of me acting my age with one of her kids.

Once we left the memorial we were getting a little hungry and decided to head to Wagamama's. I really love this restaurant, and talked it up so much that Anne and her kids were getting excited about it as well. However, I wasn't feeling the greatest that day as I was wrestling with some sort of stomach bug, so I decided to go without and just have some hot tea. But I get ahead of myself. While we were approaching said restaurant, we passed the Albert Memorial at the southeast corner of Kensington Gardens which is west of Hyde Park.

After we left Wagamama's, we decided that it was getting a little late and that we should start heading back to London Victoria station. On the way, we decided to make a quick stop to Kensington Palace. Unfortunately, Kensington Palace did not have any type of handicapped accessible equipment set up for Anne's handicapped son, and it was getting a little late, so we just walked up to the Palace. We did speak with an employee of the estate for a while who was friendly and knowledgeable of the different things Kensington Palace had to offer. Below you can see me in front of the palace. You can see that I'm both cold and getting over a bout with the stomach flu, well maybe the latter part's a little tougher to spot.

Warwick Castle and Oxford 1/13/08

This Sunday there were nine of us as a caravan from the Southampton area commuting to Oxford. It was quite the adventure as Tom and I were in the back following with our 4-cylinder Toyota Yaris a Honda CRV and a Volkswagon if I remember correctly. So we were a bit nervous that we would lose our way. Yet, we made it to Oxford in one piece and proceeded to take in all the beautiful architecture awaiting us.

This is Broad street with Magdalen street to the right, or Oxford city center. Apparently there are always this many bicycles here due to the University's presence.

More architecture from the University area of Oxford.

I tired to find out the name of these buildings, but alas it remains a mystery to me. Oh well!

This building on the campus is the Radcliffe Camera, which houses the Bodleian Library. I read somewhere that J.R.R. Tolkein used this as his inspiration for one of Sauron's temple's, for all you Lord of the Rings fans.

After several wrong turns to Warwick castle, we finally made it. Here's the view coming from the nearby car park.

This is Queen Anne's bedroom, circa 1690 within Warwick castle. Seeing the bed in person loses it's magnificence as it's really only the size of a full bed, maybe slightly bigger, but not by much. Warwick castle was actually bought by Tussaud's (of Madam Tussaud's). Tussaud's was then bought by Merlin Entertainment, a large amusement park-like entity.

This is called the mound. You can walk to the top, and view the valley on the other side, and the Avon river. There is also a fully functional trebuchet that patrons can fire under professional supervision. Just like Leed's Castle, there is a full restaurant where we plopped down for lunch.

Here is the view of Warwick castle from the top of the mound. To the left, just out of view they have a video presentation of the myth associated with Warwick castle.

Leeds Castle 12/1/07

OK, it's time to get back in the swing of things, and post all the photos of the great places we've visited since Prague. However, as soon as I finish this we'll be off on another trip to Greece and Italy.
Well, on the first of December Tom and I drove to Leed's Castle in the county of Kent, and it was the best December day I can remember in recent history. Apparently we were in for one of the mildest winters in England, but we didn't know it all those months ago.

Here we are heading to the right past the castle and the moat heading for the hedge maze. Also, they opened they're ice skating rink on that day, which is enclosed inside a makeshift tent-like building. They also had "Santa's Grotto" open as well.

Unfortunately photographs are not allowed within the castle itself, so you'll only get to see the obligatory shots of us striking a pose.

This is the hedge maze with the lake behind. The moat drains into this lake. I'm surprised we got as many photos as we did without anyone in them, because the grounds were packed with couples, families and friends.

Here is the exit to the maze, through an underground grotto which starts from the center of the maze....

...and ends here

Here's another shot after we left the maze and the aviary. They also have a café and a full fledged restaurant.

Here's another shot from the north side of the castle. There were black swans walking all over the place which were quite huge. One approached me as if I had it's next meal. They were large enough for me to consider that I was the meal.

I know I didn't have to include it, but it was such a nice shot I had to share it.

Here are some peacock (actually peahens, the females are this color) on the grounds of the castle. We saw many all over the grounds that you could walk up to without being caged. The grounds are sanctuary to all types of water foul as well.

Before we left the castle we came across this hot air balloon, and I recently found out that Leeds castle hosts a balloon festival every year. I highly recommend this spot if you have kids.

Here's a little fun I had with Google Earth and Photoshop. This way you can get a feeling of just how big this area spanned. Also the castle grounds continue the the left of the picture to almost double the area. There's also a golf course on the grounds.