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.

Prague 10/22/2007

Confession time: Yes, I stink when it comes to keeping this blog up to date, on the other hand, Tom isn't doing much to keep it fresh either, so I refuse to feel guilty. Anyway, here's a brief overview of our trip to Prague, which was over a month ago. We left London on Saturday, October 20, and came back on that Monday the 23. Yes, it was a short stay, but we experienced a nice taste of Prague, and will hopefully go back to see other sights in greater detail. Little piece of info, visit in the warmer months, it gets cold there!
On Saturday we arrived at the Ruzyně International Airport, and were amazed how difficult it was to locate an ATM, since it's always better to get money from an ATM, rather than a service which always rips you off on the conversion. We then took a bus, then the subway to our hotel, which was easy considering we only had one backpack a piece (more than enough for our brief stay). Our hotel was wonderful, the rooms were large and impressive when compared to others we've stayed in in other European cities. The hotel had an impressive continental breakfast, with an awkwardly placed Spice Girls poster on the wall facing you as you ascend the staircase to the dining area. My only complaint about the hotel was the abundance of smokers, but we quickly learned that smoking is a large part of the culture, and futile to complain about. However, our room had no remnants of smoke, so we really couldn't gripe. Here's a hyperlink to the hotel we stayed at, which we recommend if anyone plans to visit: http://www.hotelduo.cz/
We spent the evening in the city to scout out some of the places we wanted to spend our time the following day. On Sunday we met our guide and met a nice couple from England, where the wife works at Wembley Stadium, and the Husband was a bicycle mechanic, which is actually a lucrative business in England considering the many people that travel by cycle. We toured both sides of the Charles River seeing both Old Town and New Town, and getting a great tour of the Jewish Ghetto. On Saturday night we went on a lovely dinner cruise on the Vltava River, which lierally means "wild water." The cruise was booked solid, but Tom and I had a nice table in the back of the boat away from most of the other patrons who seemed to be part of a tourist group. The food was fabulous with some very memorable blueberry dumplings that I'm kicking myself for not trying to get the name to look up the recipe. I tried some Absinthe while on the cruise (since it's legal in the Czech Republic), and didn't realize you had to light the alcohol with the provided match, but the alcohol was quite tasty and potent. The cruise was a wonderful memory and was the best part of our stay. However, Prague is a beautiful city, hard to criticize and simple to praise.


Here's a view of the Western side of the Charles River.


Here's the Astronomical Clock in the Old Town square. Here's an interesting article about it in wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_Clock


Here's a photo of Prague Castle. The majority of the castle appearing further to the right.


Here is the Rudolfinum, where the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra plays. Further to the left is the Vltava river.


Here is Saint Vitus Cathedral that is housed within the walls of Prague Castle. The castle houses the crown jewels of the Bohemian Kingdom. The cathedral started construction in 1344 and was not finished until 1929 due to lack of funds, fires and war. I'm actually looking at a statue of Saint George and the Dragon, which was a gift from the British government.



Here's Tom rubbing the statue of John of Nepomuk, who was thrown from the Charles Bridge. Apparently it's customary to make a wish while rubbing the statue.

Paris: Take Two

Well, it's been quite some time since I've added a post to our blog. Since the last blog we took a trip to Italy which was both fun and exhausting. The cities we visited were Venice, Florence and Rome. However, all of the photos we took while there are gone forever and are now in possession of some crook in Rome. Yes, I'm not very happy about it, but rather than get caught up in the unpleasantness of travel, I decided to keep posts of the places we go, even though we at present are without a camera. There is a silver lining however, that being in the form of a free camera that Tom's father has gotten hold of through a coworker of his. We are very grateful to Tom's father, and his friend (I'll have to find out his name, so I can thank him proper). It will be a nice Christmas gift for when we return.
Anyway, I wanted to share some photos of some of the things we saw when we made our trip to the Louvre this past weekend. The photos enclosed are from the internet, and I take no claim to their ownership, some are from wikipedia and places like that. I simply put them up to share some of the things we got to see while there. Hopefully I can replace them with photos from our future camera.

This is of course the Mona Lisa. For anyone who hasn't seen it in person, it is a wonderful painting, however it seems somewhat anti-climatic when first seen. Mostly because it's all alone on the wall it occupies, and is not a very large painting in comparison to most in the immediate area. Usually there is quite a large crowd, yet we were lucky to be present when few people were around. The gift shop had so many different things with the Mona Lisa printed on it, stationery, post-its, rubiks' cubes, ties, anything you could think of it seemed.

Here is Caravaggio's Fortune Teller. This was one of my favorite paintings. I'm a big fan of Caravaggio's. I love his use of contrast and shadow, with prominent light sources. His paintings always seem to stand out from others to me.

Here's the statue of Winged Victory of Samothrace, or the goddess Nike. It was discovered in the mid-1800's on the island of the same name off the coast of Greece. It was then sent back to Paris, and a plaster replica was sent to Samothrace to stand in place of the original. There are duplicates in many places, a wooden copy is housed at Syracuse University in the Crouse College building, although one of the most famous copies is probably the replica at Caesar's palace in Las Vegas.

Here's one of the Winged Bulls or Lamassu in the Sully wing of the Louvre. This is near the Egyptian antiquities area. I remember studying these objects in Art History. One of the things I remember most is the way the sculptors managed to depict the bull from two different points of view. One from the side, and one from the front. This bull actually has five legs.

This is part of the original medieval foundation of the Louvre Palace. You can see it in the basement of the Louvre. There was also a place to purchase the audioguide for The DaVinci Code.

Paris, France

I finally found some time to work on the blog for our Paris trip. There are a lot of photos here, which I hope you'll enjoy. Also, I wanted to address some concerns, you should be able to click on the photos and view them in full-size. If for some reason they don't open to reveal their full size, let me know. Thanks in advance!

Our first day on Saturday, July 7th
• Notre Dame de Paris
This was the first place we visited. Truly a marvel! I got shots from within, however the facade is more impressive. Here is Tom with his sister, Lori.

Below is the southern side of the Cathedral. You get a nice view of those famous flying buttresses. There's also a nice public garden on the East side of the Cathedral.

• Louvre
Since this was our first day, we didn't allocate enough time to visit the inside of the museum, since it takes a full day to do it justice. We just walked by, and I took some photos of the pyramids. Here's a nice shot of Tom and Lori again.
• Eiffel Tower
It was overcast all morning, however the sun came out, and the day really improved! I couldn't help taking this shot, I thought it would be both bizarre, and a new way of seeing the tower. I also took some video footage going up the elevator, which took over a minute to make the journey to the top. Tom couldn't bring himself to go to the top, but once his sister and I told him that the top in encased in glass, he regretted not going. Yet there is a staircase to a floor above the encased level which is only encased by wire fencing. Tom I'm sure would not be going up there.
Here's a cute shot of Lori on the second level of the Eiffel Tower. You have to take a second elevator to the very top, because of the change in angle of the tower.
Lori took this shot of me on the top most level of the Eiffel Tower.
Second Day, Sunday July 8th
• Palace of Versailles
We came here on Sunday, since the Palace is closed on Mondays. The wait here was absolutely unbelievable, which tells you how worth the wait was. The inside was fabulous, but again, I was more amazed with the gardens. Here are a bunch of photos of the gardens scattered throughout the grounds. No part of the gardens is left untouched with landscaping. Below is a map of the grounds, view the full size and get an idea of how long we were walking around. It started to rain of course once we took several hours to get outside after touring the palace itself. But we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless, how couldn't you!
Here is the garden to the left when you exit the back of the palace. Unfortunately, we didn't go down into that territory, because it would have taken forever to see everything.
Here's Tom and Lori in front of one the largest fountains in the gardens.
This is one of the many squares situated within the sides of the garden. It would be easy to lose track of time in these gardens, for they seem to go on forever. I highly recommend a visit.
Here is Tom and Lori again, on the steps facing the right of the rear exit of the palace into the gardens. In other words, it opposite of the photo below the map. If you look in the distance, you can see a stadium used for many venues, some I'm sure even we might have heard of.
Third day, Monday July 9th
• Disneyland Paris
Yes, we spared a day to visit one of the happiest places on earth. Below you can see Tom and Lori in front of a garden mimicking Mickey Mouses mugshot.Here is a shot of "Space Mountain Mission 2." For those of you who are roller coaster enthusiasts, it's far and away better than the one in Orlando. It makes the original feel like a kiddie ride.
Last day, Tuesday July 10th
• Arc de Triomphe
Unfortunately, we left our last day visit the Louvre, which was to our surprise closed on Tuesdays! We were distraught to say the least. But we made the best of it, and walked to the Arc de Triomphe via the Avenue des Champs-Elysées. The distance being exactly 2 miles from the Louvre pyramid to the Arc.Below is the tomb of the unknown soldier, under the Arc de Triomphe. Apparently, it is the first eternal flame ignited in Western Europe in 1920 since the Vestal Virgins was extinguished around 400 A.D. It is meant to be a memorial for all the unknown dead soldiers in both World Wars.

• Saint Sulpice
We had to visit this cathedral ever since we both read The DaVinci Code. It's far more of a humbled destination compared to Notre Dame. Far less tourists and visitors were here. There were also a lot of articles hanging on the wall next to where the "rose line" meets the wall of the cathedral. The articles addressed the sensationalism of the rose line in The DaVinci Code, the majority of which are damning the author, Dan Brown.
• Jardin du Luxembourg
Here are a couple shots of the Luxembourg gardens. Below is the fountain Marie de Médicis in the garden of Luxembourg.
Here is my favorite photo of the gardens. Check this link for some more fantastic photos: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxembourg_Gardens