The Temple Church and Tower of London

The Knights Templar built this church in the 1100s-1200s. It sustained heavy damage during WWII, but has been repaired. It is one of the few circular churches in England. It is believed that initiation ceremonies for the order took place in the crypt of this church. In the round part they have 13th century "effigies" on the floor. I guess it's where these famous knights are buried. Below and to the right is the inside of the Temple Church. The "Master of the Temple" had just finished giving a lecture on the fact and fiction of the Da Vinci Code. We were disappointed that we missed it.
Next, we visited the Tower of London. Among other things, this is where the crown jewels are housed. We did see them, but weren't allowed to take pictures.
You've probably heard that it's rainy in London. This (right) was an umbrella and pancho vending machine. The panchos were all sold out though. How funny is that?
This is Mike and I inside the Tower of London with the Tower Bridge behind us.
This is called the White Tower (right). It was completed in 1097 and was the tallest building in London at 90 ft. high. It is the oldest surviving part of the Tower of London. It served as an armory for centuries and is currently an armor and weapons museum.
This (left) is the Traitors' Gate. Many prisoners on their way to die, entered here. This (right) is one of the royal guards. True to everything you've always heard, they don't move. If it starts to rain, he goes in his little house behind him. We couldn't actually mess with this one, because he was behind a fence.
The Tower of London also houses these huge ravens. One king of the past said if the ravens were ever to leave the Tower, the monarchy would fall. So, ravens are kept here in the Tower and their wings are clipped so they don't fly away. This one with Mike walked almost right up to him and then followed him down the sidewalk about 10 yards. Awww, Mike made a friend.
Here's us with another friend we made. A friendly, neighborhood Beefeater.
Ok, maybe one more London blog.

London

We took so many pictures that I'm going to have to break it a couple of blogs. Our first several nights in London, we stayed about an hour north of town near Cambridge. We stayed at Mildenhall RAF. It was definitely super nice and super cheap, but the expense of getting in and out of town nearly killed us. This was the rose garden right next to our building at Mildenhall.
We were eating lunch at Mildenhall and I saw a girl with a shirt on that said Mind the Gap and it looked like the London tube (subway) signs. None on us got the joke, but our first tube ride gave us a clue. Apparently, there is a small gap between the train and the platform. I guess there have been several mishaps concerning the gap, because they were sure to make you very aware of it. Before we would come to a complete stop at the platform, a voice would come over the speakers in the station and on the train that said, "MIND THE GAP!". It was so crazy, but we were sure not to fall in.
The Westminster station lets out right at the foot of Big Ben. On this day, we were headed to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. While we made it in time, it would be more appropriate to say we were present at the changing of the guard more than we witnessed it. There was already such a large crowd gathered that we vertically challenged folks didn't have a prayer of seeing anything. The band's music was fun though. There was 2 different bands and one was more like a drum and bugle corp. There were also marching military guys and a group of horse guards.
The first time we walked by Westminster Abbey, we were rushing to make it to the Palace in time so we really didn't have time to stop. After the changing of the guard we went back and visited the gift shop. It was 10 pounds per person, which converts to 20 dollars per person, which made it 40 dollars for Mike and I to go in. We enjoyed Westminster Abbey from the outside.
Although these signs were everywhere, only a couple of them were defaced by the "I" in the middle making it "toilet". Mike found these signs particularly funny.
Here's Big Ben again. It's so impressive and you can see it from almost anywhere.
Ok, I think that's it for this blog.

Friends Forever

Strangely enough, four of our closest friends were in Italy at the same time. Shelah and Michael Clonts were taking another European vacation to Greece and Italy and Matthew and Cathy McMichael were finally going on their honeymoon after getting married in Jan..
The McMichaels flew into Verona where Mom and I met them and we spent a few hours sightseeing. Then we all took the train back home and we hung out for a couple of days before they left from Venice on their week-long cruise to Greece, Corfu, and Turkey. This first picture on the upper left was taken at a restaurant near our house "Al Giardino" (The Garden). Mike was at his exercise in Maniago while they were here the first time.
The Clonts' flew into Greece and spent about a week vacationing there and in Santorini. Then they flew to Rome for a couple of days and then flew into Venice to spend a few days visiting with us and seeing some of northern Italy.
We picked the Clonts' up from the airport and then met the McMichaels at the train station. We rented a 9 passenger van that was the object of constant scorn. It was so ghetto. But it did get us up the mountain to some castle ruins near our house. The second picture is all of us at Lake Barcis. (I love this pic!) It was a little chilly so we just stayed long enough to snap some pictures and enjoy the scenery. Look at that water!
The 3rd picture is all of us in the little square by our favorite pizza joint, Vecchios. We are sitting on a wall and directly behind and below us is a rushing creek. It's a great little place to enjoy some pizza, grab some gelato across the street and listen to the water. The other picture is the same place. It's just us being silly. Although, when Shelah grabbed me, I was pretty sure we were both going in. :) As if you can't tell by the look of terror on my face. :)
The last picture is us in front of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice.
We had such a great time, and it was so good to see faces from home. And for all of us to hang out in Italy? That's not something everyone gets to do. We were so blessed to enjoy this time together with our friends.

Rome

Mom and I flew to Rome for a couple of days during her second week in Italy. We took a bus tour which deposited us at most of the top destinations in Rome. Although I've never been in, Castel Sant'Angelo looks kinda cool. I think I gave some info. about it on another Rome blog.
Another stop was the Vatican. We did brave the line for the Sistine Chapel. It was longer than when Jennifer and I went, but after talking to Shelah and Michael and hearing how long it was when they were there, I guess it wasn't near as bad as it could have been.
Something we witnessed near the Vatican that we did not get a picture of was a seagull eating a pigeon. Yum.
These were some members of the Swiss guard. It was actually the first time I had seen them, so I was pretty happy about it. Their outfits were a little less flashy and ornate than I thought they would be, but still nice.
A trip to Trevi Fountain would not be complete without enjoying a gelato. Jennifer and I found this shop on my first visit to Rome and they were so friendly and fun that I decided to take Mom there. Don't you love how they do their cones? Looks good huh? Left, of course, is Mom and I at Trevi Fountain. Still my favorite place in Rome. If you throw a coin in the fountain it means that someday you will return to Rome. It worked for Mom, so she was sure to do it again. I'm not sure if it works twice though. Or even if the fountain recognizes Euro. It might only work if you throw Lire in. Ha. You might notice that we are wearing sweaters. Can you believe it? The middle of June and still chilly. Yea! I love Italy.
This building is where the President of Italy lives. The band of one of the branches of Italian military was playing and there was a crowd gathered. I don't know what occasion it was.
It was also my first time to see the Mouth of Truth. It was a little hidden and we had to ask a vendor where it was. Sadly, it was already closed so we had to take a picture thought the fence. The legend is that the Mouth will chomp down on the hands of liars. Who would be crazy enough to stick their hand in there anyway? Not I. You may also recognize it from "Roman Holiday" with Audrey Hepburn.
We spent all day the next day in Pompei. Unfortunately, the battery in Mom's camera died. Despite our efforts, we could not track down the right kind of battery. We did manage to use video camera for some video and still pictures at Pompei, but I haven't figured out how to load them onto the computer. It was awesome though. What they had excavated was so much bigger than I thought.
It was a fairly short trip, but we managed to see a lot.

"In fair Verona, where we lay our scene..."


After Florence, Mom and I took a train to Verona. Because we missed our second train, we didn't have quite as much time as we had planned. We got there with just enough time to check into our hotel and find something to eat (which was a bit of an adventure in itself). In the morning, we had time to go to the Castel Vecchio for a quick tour. It was an Italian holiday so admission was free (who knew?). We took advantage and didn't really feel like we had to look and every single piece of art to get our money's worth. These two pictures were taken from the castle. There is snow on the mountain just above the trees in the first picture (it snowed a couple of days before) and the river is the Adige. The second picture is from the same spot; just another view of the city.
After our tour, we had to rush to the airport to pick up Matthew and Cathy McMichael.

We left our luggage at the train station so we could do a little more sightseeing before heading home. Matthew took this picture of Mom and me in front of the Arena (you can see it it the background between the trees.) It looks like a smaller Coliseum. It's the best preserved Roman arena in Italy. They still have operas here all through the summer. Operas performed in Verona are among the best in the world. We hope to come back to see one. (Yes, even Mike doesn't mind opera once in a while.)

We continued around the corner and ate at this little cafe. Mom took this picture of Cathy, Matthew, and me.

Matthew needed to go to a specific place and take a picture for one of his friends (his name is Dante Verona) so we headed to Piazza Dei Signori. On the way, we stumbled upon the house that supposedly belonged to the Capulet's. You could pay to go up to Juliet's balcony, but the tiny courtyard was super crowded. We settled for a picture and moved on.

After taking the wrong bus (twice) we ended up back at the train station and made our way back home.

Mom and Erin in Florence


Since I've put most of the sights we've visited in Florence on the blog before, I decided not to put the same things again. The first picture is Piazza Reppublica. We stayed with our friends Henry and Michelle and we went through this piazza to almost all of our destinations.
Crossing the streets in Florence was good practice for Mom, as it is always a risk to cross streets in Italy. I say Florence was practice, because crossing streets in Rome is even more lethal. We successfully crossed all streets with all body parts intact.

There is one picture (above right) that is a motorcycle parking lot and the other (underneath it) is a bicycle parking lot. Mom was particularly impressed with these.

I know I've included a picture of this before (Palazzo Vecchio), but I like it. Too, it has other significance now because Mom and I had a Florentine lunch in this piazza in the shadow of the medieval building.

We did visit somewhere I had never been. (Not that in my 2 previous visits I could claim that I saw everything there was to see in Florence...) We went to Santa Croce. This church is undergoing quite a lot of restoration, but there are many famous Florentines buried here. This (left) is the grave of Michelangelo. In addition, we saw the graves of Galileo, Dante, and Marconi (who Mike and I did not know, but Mom said to include him because everyone else would know who he was). Any guesses? No fair doing a google search. If no one guesses correctly, I'll tell you in the next blog or 2.

There were a couple of other pictures that we wanted to include, but due to technical difficulties we were not able to upload them to the computer. That's all for now.

Mom adds:
I'm having a great time! Erin is a masterful tour guide. I ought to be in great physical shape when I get back with all the walking and stairs!! You won't even recognize me! Patty

Rome again.

This was our last excursion while Mike's mom was here. However, we were all unexpectedly inconvenienced when Milda broke 2 bones in her foot 3 days before we were supposed to leave. A word to future visitors: watch the bottom step on our staircase. I could not help but to include the picture of Mike piggy-backing his mom to the terminal from the airport parking lot. The Italian man following closely behind was kind enough to help with our luggage. (While I, crippled with laughter, attempted to take this picture.)

As our movement was hindered by the crutches, we opted for a couple of rides around the city on a bus tour. We were able to see the major sights at least. On the upper left is the Mausoleum of Augustus or more recently called Castel St. Angelo. Originally it was a place for the bodies and ashes of the dead. It was built outside the city walls for sanitation purposes. Then, much later, it was made into a fortress for the defense of the Pope and Cardinals from the Vatican. A raised walkway was built going directly from the Vatican to the fortress. It still exists and is pretty cool.
The next pictures are inside the Coliseum. I think my favorite part was the steps going up to the next level. They were incredibly steep. I can't imagine how people got up there in "togas":). The next picture was taken from the upper level of the Coliseum looking out over the historic center of Rome. Except the big white building in the back wouldn't have been there.
Then next stop on the bus tour was the Circus Maximus. There's a sign obstructing the view but, hopefully you can get a feel for how big it is. You can kind of see where it looks like a track in the middle of the green. That's it. This is where the Ancient Romans had chariot races. The ruins to the right of the Circus Maximus are on the Palatine hill. The Palatine was where the emperor's palace was. The next picture is just a different view.
I can't remember what this building was (left), but the history was interesting. You may notice it looks a lot like the Coliseum. That's partly because a lot of the stone that was used here came from the Coliseum. When the Coliseum went through a period of neglect, it was actually used as a quarry for other buildings. Romans harvested the valuable travertine stone to build other stuff. Not only is this site updated for your viewing pleasure, but also I hope, a source of great insight and knowledge. Ha! Just kidding.
I don't know exactly what this is, but I do know that the giant statues at the top of the stairs are Romulus and Remus--the founders of Rome.
I know this next picture is hard to see. It snuck up on me both times we passed it and the bus didn't really stop here. On these steps (behind the obnoxious yellow car and down about 10 feet) is where Julius Caesar was murdered. "Et tu Brute?"
This is the Vatican and St. Peter's square. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before the Pope knows me by name, what with all my trips to the Vatican.
And last, I know you saw it on my other Rome blog, but it is becoming one of my favorite places in Rome. Trevi Fountain. It was especially nice this last time because Mike and I were there at sunset. We people watched and chatted. I know the picture on the right doesn't look like he's having that great of a time. He's just concentrating really hard on taking a good picture for the blog. :) The bottom picture is at twilight with the lights on.