Vatican City

Our last stop on the way out of Rome, well other than the gelato shop, was the Vatican.  Actually, we visited on two separate days, but you get the point.  Smallest country in the world, and I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't border control, and I didn't get another stamp in the passport.  I was a bit confused about the size of everything there.  Can't figure out why exactly everything needed to be so BIG!  Seemed a bit boastful.  Anyway, lots of interesting things to see and stories to tell. 

This was the line to get into St. Peters.  Little did we know that this was nothing compared to what was in store for us in the morning.

View from the front door.  You can barely see the 70 foot tall altar.  The pic below is up close, where you can see to the other end of the church.

 This is the inside of one of the front doors.  I am sure there is more of a story behind it, but they only open it once every 25 years.  To keep anyone from accidentally opening it, the plaster it shut.  Come back in 2025, and you can actually walk through it.

 The foot of a statue of St. Peter, worn thin by years of touching and kissing

Probably the creepiest thing ever........The embalmed body of 'Good Pope John' the XXIII.  He is on his way to Sainthood, but wasn't expecting any bodies on display when we walked in.

 The Swiss Guard, don't seem like they could protect much with their spears and costumes. 

We moved on to the Vatican Museum and eventually the Sistine Chapel.  The last Sunday in every month is free entry day.  I anticipated that there would be a line, but if we got there right at opening it wouldn't be a big deal.  Well I was wrong, and we proceeded to wait in line for an hour and a half.  Turned out to be just an appetizer to the lines at security and border control later in the day.  I guess that is neither here nor there.  The museum is a bit of a mystery to me, they say its 4 miles worth of displays and exhibitions.  How did they get so much stuff, and such a big place?  On a sad note, there was no pictures allowed in the Sistine Chapel, so you didn't see this from me.

 Not even sure if they ever use it anymore for actual service.  Considering we were there mid-morning on a Sunday, they clearly were not hosting service that day.  Its such a big wide open space, you don't really feel for the size of the and scale of the paintings.  I guess probably high school gym size floor to ceiling/and ceiling paintings.  Hard to imagine spending years painting what is essentially one painting.  I got to give it up to Michelangelo.Its been said "Without having seen the Sistine Chapel one can form no appreciable idea of what one man is capable of achieving." and I don't really disagree



This is just one of 5 or so halls on one side of one floor of the museum.  You can almost see the door at the other end.

Maybe what I think was the coolest thing other than the Sistine Chapel.  See how it actually spirals down smaller towards the bottom?  At the top its just a slope, and then changes to steps, I tripped on the transition, and nearly fell flat on my face.

Here are some more of the pics  Vatican Pics

Ancient Rome

Ok so for the last 14 months we have been going around ohh-ing and ahh-ing at old buildings and paintings which for American’s seem really OLD, to the point that these things seem about commonplace.  By no means does that mean that they aren’t impressive but just kinda normal.  Well today pretty much blows that out of the water.  Not going to put a bunch of pics up, instead here is a link to all the pictures we took.  (ok not all but alot of them)  https://picasaweb.google.com/111174649778637905437/Rome?authkey=Gv1sRgCKfr-dP_nceQLw#

I have been having a hard time all day just wrapping my hands around it all.  It started with the Coliseum built at 80 AD.  So standing where people nearly 2000 years ago cheered for gladiators.  Oh and Rome was pretty much the center of the world at that time.  But that is another story.   Ok so the history is impressive enough, but then lets talk about the engineering...something like 450 feet high and 50 thousand seats.  So we are climbing stairs and walking around on the third deck of nearly 2000 year old stadium.  I was scared walking around on the 50 year old rust bowl at Lewis field before the renovation, and now we are talking something 40 times as old as that. 

Apparently an earthquake came through in the 1300s or something and brought down the top two levels on the south side, but you can still see the full height on the north side. I am breezing right over a whole bunch of other stuff, (half the history of Rome, the ridiculous street vendors and all the gelato) so ask us about it when you see us.

Ok so on to the Forum....I don’t know what I thought it was before, but for sure wasn’t expecting what I got.  Something like 6 acres of ruins that was at one time the center of the city, and the main place for government, worship and general goings on.  I think what really got me here, apart from the fact that there were just ruins laying around and you could walk on and touch, was the connections with Julius Caesar.  

Indulge me a bit here and follow along.  So we are standing in the Forum in front of what they described as the place where Caesar lived.  Our audio tour guide retells his death in the words of Shakespeare.  So I am thinking back to High School, and how thinking back to the time of Shakespeare seemed so long ago.  Similarly, Shakespeare must have been thinking how long ago all of the history from Rome was when he was writing Julius Caesar.  And there we were, going all the way back to that time.

This was supposed to be spot where Ceasar's body was burned.  

The told how the real reason for all of the destruction to pretty much all of ancient Rome was Christianity.  Then again pretty much the whole reason for most of history is Christianity in some form or the other so it kinda makes sense.  Apparently it wasn’t always  such a good job being the Pope!  Anyway they say that just about everything in the Forum was buried at one point after century’s of neglect.

On to the Pantheon from there...another 2000 year old building, and example of how impressive the Romans were as engineers....geometric perfection.  The longest continuously used building in Rome.

I kept saying all day how all of Rome reminded me of Vegas.  I guess its probably more like Vegas reminds me of Rome, but you get the point.  All of the huge buildings, statues, people, and street vendors trying to sell you crap you don't want or need.  Anyway, probably the most Vegas-y moment was at the Trevi Fountain.  Just 100s of people standing around watching water flow, throwing money in a fountain.  These types of sites were all around the city.  I could write for days about everything we saw, but really there was just too much.

Thanksgiving

We are bit behind, just back in the land of internet, but will catch up in a couple days.

After working for the first thanksgiving in my life last year, I was determined not to do it again, and had scheduled vacation in January this year to make sure I had the time off.  With that said during that entire time I hadn’t made any plans, other than eating mass quantities of turkey.  Well Kristen had other plans, and after stumbling on a great deal on British Airways we were off to Rome. 

Hampton celebrated the Holiday early with a big Turkey bone, and then went to play with her friends.

I am fully convinced that British Airways is the best airline in the world.  A two hour flight with sandwiches and free drinks.  With that said when the whisky bottle is nearly the same size as the can of coke its makes it more than a bit strong.  Anyway we flew from London in the afternoon so didn’t see much on the first day.  These pics are of the Alps and ocean on the flight in. 

I guess I probably got what I deserved for ordering the ‘hamburger’ from an Italian restaurant in Italy.  Two hamburger patties and some French fries, an epic failure compared to my planned domination of a turkey.  I guess it will have to wait till Christmas to get go into a tryptophan coma. 

Early to bed,  so we can rise early for a BIG day of some BIG sights.

Fenton!!!!!!

A funny clip from Richmond Park......



This has gotten like a million views in a week. Since I ride through the park all the time, it seems strange that things like this don't happen more often. You can see just how close people get to the deer, and just how many there are around the park.

Science Museum

Flash back to the summer..............

In an effort to show the Wier's the biggest and best, (and least boring) London has to offer we visited the Science Museum. Kristen and I had gone once before and only got through 1 of 6 floors, and this was finally my chance to get back. For a girl with a degree in biology and who teaches science it was really surprising how much she wasn't interested in going back. Anyway we were going and I was excited.

Started the day at Cafe Continente, outstanding as always, and the full english breakfast never disappoints. From there a quick tube ride and a little walk and we made it there just after it opened. Good thing too, as it got super full of kids and I thought Jeremy's eye might pop straight out of his head in anger a couple of times. Turned out that they had stuffed the really cool stuff on the first floor and the other floors didn't really have alot to write home about. Good thing though because I think we spent about an hour and a half just trying to get through it.

I love when the put big things in museums...planes and cars and dinasours, its all good.

I never really got the feeling I was learning much more like just looking at cool stuff, and walking briskly past all the boring things.
They had a hands on area where you got to play with things. I tried to break the world record for stacking blocks up and hanging them out in mid air. Didn't quite make it to the world record mark, but it did say I was AMAZING. I showed Kristen, she wasn't impressed and said I was amazing for an eight year old. That hurt!!
My favorite part was Mika Hakkinen's wrecked McLaren.

We posed for a thermal camera, I guess I kinda ruined that picture.

This is kristen made of dots. We never figured out what the point of the exhibit or whatever it was, but still kinda cool.

Its beginning to look alot like Christmas

With no Thanksgiving here there is really nothing to look forward to between now and Christmas. So I guess there way that anyone can really say its too early to be decorating for Christmas. Kristen got the tree out and all set up today.

I guess its a bit strange to decorate for a holiday we won't even be here to celebrate, but it would just be epically gloomy to not have any excitement and lead up to it here.

Grease

I must have been drunk or something when I let Kristen go to the ticket window without me, or maybe this was payback for getting to see stomp, not quite sure which, but the end result was two tickets to Grease.

Kristen must have known it was gonna be a rough one for me so she bribed me with a big bag of candy to distract me during the show. Seems like I am a six year old doesn't it? Anyway we arrived and plopped down in our seats kinda early, only to watch the theater fill up, with what seemed to be middle aged American women. Looking back I should have expected nothing less, but at the time was a bit perplexed. I would later become a bit disgusted.

I would say the show was just all right. Sad to say I knew all the songs which was kinda nice, but so did all he middle aged women, which wasn't so nice. They had paid their money and they were gonna sing it no matter what anyone else had to say about it. This wore on me a bit, but nothing like what was to come. Intermission came around and Kristen got her ice cream, because well Kristen gets ice cream, I ate the rest of my bag of candy, because well I eat candy, and the middle aged women got drinks lots and lots of drinks.

The best and at the same time worst part of t show had to be the American accents these actors were using. A mix between John Travolta's Danny Zuko, and a drunken Kentucky hillbilly. Hilarious!!

At the end of the show they did 10 minute or so medley of all the songs and dances and well this brought the (by now drunk) middle aged women to their feet, and they proceeded to sing and dance like they were on stage... and I don't mean the stage t the theater. Far too much wine and far too little support from their undergarments. I had to get out of there as quick as possible, but not before that damn Greased Lightning song got burned into my head, and worse the middle aged women doing pelvic thrusts to the pussy wagon part. Ggghhhh, still makes me cringe.

FALL

Well I guess they call it Fall for a reason. Leaves are everywhere! Since there are no yards and such for them to get spread out on they end up just piling up between all the cars. And I mean big piles.

Hard to think that the trees which I have made fun of for half the year, could make so many leaves. Check out the way they look in the winter after they are pruned back.

Pretty sure somebody thought this parked car was just a pile of leaves, and ran into it last night.

Discover Dogs II and the Lord Mayor Show

We visited discover dogs again this year, because well petting every breed of dog in the same day is just magical.  We apparently went much earlier in the day last year because the theme was sleepy dogs galore this year.

 

Afterwards we went to the Lord Mayor's show.  Not quite sure who the Lord Mayor is, or really why he is having a parade and fireworks show, but nonetheless we took advantage.  This makes two weeks in a row that we have watched fireworks.  Its so strange to be waiting for fireworks standing in the cold, and dark at 5 in the evening.  So different than the 100 degree, 10 o'clock July 4th nights.  Pictures look a bit like the world is coming to an end, but was really cool in person.

Quite a good show, but after experiencing all of the people out tonight I am a bit leery of how crazy the Olympics are going to be.  Just look at the number of people waiting to watch this.

Took Bob for gelato for the first time ever.  He got the 6 scoop cone (they were small scoops so its ok) to try out most of the flavors.  The place we went to had like 8 different flavors of chocolate.  Bob's favorite was the super dark chocolate, was like eating a brownie!!