Rome, the Eternal City

I realize that I promised the Rome update over two weeks ago, but I never got around to it. We had a long trip home and I was incredibly busy trying to pack up everything to move to Milwaukee...more about that later.

We spent three wonderful days in Rome, starting with an open top bus tour of the city on our first evening. We drove by many of the famous sights and picked out the places we wanted to be sure to go back and visit again. We also purchased the Roma Pass which got us free entrance to our choice of two museums/sights as well as unlimited public transportation during our three days.

Trevi Fountain

We all threw coins into the Trevi Fountain to ensure our return to Rome -- it worked for me last time!

On Saturday morning, we joined a guided tour of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and Saint Peter's Basilica. The tour was advertised as being 3-3 1/2 hours long, but we were there for over five hours with our guide! The museums are enormous and there is no way you can see everything.

The Last Judgment, Sistine Chapel

In Piazza San Pietro (Saint Peter's Basilica)

With our Roma Pass, we chose to visit the Castel Sant'Angelo, which was used as a papal fortress starting in the 14th century and is connected to Saint Peter's Basilica by a passageway in the Vatican wall. Our second free entry was for the Colosseum and Roman Forum.

Roman Forum

On our last night in Rome, we took the metro to the Colosseum to see it lit up at night. We enjoyed our last gelato and then headed back to the hotel where we had a quick night's sleep before flying home!

Il Colosseo

Tuscany: Pisa, Florence, & Siena

After our rainy time in Cinque Terre, we boarded a train further south to visit Tuscany. Using Florence as our home base for three days, we explored Pisa, and then spent a night in Siena before moving on to Rome. Unfortunately, the weather followed us all along and we spent most of our time dodging rain. We did get a few nice hours here and there so we have blue sky pictures in Pisa!

The Tower is still leaning!

Florence's Duomo

We took a nice walk up to Piazzale Michelangelo in Florence to get a beautiful (albeit rainy) panorama of the city of Firenze.

Florence

We loaded up all of our stuff and hopped a train to Siena on Thursday 6 May. Of course it continued to be rainy but we managed to stay fairly dry. We walked around the historic center of Siena, enjoyed some delicious gelato, and took some nice pictures.

Duomo in Siena

Il Campo in Siena

We are just finishing up our last night in Rome before heading home tomorrow! I will save those pictures and the update for a little later this evening, so stay posted!

Cannes & Cinque Terre

We left Beziers on Friday on a 9 am train headed for Cannes. We checked into our hotel and had a nice chat with the owner about what to see in Cannes. We walked down to the film festival grounds (they are starting to set up as the festival begins in two weeks). We headed along the beach and Dad and I even put our feet in.

We had a nice last meal in France -- I had onion soup, a sirloin steak with potatoes, and creme brulee for dessert. I was hoping for escargot or frog legs, but I guess this was okay.

On Saturday, we set out on a long day of train travel. We had to change trains in Ventimiglia, which is right over the border in Italy. We finally arrived in La Spezia on late Saturday afternoon and headed to our hotel. We had a great pizza dinner on Saturday night, and rested up for our big day of hiking on Sunday.

Unfortunately for us, Sunday was the rainiest day we could have picked to hike the Cinque Terre! The scenery was still beautiful but we sure got wet and muddy! We hiked all the way from Riomaggiore (town #1) to Vernazza (town #4), passing through Manarola and Corniglia on our way. By the time we made it to Vernazza, we were in a torrential downpour so we had a late lunch there before taking a train to Monterosso, just so we could say we had been to all five towns! We headed all the way back to Riomaggiore via train to have a gelato, then we went back to La Spezia and to our hotel for the night.

Vernazza

Mom & Dad on the Via dell'Amore between Riomaggiore and Manarola

Me in rainy Riomaggiore

We left La Spezia on Monday morning and headed for Florence. We are headed to Pisa this afternoon and I will try to update again about Florence and Pisa before we head to the last two stops of our trip!

Ciao for now!

Au Revoir, Beziers!

Mom and Dad arrived in Beziers on Tuesday 27 April and I was in the midst of my last week living and working in Beziers. Fred was kind enough to drive me to the train station to meet them, and then she took us on a nighttime driving tour of Beziers. We stopped to see the Beziers rugby stadium, the bullfighting arena, the theatre, and the cathedral.

On Wednesday afternoon, the three of us took a short train ride to Sete to meet all of my girls. We had a nice cocktail hour with snacks and different kinds of wine. I was very happy my parents got to meet my girls, and vice versa. It was certainly hard to say goodbye to everyone, but I know we will see each other soon. At the very latest, we will all be together in Oregon in summer 2011 for Eva and Dustin's wedding!

Dad, Annemarie, Britt, Martha, Eva, Rachel, me, Mom

My last week of class was quite calm and stress-free. All of the students knew I was leaving and each class was asked to thank me -- in English, of course. On Monday, we had a wine tasting with one half of my favorite class - Fred's cooks and waiters. My students proposed a toast to me...

My little waiters

On Thursday afternoon, I took Mom and Dad to class with me so they could meet my cooks. The boys were pretty funny, and really enjoyed it when Mom tried to count in French to take the picture!!

The cooks

Later on Thursday afternoon, I had class with Manue's secretaries. These girls were some of my toughest students at the beginning of the year but they have grown on me! They all are very interested in learning about the United States and several of them want to come visit me!

I am definitely glad to be done teaching and moving on to new things! But first, I think I'll spend about 10 days in Italy...

April Vacation: Part Three, Madrid

Britt and I said our good-byes in Lisbon and she headed north to Faro where she spent the next several days with her friend Renata. I took a flight to Madrid (thank goodness the Icelandic volcano had calmed down) and I had no problem getting there.

On Thursday, I spent 11 hours walking around the capital of Spain. I saw all of the major sights, spent a few hours in the Parque del Buen Retiro, and enjoyed the Prado Museum at night while it was free. I had my handy Rick Steves guidebook (thanks to Britt) and could read about the history of each place before I visited it.

Plaza Mayor, the site of Spain's executions and other ceremonies

The Cathedral of Almudena, consecrated by Pope John Paul II

(Sorry about the bird droppings)

Palacio Real

Parque del Buen Retiro

Plaza de las Cibeles

The second day I was in Madrid I took a free 3-hour walking tour with an American guide from Houston. We saw many of the same sites that I walked by on Thursday but he also added some interesting information on architecture and the Spanish royal history.

I spent my last night in Spain sleeping in the airport because I had an early morning flight back home on Saturday. I had a lazy weekend in Beziers preparing for my last week in France.

Mom and Dad arrived in Scotland on Friday (April 23rd) and had a fabulous four days there playing golf at St. Andrews and seeing other courses. They flew to Toulouse on Tuesday and were successful in navigating the language barrier (with detailed notes and phonetic spellings from me) and they arrived at the Beziers train station on Tuesday night. Fred and I were waiting and we were reunited at last!

April Vacation: Part Two, Portugal

Britt and I arrived in the beautiful Algarve region of southern Portugal, ready for a few days of relaxation in between our city visits in Granada/Sevilla and Lisbon. We checked into our hotel in Albufeira -- probably the best luck we had with accomodations. We had a room with two twin beds, a TV with American channels (!!!), a refrigerator, and a pool-side patio. All of this with breakfast included for 8 euros each per night!! After the first night we decided to stay one extra instead of going to Lisbon a day earlier. In the end we very much enjoyed our nice hotel in Albufeira but would have loved to have spent more than one day in Lisbon...I guess I'll have to go back!

We spent a lot of time on the beach in Albufeira (surprise, surprise). It is a major tourist/resort town, especially for the British, but since we were there before the high season started, it wasn't overly crowded.

The (empty) beach in Albufeira

Beautiful rocks on the beach

Our first day there we enjoyed strolling along the mostly empty beach for about an hour. The next day, however, there were many more people and we found TONS of jellyfish!!

A "jelly" next to Britt's shoes

After three fabulous nights in our luxurious hotel in Albufeira, it was time to depart and head north to Lisbon. We took the bus and had a great view of the city as we crossed the Tagus River. Once there, we checked into our hostel and set out to explore. We met up with Britt's friend Renata who studied with her in Senegal back in 2007. Renata is on a Fullbright Grant in Dakar this year studying women's basketball. We went to a wine tasting together and then she showed us around Lisbon like an expert tour guide, even though she had only been there for about four days.

Rossio Square in Lisbon

Panoramic view of Lisbon and the Tagus River

After our one quick day and night in Lisbon, Britt and I parted ways. She headed farther north to Porto to spend a few more days with Renata, and I flew to Madrid. Luckily the volcano had stopped interrupting travel plans and I made it with no problems.

Stay tuned for a look at Madrid...

April Vacation: Part One, Southern Spain

On April 11, Brittany and I left Sete for Girona, Spain where we would catch a flight the following morning with Martha to Malaga, Spain. Thanks to the train strike in France, it was a little more difficult to get to Girona than originally planned. (On a side note: basically the entire trip was one travel gaff after another, but being as carefree and spontaneous as we are, everything worked out perfectly!) Our train made it to Perpignan, France where we had the option of waiting for a bus that would take us just across the border (but we weren't guaranteed seats on it) or we could shell out some extra cash and take the frogbus to the Girona airport like we had done in the past. We had to run to catch the frogbus, then took another bus from the airport to central Girona where we stayed for the night.

After ignoring all six alarms we set, we rushed out of bed in the morning just in time to catch our bus to the airport. Literally, just in time. If we had missed that bus, we would have missed our flight...good thing we didn't!

We flew into Malaga, which is on the southern coast of Spain. Our hostel there was fantastic and we met several fun people that we hung out with during our three days there. One day we took a bus trip to nearby Nerja, which has some of the most beautiful beaches in the area.

Nerja

Me, Britt, and Martha in Nerja

After a very quick three days, it was already time to say goodbye to Martha as she went back to Barcelona to meet her mom and sister who flew in for a visit. Brittany and I took a bus from Malaga to Granada and visited the old Moorish palace at the Alhambra. The Alhambra is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been and I highly recommend it to all who travel to Spain. I only had room to share two photos on this blog, but I have posted many more on my facebook page and I will put the link at the bottom of this post.

View of the Nazaries Palace and city of Granada from the Generalife Gardens at the Alhambra

Inside one of the rooms of the Nazaries Palace

That night in Granada, Britt and I took full advantage of the local custom of free tapas with every drink you buy. We snacked on some delicious Spanish appetizers including chorizo, patatas bravas, roast pork tenderloin, and more!

The next morning we walked to the bus station to buy our tickets to go to Sevilla. Unfortunately all of the buses were sold out for the next five hours! (Another travel snag...) We purchased our tickets and headed to the Granada cathedral for a picnic and then we explored the street markets selling all kinds of colorful items.

We finally made it to Sevilla where we were greeted with a torrential downpour. We checked into our hostel and stayed put for the night. We made dinner in the kitchen and took turns dumping out the pot of water that was collecting the rain falling through the roof.

In the morning, we walked around Sevilla for a little while, then headed to buy our train tickets to Portugal, going early this time so they wouldn't be sold out! As our luck would have it, there was no direct train from Sevilla to Portugal even though I had found the schedule online before leaving on the trip! Instead, we headed to the bus station to get a ticket from Sevilla to Faro. The not-so-friendly woman at the ticket counter informed us that the bus left at 2:30...or in 25 minutes. And we didn't have our backpacks! I stayed at the station to buy our tickets while Britt sprinted the 10 minutes to the hostel and 10 minutes back. I was outside waiting for her when she came FLYING around the corner with one backpack on her back and the other on her front, hair wild, sweat running...and in knee-high leather boots! If we had more time I would have taken a picture, but for the moment, all I could do was laugh! Luckily we made it onto the bus just in time and settled in for our ride to Portugal.

Sevilla Cathedral

Unfortunately our time in Sevilla was cut short by our transportation issues. This trip was just a quick taste of the city that has charmed many with its flamenco dancing and beautiful cathedral. I guess I'll just have to go back...

Stay tuned for another post on Portugal and one on Madrid. In the meantime, check out more of my pictures at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2189662&id=20306625&l=f6cd8a8fb7