Adventure 17.2: Rome - Day 3

Rome Day 3: June 18, 2011

This was Coliseum day. The day I had been waiting for, dreaming about, peeing my pants over…ok, so I never actually peed my pants, but you get my point. We started the day by touring the ruins of the Roman Forum. These are quite lovely. It was hot that day, but it was still amazing. We had reservation for an underground and top level tour of the Coliseum. And this tour was amazing. It was the best thing that we saw in Rome. This is a must. I loved! I knew there was a reason I peed my pants over this!

Pizza for lunch then back to finish touring the Roman Forum. Along the way, we saw a crazy tarot card lady. We were tired after being in the sun all day. We had one last thing to look at in the Roman Forum and the below picture is where the craziness began. I set up the tripod and set the time and we must have taken 20 pictures of Teacher and I doing funny poses in front of the Coliseum. As you know, I never show my face on this blog, so of course we had to take a butt picture just for the blog.

Finally it was on to have gelato at the oldest gelato maker in Rome. This was the 2nd time we had gelato there and about the 4th time for gelato in Rome. It was just sooooo good.

Adventure17.1: Rome - Day 2

Rome Day 2: June 17, 2011

We woke up early to catch the metro to the Vatican Museum. We had reservations and this was a great idea (thanks Teacher because we all know I never plan anything). For the first few hours we strolled around with ease. By 11 AM the place was packed and it was hard to see anything. Early is best! The Sistine Chapel was amazing and Michelangelo was an amazing painter. I find myself wondering why the picture of Adam and God with outstretched hands is so famous. There are so many magnificent scenes in the Sistine Chapel. There are the 10 plagues, the 10 commandments, Mary and Joseph getting “the news”, the baptism of Jesus, His teachings, the last supper, the Easter story, and an entire wall with a depiction of what I could guess to be Heaven. Let me show you a few of them. The pictures are not so good. I wasn’t actually supposed to be taking pictures, so no flash and quick snaps.

We toured a good portion of the Vatican Museum, then I mailed a post card to ma and pa from the Vatican. This marks a new country to the list. The Vatican had 100’s of sculptures. A large portion of which depict pagan gods and goddesses. This is completely amusing to me. A gigantic Christian organization (the Catholics with all of their strict manmade guidelines) has a collection of art from other religions. Interesting! Most of the male sculptures have their penises cut off. There is an absurd reason for this…such as some pope went crazy and decided to cut them all off and put leaves over them.

The next stop was St. Peters Basilica. This was nice, but after seeing the Sistine Chapel you just can’t compare. Although, they did have a dead Pope on display (or a replica. It looks to be wax)! Upon leaving the basilica, I spotted some very famous Swiss people – The Swiss Guard. So why are the Swiss guarding the Pope anyways?

Then off to lunch…which took a bit of time and involved walking in circles and ending up where we began. However, the pasta was very good and a Coke on a hot day is divine. We found our way to the Pantheon where Raphael is buried. We sat down to take a look at the map (shown below) and then I proceed to give the Teacher our options for the evening (also shown below).

We opted for the garden. This was a great option. There we found crazy sculptures, beautiful water features, and I rented a row boat for Teacher and I. The row boat was awesome! Let’s just say that neither one of us was very good at rowing. I don’t think I’ve ever tried it before. Sure I have been canoeing and whitewater rafting, but these are 1 paddle events. Rowing with 2 is way more difficult.

That evening we headed to a famous pizza area where I had the best pizza – Mozzarella, Gorgonzola, and Apple. For an appetizer, bruschetta. Yum Yum! On the way there, we saw 2 cross dressers. They were quite scary looking. We are pretty sure that the one had a blowup butt! Yikes! Take a look…what do you think?

Adventure 17.0: Rome - Day 1

Thursday June 16, 2011

Arrival in Rome 9 AM. Found the train and headed to the main station. Arrived at main station at 10:30 and starting walking....with my suitcase. I had to wait for my friend the teacher whose flight got in 5 hours after mine. So I explored a little bit before she arrived. Whoever invented wheels on suitcases was a genius. FYI the inventor was Robert Plath. I had a delicious lunch of a buffalo mozzarella and tomato salad with some amazing bread (see picture below) and a glass of Italian champagne. Before Teacher arrived this is what I saw:

 

After Teacher's arrival, we checked into the hotel and went for food. We stopped at a pastry shop and I had a delicious wild strawberry cream tart. And yes they were wild strawberries. You can certainly tell the difference. Next it was on to the pizza shop for our first experience in pointing and holding up 1 finger to order some pizza. We managed to get 2 Cokes even though Teach tried to order a water. It was no use, they did not understand. What can you do but laugh and think..."Maybe I should have tried to learn a few Italian words." Haha! We then went to the Spanish steps / church, down the most famous shopping street where I bought an "Italian" leather belt. Yes it was real leather. It feels like it and smells like it. But do you really think it is still made in Italy? Then we went to a giant fountain and walked back to the hotel past the Coliseum.

Adventure 16.0: Wine Tasting in Bordeaux

June 9-12, 2011

Bordeaux - home of famous wines, but how good are they? Well, that is subjective and all depends on you. It was a beautiful trip. I gained wine barrels of knowledge about the wine process - how it is classified, what the nose is of the wine, how it is made, where it is grown, and on and on.

I traveled to Bordeaux by train. I had a stop over and Paris. During my layover I well around the Luxemborg. Then just outside the train station I decided to get a Crepe. Finally, I had a delicious crepe in France. Just incase you didn't read the previous French adventure, this is why I say I "finally" had a good crepe. I spent 4 days in the Paris area and had the most disgusting crepes of my life. So if you want a crepe, go to the train station.

Day 1: This wine tour took me to the Entre-Deux-Mers region. This area is know for dry white wines. We visited an amazing Chateaux where we had a tour and tasting. The owners, who live in the Chateaux, walked us throught the wine making process, how you tell the type of grape by the leaves on the vines, and took us up to the roof of the Chateaux for a wonderful view of the grounds. Next we had a tasting at the a wine shop. This should have been the end of our tour, but the Brazilian guy talked our tour guide into taking us to her friends vinyard. They had a fabulous wine called Magic 7. This wine is barrelled in oak from Pennsylvania. You know I had to buy a bottle! We even got a taste of a dessert wine straight from the barrel. See the picture to the left

Day 2: This wine tour was an all day event. We started the morning out with a trip to the historical wine merchant district of Bordeaux. Here we toured a wine museum and had a tasting. For lunch we when to a great restraunt called Baud Millet and had a 4 course meal with wine. Course 1: Baked goat cheese with bread. Course 2: Orange duck with potatoes. Course 3: A cheese tray with Blue Cheese, Ew Cheese, Goat Cheese, and Brie. This was all very delicious. They also had an interesting toilet seat. The second half of the day was going to the Medoc region of Bordeaux. This region is world famous for its dry red wines, mainly Merlot and Cab Sav. We went to 2 Chateauxs. I did not like the wine at either of these places. It was far to dry for me and left me craving a gallon of water.

On the day 2 tour I met 2 Aussie couples. We went out to a really nice place for dinner. I had prawns, a steak, and a dark chocolate cake with white chocolate drizzle. It was fantastic!

And it was also gay pride weekend in Bordeaux as you can see in the picture.

Adventure 15.0: Rock am Ring

June 3-5, 2011

What to say about Rock am Ring? Crazy, Crazy, CCCRRRRAAAAZZZZYYYY! 4 days of camping, 3 days of concerts, with 70,000 people in attendence. It was a blast! Enjoy the picture show. Well right now you get 1 picture because the photo upload seems to be having issues!

Check out the VW bus waiting in a line
kilometers long to getting a camping spot

 Campsite. Rainboots were a must!

Coldplay and some random guy passed out.

Main stage