More pictures from Hungary

Lake Balaton at dusk from the pier at Badascony.

The thermal lake at Heviz where the water was naturally 32 degrees Celsius.

Jenn on a boblsed at the Balatoni Bob.

Keith very confused about receiving a ticket and a rock from the cashier. When he gave the rock to the ticket controller, the guy looked at him like he was an idiot.

Random Photos

Here are a few more of the riduculous amount of pictures that we have taken. I pity the fool who asks to see them all.

In order:

Stephansdom Cathedral at night, Vienna. You can see that parts of the church have been cleaned up, but much is still blackened from pollution and WWII.

When we stepped out of the elevator which took us up to the top of the bell tower, we stepped onto not a regular floor, but a very see through grate. It was a little unnerving to look down at the platz from such a height, especially with no warning!

Jenn up near the rooftop of Stephansdom Cathedral, Vienna.

Keith and Istvan in one of the deliciously cold cave that we were in a week ago.

Keith going up the 96 stairs into the Hungarian Parliment building. 4o kg of gold leaf used throughout this building which was built in 1896 to celebrate 1000 years of the Magyar (Hungarian) people having a country here. The had an architectural contest to come up with a design for the building. They were so impressed with the quality of designs that were received that they also built the 2nd and 3rd place finishers across the street- now home to the Museum of Ethnology and the Ministry of Agriculture.

The Great Synagogue, Budapest. Our guide let us know that 45 kg of gold leaf was used in here!

The Weeping Willow Monument to Holocaust survivors located in the garden behing the Great Synagogue in Budapest.

I almost called my mother...

Yup, that is how sick I was last week. Thankfully, it only ended up lasting about a day, but what a day it was. Marta and Istvan think that I may have picked up a virus while at one of the baths; no more saunas for me! So we lost most of a day in sight-seeing (I tried to get through the first half pretending to be healthier than I was) and got to see the inside of a Hungarian clinic. Well, the waiting room part anyway. The emphasis is certainly on the waiting. Early on in the waiting I used the WC for some unpleasant backwards digestion, and then, as my mother always maintained that a person would, I began to slowly feel better. After quite a bit more waiting we decided tracking down some ginger ale and rice cakes seemed like a better use of our time so we left without ever getting past the waiting room area (though I should mention that we went to three separate buildings before finding one to treat a foreigner). Can you believe that they sell Canada Dry in Hungary? What a happy surprise!

Moving on to more pleasant subjects...

On Wednesday we rented a car and drove ourselves to Lake Balaton. It is about 100km southwest of Budapest and the largest freshwater lake in Europe I beleive. Last time we stayed in Balatonalmadi near the NE end of the lake, but this time we drove the length of the lake (70km) and stayed closer to the NW end. We chose the Badascony (Ba-da-choin) area and decided to try to stay right in the town of Badascony. We stopped at the tourist info to ask about room availability, but they told us we weere out of luck and should go to the next town. Instead we went to another Tour Inform place and in the end stayed two doors down from the first tourist info place!

Our bed & breakfast was clean, roomy, air conditioned, and at an excellent location for 10500 Forints a night (about $60 CDN). We could walk about a block to the main street and within 4 minutes be at the beach. We were also well situated for driving to other interesting things to see. The first afternoon was a bit cooler (27°C) so we drove to the spa lake town of Heviz (HAY-vees). This small but deep lake has a spring coming up through its peat bottom which heats the entire lake to about 32°C and infuses the water with minerals. Soaking in here is supposed to give a person relief from all kinds of pains and problems, but to do that you need to rent a tube because it is far too deep to lounge around the edges like a regular lake. Even though it is filled with minerals the water is very clear and we felt exceptionally bouyant while in there.

The next morning we went to explore a castle which we had spotted on our way to Heviz. We first drove to the town of Szigliget and then hiked up to its castle ruins. It was quite a view and we took a lot of pictures to be posted later. In the afternoon we lounged at the Badascony beach. The next moring we drove just up behind our town to the Natinal park area at the top of the hill. There was a hiking trail which took us up to a ˝panoramic view˝ tower which the surrounding trees had grown taller than! Thankfully there were better viewpoints along the way and it was a lovely walk through the woods. In the afternoon, once again, we lounged by the lake. This morning, we headed back to Budapest detouring down the Tihany Peninsula and shaking our heads at the bumper to bumper traffic headed to Lake Balaton for the weekend. So glad we went during the week!

Boiled Watermelons

Tonight on the news they showed how watermelons in the field had boiled their own insides in this heat. It is that hot. Thankfully even though there are not many places with air conditioning there are a few ways to beat the heat, at least for a couple of hours.

First of all, Keith and I have decided to organize our own ˝Baths of Budapest Tour˝ and go to a new one every afternoon. There are over 2 dozen in the city, so it seems that we will not get to each, but we will do our level best. These Turkish-style baths all have a variety of pools for sitting or swimming in. The Thermal Baths section consist of several pools of mineral water heated to different temperatures and you are expected not to swim or spash around but sit and relax. Commonly there are pools of 34, 36, and 38 degrees in succession followed by a steam room of sauna which can be anywhere from 40-80 degrees (the doors are labelled- I went in a 60°one today, but I can´t handle anything higher). After the steam room there is a cold water bath which might be anywhere from 8-18°C (our favourite ones right now). There are also non-mineral baths or pools which are 25, 30, or 38 degrees Celsius and are for swimming or lounging at the sides. The thermal baths are all indoors while the other pools might be inside outside or a combination. The baths also all seem to offer a variety of health treatments such as massage or physiotherapy. Locals view these baths as a very important part of a healthy lifestyle and part of treatment, for stress related ailments especially, can be going on a regular basis. I could get used to that!

Another way to beat the heat is to go on a cave tour. Our friends took us to two different caves and translated important or interesting bits of what the tour guide said for us. It gets down to about 10 or 12 degrees Celsius in the cave so it was very refreshing. The guide was very concerned about me in my sleeveless shirt and insisted that I take a fleece jacket along! Apparently, ˝But I´m a Canadian˝ doesn´t cut it for an excuse to brave cold temperatures when all the locals are bundling up.

We are falling into a pattern of resting in the early evening then going out for a walk & drink after 9pm when it is a bit cooler. I should go take a nap now so that I can keep up with the late night!

You know it's hot when the asphalt is melting

Pictures: The summer cottage of the Hapsburgs,

Jenn helps make Apple Strudel,

Looking from the platform in the middle of the Maze towards the fountain,

One of the great things to play with in the playground is based on Archimedes Screw,

View from atop the Gloriette looking towards the backside of the palace,

Giant Panda having a great afternoon.












For those of you who don't know it, Central and Eastern Europe is experiencing a massive heat wave right now with no apparent end in sight. Yup, that's where we are right now. It is currently 39 °C IN THE SHADE which means it is even hotter in the sunshine. The news this afternoon said we should stay inside, but there is a lack of air conditioning here in Vienna so that doesn't really seem like such a great idea. Besides, we have lots of sites to see!

We spent a glorious 6 hours on an air conditioned train yesterday as we traveled from Krakow to Vienna (or Wien). Our passports we stamped a few times as we journeyed through Poland, Czech Republic, and into Austria. We had no idea until we stepped out of the train and a wall of heat almost knocked us over what wew were in for here. It was hot in Krakow too, but this is getting a little ridiculous. And tomorrow we head to Budapest which is even hotter and built on top of massive undergound hot springs to boot. I digress...

We are enjoying our quick stopover in Vienna. Yesterday we toured the Vienna Opera House, ate sacher torte and enjoyed an unexpected concert. The Opera tour was neat, even taking us backstage to see the lifts, etc, that make possible all the quick scene changes. After supper we wandered over to the Music House "Museum" which seems to be like the sound experience thing in Seattle, but we never actually went to the museum part. A girl intercepted us in the foyer to ask, "Are you here for the concert?" and we had to nod dumbly that we had no idea that there was to be a concert. Being that it was free and invloved a couple choirs, we decided that we wouls check it out and leave if it was no good. We stayed the whole 2 hours. The headlining choir was touring here from Holland (University of Utrecht) where they deservingly won some big contest. So we will try to go to the museum tonight; they're open till 10 so we still have time to go to the real Sacher Cafe and eat authentic Sacher Torte. Mmmmm.

Today, we got an early start, might as well when it is too hot to sleep, and headed to the Schönbrunn Palace. I was very disappointed 3 years ago when we came to Vienna and did not have time to go here, but now I am so glad that we waited until we had time to do it properly (8:30am-3pm). The Schönbrunn Palace was established first as a hunting lodge, but soon after as the summer residence of the Hapsburg Royals. Not only did leaving the city bring them to slightly cooler temperatures, but, more importantly, it kept them away from the germy masses during the least sanitary time of the year. Now, the city has grown around the palace grounds, but they are so massive that you still feel separate from the rest of the world. We toured the State Rooms and Living quarters, watched a Strudel making demo (actually, I got to participate and earned a funky little baker's hat and a certificate for it), strolled the Privy Garden, went through the Hedge Maze, played on the coolest playground ever, walked though the sprinklers (did I mention it was hot?), hiked to the Glorietta, took the stairs to the top of the Panoramic Terrace, and went to the zoo all without leaving the property. The zoo is the world's oldest, built by Emperess Maria Theresa & her husband Emperor Franz Joseph in the mid 1700s for the education and entertainment of the court. These two had 16 children (11 who lived into adulthood) so it was probably cheaper to build a zoo than pay admission.

Krakow: A Sobering History

Top Picture: the marshaling yards at Birkenau where Dr. Mengele seperated families and sent people to there deaths.

2nd: The 'shower' room gas chamber at Aushwitz 1

3rd: The crematorium at Aushwitz 1

4th: Keith eating Polish food (I'm not sure how the picture order comes up)

5th: The train tracks and main gate - Aushwitz 2/Birkenau

Bottom: The main gate at Aushwitz 1 - Work Will Set You Free - the great Nazi lie.

I probably would have gained a lot of weight in Krakow had it not been for the suddenly warm temperatures they experienced beginning the day we got there. The food came in vast quantities and was just tremendous. On our last night there we ate at a restaurant that we had visited earlier for pirogies and had a pork tenderloin brought out to us roasting over fire and spitted on a sabre by a monk. Okay, the server was dressed like the monk, but it sure was cool! If I could upload a video of it you all could see it. Unfortunately, I don't know how to do that yet and I am paying for the internet so you'll all just have to wait.

On Monday we went and visited the most sobering place I've ever seen: the concentration/death camp of Aushwitz-Birkenau. We began early in the morning and took a very hot one-and-a-half hour bus ride from Krakow's main bus terminal to Ocwiecim (the actual Polish name of the town the camp is located at) and got off at the museum. We signed up for a 2 hour English tour to orient ourselves and this was excellent. Having both studied this period of history immensely, we knew a lot about the camps and the Holocaust but actually seeing the place where 1.5 million people (an estimated 980,000 Jews) were murdered by the demons of the S.S. was overwhelming.

Walking through the main gate under the sign the reads "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Sets You Free) was in many senses very erie as one thought of the millions of people who walked under that sign never to return to the outside world. A number of the block houses have been left as they were but many have been turned into museum displays about Jewish history in Poland, the Holocaust, Polish WW II history, and other country's WW II displays. Others displaz relics from the camps. Entire rooms full of shoes, others of clothes, and another with human hair. The enormity of the evil that occured there is indescribable and we often found our emotions running between intense sadness and then anger.

We took a shuttle bus 3 km to the Birkenau site. This camp was built for one purpose only: extermination. The sheer vastness of Birkenau is incredible. It is awful in both senses of the word. While the smaller women's side of the camp that also housed Gypsy families and some Jewish families has brick buildings with most intact, the far larger side of the tracks for the men has only one remaining row of wooden horse stables on concrete slabs. The rest were all demolished after the war except for the chimneys which stretch into the horizon. We walked down the tracks to the marshaling yards where Dr. Mengele, the Angel of Death, seperated people into two columns when they exited the boxcars. A motion of his hand to the left meant that you were deemed good enough to work. A right hand motion meant zou were off to one of the five gas chamber crematorium complexes. We came to the end of the tracks where two of the cremetorium ruins lie. We then walked through the forest down a road through trees where women and children undressed before entering the gas chambers. One of the bath houses (gas chambers) has been turned into a memorial there. We walked back down the tracks and caught the bus back to Aushwity 1 and toured ourselves around.

The experience was sobering, sorrowful, horrifying, and I'd have to say a little life altering. One realizes the dangerous time we live in could easily lead again to such horror. One hopes not, but one's faith in people's ability to resist such evil is shaken when you see such places and sense the enormous loss of life that occured where you are walking now. And above all, one is struck by the need for the grace of God to save humankind from itself. May we never forget what happened there.

Tuesday we toured the Jewish Ghetto and the Oskar Schindler factory in Krakow which helped raise our spirits. We also climbed the bell tower to meet and listen to Krakow's trumpeter play the bugle calls from the tower. It was a lighter day in which we did things to lighten our spirits.

But I will never forget what I have seen on Monday. Go and see such places. Those who remember history will help insure such things never happen again.

Krakow Rocks!

We are having such a great time in this city. First of all, its beautiful in an Eastern European way. Simple yet elegant. The main Market Square is very colorful and the Cloth Hall is a huge marketplace. St. Mary's Church is awe-inspiring. We walked in last evening and there was a beautiful choir concert going on with choirs from all over France. We sat and listened for over an hour.

On one of the towers of the church a trumpeter plays a partial bugle call every hour of every day year after year! The legend goes like this: when the Turks invaded Krakow about 500 years ago, a trumpeter on the tower saw them coming and played what is a beautiful trumpet call to warn the citizens within the walls of the city (walls that still stand today). Suddenly, in the middle of the trumpet call, a Turkish bowman shot an arrow up over the walls (which are about 200 meters away), up through the window of the tower and shot the trumpeter through the throat. This is why each hour the trumpeter (one of the fire brigade now) only partially plays the call. It seriously sounds like someone kills him each time.

So on another note, Keith the veteran traveler feels a little like an amateur. As we were going through security in Italy to fly to Krakow, my backpack gets pulled aside and searched. What comes out? My Swiss Army Knife that I always carry traveling - usually in my suitcase when getting on planes! Did I ever feel like an idiot. Needless to say, they gave me the option of going back to the check-in, packing it up, and putting it through that way or ... they throw it out. I didn't need the hassle of that so I agreed they should throw it out. My beautiful, engraved Swiss Army knife is now in an Italian dump. :( I still feel stupid!

As Jenn has already written I am sure, all my single male friends need to come to Krakow. There seems to be an incredibly high proportion of single, beautiful women here. I get to say this because Jenn said it first! The average age of the city of Krakow is apparently only about 35 or so which makes it one of the lowest in Europe. This would truly be a single man's paradise. So seriously, Steven and Kellen, get over here.

As for food, after eating small portions for very high prices in Italy, we are currently eating very large portions of Polish food (much more hearty affairs) for much smaller prices. A $2.50 half-litre of beer is considered expensive here. Our main dish on a dinner for two mixed perogie (yes, the Poles have them too) dish was less than twelve dollars. The beer and the mead put it over the top.

Great country but get here before the Yanks do! Mass quantities of them seem to spoil everything. Pictures to come in the following days. Tomorrow we are going on a more solemn tour - the Aushwitz-Birkenau concentration camps.

The bells are ringing on the Town Hall Tower. This means the trumpeter is going to play soon. Must go!

O brothers where art thou?

I am completely enchanted with Krakow right now. We are staying at a place called the Globetroter Inn (I know it is spelled wrong; I don't think that they do) which is about a block from the Main Market Square. We arrived here yesterday in time for a late supper (amazing) and some time to wander around the main drag. Krakow is about the same latitude as Edmonton, so it stays light quite late this time of year, and the long evenings are full of street performers of all sorts. We couldn't believe how alive the square was last night, and it is filled and exciting tonight as well.

Apparently, this year marks Krakow's 750th birthday so there are even more events than usual. Last night in our strolling we went into St. Mary's Church on the aquare and stumbled into a performance of choirs from France who are here for an International Choir Festival. It was incredible so hear such beautiful singing in such an equally impressive setting. There were also various plays happening. Main Market Square is divided in two halves by Cloth Hall ("the oldest shopping mall in the world" contains booths selling area specialties: amber, woodworking and wicker). Tonight while we were eating supper we noticed an interesting assortment of characters heading in one direction. We found them assembling at the Barbican Gate (entrance to the Old Town) and then got ahead of them in time to watch their very lively and colourful parade. I still have no idea what it was about, but it was sure fun to listen to and watch!

The food here is divine. The lovely girl at our inn recommended a few places to eat as well as areas we should be sure not to miss. So far she is 5 for 5! Last night we dined on chicken kebabs, potatoes with butter, bacon & onion, and spinach. This morning we ate a veritable feast at Del Papa and we plan on going back for more of the same tomorrow and the next day. Tea, bread, rolls, eggs scrambled with something I haven't entirely identified yet (delicious whatever it was), honey, jam, butter, cottage cheese with radishes, and I can't remember what else all for 14 Polish Zloty; that is about $5-6 Cdn. This evening we went to "Miod i Wino" which translates to "Honey and Wine." Wow. While devouring our mixed pierogi platter (various fillings included spinch, meat, sourkraut & mushroom, and, of course, potato & cheese), we witnessed another table having a roast duck brought to their table and then chopped into four with a very large cleaver. Later the lights went out and they wheeled out a table with fire and grilled kebabs on a sword; we may need to go back and try one of those! I also tried mead fo rthe first time; it seems to be a much stronger relative of Hudderite wine. A little on the sweet side for me, but I am not sure that I am ready for the straight wodka yet.

Thankfully, we have also been walking so much that we can eat all these heavy meals with no negative consequences! We walked the Royal Way today; the route taken by the king when returning to what was the capital of Poland until 400 years ago. It is only a little over a mile, but with all the side roads to be explored and historical points of interest it took us from about 10am till 12:30pm. We explored Wawal Castle and cathedral before leaving the Royal Way to search for an English book store that we had heard of. I have gotten through both books that I brought along and Keith is reluctant to part with The Agony and the Ecstacy so that I can re-read it. I bought a novel set around Krakow which looks quite interesting.

Overall, Krakow is a bustling city filled with young people, exciting nightlife, and incredible food. My siblings should have come here with me!

More Pictures from Italy

Murano - the island of special glass - Venice.

San Marco at dawn - Venice.

San Giorggio Maggiore at dawn and from the Campanile (bell tower) in early evening - Venice.

Sad to Leave Venice But Excited for Krakow

St. Mark's Basilica in Venice.

The Roman Forum - I couldn't help but think at I viewed this site that Empires will pass but the Kingdom of Christ will never diminish! As a Christian, I see it this way: Roman Empire? 500 years. Christianity? 2000 and counting!

Venice has been a wonderful break from the business of London and the craziness of Rome. Staying at the north end of the Carnarreggio district of Venice was a brilliant move. Its amazing how once you've walked 5-10 minutes away from Rialto and San Marco how quiet and local Venice becomes. Our hotel was wonderful! And relatively cheap for Venice. They also had this wonderful, old Hotel cat whom we befriended named Pontevecchio (Vecchio Bridge). He was 17 and sunned himself every morning in the grass of the breakfast garden. Felt a little like home that way - with the cat I mean. We don't have a breakfast garden. Mores the pity!

Yesterday morning I awoke very early and, leaving Jenn asleep, walked to Rialto and San Marco square. There were only about 15 people in the square and all the way to the water front. About 10 were street sweepers and cleaners while the other five of us were armed with cameras. It was beautiful! No one around with the sun rising on San Giorggio Maggiore across the water. Oh yeah, there were the pigeons. Always the blasted pigeons. Oh well, what do you do? Did you know that the city of Venice has a pigeon culling program run by a few men? Seriously, they do it early in the morning when no one is around. If they didn't, the city would be overrun with pigeons and covered in pigeon dung.

Today we managed to send some postcard early and then make our way to the vapporeto 5 minutes away. This took us to the bus station where we caught a bus to the small Treviso airport where we are bloggin right now. The busses only leave every couple of hours to go to Treviso and we are not leaving for about four hours, if the Sky Europe flight is on time. Budget flights are cheap but not always predictable. Either way, we hope to be in Krakow by 5.10 pm today. We get to fly over the Alps, the Czech Republic and finally land in Krakow.

Arrivederci, Venice! Until next time.

National Historica Fair Day in Lethbridge

For all of you in Lethbridge and surrounding area: Go to the National Historica Fair! There, I've done my duty, you are reminded.

Pictures: St. Peter's Dome, Vatican City dress code sign (turn your head, I can't figure out how to rotate it!), looking out at St. Peter's Square, looking down from climbing the Dome at St. Peter's, Me tossing a coin into the Trevi Fountain.

In other events, after not seeing an internet cafe in days, we have hit a glut of them in the last 36 hours. Right now we are in the Treviso airport waiting for our plane to Krakow. We will be waiting for awhile since the bus ride here took shorter than predicted. I suppose that is better than the other way. Yesterday the vaporetti (boat busses) went on strike in Venice for 7 hours. Apparently they just wanted to go to the beach on a Friday afternoon because they are all back to work today.

Yesterday we enjoyed a perfect day in Venice. Keith got "up with the pigeons" to take pictures of St. Mark's Square minus the tourists, then brought back a chocolate filled croissant to supplement our usual hotel breakfast of rolls, melba toast and hot chocolate. We then made our way by vaporetto to the island of Murano. We enjoyed a cappecino each as we waited for more shops to open as I searched for the perfect piece of Murano glass jewellry both for myself and others who had put their requests in (and you too, Mom). It was very interesting to me that not all shops in Murano sell authentic Murano glass. The ones who do have signs with the offical seal as well as reminders that they do not sell anything from China! I can't believe that they are just not run off the island for selling fakes, but I suppose that is one of the downfalls of a free economy.

We stayed in Murano for lunch and then headed back across the water to Venice. We did a little more wandering, found the location where the evening concert we were headed to would be, and then took a gondola ride. It was a very quiet, peaceful experience and our gondolier was quite knowledgeable about the palazzos we passed by.

We attended a concert in the evening featuring a baroque string quintet. Is was beautiful. I am looking forward to less Western tourists in Poland!

We have taken a lot of photos...

So today we thougth that we would download some pictures- it took 3 CDs. I guess the 500 and some pics and videos from Italy took up more memory space than we had figured. We are off to Poland tomorrow and I am not sure what to expect. I am sure there will be meat & potatoes, but I have no idea what the words are for that! Today we went out to Murano and then back to Venice to splurge for a gondola ride. It was fantastic!

Pictures from Italy

Keith tossing a coin into the Trevi Fountain. Its supposed to ensure that you one day return to Rome. Hopefully they have better information booths then!

So far I have to say that Venice is so much more relaxing than Rome. Not that I didn't enjoy Rome. It's just that Rome is not the most user friendly city on earth. Once you're at the actual sites it is awesome, but getting to them can be a bit of a hassle in a city where no one seems to care to be bothered to help you.

In contrast, the train trip to Venice was beautiful and Florence was nuts! But hey, we could walk everywhere in Florence for 5.5 hours and we even got in to see Michelangelo's David which was amazing.

Venice has been great. It has been very neat to get to see some things we've already seen only in more detail than before as well as new experiences. We saw four museums in one day as they were all attached to each other. The Lido (beach) yesterday was beautiful. Today we went to Murano where they make the fancy glass. We went to the Glass Museum and saw glass pieces from the first century still intact! The stuff is incredibly strong. We are spending the remainder of today taking it easy, walking around, and are going to a concert of Baroque music tonight.

Once again, sadly, we have not been able to upload more pictures. Hopefully, with more internet cafes at our disposal, we will be able to once we reach Poland. Of the two working internet cafes in Venice, we went to one last night and are at the other today. This one is a lot closer to our hotel. We have to put all our Rome and Venice pictures on a CD today and will hopefully get some of those up.

Until then, ciao from Venice and don't even ask me to say hello yet in Polish.

There is one working internet cafe in Venice

< St. Peter's, not our best pic but the only one on the CD so far.

Lest you think that I am not enjoying myself, I feel I need to say that there is more good than bad in Italy. This is especially true in Venice. We spent our next to last day in Rome at a beach south of Ostia Antiqua. It was a beautiful beach and my first swim in the ocean (Tyhranean Sea [sp?]). Leaving rome we spent 5 hours or so in Florence. We somehow managed to find a way past the three hour line up and into the Accademia Gallery to see the David, but that is far too long a tale for the limited time we have now. We are loving Venice and the cooler (20s) weather. Our hotel is great, it even has a resident cat. I have to say that we have been very happy with all our places to stay so far. Let's hope that trend continues!

Today we went to the Lido, which is a beach on the Adriatic Sea. Much warmer water on this side of the Italian peninsula! Tomorrow we go to Murano to see them make the glass, take our first gondola ride, and take in a concert of Vivaldi, Albinoni, etc. Saturday we are off to Krakow, Poland where there just may be a better chance to blog!

I'm not sure what's with the title not coming up, but I was going to call this "The Funniest Souvenir I've Ever Seen!" In the souvenir shop on the roof of St. Peter's (yes, halfway down from the dome is a souvenir shop and the cleanest bathroom I've ever seen) are Vatican shot glasses for sale. Bottoms up to the Vatican!

Hopefully some more pictures will come out on this! Meanwhile, Rome is the most frustrating city to get around in. Very scant subway lines and a lot of bussing. Plus, the Travel Information service is not much in the line of information! They have a list on the window of what they won't help you with, and then there is an unwritten list about what they don't want to help you with. Signs mean nothing as the arrows pointing you in the direction of help don't actually lead to anything helpful. But hey, the sights are great, the people beautiful. So who cares about the innefficiency? Clearly the Romans don't!

These pictures aren't from Rome. The one is of me arguing with the Muslims at Speaker's Corner at Hyde Park about the Trinity. The other one, if it ends up here, is of Jenn in front of London Bridge from the Tower of London.

Hopefully our next computer will let us do the pictures quicker! Off to Venezia via Firenze (Florence) doman! Ciao!

Now, I know that some of you have been feeling jealous, and I may have a way to help you work through that. First of all, you should know that Rome is not all romantic evening strolls and gelato. There is a good deal of that, yes, but there is another side to everything. For starters, one should never travel from London to Rome directly, the culture shock is almost too great. A few examples:

London: A well organized public transportation system which can get you anywhere and back in a relatively short amount of time. Multiple subway lines, bus routes, and trains, maps, instructions and helpful people abound.

Rome: No apparent improvements to the transportation system since it was a village on the Tiber. For 6 million people (plus tourista) there are TWO subway lines, buses which may or may not come and extremely few maps or helpful people.

London: Tube station TVs tell you exactly which trains are slightly delayed on multiple lines.
Rome: Subway TVs play car racing and fashion shows (I am not making this up).

London: Virtually no graffiti or litter, signs posted telling you will be prosecuted if you try it.
Rome: Can't see into some subway cars because of the graffiti, lots of litter.

London: Police and guards very present and attentive to their duties.
Rome: Police and guards stand around and try to look cool while you walk yourself through security.

There is so much more, but yo ushould be getting the idea. It is absolutely no surprise to me that this is the culture in which the mafia was born. Everyone seems far more concerned with looking beautiful than any practical aspect of life and it shows up in all that they do. I am pretty sure this how Rome fell the first time...

Oh, one last thing to help get you through that envy: every time you need to use the bathroom today, try to do it with no seat on the toilet. That's right- squat. For the full Roman experience try to imagine no elevated bowl at all, just two footprints and a bowl in the floor. Hope that helps. ;)

St. Peter's is Really Big

The temperature is definitely a lot hotter hear than in cheery old England. Standing in line here is a lot hotter experience than in London.

We got up early today and went straight to the Vatican. We entered St. Peter's at 8.15 am and there were hardly any people. Well, it seemed like there were hardly any people. There could have been a thousand people there and we wouldn't have noticed due to the shear size of the church. It can hold 60,000 standing worshippers at one time. That's apparently equal to 1200 tour groups.

We spent an hour in the basilica in the quiet of the morning before heading down to the Swiss Guards stationed to the left of the basilica. They directed us to the Scavi entrance and we went on our tour of the necropolis below the crypt level. We were 50 meters below the current floor level at times. It was amazing. It was like walking through a graveyard street full of tombs with a roof over your head. The urns from 2,000 years ago were still there. Carving of names on the walls told of family lines and individuals. It was really amazing. You can't see too much of the tomb of Peter but enough that you can see bones inside of it. Really quite something to see. If any of you ever gets to go to Rome, request a tour a few months in advance. It was definitely worth the effort.

The museums were huge and at times confusing. They have the largest collection of Roman and Greek sculptures in the world. My favorite thing to see was The School of Athens by Raphael. Jenn can't decided what was most amazing for her. There was simply so much to see.

The Sistine Chapel is really great to see but a bit of the ambience was lacking due to so many people being in it at once. Also, a lot of people just don't seem to get that you need to stop talking in a place like that. The guards did what they could but there were simply too many people in the chapel. The restored Michelangelo ceiling was incredible to see though.

We are hoping to do a walking tour this evening of another part of the city. Tomorrow we will switch from Christian Rome to pagan Rome. Hopefully we can post more pictures then. Our hotel doesn't have internet for us so we are at a store that offers it. The cafe we went to last night worked well but we think they tried stealing our identity. They asked for "i.d. like a passport" for them to hold while we used the computers. This place did not. Like we'd ever surrender our i.d. to anyone other than a police officer or border controller! Scarey!

Rome is incredible but we felt safer in London. Oh well. That's just the way it goes!

Pictures! Finally!!

Jenn rides her first double decker bus.

Travel trials and other stories

Okay it wasn't too trial-ish. But our day began at 5 am with a wake up call. We went to Victoria station at 5.45 and caught the Circle line two stops before we transfered to the Picadilly line to Heathrow. It took us until 7.00 to get to Heathrow by the Underground - which eventually becomes the overground about 10 stops from the airport. Everything went smoothly and the check-in process was quick.

Heathrow has been all about the security this past week since the attempted bombing last week. Security didn't take too long but the way they deal with the shoe issue is everyone needs to take off their shoes. I never had to do that in an airport before. Not only do you have to take them off, you have to walk through security with them off while your shoes go through the scanner. Needless to say, Jenn wasn't too impressed as, being in sandals, she therefore went through on barefeet.

Now at Heathrow you don't get a gate number when you check in because, well, they don't know what it is. No flight gets a gate until about 30-40 minutes before it leaves and then everyone has to scramble to get to their gate! That was a little stressful. I mean, there was a Catholic priest waiting for the same Alitalia flight and even he was stressed. When has anyone seen a stressed priest? They're not married for heaven's sake! Anyways, we finally got our gate number only to get there and find that the flight was delayed because, get this, the Alitalia flight was late on arriving from Milan. The Italians late for something? No kidding.

We finally got to Rome and the temperature was about 15 degrees higher than in London. But hey, it could be worse; we could be in Lethbridge tomorrow. It took a bit to get to our hotel with the Rome subway system and the walk, but we finally made it. We really did well on the hotel. It's only 5 minutes from the Vatican. We can lean out of our second story window and see the walls down the street.

We went for a long walk around the neighborhood to orient ourselves. We also went to St. Peter's square and it was really unbelievable. That square and that church are incredibly huge! And beautiful. We bought postcards and stamps from the Vatican post office (only place in the world you can buy them) and sent some cards home. After some shopping (lots of swanky shops on our street) we finally found a lovely restaurant where we had individual, huge plate size pizzas (thin crusted and very delectable) and fruit. The vegetables and fruit here are amazing to taste.

Jenn is currently downloading some pictures to put on the blog - we know that's what you've really been waiting for. Tomorrow we are going to go and explore St. Peter's Basilica early in the morning and then take our long awaited tour below the foundations! In the afternoon we are hoping to see the Vatican museums and the Sistine Chapel. We've brought iPods with Allegri's Miserere just for that purpose! And now, I need a good night's sleep. çiao! Buone notte.

Keith is going to get hit by a bus!

Seriously, I think I may get killed here in London. I have travelled extensively all of my life and I am certain I must be a veteran at European travel by now. That being said, I cannot for the life of me wrap my head around looking to the right first before crossing the bloody street. Or left once I get to the centre! It is so bizarre to do. They even have signs at the crosswalks painted on the pavement that say "Look Left" but that doesn't seem to matter. Now, knowing me, tomorrow I'll look right first when we get to Rome and get nearly killed there. Oh well, there are worse places to go than in London or Rome

We went to a Starbucks last night as we got pretty cold and needed something warm. Needless to say, it ran us about $16 CDN for two grande one pump vanilla tazo chai lattes! Its a funny thing. England (and London in particular) have gotten mighty expensive in the last ten years and the numerical value of things is about 2/3 of what they are in Canada. But the £ costs 2.10 Canadian so everything is about 1/3 or more than it is in Canada. We saw a hotdog vendor selling $10 hotdogs yesterday. Forget that. Needless to say though, pub grub is the best value for the money. Tonight we went to the original Duke of Wellington pub near our hotel in Victoria and I had a wonderful meal of lamb, potatoes, carrots, and peas with a pint of amazing Dutch beer brewed exclusively in the UK (?) for less than it would cost in Canada. But what's great about London is many of the national attractions are all free so entertainment doesn't have to cost you a lot of money all the time.

For my niece Emily, we went to King's Cross Station today and took pictures of ourselves pushing a luggage cart through the wall at Platform 9 and 3/4 just like Harrt Potter must do each time he goes to Hogwarts by train in the fall. Pictures will come ... we hope! Off to pack for Rome.

Where in the world are the pictures???

Some of you are probably wondering when pictures will ever appear here, and the answer is... tomorrow. I promise that I have been taking lots (228 so far!), but the hotel's computer doesn't have an input spot for memory cards. Tomorrow we will be downloading all the London photos onto a CD before taking Rome pics, so a wack of images of London should appear by tomorrow evening Italy time, if not sooner.

The weather here is insane- you may have seen the freak hail storm on the news- it is not too cold but it frequently cycles from sunshine to cloud to sunshine to torrential downpour to light shower to sunshine... you get the picture. Often we find ourselves saying, "Quick, take a picture in case it starts raining before we come out!" There is also a huge police presence in the city due to the attempted terrorist attacks last week and the large events happening here: Wimbledon (the tournament that may never end due to postponements for rain), the Harry Potter world premiere last night, and the upcoming Tour de France (which for some reason unknown to me is in Britain). Overall we've felt quite safe everywhere we've been in London, and are looking forward to coming back at the end of the trip.

In the last two days we've been to the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Churchill Museum & Cabinet War Rooms, Picadilly Square, Leicester Square, Wellington Monument, Buckingham Palace, The Orangery at Kensington Palace, Imperial War Museum, and many points in between. When we return, we intend to take in the Buckingham Palace State Rooms (not open until then), the London Eye, Shakespeare's Globe (for a play), and a day out at Windsor. Right now, we are looking forward to sitting on the plane (it's the sitting I am actually looking forward to :) and having a lazy first day in Rome, possibly involving a beach of some sort. And you can look forward to finally seeing some pictures!

Stairs

Well if climbing a flight of stairs adds a week to your life, then yesterday we increased our life expectancy by 8-10 years. First of all there are the stairs up to our hotel room (4th floor, no lift), the stairs in the Tube (subway), and stairs up to the top of the double decker bus. We went back to St. Paul's Cathedral yesterday to tour around and climbed the 409 steps to the top of the Dome (not for the claustrophobic) and then down to picnic in the crypt. We sat in the 2nd balconey of the Prince Edward Theatre to watch Mary Poppins (supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!). And at the end of the day it was the Tube and the hotel stairs again. We are going to be in fantastic shape by the end of this trip! I will now try to add some photos...

Sorry- I just realized that I left the memory card attachment upstairs! Not going back for it!

So, I Did Something That Will Make My Mother Worry

As the title says, I may have done something that will make my Mother worry incessantly until we return to Canada.

But first, I have to say that after being up without a wink of sleep for 30 hours now, I'm really not doing so badly. It was an interesting day to say the least.

My adventures began with being in the longest passport line in history, befriending some fellow Canadians heading to Africa on a choir trip, and then having the choir almost steal my luggage. Seriously! The daft, cheeky, buggers had taken my suitcase off of the carousel by the time I got to it and had loaded on the side along the wall with theirs! As I said, DAFT!

St. Paul's Cathedral for church has to rate as one of my best church experiences ever. The London Sinfonia Brass Ensemble, the Cathedral Singers (men and boys, no women voices), that huge pipe organ, and a full church singing was, to say the least, a religious experience beyond compare. Unreal.

But then this business about my mother worrying. Jenn and I decided to go to Speakers' Corner in the northeast corner of Hyde Park around 3.30 in the afternoon. Speakers' Corner began in the late 1960's as a place where people of various political and idealogical beliefs systems could come on Sunday afternoons to rant, rave, and argue. I'd heard it wasn't anymore like it used to be. Well, let me tell you, it was. There must have been close to five hundred people there listening to individuals on soap boxes (or ladders) rant, rave, and argue. I became interested in on in particular in which a Muslim was trying to show all the ills of Christianity with a couple of Christian guys outmanned trying to argue back. They got him stuck a bunch of times but the guy was amazing at deflecting any questions he couldn't answer or got stuck on. Somehow, suddenly I was at the front ring of the circle (probably about 60 people) and was debating theology with this guy and, if I do say so myself, holding my own. And so, I have to say, when my mother catches wind of this, she will be frantic until we come home. Once again, I had to go open my mouth, this time in Hyde Park with a whole group of Muslims. What can I say? Do what comes naturally!

Dinner was at the Elusive Camel pub around the corner. I was all about the chips! (Fries guys, fries) Okay and the ale! Anyway, must sleep. Jenn has planned tomorrow as British Museum day. Must be awake for that! Pictures will come, we promise!

I'm not tired, I'm not tired, I'm not...zzzz

So I have been awake for 26 hours now and I still have 4 to go if I am to make it until 7pm London time. Neither one of us got any sleep on the plane. It was very cramped, but on the plus side the food was quite good and plentiful. We got in on time, 7am, and took the express train to Victoria Station which is near enough to our hotel to walk from. It is half price to take the express from Gatwick to Vic Station if you have 4 people travelling together, so we recruiterd the 2 girls behind us in line. The first one, Kim, is here on business from Bermuda, but was born and raised in Canada. The second girl was from Lyon, France and was quite relieved that we three Canadians spoke more French than she spoke English. I am not sure if she would have made it to Vic Station without us!

We had just enough time to drop off our luggage at our hotel, clean up a bit intheir bathroom, take a double decker bus across The City (downtown London) and get to St. Paul's Cathedral for their 11am mass with 15 minutes to spare. They were having an orchestral mass featuring the London Symphonia and the Cathedral Choir; it was amazing. I will let Keith describe the actual musical quality as I am sure that I can do it no justice. After the service we ate lunch in the Crypt Cafe in St. Paul's basement, and are now checking into our hotel officially. To keep us from falling asleep, we are now headed off to Hyde Park to cjeck out Soeaker's Corner- supposed to be at it's most lively on Sunday afternoons.

Last British fun fact: the @ symbol is not above the 2, but just above the right hand shift key; actually more comvenient once you find it in the first place!