Letter from Rome, Florence, Pisa, Nice, Barcelona, Zaragoza, and Madrid
Hello All:
We have experienced so many wonderful places, people and things since leaving Iona, it´s amazing to think that there is still more to see!! We celebrated on October 19th however as the realization that we will be home in one month kicked in! We are so excited to see you all!!!
So, here´s a quick recap of what we´ve seen since our last transmission (by the way, we did find our way out of Venice!)
October 14 - Off to Rome! Arrived in Rome in the evening and as we had free time and dinner on our own, we struck out for the city via the excellent metro system. As we walked out of the station, we literally walked right into the Coliseum!!!!! Absolutely beautiful with the sun setting on it and perfect for pics! We also saw, that evening, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon (the oldest surviving building in Rome), the Piazza Navona (where we ate outdoors), and the Unification of Rome Monument. We also tried to find as many locations as possible from Dan Brown´s recent book, Angels and Demons (which we´ve both enjoyed now).
October 15 - Spent the entire day in Rome today with a local guide and a local bus driver. Tosca, our guide, was so incredibly knowledgeable! Our very first highlight was to visit the Vatican where we saw the Museums of the Popes, THE SISTINE CHAPEL!, and St. Peter´s Basilica. By the way, in the 1500´s there was something known as the great ´cover-up´where the Pope thought it undignified to see the real human body as it was sculpted, so many male parts were cut off or covered up with a fig leaf. Such a desecration of great art! Then we hopped back onto the bus and it was off to the Coliseum again, but this time, we got to go inside! Absolutely incredible!! We finished the evening with dinner with our Canuck friends, Heather and Kiel, and then had some cribbage with Heather while Kiel attended an opera in town. Excellent day!
October 16 - Off to Florence today! First we stopped above the city for a group shot which could then be purchased for 10 euros....we opted not to do this. Then we headed down to Florence where we had a leather working demonstration/sales pitch (Julia, you would LOVE this store!) and then headed to the main Dom to see the Doors to Heaven. They are replicas in the square, but the originals are in a museum and they took 21 years to make. The originals are made from solid gold! Then we headed to the Galleria Accademia to see David, Michelangelo´s famous statue. This was the original as we had already seen two fakes in the city. No pics allowed of the real thing, oh well. It was arrestingly beautiful, simple at first, but much more indepth the longer you looked. Then, we saw an exhibition for a music instrument collection. They had a Stradivarius violin, viola, and cello! They also had some Christoforo pianos, some of the first pianos ever constructed! We were in heaven! Then we walked back to Santa Croce to see the tombs of some well-known Florentines. We saw Galileo Galilei, Michelangelo, Donatello, Rossini (music guy), and Danti (who wrote The Divine Comedy). Then it was off to our hotel for dinner and bed.
October 17 - We got to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa today! One of Katie´s life dreams was to see this in real life and it was SOOOOO cool! We grabbed a few shots (even one with Scooter making a swan dive off the tower - optical illusions are great!) and then went back to take some pics of some planes that Dan had seen on our way to the Tower. There was an Italian Widowmaker (F-104), F-86 and trainer MB-326 on static display! After Pisa, we travelled through 168 1/2 tunnels to get to Monaco. When we arrived in Monaco, we had 1 hour to wander around the city of Monte Carlo and see the casino and the fountains. Confession time.....Katie lost her 1 euro (just 1=) at the Monte Carlo Casino. It was tragic, but we´ve moved on:) Then we found a statue of Hector Berlioz, famous musician, and found several extremely nice looking cars! There was a fashion show on this night for Swarovski Crystals and we knew that Bon Jovi and Mariah Carey would be in town......no sightings though. It was time to get to Nice, so we piled back on the bus and when we arrived, Dan, Kiel, Heather, and Katie all walked down to the Med to see if it was suitable for swimming. The water was lovely (just wading tonight), but the beach is made with large pebbles and was not NICE on the feet :) Swimming tomorrow.
October 18 - As we didn´t have any included excursions today, we had time to do some laundry........hooray!!!!!! Dan & Kiel found a coin laundry nearby (and a cute French girl - for Kiel of course) and got that done early so we had the rest of the day for fun. Then, we headed to the ´beach´ for swimming....it was cloudy and cool, but it was the Med and the water was nice and warm. We dídn´t stay too long and headed back to the hotel to find some food. Heather was back from her extra excursion by that time and we went to the nearby Spar shop (they´re everywhere!) and bought a nice picnic dinner including some very VERY cheap wine. We finished dinner 1/2 hour later and went out in search of more drinks. We had a really fun evening with drinks and cards and had some water and tylenol before bed, so no worries about the next morning!
October 19 - We left Nice for Barcelona and had a long drive through varied landscapes. Much of the time was spent sleeping (a little tired from the night before) or reading and we arrived in Barcelona around 6 pm. Some of the group were off to a Flamenco show, but we went down to the beach (a real sand beach!) and checked it out for swimming capabilities. It looked lovely with big, huge waves and we enjoyed the sound. Then we had another picnic (non-alcoholic ;) and went to bed early.
October 20 - BEAUTIFUL DAY! We´ve had really nice weather for our tour, but today was gorgeous. We started with a tour of the city and have decided that we will definitely return here for a few days after this tour before our return to Canada. After the tour finished in downtown Barcelona, we and Kiel headed back to the hotel via the subway, changed into our swimming suits and rushed down to the beach. It was awesome! The waves were between 6-12 feet in height and it was so much fun riding them. We stayed for a good 4 hours, just enjoying the sun and relaxing. Then we returned to the hotel to find Heather back from her excursion and so we headed to the mall in search of postcards. We didn´t find any, but enjoyed the walk. Then Heather said that she´d really like to swim in the Med, so we threw our suits back on and rushed back down to the beach. We could only swim for 25 minutes, but that was enough as the waves had grown bigger since we´d left and we were all tired. We had dinner at the hotel and flopped into bed after a couple of hands of crib.
October 21 - The drive from Barcelona to Madrid was a long one and Wim (our tour guide) likes to play various types of music on the bus while we drive. Some are okay, but some are very loud and somewhat different, so that takes a bit of getting used to. We stopped in Zaragoza in the middle of the Spanish ´desert´ and saw the beautiful church there. Then we headed to Madrid and arrived at our hotel which is full of groups. Dinner was extremely interesting this evening as the main course was fish. Katie had asked for some chicken instead, but Dan, loving fish said bring it on. He got it all right......the fish came whole!!! With its head!!! and tail!!! After a large amount of laughter and some turned up noses, he managed to swallow most of it, but the fish eyes were something else all right! Thank goodness for the good custard dessert to take the taste out of his mouth - some of Katie´s chicken helped with that as well:).
October 22 - Finally we arrive at today! We had a nice tour of Madrid this morning (although the rain was pouring down) and returned to the hotel to come and write this update. We´re happy to be heading back to France tomorrow and onto Paris soon, but will definitely return to Barcelona for some more fun in the sun!
So, that´s been our lives for the last week......imagine all the other stories that we don´t have time to write about.......ahhhhhhhhh! We´ll attach a couple of pics here for you...enjoy!
Hope that you are all well and we truly are very excited to see you all soon!
Dan & Katie
We have experienced so many wonderful places, people and things since leaving Iona, it´s amazing to think that there is still more to see!! We celebrated on October 19th however as the realization that we will be home in one month kicked in! We are so excited to see you all!!!
So, here´s a quick recap of what we´ve seen since our last transmission (by the way, we did find our way out of Venice!)
October 14 - Off to Rome! Arrived in Rome in the evening and as we had free time and dinner on our own, we struck out for the city via the excellent metro system. As we walked out of the station, we literally walked right into the Coliseum!!!!! Absolutely beautiful with the sun setting on it and perfect for pics! We also saw, that evening, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon (the oldest surviving building in Rome), the Piazza Navona (where we ate outdoors), and the Unification of Rome Monument. We also tried to find as many locations as possible from Dan Brown´s recent book, Angels and Demons (which we´ve both enjoyed now).
October 15 - Spent the entire day in Rome today with a local guide and a local bus driver. Tosca, our guide, was so incredibly knowledgeable! Our very first highlight was to visit the Vatican where we saw the Museums of the Popes, THE SISTINE CHAPEL!, and St. Peter´s Basilica. By the way, in the 1500´s there was something known as the great ´cover-up´where the Pope thought it undignified to see the real human body as it was sculpted, so many male parts were cut off or covered up with a fig leaf. Such a desecration of great art! Then we hopped back onto the bus and it was off to the Coliseum again, but this time, we got to go inside! Absolutely incredible!! We finished the evening with dinner with our Canuck friends, Heather and Kiel, and then had some cribbage with Heather while Kiel attended an opera in town. Excellent day!
October 16 - Off to Florence today! First we stopped above the city for a group shot which could then be purchased for 10 euros....we opted not to do this. Then we headed down to Florence where we had a leather working demonstration/sales pitch (Julia, you would LOVE this store!) and then headed to the main Dom to see the Doors to Heaven. They are replicas in the square, but the originals are in a museum and they took 21 years to make. The originals are made from solid gold! Then we headed to the Galleria Accademia to see David, Michelangelo´s famous statue. This was the original as we had already seen two fakes in the city. No pics allowed of the real thing, oh well. It was arrestingly beautiful, simple at first, but much more indepth the longer you looked. Then, we saw an exhibition for a music instrument collection. They had a Stradivarius violin, viola, and cello! They also had some Christoforo pianos, some of the first pianos ever constructed! We were in heaven! Then we walked back to Santa Croce to see the tombs of some well-known Florentines. We saw Galileo Galilei, Michelangelo, Donatello, Rossini (music guy), and Danti (who wrote The Divine Comedy). Then it was off to our hotel for dinner and bed.
October 17 - We got to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa today! One of Katie´s life dreams was to see this in real life and it was SOOOOO cool! We grabbed a few shots (even one with Scooter making a swan dive off the tower - optical illusions are great!) and then went back to take some pics of some planes that Dan had seen on our way to the Tower. There was an Italian Widowmaker (F-104), F-86 and trainer MB-326 on static display! After Pisa, we travelled through 168 1/2 tunnels to get to Monaco. When we arrived in Monaco, we had 1 hour to wander around the city of Monte Carlo and see the casino and the fountains. Confession time.....Katie lost her 1 euro (just 1=) at the Monte Carlo Casino. It was tragic, but we´ve moved on:) Then we found a statue of Hector Berlioz, famous musician, and found several extremely nice looking cars! There was a fashion show on this night for Swarovski Crystals and we knew that Bon Jovi and Mariah Carey would be in town......no sightings though. It was time to get to Nice, so we piled back on the bus and when we arrived, Dan, Kiel, Heather, and Katie all walked down to the Med to see if it was suitable for swimming. The water was lovely (just wading tonight), but the beach is made with large pebbles and was not NICE on the feet :) Swimming tomorrow.
October 18 - As we didn´t have any included excursions today, we had time to do some laundry........hooray!!!!!! Dan & Kiel found a coin laundry nearby (and a cute French girl - for Kiel of course) and got that done early so we had the rest of the day for fun. Then, we headed to the ´beach´ for swimming....it was cloudy and cool, but it was the Med and the water was nice and warm. We dídn´t stay too long and headed back to the hotel to find some food. Heather was back from her extra excursion by that time and we went to the nearby Spar shop (they´re everywhere!) and bought a nice picnic dinner including some very VERY cheap wine. We finished dinner 1/2 hour later and went out in search of more drinks. We had a really fun evening with drinks and cards and had some water and tylenol before bed, so no worries about the next morning!
October 19 - We left Nice for Barcelona and had a long drive through varied landscapes. Much of the time was spent sleeping (a little tired from the night before) or reading and we arrived in Barcelona around 6 pm. Some of the group were off to a Flamenco show, but we went down to the beach (a real sand beach!) and checked it out for swimming capabilities. It looked lovely with big, huge waves and we enjoyed the sound. Then we had another picnic (non-alcoholic ;) and went to bed early.
October 20 - BEAUTIFUL DAY! We´ve had really nice weather for our tour, but today was gorgeous. We started with a tour of the city and have decided that we will definitely return here for a few days after this tour before our return to Canada. After the tour finished in downtown Barcelona, we and Kiel headed back to the hotel via the subway, changed into our swimming suits and rushed down to the beach. It was awesome! The waves were between 6-12 feet in height and it was so much fun riding them. We stayed for a good 4 hours, just enjoying the sun and relaxing. Then we returned to the hotel to find Heather back from her excursion and so we headed to the mall in search of postcards. We didn´t find any, but enjoyed the walk. Then Heather said that she´d really like to swim in the Med, so we threw our suits back on and rushed back down to the beach. We could only swim for 25 minutes, but that was enough as the waves had grown bigger since we´d left and we were all tired. We had dinner at the hotel and flopped into bed after a couple of hands of crib.
October 21 - The drive from Barcelona to Madrid was a long one and Wim (our tour guide) likes to play various types of music on the bus while we drive. Some are okay, but some are very loud and somewhat different, so that takes a bit of getting used to. We stopped in Zaragoza in the middle of the Spanish ´desert´ and saw the beautiful church there. Then we headed to Madrid and arrived at our hotel which is full of groups. Dinner was extremely interesting this evening as the main course was fish. Katie had asked for some chicken instead, but Dan, loving fish said bring it on. He got it all right......the fish came whole!!! With its head!!! and tail!!! After a large amount of laughter and some turned up noses, he managed to swallow most of it, but the fish eyes were something else all right! Thank goodness for the good custard dessert to take the taste out of his mouth - some of Katie´s chicken helped with that as well:).
October 22 - Finally we arrive at today! We had a nice tour of Madrid this morning (although the rain was pouring down) and returned to the hotel to come and write this update. We´re happy to be heading back to France tomorrow and onto Paris soon, but will definitely return to Barcelona for some more fun in the sun!
So, that´s been our lives for the last week......imagine all the other stories that we don´t have time to write about.......ahhhhhhhhh! We´ll attach a couple of pics here for you...enjoy!
Hope that you are all well and we truly are very excited to see you all soon!
Dan & Katie
posted by Daniel Pergau | 7:34 a.m.
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