Day 9: Italy: Vatican City

(As in the previous post, you can find lots more photos at the bottom of the page.)

We started off the day with the complimentary breakfast from the hotel. Now, I know most of you have stayed in a hotel. Most of you have had the "breakfast" that is provided by the hotel. It probably wasn't this. OK, I'm pretty easygoing when it comes to breakfast (cereal is generally enough for me), but anyone who has scrambled eggs this good is fine by me. That's not even mentioning the cakes, fresh fruit, bread, and jam from France. Little tiny jars of jam from France. Generally, I had a nice large helping of eggs, a banana, some bread with jam, and coffee. I think the fact that they served more than cereal helped a lot in keeping my stamina up for the sheer amount of walking that we did.


We took the A metro to Vatican City in the morning. Vatican City, as most of you know, is an independent city-state inside Rome itself. We entered into Saint Peter's Square, which has another obelisk, a fountain that was under restoration, and the entrance to Saint Paul's Basilica. We took some pictures of the square for a bit, then got into the really long line to get into the church itself.

Turns out the line was for the security checks. We had to run our bags through an airport-type scanner. As none of us had brought weapons or spray paint, we were all allowed to pass with no trouble. Once we got inside the security area, the crowd dispersed a bit and it was a little easier to move around.

St. Peter's Basilica is the largest church in the world. It was built in the late Renaissance period and attracts millions of visitors every year. Even the entryway is bigger than some churches I've been in. As you can see in the picture of the front, it dwarfs anyone that stands in front of it. The interior is just as impressive, but more on that later.

Interior of Dome

We started our visit by deciding to go up to the top of the dome to look out over the city. There were a total of over 500 steps, but there was also the option to skip part of them to go directly to the roof of the building. We took that option, then began to climb the stairs into the dome itself. That meant there were still approx. 320 stairs to take. Unlike the stairs to the top of the Kölner Dom, these stairs had landings every so often. Which is very good, because we had to stop several times. It was also only one way, so once we started, we had to go all the way up to the top. We eventually made it, though, and had a great view of the city around us. The only downside was that there were a lot of people up there with us, so naturally everyone had to wait their turn to get their picturesque photos.

You can see all of Vatican City from the top, including the Papal Gardens and the Vatican Museum.

St. Peter's Square

After descending the same amount of stairs (which went much easier) and then the elevator, we came out into the interior of the basilica. I'm still not sure how to describe the sheer size of this thing. There is the main part that is enormous, but then on all sides there are priceless paintings, statues, and tombs of popes that are so rich in detail that it's overwhelming. I know I didn't absorb even half of what there is to see there, and I certainly didn't get the entire thing in pictures either. I can see why Charel says that he finds something new every time he returns there. There was also hundreds of people inside, if not a couple thousand.

As it was the morning, it wasn't extremely well-lit, either. I tried my best but some of my pictures just didn't come out very well. It's also so huge in there that I would have had to take a thousand pictures just to document it all. We did walk around quite a bit of it, however, and now that I've had time to absorb some of it, next time I should enjoy it even more.


After the tour of the basilica, it was time for lunch. Not sure why, but we only wanted ice cream at the time. We went to a place that was just outside the Vatican City's walls. It had begun to rain when we left, and all of a sudden every single peddler had ponchos and umbrellas. They must have a good supply stashed somewhere because they were instantly everywhere. I saw a lot of people buying the gaudy plastic ponchos too. I guess it pays to be prepared. Mom had her umbrella for the sun, so she was prepared for the rain, too. The rest of us just toughed it out, as it wasn't raining all that heavily. It did mean that every peddler on our path asked us if we wanted something. I began to think that I just needed a sign that says "NO" on it so I could hold it up and not waste my breath.

After "lunch", we decided to go back into Vatican City to tour the Vatican Museum. It's good that we bought our tickets in advance, because the line to enter was wrapped around the entire building. It was even longer when we left. There already were hundreds of people in the lobby, not even counting the amount that were already touring the place. It felt nice to go to the front of the line and pick up our tickets right away. Mom wasn't feeling well at this point, so she sat down outside while we went around. We discussed her returning to the hotel, which is what she eventually did. So we were a trio when we went inside the museum.

It started with a display of Egyptian artifacts. There were sarcophagi, grave items, even a couple of mummies. I'm not sure it was on purpose or not, but it was hot and humid in those rooms, not helped by the throngs of people that were everywhere. I also didn't get very many pictures because my camera battery was dying, and I was getting tired, too. Dick took way more pictures than I did.

After the Egypt display we began to go through the impressive collection of statues, pillars, artwork, and pretty much everything else the Vatican has collected over the years. Again, the artists made use of the entire room, putting lots of stuff on the ceilings. As with the basilicas, it was way too much input to process all at once. If I wanted to view everything thoroughly it would probably take me the entire day with just the part that we did go through. Out of everything I viewed, the long map room was probably my favorite. Just because of the ceiling, though the maps were really impressive too.

About halfway through we arrived in the Sistine Chapel. The problem is, we weren't allowed to take pictures, and they shuffled us in and out so fast that we barely had time to look at stuff anyway. I was exhausted by this point, so I looked around a bit and then decided to split off from Dick and Charel and walk through the rest of the place quickly. I did find a scale model of the St. Peter's Basilica which I took a couple of quick pictures of. I sat down and waited and drank some water, which was good.

After the museum we returned to the hotel to check on Mom and rest a little. I decided to stay in the hotel until supper to recover and rest. Dick and Charel went to go see more churches in the meantime.

Supper was at a small little place that Charel had been to before. I ordered a calzone this time, which was much easier to cut. I was very hungry and ate a lot of food. Helps that all of it was delicious. After supper we returned to the hotel yet again to rest and try to recover for the next day.


Photos:

Day 8: Italy: Arrival in the Eternal City

Everyone knows something about Rome.
Center of a vast, powerful, and influential empire that lasted well over a thousand years? Check.
Center of the largest religion in the world, touching over a billion people? Check.
One of the most touristic places in the world, where millions of people come to re-live history? Check.
Rampant crime, poverty, and corruption? Also check.

Of course that's only scratching the surface, but the point still stands that Rome is a multi-faceted place of history and culture that was (and still is) important for the entire world.

Day 1 in Rome

We left the house around 8:45 to catch our 10:45 plane to Rome. Typical for Luxembourg around this time, there was a traffic jam, but we arrived at the airport in good time. After passing through security, we waited for our plane. The flight was pretty typical as flights go; there was a lot of turbulence but nothing serious. The flight lasted two hours, and they fed us on the way. Luxair has started serving locally-made sandwiches on board, which I think is much better than a package of peanuts. I had a cheese sandwich, which I was suspicious of at first because the cheese looked almost like a type of french cheese that I do not like. I tried it anyway, though, and was happy to find out that it was something completely different. I read a book for the remaining time. We landed in Rome around 12:45 pm.

Fiumicino Airport is huge, which wasn't too much of a surprise. We nearly got lost in the huge mass of people, hallways, shops, and signs. We found our way eventually, however, and boarded a special train named Leonardo Express that goes directly to the central train station. It lasted 30 minutes, and provides an interesting tour from the outskirts into the downtown area of the city. Like most European cities that I've been to, it is a mix of old and new, the rundown and the restored, all together with not much pattern to it. The difference in Italy seems to be more extreme, though.

Termini, the central train station, is of course, also huge. We nearly got lost there, too. We finally found a ticket counter, where Charel and Dick got several things we would need in the coming days: a 7 day metro/bus/train ticket and a Roma Pass for the ancient ruins/monuments. We boarded the A line of the metro and went off to find our hotel.

Our hotel was located near the Trevi Fountain, which, unfortunately, was closed for restoration and repairs. It was located in what appeared to be an old house once, along a main street about a block from the metro line. The hotel was small, but extremely nicely decorated. We had a minor issue with the lights, which required a second key on the room key chain to operate by plugging it into the wall, but Charel figured it out after several minutes of confusion. We rested at the hotel room for about 30 minutes, then left to go take a small afternoon tour.

One of the first things we walked through was the Piazza di S. Silvestro, a small place near our hotel. Not much to say about it as we walked through it rather quickly.











We began to walk along the via del Corso, a very populated street with several basilicas, many stores of varying type, and absolutely tons of people sitting, standing, and moving around. We stopped in 3 basilicas or churches on this street alone.
The first one was Basilica S. Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso. Construction began on it in 1610 and like many Roman churches, it features a stunning amount of craftsmanship and art. I found myself looking up a lot in every place we went to. It was pretty overwhelming at times.

This particular church, being the first, helped to establish that the level of beauty and artwork here is unlike anything else I have seen in the other churches around Europe. Being in the center of the activity and the culture certainly helps, but it's amazing how big the difference is.


Most Catholic churches in Europe require a certain level of dress code to be able to enter them. No hats, no sleeveless (shoulder-baring) shirts, no shorts/skirts over the knee. We got around this by wearing pants/capris and short sleeved shirts on the days we planned to go into them, but a common solution for many people seemed to be shawls and wrap-around skirts. There were no shortage of those, because there were vendors selling them every 5 feet or so. Some of the larger basilicas even provided their own.

(As I have hundreds of photos and don't wish to clutter up the main body of text with them, scroll to the jump break at the bottom of the blog to see them all)

We walked a bit further down the road and entered Basilica S. Giacomo.

This one wasn't as big or as impressive as the first one, but since the bar is so high in Rome, it is still beautiful with tons of detail. Even small basilicas like this list at least a few priceless and famous artworks in their information.












Right across the street was another Baroque era church, Gesù e Maria al Corso. This was also not a very large church, but the statues in this one were pretty impressive.

All of this walking was taking us straight towards the Piazza del Popolo, or the People's Plaza. The obelisk you see in the center was brought from Egypt in 10 BC and was originally in the Circus Maximus.

There was a ton of taxi traffic here, and of course, hundreds to thousands of tourists. It used to be a place where cars could drive but is now a pedestrian area.


This is also where we had our first contact with something that would become very annoying over the course of our stay here: Peddlers. They walk around with things like roses, shawls, small glowing or noise-making things trying to sell them to you. Some of them are extremely persistent and very hard to get rid of. The first one we encountered was this type. He was trying to hand out roses. We were confused at first, we even got a couple pictures with the roses, but when Charel just gave him some small change he found in his pocket (instead of taking out his wallet like the guy probably wanted him to), he got mad and took all the flowers back. Better for us anyway, we weren't entirely sure how we planned to carry them anyway. From this point, we turned them all down, from a terse "no" to threatening them with police if they got persistent and aggressive.




On the side where we entered the Piazza, on either side of the road, stand the twin churches of S. Maria dei Miracoli and S. Maria di Montesanto. The second one was closed, so we entered the S. Maria dei Miracoli. The church also houses the embalmed body of a saint. I didn't find much information about her, only that she, according to legend, was found in the Catacombs of Priscilla and moved to the church. 



Next we walked through the Piazza and up the hill through part of the gardens of the Villa Borghese located on the Pincio, a hill overlooking the Piazza del Popolo and parts of Rome. We spent some time up here taking pictures before moving on.










We walked past the French Academy and the church Trinità dei Monti, which was under restoration, and then down the Spanish Steps. As you can see, they are very crowded.











We stopped for ice cream after this, because it was pretty hot and while in Italy, you should eat it every chance you get. We had it 2-3 times a day every day that we were there. We tried to pick places that made their ice cream in house and didn't have fake flavors. I found that it was all very good, especially while walking around in the sunny, hot weather.







After ice cream, we walked past the Mausoleum Augusto and Ara Pacis Augustae (in the glass building), which has been studied and restored and has a museum. We didn't go in, as most of us were quite tired and hungry by this point. We also saw the back of the first basilica, taking us in a large, ragged circle.

We finally arrived in the Piazza Navona, where we decided to eat supper at a restaurant overlooking the plaza. This plaza used to be a stadium made by Emperor Domitian, where the Romans watched games and holds the Fountain of the 4 Rivers. The 4 rivers represented are the Nile, the Ganges, the Danube, and the Rio de la Plata (an estuary in South America).


Supper was our first taste of real Italian food. I ordered a pizza with mozzarella and Parma ham. Now, I may or may not have mentioned this before, but real Italian pizzas are not really like the pizza Americans tend to eat. Pretty much every pizza I've seen at a real Italian restaurants are very thin, and eaten with fork and knife. Sometimes the knives provided aren't really sharp enough to eat the pizza with. I generally have some trouble with this way of eating, as I am used to our barbaric method of "pick it up and eat it." I made a valiant effort, but eventually I had to revert to my barbarism and I just picked it up and ate it that way. No one glared at me or threw insults in our direction, so I guess it wasn't that big of a deal. The pizza was amazing, though. I ordered a glass of white wine, while Dick ordered an Italian beer. I should have ordered the beer too, but the wine was just fine.


After supper we made our way to the Pantheon, but as it was late, we couldn't go inside for a tour. We never did get back to tour it. I guess that leaves it for next time.

We returned to the hotel after about 7 miles of walking, exhausted but happy with what we had seen.






Photos:

Days 5-6: Germany: Old Cities and Hot Weather

Day 5 - Trier

It is extremely warm here lately, especially for this part of Europe. Now, both my mom and I don't do heat well. At all. It was about 35°C/95°F and we were in the sun for much of the day. Mom bought an umbrella and she did better today than before, but I had a lot of issues with the heat today.

We began the day by going to the American Military Cemetery in town. I've been here a couple of times. I've even mentioned it in this very blog. This took place about two and a half years ago, in the winter, but I posted a ton of history on that entry, so if you would like the base information about it, check it out.

They've finished the part that they were remodeling the last time I was there, but they were working on the sidewalk in front of General Patton's grave. We also saw a couple of groundskeepers cleaning the already immaculate grounds. This area is probably the cleanest place in Luxembourg.

We also visited the German version of the same thing. Again, more history on that post from before, but I'll just say that it's not quite as immaculate as the American one. Difference in funding and attitude, it seems.

We next drove to Trier, also a place that I have been to several times. Last time I went to this city in a tourist state of mind, it was unusually cold for this region. This time, as I mentioned before, it was unusually hot.

We started off with the Porta Nigra, an old roman gate nearly 2000 years old. After a walk through the downtown and town market area, we stopped for lunch in a large store chain that is very popular in Germany. There is a cool little restaurant on the third floor of it. I seem to end up eating at this restaurant pretty much every time I go to Trier.

Mom bought an umbrella at this store, and we both bought little hand-held battery powered fans. I had forgotten a hat, which really got to me after awhile.

We walked to the old Roman baths (which I was too hot to take a picture of) and then back through the town square and market. We stopped for ice cream in a mall in the center. Ice cream places were probably the fullest places out of anywhere in Trier that day. Mom and I also bought some gummi bears from another shop in the mall, a place I had found last time I was there. We looked for the new Dunkin' Donuts (I hadn't had donuts in a really long time), but no luck in the mall. We returned to the van to start our second part of our tour.

We drove up to the same volcanic lakes that I visited two years ago. Last time I visited, people were using one as an ice skating rink. This time, they were swimming in them. Also, according to Charel, the volcanoes that these lakes fill are not extinct, just dormant. It's possible there may be some volcanic activity in the future, but at this point, it's not a grave concern.

We finished up our tour by driving around Spangdahlem Air Base, one of only a few American military bases left in Germany. It's quite large, as expected from an air base, and the ratio of large American cars went up considerably in the area around it. Not really any pictures from this area, either. I think Dick got a few, but Mom and I were still recovering in the back seat of the air-conditioned van.

We drove by a couple of old castles in Manderscheid, north of Trier. As you can see, the main castle has not been completely restored, however, it is possible to tour them.

Our long, hot day finished when we drove home to Luxembourg. Neither my Mom or I took time for our blogs, as we had to get up quite early the next day to catch a train to our next destination: Köln.

Day 6 - Köln (Cologne)

We started off our long day with a 3 and a half hour train ride, mostly through the Moselle and Rhine river valleys. This is vineyard country, with many of the crops grown on the steep southern slopes of the Ardennes Mountains. We started off the trip in a set of 4 seats with a table, but we had to move because they were reserved for a later stop. We ended up going into one of the private cabins. It was hot and stuffy in the train, especially towards the end of the trip. I ended up standing next to the open window for the last 40 minutes of the trip, just to get some air (the scenery was a bonus).

We met a friend from Düsseldorf in the train station and ate sandwiches while walking to the cathedral. Kölner Dom is huge. It is also pretty much the only thing to survive the bombings done in World War II by the allies. The last time I visited Köln, we didn't go inside, but this time we did. Air conditioning helped. There was a mass going on when we first entered, so we decided to go to the top of the tower.

There was no elevator. 533 stairs up to the very top of the cathedral. Mom and I made it up the equivalent of 12 flights, according to her FitBit, but after that, we had to stop. The stairways were narrow, steep, and crowded with people anyway, so we just decided to go back down and sit in the shade and wait for the guys to come back down.

By the time they came back, the mass was over and everyone was allowed to tour the interior. Mom and I stayed in the air-conditioned entrance, due to our semi-phobia of large crowds. We found a good place between the entrance and exit, and it almost felt like we were standing on an island in a river of people. There was a nice draft in that place too, which, with the heat, was a great bonus.

We went next to the Lindt Chocolate Museum by foot, along the Rhine River. As in Trier, ice cream businesses must have been making a killing. We ate our ice cream at the museum itself. Of course, we all had some variety of chocolate. Mine was a scoop each of white, milk, and dark chocolates. We also refilled our water bottles three times. I drank about 3 liters of water, and it's a good thing that I did. I didn't get dehydrated as I did in Trier, and the addition of a hat made the heat just on the bearable side. We got a few photos of the group, too.


We had to tour the museum quickly, because Charel wasn't feeling well. After the museum, we returned by foot to the train station, where we rested, chatted, and did a little looking around in the station. There was a Dunkin' Donuts in the train station, so I finally found what I had been looking for. I ate the first one on the train ride back, and while the banana flavor was quite obviously artificial, it was still extremely tasty.

The train ride back was much cooler, mainly because the cars were air-conditioned. There was a group of very loud drunk German ladies near us, but they exited about an hour before the trip ended, and after that it was very quiet. We arrived home around 10 pm, and most of us were in bed before 11 pm.

Today is a rest day, to recover for our next adventure, starting tomorrow. We will be in Rome until Friday. Look forward to a very large post afterwards :)

Day 4: Luxembourg: Souvenirs, Mines, and an Unusual Passenger

Another fun-filled day in lovely Luxembourg! Today, at least, we didn't walk quite as far. Mom's p.o.v and digressions here: Day 4

 We began our day by going to the local cupcake place that opened just a month or two ago. We met Mike, another American living in Luxembourg. He has a pretty popular Facebook page, where he posts videos and pictures detailing stuff he sees and hears around the country. He wrote a song about learning Luxembourgish, which hit viral status here and he ended up going on several news programs too. My mom messaged him, and he agreed to come meet us. We even brought him chunky peanut butter, which, we are in agreement, is pretty much the best thing ever.

 After an hour or so of lively chatter, we hit the streets for some souvenir shopping. It seems that everyone and their sister in Iowa will get something with the word Luxembourg on it somewhere :) We only made it to a couple of stores before needing to return home for our next planned adventure.

We headed towards the south of the country, to see a mining museum. We stopped first at the restaurant of the museum, where both my mom and I ordered the seafood salad. We didn't really anticipate getting a couple of full shrimps, too. I mean, head, guts, legs, everything. We managed somehow, though perhaps as midwesterners, it's a bit new to us to see something like that. Even for me, and I've lived in Europe for nearly two years!

We had to wait around a bit for a guided tour of the mine, but at around 2:45 we joined a group of mainly Luxembourgers and Dutch. The guide was an old Luxembourger, one whose family worked in the mines during the time they operated. The tour was in German, but we had audio guides in English to listen to. Also, Charel translated as much as he could for Mom and Dick. I ended up not even using mine, since I somewhat understood what the guide was saying, and listening to Charel just reinforced it.

The mine was cold, so cold we could see our breath down there. It was a nice change from the very warm weather Luxembourg seems to be having since Monday. Our trip commenced with a train ride, at first outside, then inside, of the mines. We got off of the train and started our tour.

Back when the mines first opened, the workers would have to drill by hand into the rock in teams of two. It took one hour to drill the hole deep enough to use the explosives. The miners were not paid for the time they spent drilling. They were only paid for the material that they removed from the mine. They also had to buy their own equipment, including lamps, hats, clothes, drills, and tools. They had no time off, and many of them died from accidents, collapses, and even complications from breathing the iron-laden dust.

The working conditions improved a little after workers from Poland brought their system of reinforcing the tunnels to Luxembourg. After a strike for better working conditions and pay, things began to improve gradually for the miners and their families. Machinery, technology and techniques advanced throughout the 1800's and 1900's. The mines were eventually closed, and the museum was opened in 1973.

At the beginning of the tour, we saw Dick shaking out his pant leg, as if something was inside of it. Turns out it was a butterfly that had been inside the train. This butterfly decided to tag along with me for the entirety of the tour. I imagine since it was so chilly in there, it got a little bit sluggish, and it was content to sit on the edge of my pocket until we got onto the train again.


I figured it would fly away when it warmed up a little, but even after I got outside, it just sat in my hand. I had to physically put it on a rock outside of the museum building. Of course, I took a picture. Most anyone who has been around me long enough will know that I love taking pictures of butterflies and dragonflies. So my little passenger really made my day, even if other people thought it was a bit silly.

I even found this particular species after doing a bit of searching. It's called a Common Brimstone, and as you can see, it looks a lot like a leaf :)

After a short drive around Esch to see the old steel milling plants, we returned home to supper and sitting. We had Mom and Dick try several types of cheese at dinner, including Kach Kéis (cooked cheese, the pretty-much national cheese of Luxembourg) and Camembert (which is stinky cheese from France). Mom seemed to like the Kach Kéis but neither Mom nor Dick liked the Camembert. Which makes 3 out of 3 Americans currently in this house who don't.

Tomorrow, Germany! Specifically, Trier. Bis dann!