Still in Rome

Today we took in the Coloseum. We found out that although over 700,000 people died there (over 400+ years) only 2 were Christians. This was a suprise to me because we were always taught that was the place that the christians were fed to the lions. Most of the christians were martyred in the Vatican area and on the streets after the great fire of Rome that was blamed on christians. Very interesting but we did not have time to go through the other sites there although we did walk over the Circus Maximus area, an unassuming grassy area that once held chariot races.

We are running out of clothes so we have undies hanging all over our room tonight in the hope they will dry before we leave for Paris on Sunday (today is Friday Night).

Friends Romans Countrymen

We are in Rome the craziest place for traffic in the world. There are few rules and organized chaos in the large, bustling but friendly city. We took the Eurostar train to the main station, which is just lovely. The main station is a hunting ground for the gypsy and we did see a couple being herded off by the politzi. The taxi was very friendly giving us tips of how to avoid becoming a victim of this scourge to the city. After dropping our bags off we caught the hop on hop off bus for an hour long once around the city to get our bearings then back to the hotel for dinner and sleep. Today we went on the bus to Vatican City and as there were no lines or waiting got into St Peter‘s Basilica straight away. It was awesome to the point of breathtaking even to the heathens in our family. It took about 2 hours to do the audio tour honestly one of the best things I have ever done. We walked around to the papal museum that includes a walk through into the Sistine Chapel which is not instantly amazing after seeing all the works along the way but when you take a breath and sit down it is exceptional and extraordinary in just about every way. On the way home we stopped of at the Trevi Fountain to throw our coins in over the shoulder (as in the movies) and had dinner in a café and gelato at a Gelateria. Tomorrow we are off to the coliseum.

Florence and Pisa

We spent the morning at the Galleria dell’ Academia – the home of the Statue of David and then to the Galleria degli Uffizi the home of many of Botticelli’, Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. The most famous work is that one with the woman in the clam shell (if you saw it you would know it.) In the afternoon we took a tour to the leaning tower of Pisa which has other buildings which I actually found more interesting. The Baptistery has an amazing echo that they demonstrate each half hour a girl stands at the center and sings one note then another and another and all 3 echo around the room in unison. Tomorrow we head off to Rome. Sam would be proud of our Italian as we are tring very hard to use the basic phrases as much as we can. So far the funny thing about Italians are that frankly they don’t look like Italians – not distinctly different from other Europeans if you know what I mean. No nona’s dressed in black (in fact they are dressed quite stylishly as are most people here. I guess that is the big city thing??

Florence

We were sad to say goodbye to Venice just as the sun came out but we caught the water taxi to the train station and took the Eurostar (train) to Florence yesterday. The train is a treat and travels with luxury through the Alps with snow caps and traditional countryside life. Florence is a large city and is hard to appreciate until you look down on it from a vantage point. We took the ubiquitous "jump on jump off" tour bus for a hour long once-over and then jumped off at the market. Florence if famous for glass (Venice is better) and leather goods as well as cashmere. I purchased 2 scarves and we walked over to the Piazza del Duomo. By now it was raining so we took in the Cathedral and the Baptisery. Warren and the kids climbed the 414 steps of Giotto's Bell Tower. We are in our hotel now thinking about where to have dinner, as everything tastes so good, not that Mike would know on a steady diet of Margaretta Pizza and Bolognese Pasta.

Before I forget - everyone here wears the most lovely boots 95% are low heal.

When the moon hits your eye....

Venice in winter is lovely so in summer it must be magnifico. We started the day with a gondola ride expensive but you have to do it. We then went walking to the Piazzo S Marco and beyond until we were too tired to walk anymore and bought tickets to the water bus thing and took a loop around the entire island. We stopped in a cafe for lunch and then went looking for the church front that was used for Indiana Jones movie. This place is a labyrinth and we got lost many times but we enjoyed the adventure. Mike and Kait are foot sore and we sent them to the room while we took in a cafe latte next door as we watched over the grand canal gondolas and people wandering about.Cant stop thinking about the difference between Germany and here only one hour by plane but so different. We are using Frankfurt as a punishment tool - behave or we will send you back to Frankfurt!

Venice

We arrived in Italy - Venice this afternoon. We took a 7 min walk from the airport to the waiting private boat that took us to our hotel The Rialto. We went up the so advertised lift - to the first floor, from there we had to walk up about 8 flights of steep stairs to a loft with a loft attached. You would have to be a mountain goat to live here. We have been for a long stroll around the many lanes and shops with many beautiful things to look at. The resturant that the hotel suggested was closed so we darted into the first next one we saw, sat down and realised that it was a Chinese run faux authentic Italian cafe and the food was crap. You live you learn.
The people here are a pleasure after Germany, and even though there is a drizzle of rain it is still lovely. Tomorrow is Saturday and there is a market so we will go there and who knows what else. Just had some hot chocolate and icecream ...

Frankfurt

We have now been in Germany for the day and we took a 2 hour tour of Frankfurt by bus. I found the place to be depressing. There are many interesting buildings but the people all walk around with their heads down and a kind of standoffishness like they think that a fight might break out at a moments notice. When we purchased the tour ticket the sour faced owner told us to come back at 5 min to 1pm (dont be late dont be early). There are a lot of people standing in the street drinking and a few crazy nut jobs (feels like home!) but the tram system is very effecient and clean.

We have spent the last hour trying to find a family friendly place to eat but it appears that such a thing does not exsist... Well on to Italy tomorrow.

Now we are in Germany!

We spent our last day in NY visiting Lady Liberty taking a ferry to the island. It was very cold so we stayed onboard the ferry rather than face the cold. We also visited the candy shop called Dylan's Candy Bar to see the Australian Licorice and buy some things that we had never tried before like chocolate covered cookie dough. We went across the street to Bloomingdale’s (the home of "the big brown bag") and walked down 5th Ave and past the Rockefeller centre (the other ice skating rink) and past fox news studios. At lunch time we were in a restaurant called Applebees - and at noon Obama was sworn in as President. All of the waitstaff and the people you don't normally see at the back of house like the immigrants all came into the main restaurant to watch on the big screens. People jumped and cheered and we all had a toast of champagne. I must admit I got a little choked up to the depth of feeling that each person had to the inauguration. There we big screens set up in the streets around Times Square and crowds were standing there to watch. Our plane took off at 9pm - Singapore Airlines (so nice and great service) and only took 6 and a half hours to get to Frankfurt which got us here at 10:30am local time. Needless to say we were all very tired and have been asleep most of the day and not seen anything yet.

Times Square and New York City

We have spent 2 magical days right in the middle of Times Square with the snow falling intermittently as we walked to the Empire State Building and on to Central Park (by Subway) so Warren and the kids could skate in the rink that is there. Central park was white with snow and the skating was cold but idyllic just like you might dream. On both nights we ate at a restaurant called Ellen's Stardust Express a few blocks away and this has singing waiters and traditional American fair. We all had a great time and Kait wants to spend a future birthday there as it did seem like the place to be for a special occasions. Apparently every Broadway show has at least one ex-Stardust waiter in it. We also visited Hersey World for some 'hugs and kisses' and wandered up to Build a Bear but it was closed.

This morning we met with the QVC rep and there were loads of opportunities there. We have noticed that one in 4 girls and women here are in Ugg Boots even in the wet snow.

New York

I am sitting in the hotel room overlooking Times Square for the 31st floor. We hear that they are currently towing the plane that crashed into the Hudson river up the river on a barge but I don't know if we will get to see it.

Orlando to Washington

We are now in Washington where the weather has been as low as -11. We did a night bus tour and it was so cold that it actually hurt to breathe and any exposed skin hurt. We were not able to see many of the attractions and sites as the inauguration is on in a couple of days and everything is in lock down. They are even welding the man holes in the streets shut and removing the lamp posts!

We could see the Lincoln memorial practice (from a distance) for the concert on Sunday with many big stars. Our room at the Hilton is nice - small beds, free bottles of "Obama" water and coffee. BTW the tea here is crap.

We are across the road from an IHop Restaurant and it is open 24 hours. Very nice food like all you can eat pancakes and breakfast fair, we tried the Philly Cheese Steak as well. Yesterday we went to the Smithsonian - Air and Space Museum, and saw Apollo 11, Gemini 4 ,Friendship 7 - as well as many artifacts of flight. We were there for most of the day but we decided to go back to the hotel as it was too cold to wander about. We used the Metro (train) service which was very interesting.

Now we are waiting for a taxi to take us to our next flight to New York. There are hundreds of thousands of people coming in for the celebrations so we are going against the trend.

January 15th 2009

We are in Orlando Florida - in a lovely place called 'The Fountains'. It is an apartment with two bedrooms and two bathrooms - our room has a spa. I must say we are very comfortable here and the weather has been mild to warm (the last day was a bit chilly). Tomorrow we head off to to freezing Washington.

We left Melbourne on the 6th of Jan with Air New Zealand - and it was such a relief to find TV's and games consoles in each seat that kept everyone entertained for the entire trip. The food was nice too. When we arrived into Las Vegas on the 6th we were tired and stayed in out room and slept. The next day we did miles of walking on the strip with the obligatory viewings of Caesars Palace, MGM, M and M World and Coke World where we tried the sampler from around the world. We had previously purchased tickets to Cirque De Soleil and went there on our second night.

Cirque was fabulous of course, and a feast for the eyes, and we ate at the buffet inside of Bellagio which is very sumptuous. On another day we ate at the buffet inside of Treasure Island - which had a nice feel and all you can eat fairy floss which Kait enjoyed.

In Orlando we visited Epcot, Universal Studios, Kennedy Space Center (we went twice as on the first day we found out they were going to wheel the space shuttle onto the launch pad overnight and we were able to see it in situ on our return). We were also excited to learn that there was a rocket launch schedule that night and we went to Coco Beach to see it. Unfortunately it was cancelled at the last minute.

We hired a car which was great and we did a day of shopping and managed to over fill our suit cases - in our travels we saw a raccoon, many alligators, vultures, a bald eagles nest, square, geckos and wild pig.