Day #3 in Rome

Well, we were tired from the LONG day of seeing so much stuff! So on 10/3 we went to the National Museum later in the day and then walked around doing some more general sightseeing. We saw more statues and mosaics. Here's on of the more famous statues we saw that day:

This is just one of the pretty mosaics that we saw. This was one the floor of an old Roman house. Pretty Cool! After the Museum we went to the Baths of Diocletian, where the Romans used to bath, exercise and hang out. There is now a beautiful church where the baths used to be, look at the floor!

Later I got this shot of the sun setting over Rome from the top of the Spanish Steps:

Here's a picture of the very crowded Spanish Steps: We walked around a lot that night and enjoyed the nightlife of Rome. Of course boring us we really didn't stay out too late! We did find a Ferrari store and just a simple couple of stuckers cost 12 euros or about $15! Well, One more day in Rome and then we're off to Pompeii!

Ancient Rome part 3

So now we are headed to Paletine Hill, the place where the huge Imperial Palace was located. It is mostly gone wit only a few features for your to see. One is the Stadium. It is approx. 500 feet long and may have been used as a race track. It held gardens and walking paths also. This was a fountain:

That's really about it for the good pitcures on Palentine Hill. We also stopped by the small museum there and saw mosaic floors, statues and other artifacts excavated from the site. From there we walked to Trajan's Market which was closed by that time. Rome peaked under Trajan's rule in 98-117 AD, the empire stretched from SCotland to the Sahara and from Spain to the Fertile Cresent. He extended the Forum with this area which contained temples, law courts, squares lines with shops and a monumental column. The Market area held shopping space, warehouse and administrative offices. It was very popular.

He also erected this Column that used to have abronze statue of himself on top, now it is St. Peter. Hard to get a good picture of it:

Next we battled the late afternoon traffic of Rome to find the Pantheon. Here's a picture outside.
It was hard to get a good picture of the inside and the light was not the best but here's a picture of the inside of the dome looking straight up.

In this picture you can see all the people and the pretty marble floor.
After visiting the Pantheon we sat down for our daily dose of gellato! Then we walked the streets doing a little shopping and mostly just checking out the people. Tons of people out and about in the evening. We were slowly making our way to the metro stop. We stopped at Trevi Fountain:
There were so many people crowded around it it was hard to get a picture of it from the front. After seeing the fountain we finally went back to our campground, ate dinner, showered and fell into bed. It had been a LONG day. We saw almost all of Anciant Rome in one day!

Ancient Rome Part 2

In this post we're continuing on the same day we went to the Colosseum. All the sights were in the same general area but it was still a lot of walking. It was also hot that day probably 90 degrees. So after we visited the Colosseum in the morning we headed up Via Sacra to the Roamn Forum. This is the same path where the conquering general would parade their bounty after returning back to Rome. One of the first sights you see is the Arch of Titus, which commemorates the victory over the province of Judaea in A.D. 70. The 50, 000 Jewish slaves they brought home built this arch and the Colosseum. Here's a picture of the Arch as we were walking up the Via Sacra:

Here's a little detail on the arch showing the Jews/Hebrews and a menorah.

I have to back up. This is a picture of me standing on the second floor of the Colosseum and in the background is the Arch of Constantine. Another one of the great arches along the triumphant road the Cesears walked when returning from battle.

Now back to the Roman Forum.... There is so much to show but I'll just try to give the highlights and the best photos. This is a picture of the Basilica of Maxentius. A basilica was a place of government in Ancient Rome. This is only one third of the original building and hopefully having some people in it gives you a sense of the size. A second set of the arches was on the other side of a central hall that was 130 ft high and the size of a football field!

This is one of the many temples built to honor leaders by turning them into gods the people could worship. This is the temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina built sometime between 138-161AD. The columns are 50 feet tall. The dirt built up to the door before it was excavated in the 1800's.

This is another one of the arches, ever wonder what the Romans saw in all their arches? In the backgrounds of this picture is the Temple of Saturn. (They also had many temples for all their gods.)

This is a view of the Roman Forum from Palentine Hill. (Palace Hill - where all the Cesear had their palaces) You are looking down at the Basilica Maxentius
And here's a cool shot of Erik with The Arch of Titus and the Colosseum in the background.
Well that's it for now. More on Palentine Hill next......

First snow and a new cat!

Well, it's been so LONG since I've written. I was busy working two weekends in a row and getting some things done around the house. Plus, in all honesty, I was discouraged about how slow our internet connection is and I didn't want to sit online for hours checking email and posting to the blog. We will hopefully have high speed internet after the new year! Yah!

But I have to finish telling you about our trip to Rome and about some fun things here in Missoula. I'll start with the new stuff in Missoula.

We are in the midst of getting our first snow of the year and it's not being very gentle on us! We've gotten about 2-3 inches so far and it's supposed to keep coming down for the next 24 hours! This is what it looked like last night when it first started:

And this is what it looks like this morning! Here's the backyard:

Here's my car half brushed off:

So we're having fun!! This next weekend Erik is headed to Canada with his sister to do some srious skiing. I have to work most of Thanksgiving Weekend so I tod him to go and have some fun.

Now for our really fun news. We adopted another cat. She just as sweet as can be. Here name is Sophie right now but we're not sure if we'll keep it, she doesn't even look when we call her so I think we could change it without too much problems. She and Rio seem to be at least tolerating each other at the moment. Last night both of them were crowding my lap, much to Erik's disappointment. But then I handed Sophie over to him and she currled right up, purring like and engine. So I kept Rio happy where he likes to be! She a tortiseshell colored domestic short hair. She's 1 1/2 years old. We got her at the Humane Society. Her previous owners didn't like that she was an escape artist and they lived on a very busy street so they didn't want her to get killed. They also had those flat handles you push down we have knobs. So hopefully she won't escape too much, but in a month or so we'll probably let her into the backyard. I tried and tried to get an awesome picture to show you cuz she's really pretty especially her eyes but no luck. It's like she knows I have the camera! Here's a couple I did get: (Well, I guess I did get her pretty eyes!)

Here's one that shows her colors:

We really like her and hopefully the two cats will get along!

Well, that's it for now. More on Rome later today or tomorrow!

The Colosseum

On October 2nd we spend a wonderful day exploring Ancient Rome. It was so interesting, especially for the engineer in Erik. He was amazed at what the Romans built, structures that had nothing close to the technology and durablity duplicated for hundreds of years after Rome fell. We got up pretty early to catch a bus, then the Metro to arrive at the Colosseum right when it opened.

Construction began on the Colosseum in 72AD by Vespasian and was completed by 80 AD by his son Titus. It could hold up to 60,000 people. In about the Middle Ages the Colosseum was abandonded and thus started many years of plunder and destruction to the structure. It was built with many fine materials such as travertine rock and marble. There was an earthquake in 1349 in which a large portion of the walls and the supporting arches on the exterior collapsed. The travertine blocks and marble were used to fix other buildings damages and later to help built St. Peters' Cathedal. In the 18th Centrury, Pope Benedict XIV dedicated it to the Passion of the Christ and had a Cross erected that still stands today, thus saving it from further destruction. Here is what we saw when we got there:

Erik in front of the Colosseum about 8am:Our first look inside!

This picture show some of the spectators seats, the flat looking riser areas above the arches and what they think were latrines used by the senators. Theses are the tall squares in the brick, they found grooves in the bottom that ran into a gutter. This is me in front of the pit area. This was actually covered by a floor, you can see a reconstruction of the floor in the background. This is where they kept the wild animals and gladiators awaiting their turn in the ring. Here is a close up of some of the arches inside:This shows where some of the other "layers" of the Colosseum were peeled away by earthquakes and other desruction.Here's a good shot of the outside later in the afternoon: See part two of ancient Rome tomorrow with The Roman Forum, Palentine Hill, Pantheon and more.

The Vatican

Our first day in Rome we spent in the Vatican City. We arrived about 9am and got in line to go into St. Peter's. Here's a picture of me in line:

We decided to got to the top of the cuppola or dome. You rode up to the roof on an elevator and the you had toclimb close winding stairs all the way to the top of the dome. Here's a picture of the inside of the dome (sorry it's a little blurry):

There were some 323 steps to the top. And from the top we got great views of Rome, a little hazy but still good views. This picture shows St. Peter's square and Via Della Conciliazione (the street right in front of you). Also you can see the Tiber River at the end of the street. And at the end of the street on the left Castel Santa Angelo. We'll tell you more about the Castle in a later post.

This is a picture of the stairs going back down!

Then we went inside the Cathedral. It was one of the most beautiful cathedrals I have ever been in. It's very hard to capture in photos but here's a couple to try to show you a small piece of it. This is inside looking at the main nave.

Here is the dome again from the bottom floor:

This is out front, a statue of St. Peter just by his elbow on the left side of the picture you can see the place where the Pope stands to make some of his addresses to the people, mostly on special holidays.

Next we went to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. We spent nearly 3 1/2 hrs all together in there. Erik likes all the details that the audioguides provide and I just go ahead and wait when my feet get too tired. we were not supposed to take pictures of the Sistine Chapel and although everyone else was we realized that the pictures just would not have turned out that well as the lighting was pretty poor. Here's a few pics fromt he museum/grounds:

This one is a Roman Statue of one of the Roman Centurians and I loed how deatiled it was. Amazing what they did with stone:

There were many, many more statues and pictures we took of them but we'll move on... Here's a picture of a mummy they had in the Egyptian section of the museum

I never found out exactly what this golden ball was but this is in the courtyard of the museum and you can see a little bit of St. Peter's in the background. I took the picture from the second floor of the Museum. Well that picture won't load so I'll try it again tomorrow.

That's pretty much it for our first day in Rome. Tomorrow we're on to the Colluseum and Old Rome!

More on our trip and pic from Rome

Well, I can finally post again. Last week was crazy for me I worked 5 of 6 days Friday thru Wednesday and then Ginger, Erik's Aunt and his Sister Monika came for a visit. We had a wonderful weekend. I'll post some pics of it soon.

So, where did I leave off... oh yes Sept 29th Wetook a laid back day and hung out took naps, went for a walk with Ulla near a pretty lake in the area, and packed for Rome. No real pics of note from that day.

Rome: We arrived about 3:30pm on Sept 30th and got to our place about 5pm. We stayed ina campground that was huge and had bungalows and suites as well as set up tents for you to rent. When we booked our only choice was a tent so that's what we did. They were pretty nice with a hardwood floor and two cots. They even provided a lock so you could lock them up when you left. Here's a pic of our tent:

Here's the line of tents: (there were over 100)

We didn't sleep the best the first night due to the road and people traffic but we got ear plugs and slept like babies the other four nights we were there.

Stop by tomorrow for the Vatican!

Blog Problems

Well, every time I try to upload a picture I get an error message saying that they know about the problem and are trying to fix it. Sorry!
I'll post again as soon as I can!

Sept 28 and Linderhoff

The next day Sept 28th it was still rainy and cloudy but we set out in the afternoon to visit another castle. All of the castles we have visited in Germany have been the castles of King Ludwig II or his family. Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_II_of_Bavaria for some info on the King and his castles. On our trip to Germany in 2005 we visited Neuschwanstien and Howenschwangau. This trip we visited Nymphenburg and Linderhoff as well as Starnberger Lake where they found his body when he died. Here's another good site I found: http://www.german-way.com/ludwig.html

Anyway, we had a great day and we knew that it was snowing in the mountains and we did get a few pictures of the snow. Icking, where Ulla and Arthur live and we spend most of our time, is close to the Alps, deep in Bavaria. So you drive a little bit and you have these gorgeous views!

So we went to visit Linderhoff Castle. It was more of a personal home to King Ludwig and a very small castle. But very ornate and beuatiful. Here's a picture of Ulla and I in front of the pool/fountain out in front of the castle:

Here's a close up of the front of the castle:

We walked the grounds and saw some of the other buildings (none of which I got a very good picture of). The grounds were beautiful and as the weather started clearing up you could see the pretty snow on the mountains. Here's a picture of the lovely scenery.

Here's one of the fountain during it's hourly show:
Check back for more picture and stories of our trip next week!

More on Oktoberfest and Germany UPDATED

Here's a picture of the draft horses with Lady Bavaria in the background.:

Here's the inside of one of the beer houses we went into: (A little smoky, would you say?)

After Oktoberfest Sepp and Ingrid took us to Nymphenburg Castle in Munich. It has expansive gardens and is still a sanctuary for the swans that have been there for hundreds of years. Here's a picture of the castle and some of the castle grounds: (BTW: That castle is MUCH bigger than the little bit I was able to get in the picture.)

And one of the swans: Here is a picture from our coffee/tea stop at the "Palmen Haus":

Overall, we had a great day with Ingrid and Sepp (pronounced like: Zep) even though we can't speak much Germany and they can't speak much English. We get along pretty good! ;-)

More tomorrow....