Third day in Rome, April 17

Hey - I've made a little progress. I'm putting words on the pictures. I still don't know how to get them ina desired order. But if I title them - I don't have to. Clever for an old man!! I really rubber-necked around - there is so much to see that I'd read about and wondered about. The colliseum is a wonder - whether you look at it from the outside or look at the floor and the seating. Imagine doing that without modern equipment. Of course, slaves were cheap - and expendable. The Greeks were artists that the Romans like to emulate, but the Romans were engineers and builders. I am always amazed. The Trevi Fountain - of Three Coins in the Fountain fame - is trully amazing. I put in one coin - don't especially want to come back. The church statuary, ceilings and walls are always amazing - even in the lesser known buildings. The 100 year old monument to a past king and encompassing a museum was one of the most beautiful and awe inspiring buildings.

One of the reasons I wear my Ga Tech cap is that it sometimes gets questions. But not this waiter - he was a US sports buff. The University of Miami was "his" team. He carried a golf ball around in his pocket - his favorite sport. By the way, I saw a "Buzz" on some guys luggage in our last hotel in Rome. Didn't have time to talk, however

April 16 - Our second day in Rome - Vatican Day

I still don't have this blog stuff down pat as far as the pictures are concerned. By the time I get through this trip - I probably will. So all the pictures might be together and not spaced with the text.

Our hotel was essentially across the street from a nice little park with a very good art museum. So this morning we went to the museum which we both liked. Peg had already gotten the tickets back home. It had an elevator, a definite plus. Not a lot of big name stuff but very nice. The park had statues and fountains and nice shady trees - it was a pleasant walk.. The fountain is the Marine Horse Fountain.

That afternoon we wnt to the Vatican with a professional guide that we'd arranged for back in Phoenix. I'd never thought much about the Vatican as a place to see but Peg was insistent. She had been there years and years ago. My impression - what a fantastic treasure. The art - sculpture and paintings - cannot be measured in dollars. When I look at the walls, ceilings (and floors) and the sculptures I think about the billions of man hours of tedious, precise work they represent. They are beautiful, to be sure, but those man hours are something else. Another impression. People, lots of them. You can see in the first picture of the Pieta, the crowds that were there. Every once in a while I could get a shot of a statue by elbowing my way up close. (Wide angle lens are very nice for this.) While we couldn't take pictures in the Sistine Chapel there were lots of other ceilings like the one shown here. Statuary of mythological and biblical themes was everywhere. I've always wished I had the time (and skill) to sculpt. I might give it a hand yet. In the midst of all that beauty two thingskept cropping up in my mind. Lordy, lordy - what a bunch of people. Lordy, lordy - what a lot of stairs. I'm pulling my oxygen concentrater on its little wheels. But I'm carying it up and down the stairs. With the spare batteries, it weighs about 25-30 pounds. I carry it with one hand - I'm ready to arm wrestle. I think it was these stairs that got to Peg's knees. The last picture is of some guards at the exit. So ended our afternoon at the Vatican. I urge any one who can to visit the Vatican. You can take pictures of everything except in the Sistine Chapel. There are picture books of the Vatican treasures, but nothing can beat standing there in awe of everything. Even when tired andsore and getting jostled by people.

I'm just putting in some representative pictures. Maybe one day I'll learn how to integrate them into the text.

Our first days in Rome

One of the things we like to do right off the bat in a new city is to take a tour around the city. Most large cities have several Hop-On-Hop-Off outfits. So we took one. We didn't hop-off - just sat. A few days later we took a guided tour to some of the more famous places. Some things we saw today and will see more of later are fountains and ruins like the colliseum. We get very definite impressions from these sort of rides. Rome is very, very crowded and it isn't even the high tourist season. It is crowded with people-everywhere-sitting, standing, walking, looking, talking, It is crowded with little cars, mostly parked. Parked anywhere you can squeeze one in. On the sidewalks, in crosswalks. Paralleled in, angled in, verticaled in. I don't see how they do it. And most especially, it is crowded with motor scooters. Large ones, small ones. Run down ones, very fancy ones. They are parked everywhere - especially since they are smaller than cars. And since they are smaller they can really zip in the traffic. In and out and around. I expected to see wreckage and bodies everywhere. We saw nary a drop of blood. (By the way they have a helmet law there, smarter than some of our states.) While the statues and fountains look fine, the office buildings and upstairs, the apartments, look old and dingy - because they are old (500 years) and dingy (all those cars and scooters.) But it was all very exciting and interesting to me. To Peg, who had seen it a number of years ago when it was far less crowded, it was just pretty frantic. I wish I had gotten some pictures to illustrate this crowdiness( a word?) but I didn't and am not sure I could.

The guide and driver on the bus said they were going to omit some regular stops because of the traffic. We talked to them since one of those omitted stops was the one we needed to use. So they didn't omit that particular one. Nice folks, these Romans.

At home, finally.

Hi everybody. Ted here, Peg is playing catch-up with all the work around the house. We got home Monday - but I think you know about our originally scheduled flights getting cancelled. The flight from Heathrow to Phoenix was long. It usually is what with a headwind. But a new route due to the ash. We had picked up colds and felt miserable all the way. The only saving grace (partially, anyway) was the beautiful sight as we flew over the Rockies. I did get some pics but they don't give it justice. Anyway, we got home Monday night - late. Boy will a shower feel good!!! The hot water heater was off, of course - always cut off the water heater. I couldn't start it. Next day called the Whirlpool people. They had a unit already to send me - apparently lots of folks had been having the same problem. Even the UPS man who delivered the unit commented on the fact that he had delivered a lot of them. I had planned to install it myself but on seeing the unit (and knowing how rotten I felt) I called a plumber. He came the next day and installed it. It started up, the plumber left and the heater quit. In that order. The plumber was a nice kid and guess what, he forget to put his tools in his truck. So he had to come back. He did, this morning and installed another, different, unit on the heater. so far it works and we are looking forward to our first shower in almost a week. Hooray!!!!

I did get a little work done - I have all my pictures set up by day and can now start editing, and picking and choosing. I did a little cutting out when I could and really wished for the laptop. Maybe next time won't be so bad. See ya later.

Pics

Tuesday Nite, May 4

Here I am again. I have a bunch of pictures that I want to put on - if I can figure out how. For you photo buffs my litle Panasonic Lumix can do so much I can't remember it all. I usually take 3:2 aspect ration - a holdover from 35 mm. But my camera won't reduce the size of that. So I'm doing stuff at 4:9 - tv and computer monitor size. I've adjusted a bunch to .3 M so they won't take so long to send on the web. Now I just need to get them on the computer. It would have been great if the laptop hadn't crapped out.

The last two days have been sort of downers. Rain. One of the reasons Ted wanted to go on this cruise is that it went to Valencia where they are working on the City of Arts and Sciences. Some of the greatest buildings you ever saw. And the largest aquarium in Europe. It rained. I didn't go in - the oxygen generator I have uses batteris and water and electricity don't mix. And the humidity doesn't do Ted's lungs any good. Peg's knees are better but still hurt.

We, and a bunch of others, will eat lunch with the Captain tomorrow. Whoopee!!