When in Rome........Part 3

Next stop was Rome! Oh how I have dreamed of seeing Rome. I don't know what it is about Rome that fascinates me but I have just always looked forward to seeing Rome. It was, hands down my favorite stop on the cruise. Jeff and I had said all along that he really wanted to see Vatican City and I REALLY wanted to walk through the Sistine Chapel. Again I go back to me studying art and architecture in college and I never dreamed I'd get a chance to walk through the Sistine Chapel and see Michelangelo's work in person. So when we were looking at excursions Jeff found one that took us to Vatican City and also did a walking tour through Sistine Chapel. We were torn the whole time because as much as we wanted to see Vatican City we also wanted to see the Colosseum. But we decided that we'd rather see Vatican City and that we'd have to try and go back one day to see the Colosseum.

It was a bit overcast that day and raining and sprinkling on and off. It was warm though........probably in the upper 60's. We weren't bothered with the weather much though. But one thing you will learn about Italy is that the peddlers are deep and VERY persistent. I think in every place we went we were greeted by half of dozen peddlers as soon as we got off the bus trying to sell us umbrellas. They don't just stop with a simple "no" either. And we were deeply warned about pick pockets in Italy too. Thankfully we weren't bothered by anyone and no one we knew in the group was either.

When we set off that morning on our tour we got a pleasant surprise as the tour guide let us know that we were going to be stopping for a restroom break before we went to the Colosseum. At first I was wondering if we were on the wrong tour but then she went on to say after that we'd be on to lunch and then Vatican City. So yay........we were gonna get to see it all.

The Colosseum

Our tour guide was really awesome! She's an archaeologist that works in Vatican City and two days a week she does tours. Yay for us because she had A LOT of knowledge and told us things I never knew. She was a real treat to have as a tour guide. She took us to the Colosseum and while she gave us some free time she spent a lot of time telling us about the Colosseum and just painting a picture of how life was back then. She told us that the various tiers of the stadium was based on where you ranked in society and women and children were not allowed to sit with the men. So the men sat at the bottom, women and children on the second tier and then slaves and servants on the very top. Of course the emperor had his own area. It's amazing to me that the Colosseum is still standing to this day.
She told us that they had a concert there last year and she said the sounds from the singer literally caused parts of the walls to fall down. So it's under constant moderating to make sure that it remains stable and safe.

Inside the Colosseum

See where part of the wall is missing at the top and you see the rock, that's where the walls started coming down after the concert

They teased us with a drive by Vatican City on the way to our restaurant for lunch. But we went on to a great lunch of Italian pasta, dessert and coffee. Italian coffee is REALLY good. And you all know how much I love my coffee!
So after a good lunch the sun came out and we set off to Vatican City. I can't say enough positive things about our tour guide and I wish I had the time to tell you all the wonderful history she shared with us. But since I can't, I'll try and focus on some of the highlights and tell you about the visit.

Vatican City

She spent a great deal of time talking about Michelangelo's time in the Sistine Chapel. She said that the Pope back then was an emperor type in that he told people what he wanted and he didn't ask. So at that time the Sistine Chapel's ceiling was blue and had kind of little stars on it. The Pope didn't like it and so he called Michelangelo there to paint the ceiling. He told Michelangelo he had three weeks to paint it. Michelangelo told him that he couldn't possibly paint it in three weeks that he'd need that long to decide what to paint because he was a sculpture, not a painter. The Pope told him not his problem and he had three weeks. So Michelangelo prepared and locked himself inside with scaffolding and he began his work. He was locked in there for five years! So when he was finally done he came out and the Pope came in and he said to him it was "okay". But he refused to pay Michelangelo. And Michelangelo ask him why he wouldn't pay him when he'd practically blinded himself painting and spent five years never coming out. The Pope reminded him of telling him he had three weeks to paint it and he took longer, so therefore he was not going to pay him. And so Michelangelo was never paid for painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
When the Pope decided he wanted him to paint the wall that has Judgment Day on it, again he called Michelangelo. This time Michelangelo locked himself in and it took him 4 years to paint it. He painted it in such a way that the good people and the people that would be delivered to heaven are on the right and the bad people and the people that were doomed to an eternity in hell are painted on the left. The Pope is painted on the left for never paying him.

A VERY small fraction of the sculptures inside the hallways

I wish I could have taken pictures inside the Sistine Chapel. But unfortunately there is no pictures allowed, even without a flash. However you can take pictures in the hallways leading up to it and they are remarkable. Our tour guide studied under the man that did the cleaning of the Sistine Chapel years ago. And inside they left a spot that has been untouched and it's amazing how much they were able to clean and restore. That one spot is practically black. She said that he said while he was up there that there were paintings where the hand alone was bigger than his face. I still have a hard time wrapping my head around being able to paint something to that scale. Even when I seen some of the large paintings at the Louvre I thought the same thing.

Beautiful mosaic flooring in the areas of the hallways

Just a small part of the ceilings inside Vatican City's hallways

One of the many hallways leading up to the Sistine Chapel

This is the rotunda of as you turn to go into the Sistine Chapel

So from the Sistine Chapel we headed to St Peter's Basilica and got to go inside and take a few pictures and just marvel at it's beauty. The area to the crypts is secure but I tried to take a picture peering down to the door and it was very difficult to get a good shot. The area going down is very beautiful and it's got lots of red velvet and brass and gold trimmings.
And I couldn't help but take a picture of the Swiss Guards in Vatican City.

The door into St Peter's Basilica. All those that pass through it, sins are forgiven

At first glance inside St Peter's. It's huge and there is so much to see and not enough time to take pictures of it all

One of many sculptures inside

The door to the crypts

A view of Vatican City square from St Peter's Basilica

It was an amazing day! I really think that Rome is my favorite place that I have got to visit and see history in all my travels so far. It was not only a treat to see it but it was a treat to have such a great tour guide.

Swiss Guards

The to the right of St Peter's, where you see the small square atop of the roof is the Sistine Chapel and that is the famous chimney that the people await the white smoke when a new Pope is determined

Next will be Pisa and Tuscany!
To be continued.................

Part 2, Naples Italy

Let me first start by saying that the negative thing about sailing the Mediterranean is that it is kind of a rough sea. So even on a massive cruise ship........you feel the boat rocking. Just wanted to get that out there! So the plus side to that is that the ports are so close together that you only spend one full day at sea going and the rest of the time you are only at sea from about 7pm at night until about 7am in the morning, at the latest. Kind of helps with the rocking of the boat but you do have some serious sealegs when you return to shore.

First day on the cruise ship was at sea. We sailed from Barcelona all the way to Naples, Italy, which is "right above the ankle of the boot" as the tour guide in Naples informed us. We had a fun day at sea and the weather was perfect. Spent some time in the sun sipping beer, and I spent a little time in the spa getting a little pampering. Our ship had come all the way from Galveston, Texas. In the off months it's the ship that sails from Galveston down to the Caribbean and then in the summer months it sails across to Barcelona and then makes the weekly trip through the Mediterranean until November, then it returns to Galveston again. And there were actually people on the boat that had sailed over from Galveston and then spent a week on the cruise with us to Italy. I love cruising, but that's a little long for me!

So the second day we arrived in Naples and Jeff and I had an early start. The cruise ships dock in very industrial areas. So at first glance it's not a pretty place when you get off the boat. But thankfully the tour buses take you off to the pretty parts of Italy and you get to see the picturistic places you see in the movies and in photos. Let me first say our tour good was really great. She was Italian (of course) and she has the classic Italian voice. She was really a pleasure to have as our tour guide. So our excursion was off to Almalfi to start. To get there we had to take a small boat ride about 45 minutes away along the coast.

The coast headed to Almalfi

Almalfi Italy

Unfortunately the weather in Naples wasn't great and so the water was really choppy and it made for an extra long choppy boat ride! When we got to Almalfi the waves were so bad that it took 4 guys holding down the plank and people running across. NOT the highlight of the tour. But we walked along the streets of Almalfi. A little quaint village with just your typical Italian look. We got a brief tour from the guide and then free time. Jeff and I found a nice little bakery and had some real Italian pastries and a cappuccino. It was really good.

Our pastries from a little cafe in Almalfi

The streets of Almalfi where we had pastries and coffee

So after Almalfi we took the boat ride back and then we took a guided tour to Pompeii. Wow! I guess in my mind I always thought Pompeii was this small little village. But it's huge! I couldn't even begin to take enough pictures of how big it was or the amount they have excavated since the volcano covered the village in ash. There was a house that was still in tact enough that they could go in and see the detail of the art and painting on the walls. And lots of mosaic flooring that some how managed to survive the volcano.

One of the many walls in the house that is still standing and the paintings that survived the volcanic ash

Mosaic flooring at Pompeii

A small part of Pompeii's market square with the volcano in the background that erupted and buried in ash

So the creepy part of Pompeii for me is that as they were excavating they came across places where people had died under the ash. They were able to pour casting (concrete) into these places and get real castings of the way the people laid as the ash covered them. Sad in ways and at the same time it puts a real feel on how traumatic and scary it must have been. It makes me wonder why people would want to live around a volcano. The tour guide said that for a lot of those people it's their land, all they have known and it's land that's been passed down through generations. Still, seems so scary that it could erupt again and they could lose so much, possibly their lives.

One of the several castings they had. This is one of the more pleasant ones. I couldn't bare to take pictures of some of the ones that were not so "peaceful"

A better picture of Pompeii's market square. Such a small part of Pompeii!

Pompeii is amazing to see though. I'm glad we got the opportunity to see it. Naples was great. An opportunity of a life time to see it all.

These HUGE lemons were all over Naples and Pompeii. These are the lemons they use to make the lemoncello liquor the region is known for

Part 3 will be about Rome.
To Be continued....................

The Honeymoon is over!

LOL......well in the literal sense it is! The long awaited (and postponed) honeymoon was fantastic! We had such a great time. I can't even begin to tell you how thankful we are for the opportunity to have got to experience and see the parts of Italy and France we did. Not to mention a couple of fun days in sunny Barcelona.

We got to Barcelona a couple of days before our cruise and stayed in a great hotel recommended by a friend. It's one of the tallest buildings in Barcelona and at the very top they have a panoramic restaurant with an incredible view of the city. Jeff and I had breakfast there both mornings and just enjoyed the view over Barcelona. The hotel was aware that it was our "honeymoon" trip and so they left us a nice little cake and card in our room our first night there. I thought that was very nice!

One of the many views from the restaurant. It was over cast in the mornings there.

We had some fantastic food while we were there. We ate at a nice seafood restaurant at the harbor our first night. Food was really good and the service was great too. Then the next day we had some tapas and also enjoyed some gelato after lunch. We also took the hop on, hop off bus that day and toured all over Barcelona. If ever in Barcelona it is the way to go. You pay a flat day rate and you can get on and off as much as you want all day long. We spent the whole day going around Barcelona and getting on and off. We even took a cable car over the harbor and seen the boats from the sky. We also got to see the Sagrada Familia. When we first came up on it Jeff said, "wow what an ugly building". But I find it fascinating and remember studying about it in Architecture class and also in art history and the Gothic era. I think Jeff warmed up to it the more we looked at it. And we hit the famous Park Guell. It really is pretty neat to see. But I will never forget the hike up the steep road to get to the park from the main street. The Mosaics in Barcelona are really something. They are everywhere! We seen so much more but just know that Barcelona is a beautiful city and lots to see. If ever you get a chance to go, you must!

A shot of a few of the ships from the cable car we took over the harbor

Sagrada Familia

The entrance into Park Guell

The famous Mosaic lizard at Park Guell

The beautiful mosaic ceiling at Park Guell

Self portrait at Park Guell

This mosaic bench at Park Guell is atop the roof and it goes all the way around the whole roof

The following day we got on the cruise ship there in Barcelona. We took a Royal Caribbean ship and we set sail from Barcelona and we went to Naples, Italy; Rome, Italy; Florence/Pisa, Italy; Nice, France; and Toulon, France and finished by docking back in Barcelona. Like I said, it was fantastic. But you'll have to wait a few more days to hear about the ports. :)

When we docked in Nice we had to take a tender boat to the dock from the cruise ship. This is our cruise ship sitting in the harbor of Nice/Florence.

To be continued.....................

A whole lot of hike

The weather has been kind of up and down lately but we've definitely had a lot more bright sunny days than bad days. Of course with the volcanic ash it was touch and go for about a week with what the weather would be like outside, but that all has seem to get much better over the past week.

So I've found myself hiking more lately and taking in the weather. Last week we hiked down South from Aberdeen and did a pretty hard (at least for me) hike up a mountain and then back down. I think the hike was about 3 or 4 hours long but some really great views and it was a little chilly that day but mostly sunny. Unfortunately in my rush to get out the door that morning I some how managed to leave my camera behind, so I didn't get any good pictures that day.

Yesterday we hiked Raemore, which is in Banchory (pronounced Ban-cory) and is kind of South West of Aberdeen. It was an easier hike than last weeks but still about 3 hours long. It was up a mountain as well but it didn't seem to be as steep as last weeks, so I think I enjoyed it a little more. The weather, however, wasn't that great yesterday and we got drizzled on most of the day with cloudy and overcast the whole way. We didn't mind getting wet though. I did remember to take my camera though, so I got a few pictures.

This was our hiking trail, of course going down the mountain

One of our fantastic views. You can tell how overcast it was. All that vegetation in the picture is Heather that hasn't bloomed yet.

Tyra and I (one of my American friends here)

We passed a pasture with horses in it while we were finishing up our hike and these horses just came right up to the fence to greet us. I didn't use my zoom....they were that close to us!

Pretty horses

And for those of you that I remind of the long hours of daylight that are fast approaching..........we are now at the point where daylight is here wellbefore 6:00 and it's not getting good and dark until after 9:00.

So the long awaited trip to Barcelona, Italy and France is finally here. I've already had several request to take lots of pictures and post all about it. I can't promise I'll be able to post a lot of pictures, but I'll definitely hit some of the highlights and post as many pictures as I can!

Auctions, hiking and volcanic ash skies......

Auctions, hiking and volcanic ash skies...........that's what I've been up too!

Taken on my hike Tuesday at Glen Dye

So it's been a busy week. Tuesday I took a fantastic 2 1/2 hour hike with a group of girls from AWA. We stopped off at this little cottage and had our packed lunches and toasted spring with some champagne. It was a great time. It was a little windy and chilly up where we were but all in all.........a beautiful day. I snapped a few pictures while we were out hiking. The area we hiked had a lot of sheep on it and they weren't scared of us at all. They just sat there and stared at us as we walked by. Some of them were literally less than 50 feet away. But as one of my hiking buddies said, "I've never dodged so much sheep crap in my whole life". lol

See how close the sheep were and there were some that were even closer

Little creek we walked across. See all the little white specks in the background.......sheep!

Same little creek, where it flows into the river

We were kind of put in the mountains some. There was still a little snow in a few places

Wednesday we had our long awaited charity auction for the AWA group. Each year the group has an auction where members bring in odds and ends of things they want to donate and we group them with similar things and auction off the "lots" to raise money for our selected charity for that year. We had a great turn out and lots of goodies. There were some great bidding wars and everything auctioned off. We did a great job of raising 2600 Pounds for the charity. And to put that in dollars it's about the equivalent of $4000. So a great turn out for a great cause! This year our charity was Grampians Women's Aid (which help women & children coming from domestic abuse homes). We had been planning and working hard at getting things ready for the auction for a few weeks now, so it was nice to finally have the auction and see that the hard work "paid off". Yay to the fantastic group of ladies of AWA for donating things and then buying things in the auction to go toward a good cause.

And today we woke to find out that it was cloudy and overcast outside. But not due to bad weather, but rather volcanic ashes that were floating in the area above Scotland from a volcano in Iceland. It's wrecked havoc on a lot of European countries because it's got the airports shut down due to visibility and danger of malfunction by flying in the ash. Thankfully we aren't flying anywhere right now but it's really quite scary to think that it might take several days for it to clear off well enough for planes to get back to flying over Europe.

We hiked along side a river for a little while too

So an exciting and busy week here at the Bartulla household!

A nice day for a hike

We have daffodils even growing in our flower beds around the house.

The weekend was really nice! Gave us a sense that spring is finally here. Now having said that I am skeptical that I have just jinxed it by saying so!

Both Saturday and Sunday the temperatures got up to the upper 50's, the sun was shining and it couldn't have felt better to be outside after a long, cold winter! Saturday we brought the smoker out and cooked burgers for lunch and ribs for dinner. We sat outside and soaked up some rays and had a few beers. I felt like for a second I was back home, but not so hot! You can tell though that we are getting acclimated to the weather. Jeff was braver than I and actually wore shorts for a few hours on Saturday. Even the neighbor commented on his bravery of wearing shorts. I rolled up my sweats and wore a short sleeve, but shorts are not in my forecast, at least not yet.

Sunday we decided to take a hike down to the shore and walk along it for a couple of miles to the little village right down the way from us. It's called Johnshaven and it's a little harbor town. So we hiked about a mile from our house down to the shore and then walked along the shore till we got to Johnshaven. We played along the shore line for a bit and then hiked back. It got warm enough on our hike to shed our jackets. We'd never done the hike toward Johnshaven so it was nice to enjoy the scenery from the shore line. We passed the little creek that runs by our house and where it eventually empties out into the North Sea. We passed by the really neat school in Johnshaven that you normally can't see from the roadway. And we took in a few patches of daffodils that have finally bloomed. All in all I think we hiked about 5 miles (my best guess). Might have been more, might have been a little less but I think it was pretty close to 5 miles. What a great way to spend a Sunday! We decided that we need to do more hiking this spring and summer.

This is at the Benholm Mill, in their parking lot. Lots of daffodils

We passed the Mill on our way to the shore

I hear everyone say that when the daffodils bloom, spring is here. I hope they are right!

Once we got down to the shoreline I turned around and took a picture of the hill behind us. We live just on the other side of those trees, up the hill......about a half mile past the trees.
This very same creek runs by our house, but this is right before it lets out into the North Sea. It's much prettier here, I think.

This is the shoreline with its low tide. Lots of rocks. One day I'll have to get down there when its high tide so you see more of the Sea and less of the rocks. Of course after living here for nearly a year, I am still not sure when high tide is.

This is the really beautiful school from a distance. You can see the top of it through the trees from here but from the road it is completely hidden.

As we got closer, this was the best picture I could get. This was with my zoom, we were still quite a ways away.

I love this little old overgrown bridge. I didn't seen see it at first, Jeff is the one that pointed it out.

This wall stretched almost the whole way from where we got in the shoreline at to Johnshaven. No telling how old it is but it was 4 to 5 foot tall (varying in places). Though it was broken down in a few places it is still standing in most places.

I've heard Aberdeen called the granite capital of the world because there is so much granite here. You walk down the beach and there are just chunks of granite laying there. I found this worn smooth piece of granite (on the left). It sparkles with sparkly bits in it. And then I found this piece of turquoise (on the right) while walking along the rocky beach as well. This picture doesn't do either justice.

Just when you think spring has sprung....

At the beginning of last week I would have swore that spring was here. We were having really beautiful sunny days and it was getting in the lower 50's and not very windy. Nice days! Several days when out and about we just needed a light jacket. Such a welcome relief! Even some of the daffodils around town started to open up.
Then.............out of no where last week we get snow! Wind, rain, snow............and just over all bad weather! Such bad weather that a lot of places South of Aberdeen lost power, including us. We went without power just long enough to need to toss everything in the fridge but thankfully saved almost everything in the freezer. The freezer is in the garage and with all the snow and wind it was pretty cold outside so I guess that kept the freezer cold enough. Needless to say I wasn't to thrilled about not having any heat during that power outage.
Jeff was offshore so I lite a fire and bundled up and slept in the living room. And I was ever so grateful when the power did come back on!

So that was last week. This week it's been kind of rainy and cold, a little windy. But today it's beautiful again and the sun is shining and it's a bit warmer outside today. I'm not going to say spring is here.........as I fear I will pretty much jinx it! But I am hoping the daffodils will finally open up around the house and I can snap some good pictures. I need the sun too, just so it's not a rainy gloomy picture! :)

I know back home things are starting to warm up and you all are not looking forward to the summer months. I haven't forgot about those 100+ temps and the humidity that makes you feel like you are melting away. I think when we finally do return home that our first summer there will feel like we are gonna die. lol

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!