9/16/09
We left Rome this morning and took a super fast train to Naples. First Class on the trains is definitely the way to go. We got reclining seats and drink and snack service. When we arrived in Naples, we were able to store our luggage and then took a local train to see the Archeological Museum. This museum houses remains of statues, mosaics and frescoes that were found in the excavation of Pompei. There were some really cool statues here and one of the largest most intact pieces is found here...although it was undergoing restoration so we couldn't see much of it. Anyway, we enjoyed the museum and then walked through part of Naples to a Pizza place with the best pizza we've ever had. It was delicious! We each had our own huge plate and we ate just about all of it. YUM!
After lunch we walked down Spaccanapoli where there were tons of different vendors and lots of people roaming about. We passed several different churches along the way. We eventually returned to a Metro station and took a train back to pick up our luggage and head to Pompei. The city of Pompei lies under Mount Vesuvius and it was a bustling city until the volcano blew, burrying the city under volcanic ash. The remains of the city were later discovered and excavated for us to see today. Unfortunately, the best preserved house here (House of the Vetti) was closed for renovation...but we still saw plenty of cool stuff here, including the plaster and bone casts made of some of the people who died during the destruction of the city. It was neat to see some of the replicas that are here now in place of the originals that are now at the archeological museum, knowing where they came from. The city of Pompei was very civilized, had running water, baths, paved roads, horse drawn carriages, and even a brothel with stone beds and pillows.... You can still see the grooves in the pavement from the constant passage of carriages. There were water fountains everywhere with drinkable water and are still available for us to do today. This is great because we are able to bring waterbottles with us everywhere and fill them up anytime...they had the same kind of thing in Rome.
When we finished visiting Pompei, we took the train to Sorrento, our ultimate destination for the day. Our hotel here is really nice, the rooms and bathroom are very big, which was a nice surprise. We had a great dinner at Ristorante la Favorita, Kev had Spaghetti and Clams and I had Linguini with Scampi...shrimp heads intact... and we got dessert here too, gelato with liqueur and tiramisu....and some limoncello. Everything has been fabulous so far, despite the fact that our feet now hate us. Kev has rolled his left ankle several times and we finally had to get a support brace for it so that he doesn't wind up breaking it. Hopefully it will help!
9/17
We got up early this morning to catch a ferry to the island of Capri. It takes about 25 minutes to get to Capri from Sorrento on the quick ferry boat we took. When we arrived in Capri, we bought tickets for a boat tour around the island. Part of the reason for this tour was to see the Blue Grotto, which was unfortunatley closed today. The tour was still very nice, we saw the Natural Arch, the White Grotto, and the Green Grotto. The coastal views were beautiful but we couldn't learn much about the island because the whole tour was done in Italian!
When our tour was done we bought tickets for the Funicular to the city of Capri, where we took a very scary bus ride to the city of Anacapri. The bus was small with only 4 rows of seats, seating one person on each side...of course we didnt get on in time for seats, so everything else was standing room...and they pack every square inch of it. This bus ride is not for people who value their personal space... Anyway, the ride is up a winding road right along the coast, sheer cliff face along one side, and rock wall on the other. You would think this would be a one way road, but that is not the case. There were several times when we were passing other cars and buses coming the opposite direction. Talk about scary! We somehow made it safely to the top, where we took the Monte Solaro chair lift to the top of the mountain for some amazing views of the island. I was scared to get on the bus, and even more scared to get on the chair lift. Basically, you stand where they tell you, waiting for a chair to come up behind you and it pretty much knocks you off your feet and away you go up the mountain! It wasn't too scary once we were on it, but my nerves were on end just waiting in the line. It's definitely worth it once you get to the top...and we also realized that this was one of the most serene parts of our trip so far, where we actually had tons of personal space.
We took the chair lift back down to Anacapri, and the very full bus back to Capri down the steep and winding road. We had lunch at a nice little restuarant, I got stuffed pasta and Kev got shellfish risotto. After our lunch we went off in search of a Villa that we had intended to see...only to become lost in the city with no idea where we were going. They had the sign leading to the Villa placed on a wall that we walked past, but it wasn't situated so that we would ever have seen it from the direction that we were headed... So, we missed out on that... Next we saw the Garden, which was great, but very crowded. In fact, the whole city of Capri was super crowded with tourists coming by the boatload for the day. It was overload in some places and difficult to walk at times. The city was beautiful but we could have done without the crowds.
When we finished in the Garden, we caught the Funicular back to the docks where we had hoped to catch a ferry to Positano. The ferry departure list didn't show the ferry that we had planned to take, and Kev was pretty upset by all the things that we had missed out on (Blue Grotto, 2 villas...another one we didnt see in Anacapri) and was mad that the next ferry leaving wasn't until 5:45pm when it was only 3:45. We sat on the dock for a while deciding what to do, and decided to go get our later ferry tickets and get some gelato. When we got in line, the ferry we had planned to take was listed, and we were just barely able to get tickets for it in time.
The ride to Positano was beautiful, the shoreline approaching from the ferry was gorgeous. The plan was to be there for a couple hours just lazing about, and then catch a bus back to Sorrento. Lucky for us things worked out in our favor because we could have wound up stuck in Positano. It turns out that the road from Positano to Sorrento has fallen somehow,(roadslide??) and is now closed. The last ferry leaivng to Sorrento was 5 minutes after we arrived in Positano. So we got tickets just in time and jumped back on a ferry to Sorrento. If we hadn't checked the station for a timetable that we needed for tomorrow, we would never have known that this was the case, and would have been stuck there overnight! So we spent about 30 seconds enjoying the town of Positano.
Since we had so much extra time when we got back to Sorrento, we pulled out our guide book and took the self guided tour of the city. It was really nice and we were able to experience some things in Sorrento that we wouldnt have otherwise. The city is very nice, busy but clean, and we have both really enjoyed our time here.
We had dinner at Trattoria da Emilia, which is a great little casual restaurant on the waterfront. Kev got mussels with lemon and grilled fish, and I had caprese salad and gnocchi with tomato sauce. The caprese salad here was the best we've had so far, and the whole dinner was excellent. Great cheap wine here too. We had some limoncello here too that was very tasty. We got our nightly gelato on our walk back to the hotel to get the computer so that we could post this blog. Right now we are sitting at a little bar that has wireless internet, having a drink and enjoying a little snack before we head back to our hotel to pack up for tomorrow.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Last day in Rome
9/15/09
I haven't written much about the traffic in Rome, so I will take the opportunity to do so now. The roads here are pretty much ruled by small cars and tons of Vespas. There are rarely any lines on the streets, and usually only depicting turn lanes...and even when there are lanes, it's rare that people actually stay in them. Traffic lights are not always followed either...we've seen a few instances of people stopped at green lights, waiting until the light turns red and then going! Crossing the street can be an adventure in itself, and it's a good thing Kev is good at it and brave enough because without him I'd be standing on the corner wating to cross for hours!
With that being said, we started out this morning with a trip to Tivoli. This involved walking to the subway, changing trains and then taking a bus. The subway was no problem...the bus ride was something I hope I dont have to experience again. We were the last people to get on the bus at the first station. The bus was extremely full, all seats filled and people crowded into the aisle. That left us in the stairwell of the bus, standing right up there with the driver...not fun in all this crazy Italian traffic. There was some kind of accident or something wrong with the streets we were supposed to take, so the bus journey took about an hour when it should have taken about 30 min or so. I thought there was no way any other people woud get on this bus...but I was wrong. The driver continued to make stops along the way and pick up more and more passengers. Oh, and by the way, the driver was talking on his cell phone and texting while driving in heavy traffic. This did not help my nerves any...plus the close contact with fellow travelers...it was not fun to say the least. Eventually near the end of our journey some people started to leave the bus at stops leaving room for me to finally sit down...and just when we thought it was going to empty out, MORE people got on and it was extremly full again... At one point Kev was practically sitting on my lap to get out of peoples way. We were so glad to finally get off that bus in Tivoli.
Once we got into Tivoli, we visited the Villa d'Este, which is a very grand estate with huge gardens and tons of fountains. The grounds were gorgeous! We took lots of pictures of the fountains...all the pictures were outside because we weren't allowed to take pics of the inside which has more rooms than you can imagine, full of frescoes floor to ceiling. The Villa was designed over time by different Cardinals.
We had lunch here and had thought about going to another Villa, but decided against it because it's difficult to get to...so instead we took a much nicer and less full bus ride back to the subway and back into Rome. Then, we visited the Forum! This was pretty cool because once again we had our audio guides to talk about all the ruins we were looking at. We started with the Arch of Titus, the remains of a huge basillica, the temple of Julius Caesar, the central courtyard, the Arch of Septimus Severus, and the eight large columns that are all that remains of the Temple of Saturn....just to name a few. It's amazing to think that all of these monstrous buildings and statues were once here, and now all that remains are pieces.
Next we went to the Victor Emannuel monument, or the Wedding Cake as Kev likes to call it. We took a panoramic elevator to the top to see Rome from the Sky. Awesome views of the whole city from here! We could see pretty much everywhere we've visited so far from up here. We even had extra time and got to sit and enjoy a snack and the view from the monument.
Our next stop was the Capitoline Museums where we saw more ruins that were found as foundations for the buildings were being laid and which are still being excavated. We also saw the remains of the gigantic Constantine statue that was once in the Forum in the basillica. There was something big going on there today, we haven't found out what it was, possibly a new statue being unveiled after restoration...we coudnt get over there to see, but there was tons of security, and from a window upstairs we could see this huge statue and lots of people taking pictures.
When we finished at the museum it was dark out, so Kev took some nice pictures of the Forum and Colosseum at night. There was an awesome lightning storm going on behind the Colosseum, so Kev tried to get some shots of that too...we'll have to see how they came out but they looked pretty cool on the display!
We were lucky enough to remain pretty dry all day but of course the rain came in tonight. During dinner we had to move inside because of the threat of rain, and when we got back closer to our hotel it was really starting to rain. We got our nightly gelato and went back to the Trevi Fountain to see it light up at night and to throw in our money so we know we'll come back to Rome!
We are pretty sore and tired now, so much walking! Now we are listning to the pouring rain, seeing flashes of lightning and the huge booms of thunder which seem to be right overhead. Are we ever going to get away from the rain??
I haven't written much about the traffic in Rome, so I will take the opportunity to do so now. The roads here are pretty much ruled by small cars and tons of Vespas. There are rarely any lines on the streets, and usually only depicting turn lanes...and even when there are lanes, it's rare that people actually stay in them. Traffic lights are not always followed either...we've seen a few instances of people stopped at green lights, waiting until the light turns red and then going! Crossing the street can be an adventure in itself, and it's a good thing Kev is good at it and brave enough because without him I'd be standing on the corner wating to cross for hours!
With that being said, we started out this morning with a trip to Tivoli. This involved walking to the subway, changing trains and then taking a bus. The subway was no problem...the bus ride was something I hope I dont have to experience again. We were the last people to get on the bus at the first station. The bus was extremely full, all seats filled and people crowded into the aisle. That left us in the stairwell of the bus, standing right up there with the driver...not fun in all this crazy Italian traffic. There was some kind of accident or something wrong with the streets we were supposed to take, so the bus journey took about an hour when it should have taken about 30 min or so. I thought there was no way any other people woud get on this bus...but I was wrong. The driver continued to make stops along the way and pick up more and more passengers. Oh, and by the way, the driver was talking on his cell phone and texting while driving in heavy traffic. This did not help my nerves any...plus the close contact with fellow travelers...it was not fun to say the least. Eventually near the end of our journey some people started to leave the bus at stops leaving room for me to finally sit down...and just when we thought it was going to empty out, MORE people got on and it was extremly full again... At one point Kev was practically sitting on my lap to get out of peoples way. We were so glad to finally get off that bus in Tivoli.
Once we got into Tivoli, we visited the Villa d'Este, which is a very grand estate with huge gardens and tons of fountains. The grounds were gorgeous! We took lots of pictures of the fountains...all the pictures were outside because we weren't allowed to take pics of the inside which has more rooms than you can imagine, full of frescoes floor to ceiling. The Villa was designed over time by different Cardinals.
We had lunch here and had thought about going to another Villa, but decided against it because it's difficult to get to...so instead we took a much nicer and less full bus ride back to the subway and back into Rome. Then, we visited the Forum! This was pretty cool because once again we had our audio guides to talk about all the ruins we were looking at. We started with the Arch of Titus, the remains of a huge basillica, the temple of Julius Caesar, the central courtyard, the Arch of Septimus Severus, and the eight large columns that are all that remains of the Temple of Saturn....just to name a few. It's amazing to think that all of these monstrous buildings and statues were once here, and now all that remains are pieces.
Next we went to the Victor Emannuel monument, or the Wedding Cake as Kev likes to call it. We took a panoramic elevator to the top to see Rome from the Sky. Awesome views of the whole city from here! We could see pretty much everywhere we've visited so far from up here. We even had extra time and got to sit and enjoy a snack and the view from the monument.
Our next stop was the Capitoline Museums where we saw more ruins that were found as foundations for the buildings were being laid and which are still being excavated. We also saw the remains of the gigantic Constantine statue that was once in the Forum in the basillica. There was something big going on there today, we haven't found out what it was, possibly a new statue being unveiled after restoration...we coudnt get over there to see, but there was tons of security, and from a window upstairs we could see this huge statue and lots of people taking pictures.
When we finished at the museum it was dark out, so Kev took some nice pictures of the Forum and Colosseum at night. There was an awesome lightning storm going on behind the Colosseum, so Kev tried to get some shots of that too...we'll have to see how they came out but they looked pretty cool on the display!
We were lucky enough to remain pretty dry all day but of course the rain came in tonight. During dinner we had to move inside because of the threat of rain, and when we got back closer to our hotel it was really starting to rain. We got our nightly gelato and went back to the Trevi Fountain to see it light up at night and to throw in our money so we know we'll come back to Rome!
We are pretty sore and tired now, so much walking! Now we are listning to the pouring rain, seeing flashes of lightning and the huge booms of thunder which seem to be right overhead. Are we ever going to get away from the rain??
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Buon Giorno
9/13/09
We arrived in Italy absolutely exhausted. (at about 2:15pm) For some reason, neither one of us was able to sleep more than an hour or so. It took forever to get our bags, it was like just one or two bags would come out of the baggage claim at a time and then maybe a couple more a few minutes later. Once we finally got our packs, we took the express train from the airport into Rome.
When we arrived in Rome we found a train ticketing booth and purchased all of our major train tickets for our stay…something we tried to do online at home but for some reason couldn’t get to work…Then, we took a taxi to our hotel, Genio,, which is pretty much in the center of Rome. The taxi ride itself was an adventure…I thought for sure we were going to crash into someone, or our driver was going to run over pedestrians…but we miraculously made it safely. Our room is surprisingly nice, too. Big bed (about as hard as a rock though….) and big bathroom. I’m a bit confused about the bathroom though. It’s strange because there is a curtain rod around the tub, but no curtain on it…So, we’ve been improvising with that…
After we dropped off our luggage we immediately started our sightseeing. (Although we much rather would have slept at this point!) First stop, the Pantheon…Raphael’s tomb is here… WOW…this building is amazing. Actually, just walking through the small areas we passed to get to the Pantheon were amazing in themselves. It’s strange because we both felt like being in this city is very surreal like being on a movie set or something. Anyway, the Pantheon was very cool and just thinking how they managed to build these structures without modern technology is mind blowing to me.
After the Pantheon, we walked a short distance to the Trevi Fountain, which was also very cool. It was just starting to rain when we got there, lightning and thunder too…and then we got caught in a downpour. Luckily we had just purchased another umbrella to replace the one that went bust in NY, and we found an arch to stand under for a few…anyway, we enjoyed the fountain for a bit and then headed toward the Spanish Steps. By this time the rain had pretty much subsided. We walked up the Spanish steps and toward the Piazza del Popolo where we had excellent views of the city.
From there it was dinner time and the restaurant we ate at was excellent! We got an appetizer of Mozzarella and Proscuitto (delicious!) and Kev is now in love with Proscuitto. Kev got a ravioli and sage dish, and I got a Spaghetti Pomodoro, and we both enjoyed the house wine. It was a great meal. After dinner, dessert of course! We stopped at a gelateria on the way back to our hotel, and it was delicious as well! We were back in our room and ready for bed by 10pm.
9/14
We got up at about 7:30 this morning in preparation for a very busy day. We started out with a trip to St. Peter’s Basilica, crossing over Ponte St. Angelo. Unfortunately for me, I had a shoe malfunction which left me in pain very early in our journey this morning. Anyway, St. Peter’s Basilica is HUGE! We started out by climbing the dome (Yikes!) which was definitely an exhausting adventure. We were smart and took the ticket that includes some elevator assistance. So we only had to climb about 320 steps instead of 500+… It was tough going, but not too terrible…and, we got more awesome views of the city! Going down was hard too because there is a part that is very steep and corkscrew like, which was making us dizzy.
When we finished our descent, we entered the Basilica itself. It was absolutely insane. It’s impossible to accurately describe the amount of detail found here, as well as the incredible size. It’s strange too because it doesn’t feel as big as it actually is. We had our Rick Steve’s Audio Guides to help us get an understanding of the layout and artworks found here. All of the mosaic work here is incredible, and again just imagining this being built is mind boggling.
After being dazzled by St. Peter’s, we had to go back to the hotel to get my shoes changed and Kev’s sunglasses…then back toward Vatican City where we had a yummy lunch al fresco before heading to the Vatican Museum. There were soooo many people here that it was hard to even walk! We saw some Roman and Greek sculptures, some Egyptian artifacts dating back as far as 10th Century BC (really?) and the Raphael rooms before visiting the Sistine Chapel. We had another audio guide for the Sistine Chapel, which we both really enjoyed. It really helps you to get an understanding of the times and the meanings behind the artworks. The Sistine Chapel was painted by Michaelangelo, and he painted the ceiling for about 4 years standing up on scaffolding. He also came back and painted the Last Judgement years later. It’s pretty incredible to imagine these works being put together!
After the Vatican Museums we walked to the Metro and took the subway to get to San Pietro in Vincoli Church where we saw Michaelangelo’s Moses. Then we walked to San Clemente Church which is built on top of these really cool crypts which we got to go in and explore. There is a 1st century Roman house down there….crazy!! It started raining on us a bit while we were over this way, but it was gone pretty quickly.
Next stop, the Colosseum. We also had an audio guide here. The Colosseum was pretty cool, a little hard to imagine what it must have been like. Also hard to imagine the people coming here to see slaughter…but still cool nonetheless.
On to Palatine hill which is full of old Roman palace ruins, and where the name “palace” comes from. This was neat but very hard to imagine what it once must have looked like.
From Palatine hill we stopped by the Bocca di Verita, which was closed but we took a couple pics there…and then the Piazza del Campidoglio where we took a little break and saw some great views of the Forums.
Finally we had dinner at Ristorante la Carbonara, which was also delicious. We got Gnocchi Pomodoro, a Pasta with Salmon for Kev, and tasty house red wine. It started pouring again during dinner with lightning and thunder right overhead! Lucky for us, our table was well covered and we didn’t get wet and have to go inside like some of our fellow diners. It seems so far that the storms here are pretty short lived thank goodness!
Of course we had to stop for gelato again after dinner…tonight we got a strawberry and a coconut…so good!
We arrived in Italy absolutely exhausted. (at about 2:15pm) For some reason, neither one of us was able to sleep more than an hour or so. It took forever to get our bags, it was like just one or two bags would come out of the baggage claim at a time and then maybe a couple more a few minutes later. Once we finally got our packs, we took the express train from the airport into Rome.
When we arrived in Rome we found a train ticketing booth and purchased all of our major train tickets for our stay…something we tried to do online at home but for some reason couldn’t get to work…Then, we took a taxi to our hotel, Genio,, which is pretty much in the center of Rome. The taxi ride itself was an adventure…I thought for sure we were going to crash into someone, or our driver was going to run over pedestrians…but we miraculously made it safely. Our room is surprisingly nice, too. Big bed (about as hard as a rock though….) and big bathroom. I’m a bit confused about the bathroom though. It’s strange because there is a curtain rod around the tub, but no curtain on it…So, we’ve been improvising with that…
After we dropped off our luggage we immediately started our sightseeing. (Although we much rather would have slept at this point!) First stop, the Pantheon…Raphael’s tomb is here… WOW…this building is amazing. Actually, just walking through the small areas we passed to get to the Pantheon were amazing in themselves. It’s strange because we both felt like being in this city is very surreal like being on a movie set or something. Anyway, the Pantheon was very cool and just thinking how they managed to build these structures without modern technology is mind blowing to me.
After the Pantheon, we walked a short distance to the Trevi Fountain, which was also very cool. It was just starting to rain when we got there, lightning and thunder too…and then we got caught in a downpour. Luckily we had just purchased another umbrella to replace the one that went bust in NY, and we found an arch to stand under for a few…anyway, we enjoyed the fountain for a bit and then headed toward the Spanish Steps. By this time the rain had pretty much subsided. We walked up the Spanish steps and toward the Piazza del Popolo where we had excellent views of the city.
From there it was dinner time and the restaurant we ate at was excellent! We got an appetizer of Mozzarella and Proscuitto (delicious!) and Kev is now in love with Proscuitto. Kev got a ravioli and sage dish, and I got a Spaghetti Pomodoro, and we both enjoyed the house wine. It was a great meal. After dinner, dessert of course! We stopped at a gelateria on the way back to our hotel, and it was delicious as well! We were back in our room and ready for bed by 10pm.
9/14
We got up at about 7:30 this morning in preparation for a very busy day. We started out with a trip to St. Peter’s Basilica, crossing over Ponte St. Angelo. Unfortunately for me, I had a shoe malfunction which left me in pain very early in our journey this morning. Anyway, St. Peter’s Basilica is HUGE! We started out by climbing the dome (Yikes!) which was definitely an exhausting adventure. We were smart and took the ticket that includes some elevator assistance. So we only had to climb about 320 steps instead of 500+… It was tough going, but not too terrible…and, we got more awesome views of the city! Going down was hard too because there is a part that is very steep and corkscrew like, which was making us dizzy.
When we finished our descent, we entered the Basilica itself. It was absolutely insane. It’s impossible to accurately describe the amount of detail found here, as well as the incredible size. It’s strange too because it doesn’t feel as big as it actually is. We had our Rick Steve’s Audio Guides to help us get an understanding of the layout and artworks found here. All of the mosaic work here is incredible, and again just imagining this being built is mind boggling.
After being dazzled by St. Peter’s, we had to go back to the hotel to get my shoes changed and Kev’s sunglasses…then back toward Vatican City where we had a yummy lunch al fresco before heading to the Vatican Museum. There were soooo many people here that it was hard to even walk! We saw some Roman and Greek sculptures, some Egyptian artifacts dating back as far as 10th Century BC (really?) and the Raphael rooms before visiting the Sistine Chapel. We had another audio guide for the Sistine Chapel, which we both really enjoyed. It really helps you to get an understanding of the times and the meanings behind the artworks. The Sistine Chapel was painted by Michaelangelo, and he painted the ceiling for about 4 years standing up on scaffolding. He also came back and painted the Last Judgement years later. It’s pretty incredible to imagine these works being put together!
After the Vatican Museums we walked to the Metro and took the subway to get to San Pietro in Vincoli Church where we saw Michaelangelo’s Moses. Then we walked to San Clemente Church which is built on top of these really cool crypts which we got to go in and explore. There is a 1st century Roman house down there….crazy!! It started raining on us a bit while we were over this way, but it was gone pretty quickly.
Next stop, the Colosseum. We also had an audio guide here. The Colosseum was pretty cool, a little hard to imagine what it must have been like. Also hard to imagine the people coming here to see slaughter…but still cool nonetheless.
On to Palatine hill which is full of old Roman palace ruins, and where the name “palace” comes from. This was neat but very hard to imagine what it once must have looked like.
From Palatine hill we stopped by the Bocca di Verita, which was closed but we took a couple pics there…and then the Piazza del Campidoglio where we took a little break and saw some great views of the Forums.
Finally we had dinner at Ristorante la Carbonara, which was also delicious. We got Gnocchi Pomodoro, a Pasta with Salmon for Kev, and tasty house red wine. It started pouring again during dinner with lightning and thunder right overhead! Lucky for us, our table was well covered and we didn’t get wet and have to go inside like some of our fellow diners. It seems so far that the storms here are pretty short lived thank goodness!
Of course we had to stop for gelato again after dinner…tonight we got a strawberry and a coconut…so good!
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Last day in NY!
9/12
So I have to start out with something I forgot to write about yesterday…which I’m not sure how I managed to forget this since it was traumatizing to me! We were standing in line to buy Garlic Fries at the Yankee game last night, when we heard a loud THUD. We turned around and this large woman was collapsed on the ground with her eyes half open. I dropped to the ground and checked her pulse, which she had thank GOD because I so did not want to do CPR on this woman…and she was breathing. Or, was she snoring?? It was so bizarre! She wouldn’t respond to stimulation but her pulse and snoring were fine. People were screaming for help, and some police officers came over to see what was going on. Then, all of the sudden, her eyes opened and focused and she sat right up like nothing had happened, and looked really confused. She apparently was fine after that although I imagine she must have had quite a headache later on. Anyway, it really freaked me out, I hate stuff like that! And, we ended up way farther back in the Garlic Fries line after that…
Ok, today was a much drier day for us, thank goodness! It was still a bit drizzly but not too bad, actually we were kind of hot walking around all day so the cloudy sky was nice. We got up this morning and packed up and checked out of our hotel. We were able to leave our bags there so we didn’t have to carry them around all day. We took the subway downtown to have lunch at John’s on Bleecker St. which is a very tasty Pizza place. Some of NY’s best pizza, we will have to compare to what we get in Italy! :)
After our very tasty lunch we did a LOT of walking to work off all those pizza calories… We took the subway back Uptown and walked around the Northern part of Central Park. We also visited the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which is huge and beautiful! We tried to go to another Cathedral also, but it was closed for renovations. We also went to Grant’s Tomb…guess who’s buried there? Today was just a lot of sightseeing and walking around in the rain…we even had time for a Pinkberry treat!
We eventually went back and picked up our bags and took the trains back to the airport where we are now sitting and waiting to board our flight to Switzerland! We are super excited to get into Italy…although we just checked the forecast, and guess what? It’s going to be raining there…don’t we have the best luck?!?
So I have to start out with something I forgot to write about yesterday…which I’m not sure how I managed to forget this since it was traumatizing to me! We were standing in line to buy Garlic Fries at the Yankee game last night, when we heard a loud THUD. We turned around and this large woman was collapsed on the ground with her eyes half open. I dropped to the ground and checked her pulse, which she had thank GOD because I so did not want to do CPR on this woman…and she was breathing. Or, was she snoring?? It was so bizarre! She wouldn’t respond to stimulation but her pulse and snoring were fine. People were screaming for help, and some police officers came over to see what was going on. Then, all of the sudden, her eyes opened and focused and she sat right up like nothing had happened, and looked really confused. She apparently was fine after that although I imagine she must have had quite a headache later on. Anyway, it really freaked me out, I hate stuff like that! And, we ended up way farther back in the Garlic Fries line after that…
Ok, today was a much drier day for us, thank goodness! It was still a bit drizzly but not too bad, actually we were kind of hot walking around all day so the cloudy sky was nice. We got up this morning and packed up and checked out of our hotel. We were able to leave our bags there so we didn’t have to carry them around all day. We took the subway downtown to have lunch at John’s on Bleecker St. which is a very tasty Pizza place. Some of NY’s best pizza, we will have to compare to what we get in Italy! :)
After our very tasty lunch we did a LOT of walking to work off all those pizza calories… We took the subway back Uptown and walked around the Northern part of Central Park. We also visited the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which is huge and beautiful! We tried to go to another Cathedral also, but it was closed for renovations. We also went to Grant’s Tomb…guess who’s buried there? Today was just a lot of sightseeing and walking around in the rain…we even had time for a Pinkberry treat!
We eventually went back and picked up our bags and took the trains back to the airport where we are now sitting and waiting to board our flight to Switzerland! We are super excited to get into Italy…although we just checked the forecast, and guess what? It’s going to be raining there…don’t we have the best luck?!?
Friday, September 11, 2009
NYC
9/10-9/11
We arrived in New York at around 12:45pm after traveling all night and getting very little sleep. We took the Airtrain then the subway from JFK to Times Square where we are staying at the Milford Plaza Hotel. We had planned to take a nap… but hunger won out. So we got back on the subway to get some food at Katz Deli (When Harry met Sally anyone?) in the Lower East Side, where they have awesome Pastrami sandwiches YUM!
With full bellies it was time for a history lesson. We went to the Tenement Museum to learn about the lives of Jewish German immigrants who came to live in New York in the mid to late 1800’s through the Great Depression. We heard stories of some of the actual people who lived in this specific building, and toured the building to learn what living there was like. It was close quarters with many families occupying units, but they had a great sense of community. It was really interesting to learn about their lives.
After the museum it was time for the Mets game. It was a little bit rainy last night so we got a little damp, but not too bad. We left the game a little early…Mets weren’t doing too well. The stadium was nice though. :)
Today was a very wet day for us…
We got up this morning and it had been raining on and off though the night. We were hoping it wouldn’t be too bad today because everything planned was for outdoors.
We started off the morning at the Bronx Zoo. The zoo was very nice and the weather wasn’t too terrible for most of the day. A couple of highlights at the zoo were the Pygmy Marmosets and the Gorillas. Unfortunately, the rain really started coming down at the end of our visit and on our way to the Botanical Gardens. We had an umbrella with us, but the wind was pretty strong and the umbrella was rendered useless pretty quickly…it was sad. We did go into the botanical gardens for a little while, and it was nice…but we didn’t enjoy it as much as we would have had we not been cold and wet.
After the gardens we went to Yankee Stadium for the game. We arrived about an hour early because we had cut our time at the garden short. When we were trying to get into the stadium they were checking our bags and this stupid guy dropped Kev’s bag in this box to check the size…and his camera was in there. We just discovered that the screen on the back is now cracked. Great. I also had to throw out a whole unused bottle of sunscreen because we weren’t allowed to take it into the stadium! Totally ridiculous!! I mean, we know today was 9/11, but COME ON! That was the second brand new bottle of sunscreen that I’ve had to throw out in like 4 months because of stupid sh!t like that! BOO!
Anyway, the stadium was nice, but we sat there for like 45 min freezing waiting for the game to start and the wind and rain wouldn’t let up so they went on rain delay. We walked around awhile and went to get food, then finally the game started. They had a nice tribute for 9/11 and showed the new USS NY made from WTC steel.
The spirit in the stadium was very high tonight. We saw Derek Jeter break the Yankee hit record and everyone going crazy…then we watched the Yankee’s blow their lead…and we left the stadium at around the 7th inning when the score was 7-4 Baltimore. Not sure what the final score was…
Now we are back in our room getting ready for bed. I spent the last half hour blow drying our clothes because this hotel doesn’t have a dryer…Tomorrow is our last day in the city, then we fly out at 8:50pm for Switzerland!!
We arrived in New York at around 12:45pm after traveling all night and getting very little sleep. We took the Airtrain then the subway from JFK to Times Square where we are staying at the Milford Plaza Hotel. We had planned to take a nap… but hunger won out. So we got back on the subway to get some food at Katz Deli (When Harry met Sally anyone?) in the Lower East Side, where they have awesome Pastrami sandwiches YUM!
With full bellies it was time for a history lesson. We went to the Tenement Museum to learn about the lives of Jewish German immigrants who came to live in New York in the mid to late 1800’s through the Great Depression. We heard stories of some of the actual people who lived in this specific building, and toured the building to learn what living there was like. It was close quarters with many families occupying units, but they had a great sense of community. It was really interesting to learn about their lives.
After the museum it was time for the Mets game. It was a little bit rainy last night so we got a little damp, but not too bad. We left the game a little early…Mets weren’t doing too well. The stadium was nice though. :)
Today was a very wet day for us…
We got up this morning and it had been raining on and off though the night. We were hoping it wouldn’t be too bad today because everything planned was for outdoors.
We started off the morning at the Bronx Zoo. The zoo was very nice and the weather wasn’t too terrible for most of the day. A couple of highlights at the zoo were the Pygmy Marmosets and the Gorillas. Unfortunately, the rain really started coming down at the end of our visit and on our way to the Botanical Gardens. We had an umbrella with us, but the wind was pretty strong and the umbrella was rendered useless pretty quickly…it was sad. We did go into the botanical gardens for a little while, and it was nice…but we didn’t enjoy it as much as we would have had we not been cold and wet.
After the gardens we went to Yankee Stadium for the game. We arrived about an hour early because we had cut our time at the garden short. When we were trying to get into the stadium they were checking our bags and this stupid guy dropped Kev’s bag in this box to check the size…and his camera was in there. We just discovered that the screen on the back is now cracked. Great. I also had to throw out a whole unused bottle of sunscreen because we weren’t allowed to take it into the stadium! Totally ridiculous!! I mean, we know today was 9/11, but COME ON! That was the second brand new bottle of sunscreen that I’ve had to throw out in like 4 months because of stupid sh!t like that! BOO!
Anyway, the stadium was nice, but we sat there for like 45 min freezing waiting for the game to start and the wind and rain wouldn’t let up so they went on rain delay. We walked around awhile and went to get food, then finally the game started. They had a nice tribute for 9/11 and showed the new USS NY made from WTC steel.
The spirit in the stadium was very high tonight. We saw Derek Jeter break the Yankee hit record and everyone going crazy…then we watched the Yankee’s blow their lead…and we left the stadium at around the 7th inning when the score was 7-4 Baltimore. Not sure what the final score was…
Now we are back in our room getting ready for bed. I spent the last half hour blow drying our clothes because this hotel doesn’t have a dryer…Tomorrow is our last day in the city, then we fly out at 8:50pm for Switzerland!!
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