Day 1 - Orlando-San Jose-La Fortuna!

As I type, I am enjoying a fantastic view of the Arenal volcano as the afternoon rain clouds and mist drift over the mountains. We are in La Fortuna, Costa Rica and loving it!


After Justin graciously drove us to the airport on Thursday morning, we had a pleasant, uneventful flight with Jet Blue (our favorite) and after a less than three hour flight, found ourselves standing in the immigration line to enter San Jose, Costa Rica. We got through immigration and customs with no problems, found the bags we checked, and were suddenly at car rental alley, being greeted by an incredibly friendly guy. The guy told us his son name was Daniel, so of course my Daniel said "he must be an awesome guy" and the next thing we know we were getting his life story which involved meeting his wife in a military hospital in Germany after he had been shot down in a helicopter over Somalia. Crazy.

Before we knew it we were in a shuttle headed for the car rental agency and were signing up for our cute Nissan sedan. The three hour drive from San Juan to La Fortuna (which is at the base of the Arenal volcano) was thankfully uneventful. The roads were pretty decent - we drove on way worse in Daintree and Cape Trib, but were curvy, steep, almost switchback like...which means I was feeling borderline carsick for most of it, but overall it wasn't a bad drive. We got to enjoy glimpses of homes along the roads, little open air kitchen/restaurants, and the beautiful Costa Rican countryside. When we got to La Fortuna we were unable to find our hotel within town (even the hotel had just told me how to get to La Fortuna), so we found ourselves stopping a tourism company to get quick directions. As we drove through town we saw several hotels crammed amongst the shops and restaurants and were hoping ours was a little separate - and nicer - which it was! The tour company told us it was about three kilometers up the road and we found ourselves happily at Hotel Magic Mountain (cheesy, I know), which was considerably nicer than anything we had driven past so far, and not in the bustling heart of town. We were close enough to be able to drive back for meals, but far enough to enjoy the quieter atmosphere. Perfecto!

We got checked in and discovered that our balcony overlooked the volcano as well as the pool and hot tubs in the garden below. Gorgeous! Now, it was about 5 pm CR time (7pm EST) and we had not eaten a meal since 9 am EST. yikes. So, we set out for in search of a restaurant in town. We enjoyed our dinner, felt much better after eating, and started to realize how tired we were. We had both really pushed ourselves to survive our days at work and were pretty wiped out. We spent the rest of our evening enjoying the hot tub and the pool, breaking in our really awesome new waterproof camera, setting up our itinerary for the next few days, and settling into our hotel.

Saturday 02 January 2010 – Homeward Bound!

For our faithful friends and families who have followed us through our journey:
1. We are home safely! We are posting from Rockledge!!
2. Pictures will be up soon - hopefully tomorrow - check back.
3. Florence through the end is up, so you will need to scroll down and read back from Dec 29. Enjoy!
4. We would all like to excitedly say that we are happily enjoying being in the land of free water, free bathrooms, and free internet! Hooray for the basic necessities of life! :)

Buon Anno in Roma!

And the final entry as written on our plane:

We are currently nearly home! We just have a few hours left of the flight – which has been okay… We survived security..which was much more thorough than we’ve ever seen but still okay. We checked into the airport, checked bags if needed so that we were all down to one (I couldn’t even have my back pack and a purse), and then went through the normal security check point – where they actually swiped some of my liquids to check them. We grabbed breakfast and then waited for our gate to open so we could go through….the second security checkpoint in which every passenger was patted down and all of our luggage was searched by hand. Every compartment. Then we sat in the secure area until our flight. It was a little different, but the UK was handling it all really well and we were never waiting in any long miserable lines.

And now we are flying home! Hooray! I hope you have enjoyed the blog! I would say that we have definitely had a great trip, despite our twists and turns…we laughed through most of them and have continued laughing, so I think that’s what counts. And – we are all returning home with wonderful memories of a magical European Christmas full of laughter, snow, beautiful palaces, intriguing museums, amazing churches, wonderful food, and fabulous friends!

Cheers!

Friday 01 January 2010 – New Year’s Day!

We slept in as late as we could and stretched our 10 am checkout to 10:30 and then set out to enjoy one last walk around the city. Mentally we had planned to just make it to the first…not make it through the first…so some of us were definitely dragging. Chris and Ginger wanted to see the Pantheon so they led a walk by a pretty church and then we found ourselves in front of the beautifully classic Pantheon. It was closed because it was New Year’s Day, but a crack in the door allowed us to get a peak. The square also had great cheese deli, glass store, and restaurant and we found ourselves absolutely pigging out for our last meal. We all ordered at least two different rounds of pasta or other dishes. It was fantastic! I had some of the best food I had the entire trip – a perfect last meal!

After that we walked back to our hotel just as our taxi was arriving to take us to the airport. Now, we know many of you have been concerned about our air travel and a few things did change, but the main thing is that for the US bound flight we were told we would only be allowed one bag. So most of us checked our luggage through to the US, knowing we would spend a night in London without it. You could also check a carry-on for free because they wanted to make sure we had very little to take on the plane.

Our flight was fine and our hotel shuttle picked us up without problem. We found ourselves at a very quaint little hotel in Gatwick and enjoyed a delicious meal at the hotel restaurant before we all crashed and went to bed. We had talked of going to central London, but it would have been after 11 by the time we even made it into the city, so we all gave up.

Thursday 31 December 2009 – Ringing in 2010 from Rome!

Buon Anno in Roma!

We had a delightful complimentary breakfast in the rooftop enclosure overlooking the city and enjoyed true Italian cappuccinos. And then we were off for our big day in Roma! We started with a reattempt to visit the Colosseum and are very pleased to say we were successful this time. It was awesome to walk the ruins and imagine the gory battles, gasps from the crowd, and the intensity and electricity that had once been in the air.

After that we braved Rome’s metro system. Yikes. The train pulled up and the entire side of it was a solid wall of graffiti – Justin looked at me and said… “I am not impressed” …and that about said it all. It was hot, packed, and gross. We held our bags tightly and watched each other and I kept my hand over my passport and credit card the entire ride.

The cars only filled more and more as we neared the stop for the Vatican. From the moment we piled out and headed toward St. Peter’s Square we were inundated with scammers who wanted to scare us into buying a tour of the Vatican through them. We were told everything from “watch out folks, the wait is an hour and a half long” to “the wait is two and a half hours long” as well as “you know you can’t go in with shorts, hope you have some pants” (to which I retorted “We DO”). The only way to make it through Rome is to be rude. And I got really good at giving a strong, resounding NO. If you were polite they only stepped in front of you and blocked your path or followed you around, (which is when you hand went back to guard the pocket containing the passport and credit card)…

So we made it to St. Peter’s Square which was grand and impressive in size and really did look like the images you see. And we proceeded to hop in a line that wrapped 2/3 of the way around the massive square. The line was at the very least moving…and probably took around 30 or so minutes to work our way through to the steps of the Basilica. We got through security with ease…we later found out we actually had not taken the corkscrew/knife combo out of our backpack…but considering our security guard was busy checking his phone for text messages we were okay.
Due to the sensitive nature of working where I do and having a blog that can be read by the public I will not truly elaborate on my views of St. Peter’s Basilica. I can say that the Basilica itself is extraordinarily grandiose and ornate and beautiful. We also saw Michelangelo’s Pieta over the heads of fifty or sixty people – and the expressions on Mary and Jesus’s faces were just as I had expected…it’s such an impressive piece. It was the largest, gilded and glittering church I have ever seen in my life. I have been in some magnificently ornate and gorgeous churches, but St. Peter’s Basilica is a different magnitude entirely. I can also tell you that the restrooms that were at the base of the church were grosser than the public restrooms in the Roma airport and I thought it was very ironic that there was a gorgeously glittering church feet away from women’s restrooms that didn’t even have toilet seats.

After walking through the Basilica we were torn. We wanted to go up to the cupola to get an amazing view of the city…but we also had limited time. It was New Year’s Eve and the Vatican Museum was closing at 1:30…it was 11:20 and by this point we knew what type of lines we might face. We decided to beeline it for our chance to see the Sistine Chapel. Phil had been to Rome once before and had not yet seen it. Phil’s mom had also told us that it is the last major exhibit…so we told each other, let’s not take our time in each room, we can always go back, let’s make it to the chapel first.

Wow did we have no idea what we were in for. The first five…ten…fifteen rooms we thought we were getting close. And then we realized we had no idea. Every room was packed with dozens of people…hundreds in the long halls. It was hot, stuffy, and hard to moved. And everyone just milled around bumping into each other as they looked up and around them. Some of the things we saw were spectacular…whole halls glittering and full of amazing pieces of art. One of the rooms I entered was especially full and I turned to see! Raphael’s School of Athens!! One of my favorites to teach in class! We saw awesome works. We were shuffled with the crowds from one room to the next for over an hour and a half…one spectacular room after the next…to the point that you nearly become numb from overload.

And then we finally, finally were able to enter the Sistine Chapel. Which truly was incredible. The surprise to me? I didn’t realize how nearly three dimensional the painting would seem on the ceiling…as if it was popping out of the ceiling and coming to life. I also actually thought the colors would be more faded as well – but they were very vibrant – especially the blue that was the main background color in the “Last Judgement” behind the altar. It really was spectacular. Michelangelo did not disappoint…and is still very much my favorite…between his sculptures and his chapel masterpiece… love him.

Now for the criticism. We knew it would be crowded this time of year but holy cow. We were not even remotely prepared for the hell that was throngs of people pushing and shoving their way through the two hours of rooms as you worked through the museum. And within the Sistine Chapel there were several hundred jabbering people taking pictures with several dozen guards yelling at them for talking and taking pictures (even though you could through the rest of the museum). And then a PA in Italian again demanding people not take pictures or talk. It definitely diminished the experience a little.

Once we survived the museum we were all pretty fried. Content but exhausted. We took the subway to the Spanish Steps and found another fabulous lunch and then worked our way home. It was around 4 and we agreed to reconvene at 8, post-naps, to go out for dinner and New Year’s Eve.

After several hours of crashing…naps, computer time, rest, etc. We were ready to go for Buon Anno in Roma! The only probably was that there were off and on spurts of torrential downpour outside. We went out in search of a meal and discovered that there was really only one option. All the local restaurants were either full of locals with reservations or were closed. So the lower grade almost fast food style places were the only thing open. We found one that looked okay…but it was a little less than okay. The food was pretty bad, the dining area was roasting (Daniel was red in the face the entire meal and Chris and Justin and I had beads of sweat going), the fuses blew from overload in the restaurant mid meal, and they forgot Chris’s food twice. Yikes. Onward!

So as we went to leave the restaurant and make our way to Piazza del Popolo – which we had read was the place to be, the heavens opened up again. We headed for the subway, but were in the wrong direction and our cards wouldn’t revalidate, and we were stuck in a crowd of several hundred people…abort mission!

That was when we split up…torrential downpour, throngs of people…it was tricky and not everyone was feeling the Happy New Year’s. Phil decided the crowds were a bit much and said he was going to check out the Colosseum scene and head home. He had been fighting a cold too. Ginger and Chris didn’t want to fight the rain so they headed down to the Colosseum. Daniel, Justin, and I decided we were going to try to brave the storm and make the hike to Piazza del Popolo. From what I’ve heard Ginger and Chris has similar experiences to us in that they definitely witnessed the lawlessness of the Rome at New Year’s.

To start, I must mention that our New Year’s Eve in Vienna that rang in 2007 was a lot of fun as the city had ten “stations” and you worked your way through the city enjoying the vendors, the concerts, and the final destination – the Rauthaus that had a full countdown and fireworks. Piazza del Popolo was quite a hike and it rained nearly the entire time – I was soaked completely through to the skin. We meandered our way and when we finally reached the square we were very confused. There was hardly anyone there. This was supposed to be one of the main places to be? We considered going back to the Colosseum and actually went to the metro which was nearby but we didn’t have small enough bills to buy the fare. So we checked our watches – heading on towards 11:30 and decided to give the Piazza one last chance. It was now crawling with people and had more fireworks, Roman candles, bottle rockets…and mortar like shells. We made a run for it and stationed ourselves in the center of the square, up on a pedestal with our backs to the monument so that we only needed to watch out from the front, not watch our backs as well. Plus, people didn’t seem to be throwing fireworks up on the monument into the crowd either. And so we took our station, bought champagne from the street peddlers and prepared for the countdown.

To go along with the lawlessness, there really wasn’t even a countdown either…we had watches and knew we were getting close…and then suddenly all of a sudden fireworks intensified, people were hollering, and a laser thing beamed 2010. Hooray! It was wild, very entertaining, a lot of fun, and quite the experience.

Buon Anno! Buon Natale! & Capodanno!

Wednesday 30 December 2009 - Onto Rome!

We woke up, grabbed a complimentary breakfast, and were in the train station just in time to see our train was delayed by about 20 minutes. Our train was packed…really really packed. And it was direct to Roma, so there was no chance of anyone getting off at other stops. We managed, but it took a lot of finagling and apologizing.
When we got to Rome we hit the ground running. I handed Daniel walking directions to the hotel – 1.2 km, we all agreed to try it and set out. 1.2 km later we were all quite hot and sweaty (Rome was much warmer than anywhere we’d been so far on our trip), but had successfully checked into the Hotel Apollo which was on a road that led directly to the Colosseum – we could see the Colosseum from our street!!!

We immediately set out for lunch and found a really cute café with a warm, friendly family who served me the best spaghetti carbonara I have ever had…ever. We all had fantastic meals and delicious orders of different kinds of brochette. And the owner came out and served us complimentary shots of limoncello before we left (which we are now big fans of!)

And so, full of wonderful Italian food we set out for the Colosseum. It was about 2:45, so we figured we were okay. By the time we navigated through the vendors, crosswalks, and scam artists it was about 3:15 and the line was short…only…they closed the Colosseum at 3. Seriously? It was not New Years Eve. It was not New Years Day. It was not Christmas. It was Wednesday, December 30th and they closed at 3 when the Vatican closes between 4 and 6. We still had several hours of daylight left and they were closed. Great. Maybe our luck was not turning after all.

So we rushed over to Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum which are right next to the Colosseum (even if the entrances are a kilometer or so apart). We got there at 3:40 to find out that they had closed at 3:30. Really? Honestly. We were crushed and really angry. We had done everything right. Most museums said they closed at 6. In Florence they had. And now we were heading into New Year’s Eve tomorrow…when things usually close early with a wish list a mile long…and the knowledge that nothing would be open on New Year’s Day.

Onward. We walked to the Circus Maximus while walking along the fenced in Palatine Hill and taking lots of pictures and sneaking what glimpses we could and!! The Circus Maximus was just an open field and we actually got to go down and walk on the track – hooray! So we walked the path the chariots had blazed and then per Phil’s great suggestion we headed up a hill where we got a fabulous glimpse of a great bit of Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. It was almost as good as going in – it was a great view. And then! We went to the Victor Emmanuel Monument and took the elevator to the top of the building to watch Rome at sunset! We got to see the whole city bathed in pinks and purples as the city lights grew brighter and stronger. We could see the Colosseum all lit up, St. Peter’s Basilica at night, along with the whole sparkling city. Our timing was perfect!

We continued on our wanderings and checked out the Colonna Tralana which had a Roman story intricately carved into it, checked out the interior of a beautiful church and walked up to the Trevi fountain. Although slammed with people we were able to enjoy a few glimpses of the famous monument while we chowed down on gelato. We found another open church and were able to check out the interior of that one as well. We tried to find the Spanish steps but misread the map and found a Spanish palace...and decided to put that quest on hold. Our feet were tired and our tummies wanted more Italian.

We had dinner at another great restaurant and had more wonderful food. We headed back to the hotel after that, determined that we would get up early so we could do both the Colosseum and the Vatican…tall orders, but we were determined. Nothing would be open on the first.

Our first day in Rome was fantastic! It was absolutely awesome to wander the streets and find one amazing monument or ruin or church or palace after the other. The food is even better than Florence and we couldn’t be more excited about our New Year’s Eve in Rome!

Tuesday 29 December 2009 – Happy Birthday Daniel!!! We’re in Florence! :)

Ah, Florence! ;-)

Once we piled off the train in Florence we had two goals: to obtain reservations from our train from Florence to Rome and to find our hotel. The first took a while as we waited in a quite a line, but we managed. The second was surprisingly more challenging. We had booked a hotel across from the train station to keep it simple, but it was a very large train station and it took a while for the guys to walk all the way around the train station and actually find it. We dropped our bags at the hotel and headed off to look for the Piazza della Signoria where Frommer’s recommended we enjoy the square and find lunch. Sadly, this was easier said than done as we once again had a gaggle of unfed very hungry people trying to find food.

Our first Italian meal was pretty delicious and restored us. We were very excited to make the most of our day as we had a long dream list of things to see in Florence. We were also quickly amazed with the throngs of people. Florence was crowded and crawling with tourists. I had warned everyone that between Christmas and New Years was high European travel traffic, but I was not quite prepared for what we would see as we eagerly, happily approached the Uffizi Galleries (which contains some of the world’s most classic and popular Renaissance art pieces). At the door of the gallery there was a line that stretched out the door and down the block…and wasn’t moving. We got in the line, made our way to the front, only to realize that we were in the security line with people who already had tickets. So we went to get in that line and realized it was wayyyyy longer than the security line. If you survived the line you could then purchase tickets or reservations for later days…but this line was seriously at least a two hour wait. It just wasn’t budging. And we had several other sights to see.

Fortunately, Florence museums were open a little bit later than some of the others, but we were still concerned about seeing our dream list, so we sighed and moved on to the next one, figuring that if things went really well elsewhere maybe we could return to Uffizi.

So we headed up to the Piazza del Duomo to see the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. We hopped in another decently long line (although nothing like the ticket line at the Uffizi) and bought tickets to climb the 300-400 stairs up to the cupola so we could admire Brunelleshi’s dome. The climb itself was a bit more than we had anticipated and was not just your average staircase or winding spiral. This climb involved navigating with other tourists headed in the other direction as you climbed stairs that were just on the inside of the dome – so the ceiling was slanted in parts or extremely short in certain areas making it very challenging and amusing for all. It was really crazy. Every few hundred steps we got to enjoy an incredibly gratifying view – two at different levels of the interior of the church, both just below the dome, which allowed us to gape at the beautiful paintings and the interior of the basilica and then the final awe-inspiring that allowed you to walk the rooftop around the top of the main section of the dome. This view was incredible and put us at matching heights of the Campanile di Giotto tower and provided a beautiful view of the red rooftops of Florence. The only downside was the it was a very foggy, hazy day so you couldn’t see out very far and the pictures we took did not come out very well. But the climb was definitely worth it.

After that we headed onward to the Galleria dell’ Academia to see…David!!! This line was also long and wound around the block, but we asked around and were told it would take us about an hour to get in. Once in we were able to see several rooms of Renaissance art, iconography, and Michelangelo’s David. I really have to say – David is fantastic and absolutely amazing. The statue itself is far larger than you expect, even if you’ve heard the specifications. The musculature, the balance and fact that a piece carved over 400 years ago is still standing perfectly, the level of detail and accuracy…it’s just an amazing piece of art and we were all very impressed.

We decided we would give up on heading back to the Uffizzi – we were out of time. So we headed back to our hotel to shower for the first time in 36 hours (the night train doesn’t exactly have those kinds of facilities). And so we showered and cleaned up and headed out to walk to the canal to see the famous Ponte Vecchio Bridge and then to go out for a nice dinner. I don’t know how else to describe the Ponte Vecchio, but to say you will have to see it in one of our pictures. It was really unique and fun. We walked across it and back and then found a restaurant on the canal. We enjoyed a dinner…but think we were being rushed and scammed a bit by our wait staff…and that they may have been eavesdropping on us, so it was a little uncomfortable, but we enjoyed the food and went to a different place so Daniel could have a birthday dessert and I could give him his birthday gift. I am taking him to a Wynton Marsalis concert in Atlanta this March! We’ll make a weekend of it and go to the aquarium too!

And then we all crashed. After a crummy night of sleep on the night train cattle car we were all ready for a nice long sleep. Ah, Florence! may not have quite the same ring to it as Ah, Venice!, but we really enjoyed our bonus city and had a lot of fun enjoying the spectacular views from the basilica, gaping at the amazingness of Michelangelo’s David sculpture, and were only increasingly excited about getting to consume more fantastic Italian cuisine!

Happy New Years from Roma!

I will catch up on the blog soon and finish filling all of you in on our day in Florence, but for now...Happy New Year's from Roma!

Tomorrow we fly from Rome to London, spend the night and fly London to Orlando. So no Amsterdam airport for all of those worried parents and relatives.

We have had a fabulous time in Italy - full of Italian lawlessness, amazing food, extremely long lines, and very gratifying views of the Vatican, David, Sistine Chapel, Colosseum, and many other primo sites.

More info soon!

Buon Anno!