My vacation
A quick timeline summary of my latest vacation to England (with a side trip to Rome):
Sunday afternoon: get dropped off at Dulles
Sunday evening: Flight to Heathrow. Row to self: big win, but little sleep.
Monday morning: Arrive at Heathrow.
Monday, 10 AM: Make it to spiffy high-end hotel between Trafalgar Square and Embankment Station.
11 AM: Gordon's Wine Bar, a charming cellar dating back to Henry VIII, where wine barrels were stored when the Thames came right up to that point.
1 PM: Climbed St. Paul's Cathedral. Reduced to tears by the Fire Watch Memorial. So many people worked so hard while the entire area was literally reduced to rubble. As long as St. Paul's could be seen through the smoke, people found hope.
7 PM. Got some sleep. Jaki got none.
Tuesday
1 AM: get up. Overpriced taxi to Victoria Station. Wait two hours at station.
3 AM: Bus to Stansted
4 AM: Wait two hours at Stansted
6 AM: Plane to Rome. Note that we still haven't slept substantially since Saturday night.
10 AM: Arrive in Rome. Bus to Roma Termini. Walk to Hotel.
11 AM: hotel also very spiffy. We have a porch to ourselves. With kumquat trees.
Afternoon: bum around Rome. Fountain of Trevi, some old museum, enough art to choke an ox, Spanish Steps.
Old church built on top of an older church built on top of a Roman vila.
Climb and extensively explore Palatine Hill (Augustine's house, Livia's house, Temple of Cybele, etc.)
Went by a restaurant called Da Alfredo e Ada, which we'd wanted to eat at because they just cook whatever they feel like. Found it was closed. Checked that it was open tomorrow.
Note: GPS phone huge, huge bonus. But paper map also necesary, as (a) many street names were omitted from downloaded Google map, and (b) it's apparently really hard to get a GPS signal on a phone in an alley.
Found by accident a total of 7 out of 13 obelisks in Rome
Midnight: Finally get some actual sleep.
Wednesday: Up. Check out of hotel in a combination of English, Italian, and (for some reason) French.
9 AM: And helped some guy at the train station in Spanish.
10 AM: Vatican Museum. Lots of Greek and Etruscan stuff. Plus Sistine Chapel. Verdict: Gay. Really, really gay.
1 PM: After a frantic rush, including an unnecessary line to get into St. Paul's, we managed to find the Vatican Necropolis. This was intensely cool. The Vatican was originally a cemetary, where St. Peter was martyred. Constantine built the original Vatican on top of Peter's grave in the 4th century; current Vatican built on top of that in the 15th. Saw many 1st century Roman graves, including what is quite probably the grave of St. Peter himself. Plus the "grotto", which is the nicest grotto I've ever seen, where the Popes are buried.
2:30: Quick spin through St. Peter's itself. Yeah, yeah, incredible collection of the greatest artistic genius of the Renaissance. Whatever, after seeing Peter's grave.
3:00: Discover that Alfredo e Ada is closed, because I misread "1700" as "1500". More bumming around Rome, but we never did get to the old Roman area south of the train station. Next time.
5:00: Reverse course: bus to the plane to the bus to a long midnight walk back to the hotel. (Bonus: UK security wanted to see Jaki's plane ticket home, for some reason. And she wouldn't have had it if she hadn't saved a copy to her phone).
Midnight: arrive back at hotel and actually sleep in it.
More later.
Sunday afternoon: get dropped off at Dulles
Sunday evening: Flight to Heathrow. Row to self: big win, but little sleep.
Monday morning: Arrive at Heathrow.
Monday, 10 AM: Make it to spiffy high-end hotel between Trafalgar Square and Embankment Station.
11 AM: Gordon's Wine Bar, a charming cellar dating back to Henry VIII, where wine barrels were stored when the Thames came right up to that point.
1 PM: Climbed St. Paul's Cathedral. Reduced to tears by the Fire Watch Memorial. So many people worked so hard while the entire area was literally reduced to rubble. As long as St. Paul's could be seen through the smoke, people found hope.
7 PM. Got some sleep. Jaki got none.
Tuesday
1 AM: get up. Overpriced taxi to Victoria Station. Wait two hours at station.
3 AM: Bus to Stansted
4 AM: Wait two hours at Stansted
6 AM: Plane to Rome. Note that we still haven't slept substantially since Saturday night.
10 AM: Arrive in Rome. Bus to Roma Termini. Walk to Hotel.
11 AM: hotel also very spiffy. We have a porch to ourselves. With kumquat trees.
Afternoon: bum around Rome. Fountain of Trevi, some old museum, enough art to choke an ox, Spanish Steps.
Old church built on top of an older church built on top of a Roman vila.
Climb and extensively explore Palatine Hill (Augustine's house, Livia's house, Temple of Cybele, etc.)
Went by a restaurant called Da Alfredo e Ada, which we'd wanted to eat at because they just cook whatever they feel like. Found it was closed. Checked that it was open tomorrow.
Note: GPS phone huge, huge bonus. But paper map also necesary, as (a) many street names were omitted from downloaded Google map, and (b) it's apparently really hard to get a GPS signal on a phone in an alley.
Found by accident a total of 7 out of 13 obelisks in Rome
Midnight: Finally get some actual sleep.
Wednesday: Up. Check out of hotel in a combination of English, Italian, and (for some reason) French.
9 AM: And helped some guy at the train station in Spanish.
10 AM: Vatican Museum. Lots of Greek and Etruscan stuff. Plus Sistine Chapel. Verdict: Gay. Really, really gay.
1 PM: After a frantic rush, including an unnecessary line to get into St. Paul's, we managed to find the Vatican Necropolis. This was intensely cool. The Vatican was originally a cemetary, where St. Peter was martyred. Constantine built the original Vatican on top of Peter's grave in the 4th century; current Vatican built on top of that in the 15th. Saw many 1st century Roman graves, including what is quite probably the grave of St. Peter himself. Plus the "grotto", which is the nicest grotto I've ever seen, where the Popes are buried.
2:30: Quick spin through St. Peter's itself. Yeah, yeah, incredible collection of the greatest artistic genius of the Renaissance. Whatever, after seeing Peter's grave.
3:00: Discover that Alfredo e Ada is closed, because I misread "1700" as "1500". More bumming around Rome, but we never did get to the old Roman area south of the train station. Next time.
5:00: Reverse course: bus to the plane to the bus to a long midnight walk back to the hotel. (Bonus: UK security wanted to see Jaki's plane ticket home, for some reason. And she wouldn't have had it if she hadn't saved a copy to her phone).
Midnight: arrive back at hotel and actually sleep in it.
More later.