before....
...and after
the good news: everything is in!
the bad news: mama already weighs 50 lbs. :(
at least she rolls!
next stop, Amsterdam...
erin
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Packin' light...?
...or actually not so much. Those of you who read last year's blog will remember that my suitcase eventually got so heavy that she earned the name "mama", as in "come on, mama, you can make it up the stairs," or "time to get in the car, mama", and so on. In any case, we're off tomorrow, mama and I. Rick Steves would NOT approve of the amount of stuff I have stuffed in her.
before....
...and after
the good news: everything is in!
the bad news: mama already weighs 50 lbs. :(
at least she rolls!
next stop, Amsterdam...
erin
before....
...and after
the good news: everything is in!
the bad news: mama already weighs 50 lbs. :(
at least she rolls!
next stop, Amsterdam...
erin
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Too...many...books...
10 pounds, to be exact. Too much, I know. But I am hampered by the feeling that I will NEED them all at some point or another....I am also hampered by the silly inability to ease the situation by tearing up the guidebooks and only bringing the parts I'll use, or just deciding to leave the guidebooks behind as I go. Because if I leave them behind, then they can't live in the little "travel" section of my bookcase when I come home. :)
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Loving the soccer...
Well, since I will be in Europe during the last several matches of the World Cup, and since I'm rather enjoying the whole experience right now, I thought I'd post a quote from The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup. It's rather long, I know, but if you read it breathlessly all the way straight through, it kind of adds to the effect and you can imagine you're actually watching the action. Trust me!
That's what you learn, as soon as you start to play and watch football: that football is difficult and beautiful, and that the two are related. Players kick the ball to one another , pass into empty spae which is suddenly filled by a player who wasn't there two seconds ago and who is running at full pelt and who without looking or breaking stride knocks the ball back to a thrid player who he surely can't have seen who then, also at full pelt and without breaking stride, crosses the ball at sixty miles an hour to land on the head of a fourth player who has run seventy meters to get there and who, again all in stride, jumps and heads the ball with, once you realize how hard this is, unbelievable power and accuracy towrad a corner of the goal just exactly where the goalkeeper, executing some complex phsyics entirely without conscious thought and through muscle memory, has expected it to be, so that all this grace and speed and muscle and athleticism and attention to detail and power and precision and passion comes to nothing, will never appear on a score-sheet or match report and will likely be forgotten a day later by everybody who saw it or took part in it. This is the beauty and also the strange fragility, the evanescence of football.
That's what you learn, as soon as you start to play and watch football: that football is difficult and beautiful, and that the two are related. Players kick the ball to one another , pass into empty spae which is suddenly filled by a player who wasn't there two seconds ago and who is running at full pelt and who without looking or breaking stride knocks the ball back to a thrid player who he surely can't have seen who then, also at full pelt and without breaking stride, crosses the ball at sixty miles an hour to land on the head of a fourth player who has run seventy meters to get there and who, again all in stride, jumps and heads the ball with, once you realize how hard this is, unbelievable power and accuracy towrad a corner of the goal just exactly where the goalkeeper, executing some complex phsyics entirely without conscious thought and through muscle memory, has expected it to be, so that all this grace and speed and muscle and athleticism and attention to detail and power and precision and passion comes to nothing, will never appear on a score-sheet or match report and will likely be forgotten a day later by everybody who saw it or took part in it. This is the beauty and also the strange fragility, the evanescence of football.
Sunday, June 18, 2006
T-minus two weeks...
Not sure if that's how it goes, but anyway departure is July 3. Loose itinerary is as follows:
Amsterdam July 4-7
Bruges (Belgium) July 7-8
France (Dordogne/Languedoc regions) July 9-14
Spain (Barcelona-Sevilla-Granada-Madrid) July 15-25
Amsterdam July 4-7
Bruges (Belgium) July 7-8
France (Dordogne/Languedoc regions) July 9-14
Spain (Barcelona-Sevilla-Granada-Madrid) July 15-25
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Home at last...
Hello for the last time....
Mama, Deanna and I are home after a very long day of travel yesterday...it is nice to be back in my own house, not paying by the minute for internet service or wondering how to post photos. For those of you who were wondering, Mama did not end up giving birth, but she did gain almost 20 pounds over the course of the trip. It would have been a big baby :) I'm thankful for a wonderful trip....as I downloaded the pictures this morning I realized again how many amazing things I saw and fun adventures I had...thanks to Gretchen and D for being part if it all.
And, I must say, thanks to you all for reading along with me. There were many days when I came to the computer feeling a little homesick or missing various ones of you, and it was always great to read your comments or e-mails, or just know that you were following along...so truly, thank you.
Pictures in their entirety (a few hundred, sorted by city/location, so you can pick and choose what you might want to see) will be posted at snapfish.com within the next few days....I'll most likely send out an e-mail when they're ready. And to close, here a last few photos...
Our last supper....we ordered the "antipasti completo", which as you can see required another table to hold all of the food....16 plates in all! We had to go back and lay down for a while afterwards before we felt well enough to pack :)
Cheers!
Mama, Deanna and I are home after a very long day of travel yesterday...it is nice to be back in my own house, not paying by the minute for internet service or wondering how to post photos. For those of you who were wondering, Mama did not end up giving birth, but she did gain almost 20 pounds over the course of the trip. It would have been a big baby :) I'm thankful for a wonderful trip....as I downloaded the pictures this morning I realized again how many amazing things I saw and fun adventures I had...thanks to Gretchen and D for being part if it all.
And, I must say, thanks to you all for reading along with me. There were many days when I came to the computer feeling a little homesick or missing various ones of you, and it was always great to read your comments or e-mails, or just know that you were following along...so truly, thank you.
Pictures in their entirety (a few hundred, sorted by city/location, so you can pick and choose what you might want to see) will be posted at snapfish.com within the next few days....I'll most likely send out an e-mail when they're ready. And to close, here a last few photos...
Our last supper....we ordered the "antipasti completo", which as you can see required another table to hold all of the food....16 plates in all! We had to go back and lay down for a while afterwards before we felt well enough to pack :)
Cheers!Thursday, July 21, 2005
Those popes didn't play around....
Well, actually, some of them really did, but not when it came to building massive monuments to themselves. Today, we did a tour of St. Peter's and the Vatican museums, including the Sistine chapel.
My oh my....St. Peter's is the biggest church in the world, and if not my favorite church that we've seen, easily the most impressive. You don't really realize how big it is until you see from not too far off that the people going in look like ants at the entrances. And then, once inside, there are all these tricks to make you feel like it's not as overwhelmingly big as it really is, so you don't feel so insignificant and tiny. (At least that is what our guide said. Hmm. I also noticed that they have markings on the floor that show how the world's other huge churches would fit neatly inside St. Peter's with room to spare.)
The Sistine Chapel....same experience for me as seeing David. You think you've seen it, because you've seen all those photos, but then you're there, looking up and all around, and you can't believe how beautiful it all is, and that there's nothing else even close to it anywhere. Despite the crowds, and the guards announcing sternly, over and over, for everyone to be quiet and stop taking pictures and video, there is still room for amazement and wonder at what Michelangelo did. Even better, they left a small patch unrestored, so you can see what it looked like before they cleaned it up in 1993 or so....the colors really are brilliant.
We left the tour group, climbed the dome of St. Peter's, and then back down again with shaking legs...we are pushing ourselves pretty hard. After a little pizza and restorative gelato, we're doing OK again, and ready for our last day tomorrow.
I'll write more tomorrow, for the last time!
Buona Notte,
Erin
My oh my....St. Peter's is the biggest church in the world, and if not my favorite church that we've seen, easily the most impressive. You don't really realize how big it is until you see from not too far off that the people going in look like ants at the entrances. And then, once inside, there are all these tricks to make you feel like it's not as overwhelmingly big as it really is, so you don't feel so insignificant and tiny. (At least that is what our guide said. Hmm. I also noticed that they have markings on the floor that show how the world's other huge churches would fit neatly inside St. Peter's with room to spare.)
The Sistine Chapel....same experience for me as seeing David. You think you've seen it, because you've seen all those photos, but then you're there, looking up and all around, and you can't believe how beautiful it all is, and that there's nothing else even close to it anywhere. Despite the crowds, and the guards announcing sternly, over and over, for everyone to be quiet and stop taking pictures and video, there is still room for amazement and wonder at what Michelangelo did. Even better, they left a small patch unrestored, so you can see what it looked like before they cleaned it up in 1993 or so....the colors really are brilliant.
We left the tour group, climbed the dome of St. Peter's, and then back down again with shaking legs...we are pushing ourselves pretty hard. After a little pizza and restorative gelato, we're doing OK again, and ready for our last day tomorrow.
I'll write more tomorrow, for the last time!
Buona Notte,
Erin
Rome!
A not-so-ancient piece of statuary...
Listening carefully to the audio guide on the floor of the colosseum arena...
Ok. This photo illustrates many things. It was so hot, hotter than we'd been the whole trip. It was about 12 noon, and we had been wandering through the Roman Forum, trying to follow this guide from our Rick Steves book that was just impossible. There were these blocks of ruins all around, and we decided to take a much needed break in the shade. These ruins really were for public use, so despite how it looks, we were just doing what everyone else did....this kind of stuff was laying around everywhere!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
