Europe Trip -- 4 Rome Day 2

We realized pretty quickly that Rome is a classiest act there is in Europe. This is our second day in Rome and we realize we cannot do justice to the city's historical importance even if stay here for a month. But we dont have a month. We have 12 hours before us and have to make the most of it.

Sub Urbe Roma - our apartment in Rome is the most spacious, convenient place we have stayed on this trip. Right across from Colosseum and the Roman Forums. I highly recommend this place to anyone



We walk to the Forum at 9 Am. Roman Forums is the ancient ruins where Rome stood in all its glory. Several important words like 'Palace' - Palatine hill , 'Capital' - Capitoline Hill , 'Money' - temple of Juno Moneta ( mint) originated in this piece of land. More importantly the Octavian Calendar was designed here. I am awe struck at how much liberty did Augustus have in designing the calendar which we follow today. He added one day to August so that August would not have lesser days than July ( Julius's month ... wow).

It also amazes me how many important things were going on at that time and how Augustus helped in completing the prophecy that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=49&chapter=2&version=31)
"The Birth of Jesus ¹In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ²(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³And everyone went to his own town to register. "

Back to 2009 AD - Our Roma pass ( highly recommended) allows straight access without waiting in line. Without the history the place is a hopeless ruin. Without the audio guides and prints from "Rough Guide to Rome" it is impossible to tell where one place starts and the other ends. We read and listen to the commentary on Saturn Temple, Temple of the Vestas ( virgins) , Arch of Septumus Severes, Arch of Titus, Ceaser's Temple and such slowly moving from Capitoline Hill to the Palantine Hill. On the Palantine Hill the scene is little bit upscale with Caesar's place, ancient Roman huts where Rome was supposed to be founded and House of Livia the powerful wife of Octavian.















By 12 AM we "finish" the forum and head to the Colosseum. We walk on Imperiali st (the street is car-free today for a Marathon) to the Colosseum. The Roma Pass allows us to skip the line and walk staright in. Preeti is highly impressed by the stadium with its gory history however I find it uninspiring. We over hear a tour guide narrating stories about American tourists puzzled at how the Colosseum was built so close to the METRO. Really or is just material you wrote?















National Museum of Rome Pallazzo Massimo is 2 stops from the Colosseum by Metro. We come face to face with the Caesars. The gigantic heads were a lineup in the forums before they were preserved here. It is a strange feeling to look into the eyes of the sculpture of a man who would be so feared in his day. The BC dated collection of "Disc Thrower copies" , "Boxer resting" and copies in gymnasts section beg the questions "why copies? where are the originals?"

















We take the slow bus 23 from termini to Largo Argentine a big square close to the Pantheon , Piazza Venezia and Campo de Fiori. Pantheon is massive dome which alternated as monument built by Agrippa to all "gods" and a church under the Pontifical rule. I especially want to see "relocated Raphael's tomb" (ref: Angel's and Demons) since gazing at his inspiring stanza's at the Vatican Museum yesterday. Campo de Fiori area is colorful with nice shops and restaurants.














Walking from Largo Argentine to Piazza Venezia Preeti captures some summer heat with her camera.










Piazza Venezia is just a square but Capitol Hill (Piazza del Campidoglio) and Victor Emmanuel Monument are massive structures worth admiring for some time. Michelangelo designed the Piazza so we sit there for some time. The stair case to Santa Maria church just adjacent to the Piazza is steeper. The guidebook says the 2 adjacent staircases side by side show Man's liberation from religion. One staircase is steep and the other more gradual. We like the steeper better and take couple of photos climbing down. A wedding inside the Santa Maria church is almost starting. The mood inside the church is serene. I drag Preeti in who is apprehensive about her conformance to the dress code till I show her a girl wearing mini skirt inside.


























And then we see "Oh" the Vittorio Emanuele II monument up and close. Its huge and beautiful monument dedicated to the first King of unified Italy and dates to 1890 something so its relatively new. We breeze through the museum but spend few minutes outside the monument taking photos and soaking in the grandiosity of the place.













We are dead tired by now but the last frontier remains. We want to see the "first" highway ever built. We take bus 118 to Porto San Sebastino and back. The initial part is between walls and the road is uninspiring. Preeti takes some beautiful pictures on our way back. By 11 PM we are back at our apartment after dinner. We made the most of 14 - 15 hours we had on Day 2.

Europe Trip -- 3 Barcelona

It is 18th May. We are in still in Rome Italy. We wake up at about 6.AM. We have a 9.20AM flight from Fuimicino airport to Barcelona. We both get ready. Our stuff is already packed and the only thing that remains is to unplug the chargers.

Chargers and adapters have been a big mess throughout the trip and I have been kicking myself for not planning the converter stuff correctly. We bought one US->Europe adapter and one US->Europe adapter with USB port at Frys, Sunnyvale. All was fine in Paris till the latter blew up in Brussels since it had a voltage cutoff point. The former worked robustly throughout the trip. Now without a USB charging point we could not charge our IPOD in Brussels which means we could not get photos from our camera to IPOD. The IPOD to camera USB link drains battery like a leaky bucket. Anyway 3 days later in Munich we somehow found a electronic store where we bought a IPOD charger with a European adapter. Now all was fine till in Switzerland and Italy we started to find that the our first adapter does not fit and plugs are slightly smaller. Now our IPOD charger works but we cannot charge our AA batteries. We bought 4 energizer batteries for our camera in Switzerland and they lasted a day before buying a adapter in Grindelwald , Switzerland. Now the new adapter was probably designed by some idiot ( literally ) . It had a hard round plastic sheath around the two metal rods so it would not be inserted anywhere. Now we bought it since generally before buying an adapter at a Swiss post office you would expect them to have a reasonable assurance that the thing is designed and is useful if the product is cased inside a box which could be opened only after it was bought. So we wasted 10 euros there. Fortunately in Venice , Florence and Rome we found that the plugs where the phone power was plugged in always fitted our first adapter so we did not have to buy a new one. But that's about that. The bottom line is take two adapters for rest of Europe , a separate IPOD charger and 1 adapter for Italy and Switzerland.

Anyway, back from the flashback we hurry up to catch the Leonardo express from Roma Termini to Fuimicino airport. The train leaves at xx.22 and xx.52 minutes every hour and we think its better to reach airport early and catch the 7.22 AM express. We underestimate time required to get tickets and arrive at platform 25 at 7.22 just to find that the train leaves from the very far end of the platform. With heavy backpacks on shoulders we make a dash. Fortunately much like India trains , Italian trains leave about 3-5 minutes late and we make it inside. I sweat profusely making a businessman in adjacent seat uncomfortable. The train leaves and AC kicks in and we are good. At the airport we check in our luggage since the Vueling airline overhead cabin space is smaller.

The flight is smooth apart from surprising 3 probable first-time passengers who stood up to gawk through the window all at once.

At Barcelona Girona airport we follow the baggage pickup signs and exit the secure area just to find that our bags were at a different luggage pickup area and we have to exit the airport redo security and then pickup ours bags. Thankfully we have our boarding pass stubs on us.

With bags secured we find the train station ( a pretty long walk ) and board the train to Barcelona Sants station. At Sants we keep our luggage at in the station lockers and buy 10 metro tickets for our sightseeing needs. It is Monday so the Picasso Museum is closed. We are not too unhappy about it. We like realism an idealism both abstract is beyond our reach. I did some reading on Picasso and it seems he was not happy with Facist Spain under Franco and would not return till he died but he died before Franco.

We see the following places
Sagrada Familia the Gothic church being built on donations and started by Anatonio Gaudi





Barri Gotic - The gothic quarters . A maze of narrow streets running between gothic style buildings and arches

Place de Catulanya - central gathering place of the Catalan people

La Rambla - street filled with people shopping pet birds , vegetables , fruit and meat

Cathedral of Santa Eulelia - oldest cathedral in Barcelona in neo gothic style

Europe Trip -- 2 Madrid Day 1

(Plaza Mayor)
It is Tuesday 19th May 2009. We wake up at 6 AM and get ready. We have a big day before us. We decide not to over stress ourselves since this is the last sight seeing day of our Europe trip. I pretty much know this is impossible.
We head out of the hostal and stop at Maestro Churrero at the
intersection of Calle Atocha at Plaza Jacinto Benevante for breakfast. The black lady at the counter speaks fluent english. The other lady asks her how she speaks fluent english and she says she comes from some African country which the British colonized. We get our breakfast which includes churros ( chocolate pastry) and churrero ( fried thing like indian-puri) but long and striated.

We make the breakfast to go since it is 2 euro extra to sit at the cafeteria. We walk a weird named state Calle Doctor to Tirso De Molina Plaza and just sit along with several locals on stone seats near the Plaza watching morning Madrid pass by. The sun is bright and sky a beautiful shade of well sky-blue. We finish our breakfast and walk to Puerto del Sol a square bustling with locals getting to work or shopping and tourists. Preeti calls her cousin Jitu from a local phone booth. We decide to meet at 9 PM for dinner.

Sol to El Prado is about 1.5 mile walk but a nice one. We stop in local cafeteria where dried pork is hung in a peculiar manner.

We walk further and reach Prado. I am anxious to see "Las Meninas" considered the fines painting in the world. Period. The automatic ticket machine fails to generate a ticket even though I try repeatedly. So we stand in line. The line moves briskly and we start our tour declining a an offer from a tour guide who demands euro 50 for the tour. Instead we settle on euro 4 audio guide and a masterpiece directory brochure.

El Prado is fascinitating and holds art from Goya , Velazquez, Rembrandt. We enjoy our masterpiece sampling audio tour. Preeti is bored for the last 30 minutes but by that time we have covered "Las Meninas " and "Garden of earthly delights" "La Maja Vesitida and La Maja Desnuda" and such. Better than "Las Meninas" we like "La Bella Durmiente". This painting of a sleeping beautiful lady draped in orange is exquisite. Out of the Prado we head back to Sol andfrom there to Plaza Mayor a square which is the big grand daddy of all Spanish squares. Mini Plaza Mayors are present in all Spanish towns and act as town get-together areas where people generally come every evening to eat and drink.

From Plaza Mayor we walk to the Royal Palace and take a tour of the 14 sumptously decorated rooms. The rooms tour make me speechless. Unfortunately they do not allow photos inside. So much wealth in hands so fe people. The thought makes me dizzy. The royal family does not live at the palace any more but the palace is available for family functions.

Preeti tries to secretly take a photo just to discover a guard watching from above gallery. He instructs us politely not take photos. We do not have choice but to oblige and Preeti stops

the camera. After the royal Palace tour we head to Gran Via area. We stop at a restaurant for lunch and the thing that happens next takes us by surprise. We had read about it in Rick Steve's book but never imagined the brazen display of sex dealing in broad daylight in Madrid's ornate shopping district.

Young and old they ( prostitutes) stand in the square while tourists and locals have lunch in the nice cafe.
We order Pallelo Carne and observe how things work. Police patrol the area constantly. The younger,underage ones run at the sight of police vans. The older licensed professionals stay calm. The police walk upto them and enquire for license. They oblige. Meanwhile another one coaxes an old man for an engagement. They dont seem to agree on a price and he decides to walk. She follows him and I guess lowers her price and they settle and walk away. On the left another younger guy walks with possibly a transvestite. The seen although intriguing reminds me of proverbs 7 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs%207&version=31)

Anyway Preeti does not like the Pallelo that much and I heartily enjoy the spicy rice with different meats spread on it dish and we start walking towards Sol.

Preeti checks out some local shops for tops and stuff while I wait outside the "all-women" shop waiting for her to finalize her selection. The catalogue is not to her choice so we move on. Its almost 7 PM. We head back to our room and get ready for our dinner appointment with Jitu and Vanessa. We run a little bit late but get back to Sol by 9.15. The reason for delay is primarily what to wear and we agree that we completely disagree on how many pairs of clothes should tourist carry for a trip like this. I try to convince Preeti that we are tourist and we will never have the amenities and wardrobe like locals. She does not agree.

At Sol Jitu and Vanessa wait for us. We greet them and after initial awkwardness on meeting complete strangers we warm up and comfortable conversation follows. We find that both of them are extremely nice people and happily answer our questions on Madrid , Spain and Spainish history. Vanessa informs about US help on Spains development after Franco's demise in 1975.

We walk to Plaza Mayor and have dinner at a cafe there. Preeti tries authentic Sangria for the first time. She feels happiness of the wine. After dinner we walk from Plaza Mayor back to Sol metro where we say goodbye to Jitu and Vanessa and promise to pray for a great wedding ceremony in 10 days for them. Jitu tells Preeti that she is the only family from India who has "remotely" met him before his wedding. We are happy we met them and invite them to california if they ever plann to visit US.


Its almost 11.30 PM when we reach our hotel room after slowly strolling through packed Madrid streets at midnight.

Europe Trip -- 1 Madrid Day 2 - Fly Out

It is 20 May 2009. The last day of our 3 week Europe trip. We get up @ 8.00 AM. Still tired from yesterdays Madrid sightseeing and strenuous El Prado tour and late night dinner with Jitu and Vannessa. But we have a plane to catch. We make haste and pack our bags and get ready - a skill we mastered in last 20 days. The plane is at 1.55 PM from terminal T4 at Madrid's Barajas airport so we figure it is OK to start at 10 AM and reach by 11 AM at the airport.

At about 9.50 AM we stop at the Hostal reception. The Hostal Martin staff now has 2 women and 1 man from the night shift who was forcing me to pay cash although the Hostal accepts credit card. Now paying cash is no problem if we were in US, however to withdraw from ATM in Europe means 1 % international charge plus the local ATM fee which made me put forth my stern demeanor and decline politely. That was yesterday. Today's staff is polite. They take my credit card and charge it. The man still stands there displeased that his tactic failed. He thanks me politely anyway and we walk off.

Outside the weather is the most perfect we have seen Europe. A strange bittersweet feeling envelopes both of us as we walk to Puerto Del Sol Metro Station. We loved each day of our wonderful trip and still we look forward to the convenience of US. A question that has been with us since Day 1 "would we ever want to live in Europe?" is still unanswered.

From Sol we take Line 2 to Cuatro Camino and from there Circular 6 from aanden (platform) 2 to Nuevos Ministeros and from there Line 8 to Aeroporto - T4 the last stop for Line 8.

Preeti finds the American Airlines counter and we wait our turn. We are greeted by a Spanish AA employee who grills us with every imaginable question regarding our itinerary. Thankfully, Gayatri had prepared me for this scenario. "Racist" she branded Spanish employees at airport. "They grilled a Chinese couple more than us though" she added.

Surprisingly both of us take the grilling very "non" personally. We have prints of all our hotel and train reservations. I just hand them to her and she is satisfied with it. Further questions like How did you get to the airport? Was your luggage in your sight all your time at the airport? do you work in US? where? Are your carrying any items for anyone ? etc followed. I answer them not even looking at her much to Preeti's chagrin while I put back the reservations neatly back into my bag. "She will report you if you answer making no eye contact", Preeti whispers. I ignore her concern. Final question from the AA employee "Are you checking your bags?" I say no. She
looks at me puzzled and says "are you sure?". I firmly insist "NO" we will be carrying them on. Part of the reason is we will be arriving in San Francisco at 9.30 PM and dont want to waste time picking luggage. Besides we (Preeti) sacrificed our wardrobes for these small backpacks so we deserve our cabin overhead space.

Anyway we get our tickets and board our driver less train which carries us from security area to the gates. Once at the gates we find our gate and search for a telephone so that Preeti can use up the remaining "euros" on the phonecard we bought in Rome. The phone machine we find eats our 50 cents but doesn't make our call. Annoyed we walk away hoping the 800 number on the card works in US.

Boarding is sharp 30 minutes before departure. After a brief delay of 15 minutes to get more fuel in response to a change flight route the plane begins taxi to runway. We blow up our pillows and put on our eye pads. Within minutes Preeti is almost fast asleep. After 30 minutes the pilot announces that a small "red light" lit up before takeoff and he had to taxi back the plane to the gate where the mechanics could fix it. Preeti goes back to sleep unconcerned about red-lights.

I am in distress. Red lights on plane dashboards are bit unnerving for me. I don't like the idea where red lights are lighting up on dashboard. They should not have red lights on plane dashboards .I desperately pray and hope that mechanics do their job correctly and we reach Dallas safely.

1.5 hours later and after the pilot is satisfied with the red-light stuff and we takeoff. I cant sleep for the whole 10 hours. We reach Dallas safely though and on time. I guess the pilot took the fast lane. I read somewhere they fly planes slowly to save fuel.

Customs and homeland security officials welcome us to the US warmly ... here come our parolees in eager anticipation chimes in one.

We board to our plane to SF and arrive at SFO in 4 hours.

Upcoming europe trip

We will be in europe from 29th April to 20th May. Plan is to visit Paris, Bruges, Amsterdam, Rhine valley , Romantic Road , Munich , Zurich , Interlaken region , Venci , Florence , Rome , Barcelona and Madrid in 21 days. Now we are excited or what !

marin headlands - golden gate another view

Napa March 7-8, 2009

Bear Gulch at east pinnacles - Feb 21 2009

bea

Valentines Day 2009