**Better late than never... we were in Europe in May, and road-tripping around the
western US in June. We’re home trying to
settle back in now, but trying to catch up on the last few blogs from the
trip!**
After an epic day of travel back to Colombo, a stopover in
the Maldives and an 8-hour layover in Istanbul, we finally arrived in Rome and
completed our 39,000 mile Rome to Rome around the world plane ticket. We immediately drove through the mountains to
the Italian hillside town of Petriolli where we had the pleasure of spending a
few days with CO Rotary friends Carolyn and Paul in the “hole in the wall” (as Liam
described it) hilltop castle villa. We
chilled out, ate great food and played lots of cards—except for poor Xander,
who was sick and ended up falling down the stone stairs in the middle of the
night, getting a slight concussion, and sleeping through most of the visit. Always an adventure.
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| Enjoying the English countryside |
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| Jolly good |
After a restful few days reveling in our ability to brush
our teeth with water from the tap, we flew from Rome to London, where we were
picked up by Ken and Liz- a couple we met briefly during our Li River Cruise in
China who kindly offered to host us if we ever came to London. We have a lot of travel karma to repay after
all the hospitality people have shown us across the world. We had a lovely time with them checking out
the local pub, watching lawn bowling, hiking in their beautiful neighborhood
forest, and touring a manor estate of a former London socialite. We spent the next few days in London at a
flat near waterloo station. We loved exploring the British Museum and marveling
at all the treasures that British explorers “obtained” from many of the places
we travelled over the past year. We’ve
discovered that audio guides are the key to a good museum experience, as it’s
much more interesting to learn the context and story behind artifacts then to
just look at them. I guess that’s true
with most things.
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| GMT- where east meets west |
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| British museum |
The next few days we explored around town and went to all of
the typical (and impressive) tourist spots including the Natural History museum
and the Science Museum where we got to see things like the original DNA model
(very exciting to Liam, who wants to be a geneticist), Westminster Abbey
(wedding site of Royals and burial place of Darwin and many others), and Tower
of London (prison of many a famous person destined for execution). We went to a cheesy “live action” exhibition
under the tower bridge where we learned more about London’s sordid history of
war, murder, plague and fires. Other
highlights included meeting an expat friend and her family in the city, where
we learned some of the finer points of having dual citizenship (our friend has
to pay US capital gains taxes on her London real estate) and some of the intricacies
of the Brexit arguments (before the vote).
One of the coolest excursions was taking a boat down the Thames
(pronounced tems) to Greenwich (pronounced Grenich) to the Royal Observatory. And here we thought we were finally back
where people spoke English. We stood
with feet on either side of the prime meridian— one foot slightly to the west
and one slightly to the east of 0 degrees longitude (and GMT). It was fascinating to learn about the difficulties
in calculating longitude (how far east or west you are)—especially on ships in
the middle of the ocean—which they couldn’t really do well until 1700s. Three cheers for GPS and google maps.
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| Tower of London |
We took the Chunnel under the English Channel to Paris. When we arrived at our apartment, we had to
wait several hours in the hallway for the property manager to come let us
in. Although it was annoying and
frustrating, it was a testament to our hard-learned travel “go with the flow”
mentality that it wasn’t awful. If only
we can maintain this attitude once we return.
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| Art appreciation |
Like London, in Paris we went to many of the top tourist
attractions, including St. Chappell- a chapel that tells bible stories (most of
which involve heretics being punished or martyred saints) through incredible
stained glass pictures, and Notre Dame, where we caught the end of Sunday mass
including the dramatic organs echoing throughout the cathedral. We took a trip out to Versailles, the
definition-of-ostentatious home of the Sun King Louis XIV who ruled France from
the mid 1600s until 1715. We also
learned that Marie Antoinette probably didn’t say “let them eat cake”—although
that didn’t save her from getting guillotined during the French revolution in
the late 18th century. Our
highlight in Paris was the Louvre museum, where we took an audio guide tour of
the masterpieces, including the Mona Lisa (smaller than you guess), Venus de
milo (bigger than you would guess) and the winged victory of Samothrace
(wow). On the way home on the metro we
were serenaded by a crazy character with baby dolls on his fingers as rings,
dressed as a cross between a pirate and a circus performer. Ahh, Paris.
It was a great capstone to the trip to spend the last few
weeks overseas in two of the most iconic Western Civilization cities. And we flew back to the states on points
from our around the world ticket. Hooray.
Senses:
Xander: The purple flowers branching off the vines ensnaring
the large old manor in the countryside of the south east of London; the Rosetta
stone's carved hieroglyphs and other two languages conspicuous on its dark
surface at the British Museum; the white marble wings spanned to their full
extent as more tourists walk up the steps to see the winged and headless Greek
god on top a white stone boat at the Louvre; the dark green hedges obscuring
the gilded gold royal apartments of Versailles and the hundreds of tourist
discovering the ostentatious palace.
Liam: The taste of the wonderfully cooked and made panini
going down my throat as I throw down my cards to win a round of shanghai once
again; The beautiful Italian countryside rolling along before my eyes as we
leave the "hole in the wall" residence of Paulo and Carolina; the
beef eater's intimidating and loud voice echoing across the courtyard as he passionately explains the
history of the london tower; the
helpless eyes of the injured baby bird staring into mine as I scoop it up off
the sidewalk into my hand and put it over the fence to give it higher chance of
survival.
Carolyn: The huge dome of the massive british museum arching
above endless priceless artifacts acquired from across the world reminding us
of our adventures across the globe; The many ornate tomb markers lining the
intricate walls Westminster Abby hinting at history and encasing kings and
queens of centuries past; The fragmented Greek marble statues of the Parthenon
lining the walls of the cavernous British museum, oblivious to the fights over
their rightful ownership and location in the world; The wide avenue of Champs
de Ellysis leading up to the towering Arc de Triumph carved with French
victories of old; The sound of the rain pounding on the glass roof of our funky
bright paris apartment as we relax during our last day overseas
Jim: The intricate mechanisms of the clocks and other
machines at the Royal Observatory designed to solve for longitude and the
answer leading to control of the seas for England; the ostentatious decoration of the hall of mirrors and other
rooms throughout the palace of Versailles showing the opulence and power of the
Sun King; the stunning green, red, blues and oranges of the stained glasses of
St Chappelle depicting the stories of the Bible in the towering stain glasses
scenes; the finely crafted taxidermy animals covering every nook and cranny of
Paris's Deyrolle shop inspiring awe and wonder on how these animals
came to this place.
