ROME - VENICE - COSTA CRUISE

Hi All,

Sorry we are unable to load any photos onto the blog at the moment as we are on the cruise ship. Man it is sooo huge, can't wait to load some of the photos to show you. I think there are around 7 bars, a casino, 6 or 7 restaurants, a disco, 7 or so jacuzzi's about 3 or 4 swimming pools and a large waterslide. It has around 3, 200 passengers and around 1, 200 crew. It really is phemonenal. Today we arrived in Santorini and hiked up the top of a volcano, went for a swim in a nearby island and took a donkey ride up to the main city, we will arrive in Mykonos shortly.

Have loads of photos but as I say I will find a good spot when we get back to the South of France.

Caio for Now !!!

Ancient Rome on a Saturday, St.Peters on Sunday

On Saturday we decided to try out the metro again and jumped on to make our way to the Circus Maximus. It was a much nicer day so we took the short walk to the Colosseum where once again we were lucky with the crowds (wasn't too bad at all). We joined an english speaking tour which was really worthwhile, then carried on past the Palatine hill, the Roman forum and other temples.

There were hoardes of people at the Panethon, Trevi Fountain and the Spanish steps so we really just had a quick look, threw a few coins into the fountain and headed back to our little haven by the pope's place.

Sunday morning we thought was the best time to visit St.Peters Basilica (along with a few thousand others of course), but we did get to see the Pope (albeit on a large screen), give mass. Also, when we went inside the Basilica there was a mass going on, the music from the choir really added to the amazing atmosphere of this huge church.

So we had a little trouble leaving New York....

Yes, well never mind. So we missed our flight to Rome but just a smidge....... that blasted New York traffic. We took a walk around the city and found Grand Central Station, then headed down to the Empire State Building. The day was very suny and clear and there weren't any real queues (only took about 15 mins o get to the top). So it was really worth it.

Anyhow, we did manage to get onto the next flight to Milan about half anhour later at 5:45 pm, rather than wait another whole day in New York. Just as well we had our trusty Eurail Passes so when we landed in Milan we took the bus to the main train Terminal (which was a vey long 2 hour trip) and then jumped onto the next train to Rome. The train trip was great, lunch served in the dining car of aparagus risotto, beef and Torte to finish (along with a bottle of Chianti - of course). When we arrived at the Rome Termni, we just hadto grab the Metro which to us to our B&B, arriving at about 5:00 pm. So a very, very long day that the kids coped with brilliantly. Brian and I are even still talking.

The B&B has tuned out to be a little gem, we can literally see the Vatican wall from the front gate, is right on the Metro line which takes us directly to all the sites we want to see and back to the train Termini when we need to travel to Venice.

View from front door of Rome B&B

Have to go now, the washing is ready at the laundrette and I haven't been able to get into connect mail (typical), internet fine but won't log me i (will have to try again later).

Love to all,

Caio

Roaming around Rome

Rome was great fun, actually very easy to find your way around, plenty of Metro stations and an easy place to walk around the main tourist spots. Our little B&B as I said was in a great spot, well we liked anyway, being away from the large crowds ( although we were across the road from the Vatican city Museum). Everything we needed was within 2 mins walk, and we found a cool very small corner bar that made the best coffee so far.

Friday in Rome was a little grey and rainy, but suited us well as we were happy to take it easy. By mid afternoon though we were ready for a walk around and strolled up towards the Vatican Museum. Much to our surprise there was no queue to get in, just a bit of a wait inside, so we were very lucky to get a really good run viewing the various Museums, Galleries, apartments and, of course the Sistine Chapel.

The place is really quite overwhelming, so many works of art from Egypt, Classical, Braccio Nuovo, Gregorian, Religious art, modern art, tapestries, frescoes and maps from the 16th Century. I was intrigued by the maps which were incredibly accurate, especially if you think about how they could have been drawn.

Anyway, a few pictures of inside which of course do very little justice to the place. There are no photos allowed in the Sistine Chapel, I lost track of how long we were in there gazing at the ceiling and walls.

Here's the obligatory photos of us in the Vatican, and a particularly special photo of Joe standing still, while everything around him is moving.

New York, New York .......

Just trying to remember all the things we have done in the last couple of days is pretty mindblowing. The most memorable so far would have to be going to a New York Yankees vs Chicago White Sox at the old Yankee Sadium, the final games are playing this week as at the endof this session the new stadium will open, so it is the end of an era. Navigating the subway is something else, especially with 53,000 other people. I had a few people asking me what ticket and where to go and got a shock when I spoke with this weird accent "sorry, I've got no idea".
















The animal clock at the Central Park Zoo





Grace at Toys 'R Us in Times Square (Spongebob paradise)

The other thing that struck us, espcially on the Sunday was the number of dogs (drssed up and being pushed around in prams - unbelievable ). They actually have a pet hospital, where you can get a private room for your cat, dog, bird, or lizard with a view of the Hudson River.

On a very dfferent note, today we found Ground Zero and the Twin Towers Memorial display, it was very moving and incredibly sad.

I think the kids most memoriable is Dylan's Candy Bar -- amazing !! I will let the picture do the talking.

It's "The Lion King" tonight, can't wait. Tomorrow we are off to Rome.

Ciao For Now.

HELLO FROM THE BIG APPLE

Well, we've made it !! Still pinching myself that we're actually here. The flights went really well and we all managed at least a little sleep on the LA flight thanks to getting pretty cool seats upstairs on the 747 400. LA airport was under construction but was really easy to find our way around.

The Boys catch some zzzzzzzzzzz's onthe Nadi -LA flight


The American Airlines hostess greeted all the passengers with a cup off coffee in her hand and chewing gum (classy ), it was a pay for everything flight, including the earphones even. The in flight entertainment consisted of 3 hours of crap and 1 good movie. Still it was a good flight and although we arrived 12:30 am it was only about 6:00 pm Fiji Time, so the kids were in good form.

Once we got to New York, we were whisked away by a NY yellow cab and found our hotel a lot smaller than it looks in the photo's but still very comfortable and in a fantastic spot right on Time Square. Today was spent orienting ourselves and taking a trip on the Circle Line ferries that took us right the way around Manhattan Island.

Tommorrow we are planning a trip through Centrl Park to the Natural History Museum and across to Dylan Candy Store. The kids have discovered Kids 'R Us store and have a plan to tak us back there again.....

Fingers crossed we will be able to get some tickets for the Yankee Stadium tomorrow, failing that we will try for a show.

Love to all, will be in touch again soon.

A visit From Nana Lois

A few weeks agao Nana Lois can for a very quick visit. She was suffering from cabin fever having had a nasty foot operation and being stuck indoors in the wet, cold Auckland weather. Sorry it was only a short visit Mum, but we all enjoyed having you stay and really glad to provide a bit of R&R and sunshine. Hope the foot continues to improve.

Here's the photo's of Nana and the kids, pretty poor show really wasn't it, just can't get good models these days. Nevermind we will make up for it over the next weeks on our trip. We will all be photoed (is there such a word?) out.