Saturday, August 25, 2007

UK / North UK, Ireland, UK / June 2007

I think the american way of seeing a country still rules i.e. driving. The stuff you see driving around cannot be found in a pre-packaged vacation. A caution, free driving is NOT at all my recommendation for any peak holiday season .. you will have a horrible time.

My wife and I love doing this. Just taking the car out without a plan. A week's worth of stuff packed in the trunk. We have been doing this since both the kids were 4 months old so they are very very used to it. I don't think they have learnt yet that being cooped up in a car seat for 4-6 hrs is a no-no in the baby manual.

Did approx 2000 miles over 10 days. My friends thought I was insane. My kids have still not forgiven me ... just joking, the kids were great through and through, however, were glad to see their toys and beds.

Started from London, went to Lake district (had best steaks of our lives), drove to Edinborough, then to Inverness, Loch Ness, Skye (totalled our car here), back to Inverness, then to Trune, Ferry over to Larne, Northern Ireland, Coastal Causeway, crossed over to Ireland at Balley Shannon (stayed on the beach .. awesome !), headed back to Dublin, caught ferry to Liverpool and then back to London.

Other travels

DONE BUT NOT WRITTEN UP :
Belgium / Brussels / March 2006
Paris / France / October 2004
Etreat / France / June 2007
Vatican City / Vatican City / Aug 2007
UK / Lake district, Edinborough, Inverness, Loch Ness, Skye, ... UK / June 2007
US / Grand Canyon, Nevada /
US / Hoover Dam, Arizona /
US / Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming /
US / Moab, Utah /
US / Bryce Canyon, Utah /
US / Taos, New Mexico /
US / Mesa Verde, Colorado /
US / US50, Colorado /
US / Mt. Saint Helens, Washington /
US / Oregon Coast, Oregon /
US / White Mountains, Saco River, Kancamagus Highway, New Hampshire /
US / Florida Keys, Florida /
US / Miami Beach, Orlando, Allegator Alley, Florida /
US / Florida Panhandle, Florida /
US / Caldesi Island, Florida /
US / Cambridge, Boston, Massachusetts /
US / Denver, Vail ..., Colorado /
US / San Francisco, Napa Valley .., California /
US / Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts /
US / Provincetown, Massachusetts /
US / Manhattan, New York /
US / Washington DC, District of Columbia /
US / Niagara Falls, New York /
US / Skydiving in Plant City, Florida /
Luxemburg / Luxemburg City, Luxemburg /
Austria /
Germany / Rhine River, Neuchswanstein Castle, Berlin, Germany /
Switzerland /

TO DO:
US / Oahu, Maui, .. Hawaii /
US / Yosemeti National Forest, California /
Kenya / Masai Mara, Kenya /
Peru / Macchu Picchu, Peru /
Jordan / Petra, Jordan /
Mexico / Chichen Itsa, Mexico /
China / Shanghai, Great Wall .., China /
Netherlands / Tulip Festival, .../
Norway /

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Italy / Rome & Florence / August 2007

Flying with two small children is always so much fun, but airlines really make it difficult now-adays. What is with the international flying rules with children? Are we, or are we not allowed to bring car seats on the airplane? Well, it aparently depends on which airline you fly. Yes on British Airways, but you only have a slim chance of being able to have your stroller anywhere other than in baggage claim when you land; and absolutely not on Alitalia. We had issues flying with British Airways and carry on luggage, even though we bought our son a seat, and were within the hand luggage requirements for each of us, they still wouldn't let us bring the stroller (a lightweight mcclaren) onto the airplane. Why? "Flight is full and there isn't enough room" they told us. Well... the 10 or more open seats, and the empty baggage compartment above us would speak otherwise but.... So of course, our flight was delayed, and when we finally reached home, we had to force our 3 year old to walk the extremely long distance to through immigration to baggage claim, while carrying our hand luggage and our 15 month old son.
Please, Please, Please, give me somewhere else to fly so that I can do that all over again! I never thought I'd say this, but I really miss domestic flights in the states where we can at least expect to have our strollers meet us when we get off the airplane. Ok, enough of my tirade against international airlines and onto our trip.....

We left friday morning for Rome, Italy. Our hotel; the Internazionale Domus, arranged for our pickup from the airport. The hotel is located right in the center of the city a stone's throw away from the Spanish steps (or scalinata di Spagna as the locals call it). I found the website on the Ciao Bambino website listed as one of the best hotels for families with small children. I have to say that I was happy with the accomodation -- A bit pricey; but that's what you have to pay for any sort of space in Europe. The hotel gave us a baby cot, had a bed plenty big enough for my husband and I, and had a pull out couch bed for our daughter. The bathrooms were large (no bathtub though), and it came complete with a cute little kitchenette. The t.v. was sort of on the blink, but they had free internet service (a rarity) and free snacks/drinks in the room to start us off with.

The day we arrived we walked down to the Colosseum and joined a tour. Tours are nice sometimes, as you find out a lot of information that you didn't know before. Like: "they" estimate close to 1 million people have been killed in the colosseum for the sake of entertainment. After the tour we strolled around the area, bargained for a high priced carriage ride (did not take it) and went back to our hotel to sleep.

Saturday we woke up early and took a tour of the Vatican museum and wouldn't you know it, my camera battery died and I left the other one in the hotel. Well, I guess it doesn't matter much, 'cause you can't take pictures of the sistine chappel anyway. After the Vatican, we got some lunch and (after charging a battery for the camera) we then walked around to the Trevi fountain, which we found to be amazing; see the twelve thousand pictures we took of it!

Walking around Rome is easy to do despite the sheer number of tourists in the area. There are plenty of spaces for strollers (even doubles, although we didn't bring ours). The city is relatively small, and distances are fairly short, a couple of miles at best from one end to the other. If you stay central, and like to walk, you can simply take walking tours of the entire city. They have a hop on/ hop off bus tour, taxis are readily available, as are horse drawn carriages. Be prepared however to haggle for the last one, as they spot tourists and charge a premium price for these.

On Sunday, we took a bus (coach) tour to Florence. The drive is pretty long, but the city is well worth the trip. In the center of the city is one of the worlds largest (4th) cathedrals "Duomo of Florence". The architecture is amazing, so rich in color and detail. We visited the museum (museum Galleria dell'Accademia) where the statue of David resides, and then to the square where the original used to stand (Piazza Signoria) . It's amazing to note that the original statue resides in a museum and the copy stands in the square, but the majority of the other statues in the square are the original with the copies in the museum. We had lunch with our tour group after visiting the square, and experienced a shock when a young boy ran into the restaurant and made off with a man's wallet (not in our tour group.) Poor guy, we felt really badly for him. At least he had kept his passport safely away.

One note on our tour group.. Green Line Tours... they told us they would drop us off as close to our hotels as they could go... in our case this was a mile walk, with poor instructions on how to get there. Thankfully we had walked the area for the previous two days and after a turn here and there, were able to find our way back. Considering that we were the only family on board, and were laden with baby things and souvenirs, they could have been better to us.

Sadly we had to go home on Monday, but thankfully our flight was in the evening, so we took the hop on/ hop off bus for a last tour around the city. Here I picked up some pictures of St. Peters Bassilica that I had missed from saturday, and a few of Sant'Angelo Castle. Again, our hotel arranged for an airport dropoff and we braved the short plane trip home with our two angels; both of whom refused to sleep until we were 3/4 of the way home in the taxi on the home end of the trip!

All in all, we had a good trip, and it was nice to be able to get away as a family for a few days. The kids were pretty well behaved, the camera worked when it had batteries, and we all arrived home safe and sound. In general I love Rome. It's an amazing city, and you can do a whirlwind tour in four days like we did, but there was SO much we didn't see, or didn't get a chance to explore. I think we'll have to come back when the kids are a bit older and can appreciate this wonderful city. Unti then... Ciao!