The first photos are of New Year’s Eve when the kids walked to the Champs-Élysées to see if there was anything going on. I wasn’t feeling well and stayed home. The street was closed to vehicles, and there were hundreds of thousands of people packed like sardines from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place…
It was difficult finding the entrance to Lisbon’s tile museum. When I asked an old man who was walking down the street, he walked with us all the way there – around a large block – which we thought was very kind of him. Laurel loves paintings and sculptures of babies that look like ugly,…
If you zoom in on the second photo, you’ll see the gate numbers (in Roman numerals, of course) above the arches. The last two are of the Spanish Steps which, like so many other monuments, is undergoing major maintenance. This one is paid by Bulgari, thus the huge advertisement.
We’ve been in London for a week, but I was having some software problems on my laptop. I scheduled an appointment with Apple’s Genius Bar for Friday afternoon but finally resolved the two software problems today. Yay! I cancelled the Apple appointment and can now blog again. Below are more Rome photos. First are pictures of and…
Today after brunch and an adventure in purchasing mass transit cards, we had to use the restroom and just happened to be by “The World’s Sexiest WC.” After paying one Euro apiece, we (Laurel & I) selected from many colors of toilet paper and used the toilets and then the giant yellow sink. There are…
We didn’t learn much Catalan in Barcelona, but everyone speaks Spanish and most speak English, so it worked out. We stayed in the newer area that was built in the last century, but the Gothic area has a wall and churches and some homes that date to the 1300’s. Antoni Gaudí and Salvador Dali are…
Our after-dinner walk was so pretty with the light reflecting off the wet tiled pavement that I wanted to do another blog post just for that. Our hotel is kind of artsy, funky and has paintings of Portuguese artists, actors, and writers on doors. A door near ours features Carmen Miranda. Until now, I just…
I’ll blog about Barcelona another day, but today we walked around lovely, calm Lisbon. When we checked into our hotel last night, the front-desk receptionist showed us a city map and pointed to the Alfama neighborhood, saying that it has the oldest buildings because it wasn’t damaged by the earthquake. Earthquake? Laurel knew what she…
We’re in Barcelona now, but I wanted to add more info about our Rome trip. I can’t get on the wifi for some reason at our Barcelona apartment (found on Expedia, not Airbnb – It’s large and wonderful, but I digress.) and my phone doesn’t have a fast cell connection. I think I’ll just have…
The Pantheon: Fontana di Trevi that’s undergoing major repairs 😦 : The Vatican and a bridge on the way: At the recommendation of the hotel receptionist, I bought online, timed-entry tickets for the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. We went through the security line once inside Vatican City and went where we were funneled which…
Travels with Charlie and Laurel 