When in Rome

sun coming in from dome in Pantheon

View of the forum 

Some columns still standing after earthquake 

Yesterday around one in the afternoon we arrived in Rome. From Florence to Rome we took the train, and best of all we sat first class! I had never been on a train before and I would say that for my first time it was a pleasant experience and I would totally do it again. Today was our first full day in Rome and we a had busy morning. We met our Private tour guide, Mia, in front of the colosseum at 9. It was so nice to have Mia with us because I think we got more out of it than if we would have been alone. It is very easy to tell that Mia is very passionate about what she does. During the tour of the Colosseum she would act how fights of the gladiators went using water bottles as swords and she had a book that would show how the sights look today compared to back then... Very different!  Mia is in her early 30's and we think she has been giving tours for 7 years. She is very very knowledgeable about everything. She answered all our questions right away and knew the answer to every single one. Her father is italian and her mother is american. Her first language is italian and her second is english; however, her english is so flawless you would guess she has been speaking english her whole life! She is so great!

Best view of Colosseum

Inside of the Colosseum

Hunter and Alison listening to Mia

In the Colosseum the emperor would bring in animals from al over to have them fight against each other or have a gladiator fight them. He wanted to show the people of Rome his wealth and everything they owned. If they brought in a bear from a certain forest they would also get trees from the same forest to put in the arena with the bear. It was a BIG show for the people. The thing I found most interesting was that the gladiators didn't just sign up. They were actually slaves and the emperor bought them, sent them to school to learn how to fight and then would choose them to  be in the arena to fight.

After the Colosseum we visited the forum. It was very interesting to learn that up until 80 years ago half of what you see today was buried by 25 feet of dirt and silt. Even today you could still be standing on treasure buried in the ground and not even know it! In the forum there are little bits and pieces of columns, temples, statues all scattered about. After the earthquake much of the stuff was stolen but after they found everything under the silt a rule was in place that you couldn't take anything anymore. Therefore since they don't know which pieces belong to which place they left them on the ground and many people use them for places to sit on. (see pictures above)

For our last part of the tour we went to the Pantheon. It is an old temple that is now used as a church. Today 80% of the Pantheon is still left from when it was first built. It is very impressive and I am still pondering how the were able to build the Pantheon without all of our technology that we use today. The hight of it is equal to its diameter and coolest in the top of the dome ceiling is left open to the outside. It is basically one giant whole in the ceiling. The Pantheon acts as a sundial and when it rains there are drains in the floor so it never floods. Very impressive!! (see picture above)

Tomorrow we have another tour with Mia in the morning and we will be seeing the vatican and surrounding areas.

The past few days(Barcelona and Florence)

If you know us Kruses then you probably know we love the beach and warm weather. When going on vacation a beach is a must have for us. So Wednesday we took a day trip to the town of Sitges, which is about a 40 minute train ride from Barcelona. We weren't sure what to expect when we got there because what we read in our handy Barcelona book and what we heard from the fight attendants were two totally different things. The town of Sitges has 17 different beaches you can go to and it is also a popular destination for gay couples. However we thought it seemed like a family friendly beach minus the several women who went topless, which is normal for people in Europe. We had a relaxing day tanning, reading, and swimming in the mediterranean. We even rented out a little paddle boat, that included a slide, to just mess around on.

On the other hand one of the more frightening things we have experienced on this trip happened at the beach. I was listening to my music when all of a sudden I heard a piercing scream. I took off my headphones to find out it was a mother screaming out the name of her lost child. She just kept screaming and screaming as we sat and watched in terror. Many people ran to her and she started to faint. Everyone on the beach and in the water started yelling the child's name and looking around but after a few minutes there was still no sign of him, I had begun to think he might of drowned. By then the mother had become hysterical and the lifeguard came sprinting down the beach. All of a sudden a man who had found the child comes running over bringing him to the mom. The mom drops to knees crying and hugs her lost son and I am pretty sure that 20 minutes after it happened she was still hugging her son. The son had no clue as to what was going on. Everyone on the beach we just glad to of found the boy! 

After we had left our apartment on thursday for a day of shopping and a trip to the market my mom realized she had forgotten to grab the keys. We went back in to see if the guy at the front desk had an extra. He didn't speak any english at all so thank goodness we had katie there. He didn't have a key but he tried to pick our lock for us and was unsuccessful. The lady we rented out apartment from brought us a key and said that people forget their keys all the time!For lunch we ate at "Tapa Tapa," they had very delicious chicken kabo's if I do say so myself. the rest of the day we just kind of roamed around exploring the many many alley's Barcelona has. Thursday was our last day in Barcelona, although we were sad we were ready to move on to Italy only because we are ready for endless pizza, pasta and gelato!

Yesterday we arrived in Florence, and it was our first time here. We figured out quickly it would be tougher to communicate with people because none of us know Italian. We have definitely had our fair share of pizza, pasta and gelato. The pizza doesn't even compare to pizza back home. Today we visited Uffizi and Galleria Dell' Academia. The Uffizi is an art gallery and it has some incredible art work however THERE IS SO MUCH ART. We were there for nearly 3 hours and we even skipped a section near the end.. our feet hurt from standing so long. The Galleria Dell' Academia is home to the statue of David. It was so cool to see in person and the details are very precise, it even has the veins carven in the neck! For dinner we ate panini's and got some gelato. We saw a street mime and last night and tonight we got to listen to a live orchestra concert in the main square. I must admit that i wasn't to thrilled to be going to florence at first but I am very happy we are here now! I promise to put pictures up soon! Goodnight!

A few pictures from the past few days!

La Sagrada Familia under construction.

So manny stairs going down from the towers!

Nativity side. If you look closely you can see the scene
of the birth of Jesus above the door. Shepard's and three kings
are to the right and left of the doors. 

Top of the towers! 

Cable car to Montjuic

Pretty Mosaic at Parc Guell 

Another view from top of bell towers at Sagrada Familia.

View at top of Montjuic

Pablo Picasso and Parc de Montjuic

The first thing on our list of things to see today was the Pablo Picasso Museum. We headed to the museum about 30 minutes before it opened but we still had to wait in line for a while. At school I have studied Picasso in art classes and history classes so it was very interesting to see the paintings in real life instead of on a projector screen. After the Picasso museum we wandered around and found one of the local markets. We tried some freshly squeeze juice (I got pineapple and orange) and then headed to a bakery near by for some pastries. I settled for a classic chocolate croissant, which perfectly satisfied my sweet tooth. At lunch my mom got some shrimp and let me tell yeah this was shrimp as natural as it can come. They still had the heads, legs, and skin on them... Yuck! After lunch we headed for the Main Street, La Rambla. This street is packed with people, tapas bars and people selling little toys you put in your mouth to make a squeaky noise. Hunter bought one of those squeaky toys and let me just say I was thrilled! Not. It did make me laugh when we learned he did pay €2 for this stupid little thing he has probably already lost. Rip off!! La Rambla is one of the main tourist attractions of Barcelona and also has tons of people dress liked statues. Some people are awful at is but others are so good they make you question if it really is a real statue or not! We stopped into another market located on La Rambla and came out with more juices and some fresh watermelon, strawberries and cherry's! After a siesta we rode the metro and to Parc de Montjuic. In order to get up to the castle on top of the mountain we had to ride a cable car. In the cable car you can see the whole city and the ocean. It was a beautiful view! We also had a great time exploring the castle a top the mountain and taking lots of pictures of the ome of a kind skyline. For dinner we different types of pizzas and shared them. May favorite was the ham and cheese! They have the best ham here and they are very proud about it too! Tomorrow we will be taking a day trip to stiges to visit the beach there. So far we are having a lovely vacation and are looking forward to being in Italy in the next few days. Goodnight!

nothing screams tourists more than headsets and a double decker bus

Today started with an early wake up call so we could make it to Sagrada Familía to get a good place in line. We did buy our tickets ahead of time so our line was significantly shorter than the line for those who did not buy their tickets in advance. We were very grateful for that! When I first looked at the building I was speechless, it is so big and SO beautiful. To be honest I don't think I have ever seen anything as beautiful as the Sagrada Familía. One of the things I find the most interesting is that consturction started in 1882 and still continues today. They hope that by 2026, the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death, it will be completed. They sure do have a lot of work ahead of them though! The architect of this church, Antoni Gaudi, focused on classics, nature, and religion. This church represents all three. Inside and out, a goal of the church is to bring the lessons of the Bible to the world.  As of now there are two main sides. The Nativity facade, my favorite, represents Christ's birth. Above the doorway shows Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus in the manger. It's the Holy Family- Sagrada Familía- for whom the church is dedicated to. The tree of life stands in between two towers and is covered in doves. We went up into the towers and the view is absolutely beautiful! You can see the whole city and beyond! The other side of the church represents Christ's death. It is not as detailed as the Nativity side and it displays scences such as the last supper and Jesus hanging on the cross. In between the two towers on this side is a statue of Jesus which represents his ascension into Heaven. On the interior of the church there are many columns, arches and stain glass window's. Underneath part of the church is a museum which has all kinds of pictures, Gaudi's tomb and remakes of Gaudi's blueprints for the church, since his were burned in the war.  I hope I can make it back to Barcelona some day and see it all completed!!

The rest of the afternoon was spent traveling through all of Barcelona on an open air double decker bus. Some of the stops we got off at include Park Gūell and the beach. Park Gūell, also designed by Gaudi, is most famous for its grand staircase monitored by a trademark dragon and a 360 bench. Everything there is covered in mosaic tiles from broken glass, dishes and even china dolls. At the beach we walked down the board walk and admired the Mediterranean from a distance. Some other places we saw were the Olympic stadium and the soccer stadium. It was a nice and fun relaxing way to see the whole city.

After a "siesta" we made our way to find dinner. We settled on place and ordered several tapas. My favorite had scrambled eggs and ham. For a treat I got a lava cake and It was delicious! The food here is very good and there are so many different variates. Tomorrow on the intermarry is Pablo Picasso art museum, the market and the beach. I will be sure to add pictures from today later! Goodnight!

We made it!

Cool statue in Barcelona!

My favorite building we saw today!

Although we didn't try them they sure did look yummy!

Old church

Hola all the way from Barcelona, Spain! After many many hours of traveling we finally arrived in Barcelona around 8:00 o'clock this morning, which would have been !:00 in the morning for many of you all. As many of you can imagine we were pretty sleepy because of the minimal sleep we got on the plane and I would be lying if I didn't say jet lag got the best of me, I was a tad bit grumpy to say the least. After meeting up with Katie we were all set to head out into the city, except for one thing, we couldn't find our car rental place for the life of us. They were supposed to be next to a Cafe called "Cafe de firro." We looked everywhere around Cafe de Firro and well long story short no one ever told us the there was another Cafe de Firro located at the other end of the terminal! After searching for 30 minutes we finally stumbled upon it. When arrived at our apartment we stuck our luggage into some lockers, because we couldn't get into our apartment until 3, and went to find lunch. Along the way we ran into a motorcycle rally. Hundreds of motorcycles were racing through the streets. The people riding them were having the time of their life cheering, snapping pictures and yelling. It was very fun to watch! 

Motorcycle Rally 

At lunch we all order the "Menu Americano," which included eggs, french fries, and bacon, orange juice and coffee. I didn't like the coffee at first but two sugar packets later it tested a whole lot better. After brunch we rode the metro to the Pablo Picasso Museum, I must add if Katie wasn't there it would have taken us forever to figure out how to get to the right place. It just so happens that the first sunday of the month the museum is free so after passing by the VERY long line we decided to come back another day. Instead we roamed around exploring the streets, old churches and Pastry shops (see pictures above). After a well deserve nap we picked a random place for dinner and ordered some tapas. My favorite is the Patatas Bravas. We got some gelato on the way home and now are heading to bed because tomorrow we must be up early to go see the Sagrada Familia (look it up on Google). Goodnight!