Our First Fire

Compare and contrast.

Outside:





And inside:



Of course it cost us about $16 for enough wood for a 3-hour long fire. And Martin had to carry it home up the hill from the bus stop ... so we will have to figure out how to buy the wood in bulk and have it delivered or pick it all up in a car so we don't have to carry big awkward 20-pound boxes around all winter long.

Thanksgiving

Martin and I decided to bring the tradition of Thanksgiving to some of our friends in Switzerland. So we hosted a Thanksgiving dinner. We ended up with people from America, Switzerland, Brazil, Germany, and Singapore. The Americans definitely ate the most ... it was impossible trying to convince the Brazilians that you're *supposed* to eat too much on Thanksgiving. And Agnes, the woman from Singapore, could not believe how many desserts we had. She said it was way too much and I tried to explain to her that you always have too much dessert on Thanksgiving and that's so you can eat it for breakfast the next day. She wasn't buying it.

It was a success nonetheless. Here's a before pic of the table (with Martin slaving away in the kitchen, it looks like the turkey is already out too):



And our fun orange and yellow roses:



And here's the "after" pic of everybody:



So, clockwise, you have Martin, Erlend, Sonja, Alex, Marcela, Nick, Agnes, and Andreas. Erlend, Marcela, and Agnes I met in my German classes and Nick is one of Martin's friends from the ETH.

I would have taken more pictures including pictures of the food (and the cheesecake, complete with strawberry topping, which was a huge hit) but we were busy. Martin and I made the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, brussels sprouts with apples, zucchini casserole, carrots, fresh-baked Zopf (we bought the dough though and just had to bake it ourselves), and cheesecake. For our first time making such a large dinner and our first time cooking a turkey, I think we did a really good job if I do say so myself. And we learned a few lessons for next year too!

Rome III

On day three, we awoke to some sunshine and decided to start the day at Castel Sant'Angelo. I wanted to go to this castle because it was round:



I'd never seen a round castle before. There is a tunnel that connects the castle with the Vatican so the pope can flee into the castle if he needs to. So, it's where the popes go to be safe.

Our guide book said you got the best views of Rome from the top so we climbed to the top (compared to the other churches/castles/towers we've climbed around Europe it was the shortest). Saint Peter's, of course, dominates the landscape to the West:



I got a picture of Martin standing next to it:



A view of some suburbs to the northwest, along with one of Rome's seven hills (which were really not very big at all and I had trouble finding seven ... Lisbon's seven hills are much larger and easier to count):



And a view looking towards Rome (yes the Colosseum is in this view, it's just to the left of the big monument with the two chariots on top of it. The Pantheon is also in it I think all the way on the left, cut off a bit):



After wandering around the castle a bit we wandered around Rome some more. Tried to see some churches but they all either had mass going on or were closed for siesta. We didn't realize that many churches close from noon until 4pm every day for a siesta so we missed out on seeing several churches. Then we went to see the Spanish steps. My tour books told me to go see the Spanish steps and I told Martin I wanted to see them and he told me that they're just steps where people hang out and he was right. Not worth the walk all the way to see them:



Then on our way home we found a little side street to walk down, to avoid the busy main street with all the buses on it. This little street was quite cozy and quaint and right after I took this picture it started to downpour on us. And we had to walk home in it without an umbrella because we had left it at the restaurant we went to on Saturday night. But we made it back to our B&B before the thunder and lightning started so it was a success.

Rome II

We spent our second day in Rome at the Vatican. It was pouring rain so it was the perfect day to spend in the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's.

I only took one picture in the Vatican Museum. It is of the ceiling in a room that is about 400 feet long. The entire ceiling is decorated in the same way and the walls of the room are covered with maps of different regions of Italy. I liked this room better than the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles or the Sistine Chapel:



After wandering through the museum we saw the Sistine Chapel. It was neat, but not as impressive as I had expected it to be from the way it had been portrayed in movies and books. I had just imagined it differently.

Next we went into St. Peter's. It's huge and filled with statues and tombs of all the previous Popes. I tried to take some pics, they're a little blurry but you can get the idea.

Here's some pics of the ceilings (hard to get because there are lights shining down at you from the ceiling):





Here are the chairs where all the normal people get to sit during mass:



Here's where the Pope hangs out, this huge pulpit is in the middle of the church:



This stained glass piece is in the front of the church, where the priest usually gives mass from in a normal church. This one small bit of stained glass is beautiful and quite moving:





And here's the whole church, from the back ... a little blurry but you can see the pulpit with the stained glass way behind it:



St. Peter's is 5.7 acres big. There are four statues surrounding the large pulpit in the middle and under or behind them are buried or hidden pieces of the cross that Christ died on and the sword (or spear?) that killed him and the veil that was used to wipe his face. Underneath the church, you can tour the tombs of many of the Popes of the past. There is an area in front of John Paul II's tomb where there were a lot of people praying.

And now here are some pictures of the outside of Saint Peter's and around the Square. The buildings all have statues of saints on top of them (140 statues in all) and they line the entire square. As you can see, the sun started to come out!





I don't think there is usually so much stuff in the square (chairs and large screens set up and the obelisk in the center all blocked off). I think it was all here so people could watch the big ceremony for the 24 new Cardinals on Sunday.





And here's the Swiss guard! They're super colorful. If I was the Pope I'd have the Swiss guard me too ... the Swiss have no wars to fight so they might as well go guard the Pope to keep busy.

Rome I

Not inhibited by the rain and thunderstorms that plagued our entire weekend, we set out on Friday morning for the Colosseum and to wander around the Palatine and old Roman Forum. Rome is neat in that there are ruins there that are thousands of years old ... in the middle of a big city with traffic driving around them and modern buildings built around them.

As you will notice, some pictures are quite dark and stormy and some have blue skies and sunshine. The weather was quite variable and yes the pictures below are in the order they were taken.

Some rush hour traffic outside of the Colosseum:



The Arch of Constantine, right next to the Colosseum:



A cross inside the Colosseum:



Some pictures from the inside:



As you can see, some of the floor of the arena has been restored so you get an idea of the level where the gladiators would fight. The floor was apparently also retractable so that the arena could be filled with water for naval battles. Fun.



After the Colosseum we wandered down the road a bit and then wandered around the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. These two places are basically large areas of ruins that used to be important buildings. The Palatine Hill is where the emperor of Rome and all of the rich people lived. So below are some pictures of all the different ruins there.



This was the stadium:



Not sure what this is, but possibly another church (it's hard to tell all the ruins apart and we didn't have a map or tour guide):



My next house:



This used to be a church. It's huge.



Another church. No shortage of churches, both ruined and still in use, in Rome.



Another church, and another arch:



After seeing the Palatine Hill and Roman Forum ruins we wandered over to the Trevi Fountain. Supposedly, if you throw a coin into this fountain, it ensures that you will return to Rome. I did not feel like spending the money.

I managed to take a seriously crooked picture of the fountain. Wish I'd paid more attention or taken a better one when we were back at it the next day but I didn't. It was raining and I was trying to huddle under our shared 5-Euro umbrella and not get the camera lens wet.



I actually just put the above picture in to make you all dizzy looking at it. This one's better:



The Trevi Fountain is huge ... I didn't take a picture that got the entire thing in but it extends out further on both sides than you can see in the above pictures.

After the Trevi Fountain we headed over to the Pantheon which is like Martin's favorite building, ever. It was used as a place to worship many different gods for awhile but then it was decided that that was paganism and it was converted to a church where you could only worship the one god that was allowed. It has a big hole in its dome to let in light:



Martin says that even Saint Peter's dome is smaller than the Pantheon's dome, out of respect for the great architectural feat that is the Pantheon.

Raphael's tomb is also inside:



Lucky us, the front of it was covered in scaffolding:



And there's a fun fountain in the square in front of the Pantheon:



And that's it for day one in Rome. We went back to our hotel and ended up having dinner around the corner from it at a great little Italian place. We stayed at a B&B right next to the Vatican and there were priests everywhere. Moreso near our hotel than in the rest of Rome but there were priests everywhere we went, at tourist spots, in restaurants, etc.

My Dad's New Job

We found this perfect job for my Dad in Rome. He could mow the lawn around all of the Roman ruins! Here's the guy who does it now, he's currently mowing the old Roman stadium (which apparently did not host many events because of course the Colosseum is practically right next to it):





It looks like this guy is doing a pretty good job (I have no idea how he gets so close to all the pieces of stone) but I'm sure my Dad could put him to shame, and he'd be using a push mower to boot.

New Things

This past week we have acquired a few new things so I figured I would post about them since we aren't traveling anywhere this weekend. But next weekend we'll be in Rome so prepare for an onslaught of pictures after that trip!

Here is the awesome new food bowl that my mother made for Onyx:



It's the perfect size for the little scoop of food we give him each morning and evening. And it has a cute little pawprint in the bottom of the bowl!

And here is the persian carpet we bought today (80% off its original price!):





It's really nice to have something soft to walk on in the living room! And I think Onyx will love having a rug to curl up on in front of the fireplace when we have a fire in it! Of course he only wants to use it to sharpen his claws right now but hopefully we'll get him over that habit quickly with the help of the squirt bottle.

Found the Orange Berries

Turns out the bush below our balcony still had some orange berries on it. So here are a few pics of them. They're really a bright neon orange sort of color: