Rome in Two Days

May 20, 2015 June Cotte 2 Comments

If someone should ask me, “Can you see Rome in two days?” I will answer most emphatically, “No, no you cannot.” But we tried…

We thought we weren’t being too aggressive with our plans: the Coliseum/Forum/Palantine Hill (which we could walk to easily from our hotel) on Day 1, and walking to Vatican City, sightseeing along the about 4.5 km walk along the way, on Day 2. What we didn’t count on: temperatures of about 33 C, and two boys who suffered horribly from seasonal allergies in Rome. (Well, in Greece too, the truth be told, but Rome was the zenith we think). Jack and Joe really enjoyed the Coliseum, which, while far more crowded than we expected, still seems alive with history once you get inside. (I’ve included a picture of Jack here. While taken in Siena, it demonstrates how excited he was in Rome).

P1070080 — Looking into the animal and gladiator pits.

Day 1, which included far more walking than we anticipated, ended for the boys partway through the Forum, with so many sneezes the crowds were giving us a wide berth as a potential contagion group. We took them back to chill at the hotel while Dan and I did a dinner out and an evening walk up to the Trevi Fountain. After a lovely meal, we spent about 30 minutes dodging hawkers aggressively selling selfie sticks, then finally found some peaceful streets and enjoyed most of our walk. But it was longer than we anticipated (sensing a theme?) and we arrived to find 1) more hawkers, and 2) the fountain dry and under scaffolding. On the way home, we did pass by one of the city’s beautiful churches though, and it was lit gorgeously at night.

The light streaming into the ceiling in St. Peter's. — The light streaming into the ceiling in St. Peter’s.

Day 2 began well, with allergies somewhat under control, and a gorgeous walk to Vatican City, through simply beautiful small streets near the river. Disappointingly, the crowds were simply too big heading into the Vatican museum, so no Sistine Chapel on this visit. But St. Peter’s was simply incredible, as you can see from some of these pictures. We walked a different route back, right along the river, which was gorgeous, and empty of crowds. It was about a 10 mile day, in the end, in very hot weather, but still, gorgeous. Moral of the story: Rome is crazy, beautiful, crowded, anxiety-provoking, crowded, and worth the frustration. I think…

P1070283 — Walking home along the Tiber.

P1070214 — St. Peter’s – check the tiny heads for a sense of scale.

Now we are in Siena, in a beautiful hotel that is a (short) walking distance to everything. Temperatures have dropped to the mid-twenties, perfect for strolling. Time for some wine and pasta…

Jack's Posts

Jack’s England

May 13, 2015 June Cotte Leave a comment

We are now in Greece. So Joe and I are seriously behind in blogs. But for now I’m going to tell you about England. The first day we got there we got off the ship and said goodbye to the ship kids and every one else. Then we took a bus to the airport to take the subway to our hotel. I know; confusing.

After the subway ride we checked in to our B&B. We had seen signs for Wicked everywhere and that’s a play I’ve wanted to see for a long time. I was very happy when mom and dad said we could go. It was such a good performance.

The next day we went to The Tower of London. They did some pretty wacked up stuff in there; like murdering two little princes! The little brats probably deserved it though. I’m pretty sure they cried over spilled milk and the guards couldn’t stand the whining. Then we went to lunch and walked back to our hotel. (On a side note Big Ben is much smaller then it looks on the post cards.)

Part of the Tower of London complex. Did you know there are more than one “tower” at the Tower?

After that day we went to the British Museum. It is the largest museum in the world. It has a massive collection of mummies. Then, what I thought was one of the coolest things, was a leather man! He had died in a swamp that worked as a tannery to turn him in to a leather man! The coolest part was he died right before the Romans invaded. Think about how long ago that was.

The grand entrance to the British Museum.

They also had a whole collection of Napolean Bonaparte news and propaganda cartoons depicting how much of a short snob he was.

Then the next day we went back to the airport to fly to even older places than that leather guy. Athens Greece!!!!!!

June's Posts

Jack and Joe, brothers and friends

May 12, 2015 June Cotte Leave a comment

We are currently in Santorini, Greece. How can it be colder and rainier here than in London, Ontario? Odd, but that’s the way it goes sometimes… we do hear it’s supposed to warm up, but the 5 days we spend here may be quite chilly. It’s a mountainous island, so cool weather is good for hiking, but it’s no longer beach weather. Add to that we all have either allergies or colds, and it may be a long stay here. Okay, enough whining…

However, last week we were in Naxos, another island. It was glorious. It’s just before the tourist season, so there aren’t many visitors. Not everything is open yet, but it was great to walk the streets with very few people. All the pictures today are from Naxos.

But I thought I’d write today about the boys, rather than the place. It’s been a couple of weeks now since we left the Semester at Sea program and began travelling “alone” as a family. The kids miss their friends from home, and their new friends from the ship. They have only themselves again, as in Sedona, except now they are stuck with Dan and I all in one hotel room. There is no escaping Mom and Dad; which really isn’t good for any of us! Okay, so it’s not that bad. But it is close quarters and we all have to get used to that. It’s going to be about 8 weeks on the road, so we better get used to it soon!

They enjoyed Naxos, as we all did. Glorious weather, beautiful beaches, and gorgeous small villages. Add in fantastic local wines, citron, all the lamb Joe can eat, and all the gyros Jack can eat, and it adds up to a fantastic experience.

Joe's Posts

Joe’s London

May 12, 2015 June Cotte Leave a comment

We were in London. Now before I get started this is not London, Ontario this is London, England. And we are no longer on the ship we are now going through Europe alone.

On the first day we went looking for our hotel and on the way we saw a poster for Wicked the musical so we went in to get tickets. We then went out trying to find a place to eat; we then found a place called “I do not remember.” But I do remember the steak burger it had a big piece of steak then put a bun on it. Then we went to see Wicked. I have a question: if you defy gravity will you be popular? (P.S. Defying Gravity and Popular are both songs in it).

The next day I will never forget ever so we were going to the Tower of London and I saw Big Ben.

Big Ben - can you see Mater? — Big Ben – can you see Mater?

When we got to the tower we had to wait because we wanted to go on a tour so we went to the book store and I looked at a book called underground London. It talked about how London had a lot of crime in the past. Did you know that Hitler’s secondhand man was a prisoner in there? And big thing I saw were the Crown Jewels and a Beefeater.

June's Posts

Athens

May 6, 2015 June Cotte Leave a comment

This week we spent four days exploring Athens. Glorious weather, and we did it right: explore in the morning, rest in the afternoon, back out for late dinners. We focused on the ruins, as we stayed in Plaka, at the foot of the Acropolis. This was my first visit back to Athens since 1988, when I travelled with Lisa Penner. The city has changed a lot, but mainly it was a much better trip when I had a little bit more money! The wild cats are the same (Jack says “still great”) but there does seem to be less of them. And visiting when it’s maybe 25 degrees is much nicer than visiting when it is about 42 degrees, as it was when I was here in the summer. Much more civilized. Spent the afternoons in Athens catching up on some writing projects, with the ever patient team of co-authors I am currently working with. Thanks again for understanding: Aimee Huff, Miranda Goode, Jodie Whelan, Matt Thomson, and Jeff Rotman. On to Naxos, then Santorini, then Rome!

June's Posts

London

May 6, 2015 June Cotte Leave a comment

We had a very brief (two night stay) in London. If we thought the ship was crowded quarters, the hotel room in London was even smaller! I think the room we all slept in was about 150 square feet. You know it’s small when it is smaller than the room in Japan…

The very first night we arrived we took in Wicked, which was a highlight of the visit for all of us.

We also had great weather. Although cool, it was nice and sunny. We packed a ton of walking into two days, visiting the Tower of London and the British Museum, along with sites along the way such as Buckingham Palace. The kids were exhausted, so maybe we pushed them a little hard. For those of you who know London, this means walking from the Tower of London all the way back to the Pimlico neighbourhood we stayed in. Are we too tough?

Here are some pictures from the two day visit. Lots of great history!

June's Posts

The Last Week on the Ship

May 6, 2015 June Cotte Leave a comment

As I write, we are already aboard another ship, the Blue Star Delos, heading from Athens to Naxos. But I am very far behind in blogging, so I will quickly write a few today.

The last week aboard the MV Explorer was fairly emotional for most people. The undergraduate students had seminars about “re-entry,” preparing to return to real-life. Even the Ship Kids had a discussion about this. A lot of the discussion centered on how to talk about this journey to those who haven’t experienced it. Also, how not to bore everyone to death droning on about how incredible it is. So, I will be brief.

This was, indeed, a pivotal experience in my life, and the life of our family. The close quarters with so many people, the quick-in and quick-out nature of the port visits, the endless ocean… it can’t help but have a profound effect. For me, the effect was to simultaneously make me feel like the world is so vast it is hard to grasp, yet small enough to see commonalities across cultures and countries that made me feel the earth is smaller than I thought. It’s an odd feeling, and hard to explain.

For Jack and Joe, it has been a sad farewell to the ship. They made great friends here, and although they liked London (more on that in the next post), saying good-bye to everyone was hard. And, perhaps not surprisingly when 800 people disembark in the same city, we continued to see “SASers” (slang for Semester at Sea people) at major tourist sites in London. So it was a constant reminder of what they were leaving behind. So this post, I include some pictures of their new good friends, and one that shows that their cabin was “kid center” for much of the voyage.

I also had to include a picture of one of the most spectacular rainbows I have ever see, which we viewed from Portsmouth, England.

Jack's Posts

Jack’s Morocco

April 25, 2015 June Cotte Leave a comment

Yesterday we left Morocco. Here is what we did. The first day Mom had a field lab. So Dad, Joe and I went on a field program. The only interesting thing was the Hassan the Second Mosque. It was the most impressive religious building I have ever seen.

The next day we went to Marrakesh. They had the biggest market. You could easily get lost in it. Then we went to a pharmacy kind of thing. They had lots of special herbs and spices. Also, I got a massage. Next we went to a medieval university. Then we went back to the ship.

After that day we went to Fez. Now, Fez is a five hour drive from Casablanca so we had some cool stops along the way. On the way we went to Meknes and toured around looking at old medieval gates and walls. Then we went to a really fantastic lunch with a nice courtyard and fountain. We also went to a really old Jewish cemetery. Our next stop was Volubulis. It was an old Roman city in Morocco. It was amazing. A lot of it was still together. The pictures are a lot better at describing it.

When we got to the hotel it was late so Joe and I stayed up watching a movie. The next day we toured Fez. We did pretty much everything we had done in Marrakesh just in a different city. The only difference was we went to a tannery. It smelled really bad. Then we drove back to the ship.

I forgot to tell you about the bread. It is so good. It’s like the French left a trail of wonderful bread where ever they colonised. The last day we went to get WI-FI. We just went to the train station, which was really close to the port. When we got there we headed straight to Starbucks. Then after the almighty WI-FI we went to Rick’s Café. It was supposed to be like the movie Casablanca. The bar was the same but nothing else looked like the movie. It had the best food by far. I am not being biased because had a burger (it does help though). Then we got more WI-FI time. Last we went back to the ship and left Morocco. Time for Europe.

Joe's Posts

Morocco by Joe

April 25, 2015 June Cotte Leave a comment

We were in Morocco. The first day we went on a city tour of Casablanca. We first went to a mosque (Hassan II) that had a tower bigger than Big Ben, just put a clock in it. When we went into it… it was BIG, like big people made it and we were ants to them.

The following day I do not remember much, except for this: We went to Marrakesh and ate in a cool restaurant; the food was good. We went through a market to a really cool school and heard the call to prayer. There is a picture of it below. We also went to a square called The Big Square.

The next day we got up early to go to Meknes. Afterwards, we went to a Roman city. On the way there our guide told us we might see paintings of Roman gods, he said gods like Zeus. Zeus is Greek. It was so cool because the vines crawling up the bricks of some of the homes were HUGE, and then I saw it. I saw COOLNESS (cool thing below).

We then went to a good hotel with great WI-FI so I was able to get some games; then we went back to the ship. And by the way, it is just 67 days till we come back.

p.s. We saw a LOT of catsJJ.

June's Posts

Morocco post

April 23, 2015 June Cotte Leave a comment

Now to actually write about Morocco.

I am sure the kids will blog about our trips here, so I will focus on a bit of a travelogue. The first day in Casablanca I had my last (of four) field labs, which are academic experiential learning days with my students. The day went well, and Dan and the kids did a tour of the city while I was away.

The following day we did a very long day trip to Marrakesh. Although I had already decided that these SAS trips would be my first and last experience with “tour bus” travel, this trip, and the overnight one we took to Fez the following two days, solidified that decision. We just do not enjoy travelling in a pack. In both Marrakesh and Fez we were in groups of about 25, and shepherded through souks/medinas/markets like we were on some sort of military manoeuvres. Although we saw more than we would have alone, we never got to spend quality time anywhere. We felt over-scheduled, over-crowded, and just sort of over-everything. We are very much looking forward to the next phase of our travel, where we scale back to a family of four. Of course, then we have to make all our plans ourselves…

Morocco is a gorgeous country, and some of these Arabic and Islamic sites are simply outstandingly beautiful. But honestly, it was more difficult to travel here than it was in India. The old city section of Fez, for example, has over 9500 small winding streets, with many dead ends. Some are so narrow it becomes dark. And although it is (thankfully) the largest car-free area in the world, the donkeys have free reign. Being a little more reflective on the experience, I think our difficulties mainly came from the tour aspect. I would have loved to just find a lovely place in Marrakesh and stay there a few days, as some of our friends did. We would have seen far less, but enjoyed far more. At any rate, here are some final images of this complex place.