The Olympics Countdown Clock in Trafalgar Square shows the countdown of days, hours, minutes, and seconds until the Olympic Opening Ceremonies in 2012.
I saw the Wednesday afternoon Matinee of Jersey Boys. It reminded me of the 1950s and 60s when I was growing up in New Jersey.
I was walking through St. James Park near Buckingham Palace when I saw the horses and riders above. I am not sure who they are guarding--the Queen is in Australia. Then I came upon an acrobatic performance sponsored by the Vienna Tourist Board on a vertical wall next to the statue of Lord Nelson in Trafalgar Square shown in the video below. Trafalgar Square has really been cleaned up. When I was last here it was mostly a haven for pigeons. Apparently they banned feeding the pigeons. Now the square is more of an entertainment venue.
Today I visited one of the finest museums in the world--the British Museum. Since I was there in 1979 they moved the British Library and Magna Carta to another location. They created Europe's largest covered courtyard at the center of the museum. The museum still houses the Rosetta Stone and many other artifacts, some of which are thousands of years old, from the early civilizations of Egypt, Rome, Greece, Iran and many others. To see these objects from the old world is why I travel to Europe.
I spent Friday exploring Trafalgar Square and Leicester Square. I visited the National Gallery shown above. This is my first visit to London since 1979 and navigating the winding, angled streets which seem to change names every few blocks is coming back to me. I took a double decker bus sightseeing tour to refresh my memory. There is a lot of construction going on in preparation for the Summer Olympics next year. In 1979 when I went to the kiosk in Leicester Square to buy same day tickets for shows, they were 4 or 5 pounds. Today they are ten times that. I am exploring whether it is cheaper to buy at the kiosk or go to to the theaters directly.
I spent the day in a floating city relying mostly on boats for transportation. Above is the Grand Canal with the heaviest traffic. On the left one of the smaller canals from the Gondola perspective with one of the many bridges in the background.
We drove from Florence to Venice today and took the sunset ferry to Lido island and checked into a beautiful old hotel. The tour group hosted a very nice dinner. Tomorrow we explore Venice and take a gondola ride.
It is difficult to find words to describe Florence--the birthplace of the Renaissance. Being here is like going back in time 500 years. We visited the Duomo shown above. Then the Uffizi Gallery to view art work by Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Botticelli. In the afternoon I visited the Galileo Science museum which chronicles the history of science in the 1600 and 1700's. During the afternoon hundreds of people were in the streets visiting open air markets.
Today we visited Assisi. The picture above is of the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi after whom San Francisco is named. There is an upper and lower Basilica. Assisi is a beautiful town from the Middle Ages with narrow, winding cobble stone streets. We drove through Tuscany with a stop at the hilltop village of San Gimignano and then on to Florence where we had a special viewing and presentation on Michelangelo statues including David at the Galleria dell'Accademia.
Today we traveled from Sorrento to Assisi. On the way we visited the hilltop town of Orvieto. The town is accessed by funicular. The Basilica is shown at right. Narrow, winding cobblestone streets radiate out from the town square. It is like going back in time. Tomorrow we explore Assisi and go on to Florence.
Today we visited the Isle of Capri--a beautiful island and enclave for the rich and famous. The weather has been moderate around 20 C (low 70's F). It has been good to meet people from around the world--to get a sense of how the other 95% of the world lives and to hear the variety of languages being spoken.
Today I visited the Castel Sant'Angelo built around 130 AD which was used as a tomb for Roman emperors. It was also used as a military outpost and home for the Pope. It was refere
d to in the book and movie Angels and Demons. I then visited the Museum Capitolini which houses mostly sculptures such as the horse and rider on the right. I also went to the Pantheon and heard an orchestra rehearsing for a Mozart Concert to be held later in the evening. It is amazing how Rome has the old integrated with the new, the very beautiful and the very tacky.
I visited St. Peter's Basilica today. It turns out that the Pope was delivering a mass on the large screens in the square so it was quite crowded. There was also a mass inside the Basilica. There were hundreds of people there. I saw the Pieta (left) for the second time in my life. I saw if first at the New York World's Fair in 1964. At the World's Fair I could get very close. Today it is behind glass in the Basilica because of past vandalism. It is much more powerful when seen up close.
I arrived in Rome around 9 a.m. Saturday morning (2 a.m. Chicago time) after a grueling nine hour flight. It has been a long time since I have been in a country where English is not the primary language. It took me a few minutes to get acclimated and to find the shuttle company that I had registered with on the Internet. I finally got to the hotel, but the room wasn't ready since I had arrived in the morning. A couple of hours later the room was ready, and I was able to get some much needed sleep.
d better organized. The above picture shows the reflection of the city in the Cloud Gate sculpture in Millennium Park which is next to Grant Park. The picture on the left shows the contrast in architectural styles between the Wrigley building in the foreground and Trump Tower in the background.
