We caught a early flight to Rome on Tuesday morning, leaving the three little girls with Zonia and Tony in Madrid. As cute as they are, we were definitely able to see more of Italy in our brief 2.5 days with no kids!
We arrived in Rome at 9 am and caught a bus to to the Vatican. We were trying to cram a lot in that day, so we walked through the museum and Sistine chapel pretty quickly. There is SO MUCH STUFF in there! It was a little mind boggling thinking about how every sculpture, painting, and artifact could probably have pages and pages of interesting stuff written about it. You could spend easily a half day in there, gradually becoming more and more desensitized to amazing ancient art.
This picture very effectively captures our feelings about Rome's public transit system. Aaron had downloaded some offline maps on his phone, but we had no data. It was pretty easy to find bus stops, but when you were on the bus, they didn't announce what stop they were at. It made it super stressful trying to figure out when to get off.
Outside the Vatican Museum
Cool ceilings everywhere
It is hard to take selfies with ceilings. We eventually embraced the double chins.
Statue collage. Bottom right dude had dolphins in his beard and grapes in his hair.
This statue looks uncannily like my brother Blake
School of Athens- one of the few paintings I had learned about in school. My art history knowledge is lacking.
Beautiful. Everywhere.
Wonderfully reminiscent of my beloved 2013 concrete canoe, the Pearl Dragon.
The Sistine Chapel is at the end of the Vatican Museum. There are no pictures allowed, and you are supposed to be quiet in there. Naturally, this means that someone gets on a speaker to loudly proclaim "Silenzio!" every few minutes. It was also pretty much a mosh pit in there. The entire floor was jammed with people staring up at the ceiling. I wish I had researched more about the artwork in advance. There was a ton of symbolism going on in that room. I had printed off a cheat sheet, but we had to check backpacks and I forgot to take the paper out.
Stock photo of an empty Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo's Creation of Adam. I love this one.
We were hoping to go to St. Peter's Basilica after the Sistine Chapel, but we had to book it across town to make it to our Colosseum tour. We went back the next morning, but the Pope was doing his weekly address and the whole Vatican was shut down.
Posing by the lovely barricade in front of St. Peter's Square
You can see the Vatican Obelisk through these lovely rows of grand columns. Fun fact- Rome has more standing ancient Egyptian obelisks than anywhere else in the world- including Egypt!
Our first day trip was to Toledo. I hadn't done much research about our various excursions in Spain because I knew that Stephen was prepped to be our tour guide. Toledo was one of the areas he served in as a missionary. My lack of research left me unprepared for how awesome Toledo was going to be. The old town of Toledo was preserved in close to Renaissance state.
Stephen returns to his old stomping grounds
Stephen in front of the apartment he lived in. It was built around the time of Christopher Columbus. You can tell by the wiring that all the modern conveniences were added much later.
The view from Stephen's old apartment. That's a big cathedral at the end of the ally.
Us by the big cathedral at the end of the ally
Very intricate stone work on the big cathedral at the end of the ally
We really nailed this Don Quixote pose
Not so much with Sancho- clearly I should have been the belly rubbing one
Toledo is world famous for their sword craftsmanship. There were tons of sword shops all over town.
You can buy any famous movie sword. I think Stephen is holding Gimli's ax from Lord of the Rings. He said there was one shop that sold Laban's sword to all the Mormon Missionaries.
They were much heavier than I anticipated.
This behavior was not encouraged by the shop owner.
Knights must have been super buff to wave those things around, especially if they really were that short
Toledo's other signature products are these black and gold plates
Here's one being made. Again with the Don Quixote. All of Spain seems very proud of their one contribution to classic literature, but especially Toledo. I think they get a shout out in the book.
These street covers looked cool and provided some much appreciated shade
Yet another gorgeous building
Aaron by tall and small doors.
At some point during the day, we stopped for an unphotographed but still delicious lunch. I got pasta with Jamรณn, or Spainish dry-cured ham. That stuff is delicious, and I ate it every chance I got.
We ended the Toledo experience by taking a bus to a lookout point over the city
Brother Buddies- Toledo Edition
Two newly converted Toledo fans
The river wraps around the city on 3 sides, making it highly defensible. They had an abundance of swords to protect the one land entrance.
We got to Madrid on a Saturday evening. Stephen and Claudia's brother, Tony, met us at the airport and helped us navigate the public transit system to the apartment where Tony and Zonia (Claudia's mom) live. I was glad to have them as escorts. The metro system was fairly straight forward, but there are an overwhelming amount of different bus routes. Zonia and Tony, like most people in their area, don't have cars and are pros at navigating the wide range of public transit options available. It is like they have some sort of 6th sense that allows them to know how many minutes before the next bus arrives at any given stop.
We happened to arrive on the night that Real Madrid was playing in a championship game. Don't ask me what championship- I know next to nothing about soccer. Anyways, there were groups of people all wearing jerseys supporting their local teams all over the subway. Whenever they encountered another group of people wearing jerseys, they would break out in what I assume was the Real Madrid fight song accompanied by general hoots and hollers. The game was starting as we transferred to the bus and walked to Zonia's house. We heard a few big outbursts, but we couldn't tell if they were happy or disappointed. It turns out that they were goals, and the cheering after they won the game went on for a long time! It was a fun thing to witness.
Zonia was very gracious in hosting us. She has a 3 bedroom apartment. Stephen, Claudia, and their 3 girls took one room, Aaron and I took another, Tony took the third, and Zonia slept on the couch. Zonia had the magic ability to somehow have these huge meals on the table 15 minutes after we got home from our various trips. I really liked all the Peruvian food she cooked for us.
We went to church. Zonia's building is only a 5 minute walk away, but Claudia wanted to visit friends in her old ward, so we took a couple buses to that building instead. The majority of the ward was comprised of South Americans who immigrated to Spain. Claudia's family falls in this category- they are Peruvian. There were a fair amount of Spaniards, and a few American families. The ward was very welcoming. I got used to doing the cheek kissing thing. My Spanish was tested as I tried to figure out the best way to explain that I was there because my sister-in-law lived there 7 years ago. People were patient with me, and I understood a lot more than I expected to. One humorous difference between this ward and all the wards I have been to before is that these people were terrible at singing! It was like everyone picked a random starting note, then loosely followed the rhythm of the piano.
Walking to church. IN MADRID!
After church, Stephen went on a walk around Alcorcรณn (Zonia's neighborhood) with Aaron and me. This was definitely the middle of a city. There were no houses, only big apartment complexes with small stores, banks, offices, etc on the main floor. There were very few stand-alone stores. There were lots of public spaces and playgrounds for kids. It was completely empty because we were walking around while everyone else was taking a siesta. The weather was really nice that day, but later in the week it jumped to over 100 degrees and I was definitely ready to get on board with the mid-day hide-in-your-apartment-and-nap routine.
The only big city I have been to before is New York City. Madrid and NYC are similar in a lot of ways. Madrid seemed cleaner. Maybe it is the arid climate. NYC always seemed to be damp and smellier. Maybe it is because I couldn't translate most of the Spanish graffiti. Madrid also had small green parrots flying around.
We bid farewell to Elliot and my Mom in the Orlando Airport. Mom took Elliot back to McLean while we spent the next very long time flying ourselves to Spain!
Elliot was great on the plane for my mom, which was a huge relief. We video called them several times over the next 10 days, and it was funny watching the progression. The first few calls, Elliot had zero interest in talking to his mom and dad. He was way too busy playing with all the different toys or jumping on various beds and couches. He was more interested in talking to us a few days later. He told us all about how Grumpa keeps giving him donuts and strawberries, and how much fun he was having with my brother Clint (aka Cwinto-beans). Near the end of the trip, the very first thing he would say to us was "I WANT TO GO GO HOME!" When we said bye at the end of the call, he said "I WANT TO GO BYE BYE TOO!" 10 days was a long time to be away from him, and I don't know if I would want to be apart for quite that long again.
Our flight path on the way there was
Orlando - Newark - Porto, Portugal - Lisbon, Portugal - Madrid, Spain
Our return flights were
Madrid, Spain - Lisbon, Portugal - Boston - DC
We were flying internationally on TAP, which is a Portuguese airline. We ended up spending 10 hours in Portuguese airports, but the time blocks were too small to allow us to leave and look around. This results in us having a very strange impression of the country based on the extremely strange shops we found in the airport.
Why would you ever buy raw fish in an airport?
Are you supposed to smuggle knives through security to chop up these watermelons for sale?
Portugal is VERY proud of their gourmet fish industry
The fish passion came to a head in this circus themed shop that sold only fish products. That entire wall is lined with packages of sardines.
QUEEN OF SARDINES
Portugal as seen from above.
One airport had these scenic backdrops so that we can pretend that we actually explored Portugal. The slightly desperate tourism advertisements on the plane say that it is really great there!
Miracle of Miracles! Aaron found 2 Euro on the ground at the food court. We didn't have any Euro yet, so we excitedly used it to help by lunch (even though our credit card worked with not too bad international fees).
The flight was pretty pleasant. Mostly because Elliot wasn't there! We were both able to sleep enough that the jet lag wasn't too bad. The meal on the long oversea flight was good, and we watched Beauty and the Beast and Hidden Figures (although they didn't let us turn off the Portuguese subtitles).
Epcot (Day 3 of Disney) was my Mom's favorite park. There was a big loop going around a big lake where they had mini villages from countries around the world. By the front entrance was a bunch of futuristic rides and exhibits.
The future is bound to be full of giant spheres like this one
Inside the dome was a ride that takes you through the history of technology. They take a picture at the beginning and used it in a little animation at the end, showing us in the future. Aaron and I really nailed the facial expressions.
This ride was all about sustainable agriculture. Our little boat took us through this garden where they had melon and tomato vines growing to look like trees and all sorts of cool experimental stuff like that.
Mom discovered Club Cool, where they had 8 exciting flavors of soda from all around the world. Most were really different from anything I have tried before.
Italy's soda was super bitter and gross, but the others were all good!
Elliot loved this color exhibit that was in a strangely under-marked building near the big ride everyone else was going on.
This video is from the magic paintbrush thing inside the color place. He was SO EXCITED.
Mimi & Elliot by the Finding Nemo ride
Note his oh-so-appropriate hammerhead shark shirt
We got rained on pretty good in Epcot, although apparently it was nowhere near as close to the downpour they toughed out the night before in Magic Kingdom. I would have liked to spend more time in Epcot, but Elliot needed to sleep and everyone else was tired from not being murdered in an alleyway until late the night before. My favorite ride of the whole trip (out of the pool of rides that pregnant gals can ride) was Soarin' at Epcot. The park gets a lot less hype than the others, but we found a lot to like there!
Universal Studios is not part of Disney, and it definitely had a very different vibe! It was Aaron's favorite park. Their rides were way more extreme. They were fast where Disney was slow, and everything was high-tech special effects or digital screens compared to Disney's animatronics. The Woolfs and Aunt Trisha are die hard Disney fans, but I think that Universal Studios is the way to go- at least if you don't have kids and are not pregnant.
We bee-lined it for Hogsmeade, where I quite enjoyed a frozen butterbeer. Aaron reports that the rides were awesome. Universal Studios is actually comprised of two parks. The plan was to spend the first half of the day in Islands of Adventure, then take the Hogwarts Express to the other park. The other park has Diagon Alley.
"Posidon's Fury" was the only attraction outside of Curious George and Dr. Suess world that is on the list of pregnancy approved attractions. We had no idea what it was, but mom and I decided to check it out with Elliot in tow.
It turned out to be an awesome special effects journey. This tunnel had water spiraling over it somehow.
It ended with an intense pyrotechnics battle between Poseidon and the bad guys
You could feel the heat of the fire, and it freaked out Exhausted Elliot. He had his head buried in my shoulder for the whole fight.
It was all downhill from there. The sleep deprivation finally came to a head and Elliot flew into full meltdown mode. I wheeled him across the park with him desperately trying to escape the stroller and screaming at the top of his lungs. The guy by the entrance gave me his default "Have a great day" with a really funny look on his face like "clearly you are not having a great day, but I have no idea how to deviate from my script."
This does not do it justice.
4ish hours later, Elliot woke up and I decided to go back even though we we wouldn't have much time before it got dark and closed. I really wanted to see Diagon Ally, and it did not disappoint!
Gringotts
Weasleys Wizard Wheezes
After that, we had just enough time to take Elliot to Curious George before the park closed. What we didn't realize was that it was a splash pad, which was less than desirable since it was now dark and raining. That did not dampen his enthusiasm.
Video- Us taking shelter in a curious george train car in the rain with a very enthusiastic Elliot.
The next day was Friday. We had flights leaving in the afternoon, but we already had tickets to Animal Kingdom because somehow our 4 park deal was cheaper than buying 3 day passes would have been. We had debated skipping it depending on how long exhausted Elliot slept in, but ended up going.
Elliot with some Gorillas
It didn't take long for us to regret our decision. The park was super hot and crowded, and we were worried about Elliot having another meltdown on the plane if he had another no nap day. We said our goodbyes to the Woolfs and headed home for a brief nap before heading to the airport.
Overall, we had a good Disney experience! We had a pretty good set up with the big rides group and the kid, pregnant lady, and non-roller coaster enthusiasts group. It was also really nice having Aunt Wendy plan the itinerary and reserve all the fast passes using her extensive Disney knowledge.
/about/SistineChapel-57ffd66e5f9b5805c2ac4916.jpg)
