Reunited and it feels so good!

After all the preparation, vet appointments, blood tests, and USDA meetings, Max and Zoe are officially in the U.K!!! I realize most people aren't as crazy about their pets as we are, but our dogs have so much character that we can't help but love them to death! Plus they're just so cute :) We are so thrilled to finally have them back with us, and we can't wait to get settled into our new house next week and introduce them to their new backyard! Today we had a great time with them in this wide open space, I think they are going to love it in England.  P.S. Sorry for the poor quality pictures, all I had with me was my phone camera!

Is it beautiful here, or what?!

House Hunters Int'l

We thought we'd take a cue from HGTV and show you the three houses we are choosing between for our time in England. Then you can guess which one you think we'll move into!

House #1

This house is located in Red Lodge

Pros: 15 minutes away from base (easy commute for Thomas), modern kitchen, detached one car garage, lots of natural sunlight, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms including an en-suite to the master bedroom, good-sized backyard for the dogs, in a town with many other USAF families (would be nice to have people in similar situation around)

Cons: All rooms are very small and close together, would have to borrow major appliances from base, washer is a front loader (UK front-loaders don't fit many clothes), dryer is in the garage, in a town with many other USAF families (might not get the full British experience)

House #2

This house is located in Ely

Pros: Modern kitchen (that's the washer to the right of the stove!), great neighborhood with nearby greenbelt for the dogs, one car detached garage, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms including an en-suite to the master bedroom, located in a great city close to Cambridge and only 65 minutes from London, dryer located in the house, wouldn't have to borrow any appliances, great energy performance ratings (meaning we shouldn't be wasting a ton of money on electricity)

Cons: Slightly smaller backyard than House #1, kitchen has a door on it and is a little closed off from the dining room, about 40 minutes from base

House #3

This house is located in Lord's Walk

Pros: Government-owned house, super close to base (short commute), large backyard with storage shed/doghouse, lots of closet space, has some American plugs, top loader washer and dryer in separate utility room, 

Cons:  Super close to base (probably won't get much of a British experience), not so modern, pink carpets, only 2 bedrooms, only 1 bathroom, can hear the F-15s flying (and boy are they loud!!!), wouldn't have the option to get nicer base housing later if we wanted it, bedrooms are small

When in Rome!

October 15 - 17

"When in Rome!" was our cheesy and overused phrase during our three days in Rome. I usually applied it to getting gelato...When in Rome, do as the Romans do, and eat gelato four times a day! :) Thomas' favorite use of the saying was "When in Rome, try every new beer we can get our hands on!" Needless to say, we both had a great time in Rome.

Anyhoo, Rome was spectacular, everything about it was just amazing. It's incredible to think about all the history there. I feel like you could point to practically any building in the city and it will have some sort of historical significance, probably from thousands of years ago.

On Friday we decided to start by heading to Vatican City since my handy-dandy tour guide said it was absolutely not a good idea to go on Saturdays because of the massive amounts of tourists. I'd seen plenty of pictures of St. Peter's Square and the Vatican, but to actually be there was pretty humbling. To think that you could be walking the same path as Michelangelo or any number of Popes from the past is mind-boggling.

Piazza San Pietro

Thomas and I in front of St. Peter's Basilica

We wandered around Piazza San Pietro, walked through the grotto in St. Peter's Basilica where we saw the tomb of Pope John Paul II, marveled at the inside of St. Peter's Basilica, walked through the Vatican Museum - so much neat and historical stuff in there, including a real live (well not so alive) mummy - and ended in the Sistine Chapel. Walking to the Sistine Chapel was almost as astounding as the actual chapel (but not quite). All of the walls and ceiling were decorated and painted so ornately, it's hard to imagine how much time and effort went into all of that.

Thomas with St. Peter's Basilica in the background :)

Inside St. Peter's Basilica

Vatican Museum - this used to be some Emperor's bath tub (supposedly for his wife) and she would always bathe in donkey's milk!

On the way to the Sistine Chapel

We weren't supposed to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel, but I snuck this blurry one of the Creation painting ;)

Saturday we decided to get passes for one of those hop-on, hop-off bus tours. We figured it'd be a good way to get ourselves oriented with the city, plus the amount of stuff we still wanted to see was a little overwhelming. We took one whole loop around the city on the bus and listened to their tidbits on the headphones, then we got off and ended up walking to everything for the rest of the day - everything ended up being pretty close to each other so it would've been a waste of time to get on and off the bus for every site. We managed to hit the Altar of the Fatherland (where their Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is located), Piazza Venezia. Trevi Fountain, the Piazza di Spagna with the Spanish Steps, Ancient Rome and the Roman Forums, the Colosseum, and many more piazzas, statues, fountains, and obelisks. 

Altar of the Fatherland (in the foreground). The building in the background is the Palazzo Venezia

Trevi Fountain

After we threw our coins in the Trevi Fountain

Me on the Spanish Steps

Roman Forums

Inside the Colosseum - there were tons of rooms/corridors under where the floor was!

Outside of the Colosseum

Sunday we just bummed around Rome and saw some things we didn't get to on Saturday, like the Piazza del Popolo (my favorite thing to say that day), Church of the Sacred Heart (there was a Museum of Purgatory in that church - creepy, but interesting), Castel Sant'Angelo, and the Altar of Peace. We went back to Vatican City and attended Mass at St. Peter's Basilica, which was pretty amazing. Oh yeah, we also managed to squeeze in lunch at Hard Rock Cafe Rome - we were craving a good American burger!! :)

Castel Sant'Angelo

Church of the Sacred Heart

This is where the huge Altar of Peace is located  - apparently the Italians hate this building because it's too modern (which I can understand) - they call it a "Texas gas station" :)

Piazza del Popolo - second oldest obelisk in Rome!

Tiber River

I have to say, the weather we had in Rome was amazing. It was cold, but sunny and beautiful skies - we really couldn't have asked for anything better. We only had about an hour of rain on Saturday afternoon, but we love rain so we didn't mind :) We're so glad we got to see so much in Rome, but we already know of things we want to see when we go back again - like the Roman Catacombs and seeing Pope Benedict XVI! 

Italy - Venice

October 13-14, 2010

We left Greece feeling a little discouraged - while we were so glad we got to go and see all the history, it wasn't quite what we expected. We were afraid that the rest of Europe might not live up to our expectations...until we got to Venice. Venice was amazing. We had taken a 30+ hour ferry ride to get there, sleeping on the floor both nights on the boat, and that is bound to make a cranky Courtney when we arrived in Venice at 7:30am. As soon as we stepped off the boat though, we could tell we were going to love it - we didn't even want to stop exploring to take a nap!

Passing the time on the ferry - we played a lot of cards! 

We got lost trying to get to St. Mark's Square (what else is new), but we didn't mind because we got to see "real-life Venice". It was trash collection day there but there are no cars in Venice, therefore no garbage trucks. So all the residents put out their trash on the street in the morning, and the garbage collectors come through with their big carts on wheels to throw all the trash bags in. I thought it was interesting to see how they adapted an everyday task to their car-less way of living :)

Cute little sidewalk cafe in Venice

We finally made our way to Piazza San Marco and it was well worth the walk! 

Entrance to the city - public executions used to occur between the columns!

St. Mark's Basilica

We wandered around the square and then decided we'd try to find our hotel so I could drop off my annoying little suitcase (nothing screams tourist more than my little suitcase rolling down the street behind me!). We took the awesome water bus to the island of Lido, which is right off of Venice and where our hotel was located. We stepped off of the water bus at Lido and could see our hotel from there!! We were so excited because we have had some serious problems finding our hotels in the past two weeks (we've literally spent hours trying to find them), so it was the highlight of our day to find it :)

Our lovely hotel 

On the island of Lido - it was coooold!

Bikes everywhere!!

It was a cute little hotel, and they let us check in at 11am, which was so helpful because we were in desperate need of freshening up! We wandered around the pretty island of Lido for a bit and then headed back to Venice to explore some more. We took the water bus down the Grand Canal, and stopped at the end for our first Italian meal, and our first taste of gelato (definitely not our last taste though!). 

Gondolas on the Grand Canal

Super excited for gelato!!!

On the Grand Canal

We got to see the Rialto Bridge, the Bridge of Sighs, and go inside St. Mark's Basilica. Everywhere we looked was so beautiful, I took so many pictures! Venice has been my dream vacation destination for a while now, and the fact that I actually got to go there blows my mind! 

Rialto Bridge

Bridge of Sighs

Inside St. Mark's Basilica

Inside St. Mark's Basilica

At the end of the day we tried to find the Jewish Ghetto (the first ghetto in the world apparently!), and we found some of the buildings, but we couldn't find any of the five synagogues before it got dark :( But while walking around we did enjoy the dogs that were everywhere! In Greece there were a lot of stray dogs, but in Venice there were so many dogs with owners (which we liked to see), and they were welcome everywhere - cafes, hotels, boats, anywhere! 

Buildings from the Jewish Ghetto

The water came right up onto the sidewalk here!

Yum!!

We wrapped up the night by buying me a sweet Venice t-shirt (I couldn't resist, I loved that place) and headed off for Rome in the morning!