Rome and the Colosseum

This was our first ever visit to Rome, a city often dubbed the eternal city though luckily it didn't spend an eternity on our 'we must go there one day' list. It was great to finally see some of it for ourselves. My main interest in visiting the city was the historical - mainly the pre-Christian world but I was also intrigued by the modern - the sights and sounds of what this famous city has to offer today.

The morning we arrived on the ship into the port of Civitavecchia we took a short walk along it's small seafront from a coastal fortress by the harbour called Michelangelos Fort which looked pretty impressive, then past a very large sculpture of a sailor kissing a nurse (a replica of the one in San Diego, USA which is based on the famous photograph taken in New York after WWII).

I'd have liked to have spent a bit of time in Civitavecchia but we only had two days and that wasn't even going to cover all we wanted to see in Rome itself.

A few hundred meters later we arrived at the train station. The train station has a shop and a coffee bar. The weather was fine and so we sat outside enjoying the morning sun (we don’t get much back home!) waiting for the Rome bound train.

It was a nice ride along the coast and though some country side (it's about a 40 mile journey). There are two handy stops in Rome, one is Roma San Pietro railway station located near to the Vatican City, the other is Roma Termini – Romes most central station in relation to a lot of the tourist sites. We opted to get off at the end of the line at Roma Termini. I can only describe the station as long. The walk from where the Civitavecchia train stops to the main entrance of the station is approx 600 meters. My advice would be to go down from the platform to the underpass bit and use the moving walkways if you're heading that way. It's not so bad on arrival but after a long day of sightseeing hurrying to get to your train with sore feet it felt like a lot further.

The layout of the city of Rome was nothing that I'd really been able to imagine from reading books or watching TV shows or looking at maps. The topography was more varied (it was a bit hillier) and the modern streets, which for some reason I imagined it to be more like Paris, turned out to be more like London. I knew it was the city of the 7 hills but I obviously wasn't listening closely enough before as I had always imagined them to surround the city. The city sightseeing bus tour soon put me right as I found out the city was built on them. Evidence for my dear wife that it’s not just her I don’t listen properly :-p!

The 1st day we were in Rome there was an anti-austerity protest and workers union strike which was funny when our tour bus got stuck in the traffic chaos that followed. I totally sympathise with what the protesters were striking for so I didn't mind being stuck on the tour bus, in fact I was just sad we weren't a little closer as an open top bus is a good vantage point for taking photos!

Several drivers in Rome were, to put it nicely, 'a little bit insane'. During our time in Rome we saw many instances of erratic driving but three instances stood out.

The first was a moped driver who wasn't paying close attention to the traffic cop who was directing traffic and missed hitting the police man (albeit at low speed) by about the length of his shoe. Even more worryingly this didn't seem to be an unusual occurrence to the policeman who with a gesture of displeasure synonymous to 'ah now, catch yourself on' didn't even have a word with the driver.

The second was a driver who sped across a junction only to swerve at the last minute to miss the back end of a fast moving moped by a distance so close it's a mystery how one didn't become a part of the other. It was a real heart in mouth moment, stunt drivers would have been proud of pulling off such a close miss. Any contact and it was broken bones or corpse time.

The third incident was probably the most stupid but also the funniest, this one happened so slowly that all the tourists on the bus had time to laugh and take photos. And here it is, someone trying to push ahead in a traffic jam by joining the trams on the tram tracks - the Tram driver was NOT amused.

We got off the bus soon after to make better use of our limited time in the city than drivers with death wishes.

Where the bus had to turn around was very close to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum so they were are first sights.

Before getting up close and personal to both, we took some time to admire the Arch of Constantine.
Norngirl is a Byzantine nerd so like me seeing Vesuvius the day before, this was her moment of seeing something for herself that she'd only seen in books and film.

The arch admired we set off in what turned out to be the wrong way for our search of toilets. After giving up and turning round to go back towards the Colosseum knowing they’d likely have some somewhere, we got in line to buy tickets. Thankfully inside the bowels of the Colosseum on the ground floor near the entrance are some toilets.

Relieved, we then set about exploring the Colosseum and the cavernous concourses we'd passed through.

The Colosseum is probably the worlds most well known amphitheater that apparently dates back to 72AD (when its construction is said to have started).

The Colosseum is an impressive monument to it’s time, very imperial looking and imposing even in it's current state.

In it's heyday it was apparently able to hold 50,000 spectators. What it was like in it's prime must have been pretty spectacular especially given how unique it was in it's scale.

Reading about some of the entertainment on show I think I'm happy to stick with football and ice hockey -occasions where the only things to be murdered are our hopes. I wouldn't have liked to be walking among these submerged passages back then!

Much like our visit to Pompeii, the strangest thing was how familiar walking around it for the first time felt. How similar to modern stadia it appeared - especially when walking around the inner concourses then stepping out through it’s arches into the seating areas.

So much in the concept of a stadium has been kept and so little it has evolved since the Romans had this leviathan built. Thankfully most of humanity’s ideas of what constitutes entertainment have become a little less cruel and imperialistic - on and off.

It also seems to be well looked after which is good news.

I’d personally have liked to have spent a little longer looking around but as with the entire trip it was a little more rushed than our usual sightseeing trips largely due to our hotel floating off at assigned times. So we got a move on and left the kitty to catch all those barbarian mice.

Our next historical sight of Rome was just over the brow of the hill - The Roman Forum.

Walking around Washington DC

After an evening of the unexpected on day 1 in Washington DC, day 2 of our visit started off the same way but ended nicely.

So following a good sleep in a bed that didn't bend my spine in strange places (unlike our one at home that does), I woke up as if I'd got up at lunchtime. My body clock likes going to this time zone, it's the only time I can get up at 7.30am and feel like I assume most 'morning' people do *shakes fist at morning people*.

With me wide strangely awake and a little hyper, and Norngirl not so much so (caffeine hadn't yet kicked in), we spent the next half an hour or more stood waiting on a bus. This was getting to be an all too familiar ordeal. Eventually it came and it took us within sight of the route it had taken the night before... only to then be caught in a one way system that circumvented the place we wanted to be. Realising this, we got off at the nearest available stop - by the agricultural department - we wanted to be outside the old Post Office, ah well. So we made our way across the mall and had a look at the Washington Monument.

We knew where we were going but stopped to check the sign for later to see which of the buildings was the museum we were going to. Before we'd chance, we were approached by a guy who was trying to sell free maps (one of which we already had) to tourists. This seemed to be a big thing in Washington DC, there were an awful lot of homeless people and it seems their main source of income is anyone who looks like a tourist. As bad as it feels to say no to someone trying their best to emotionally manipulate you into buying something you don't need nor want, we did say no thanks and got the 'ah you didn't do anything wrong' guilt spiel. I tend not to give money to homeless people. It might sound harsh but in the UK I put money into official charity boxes instead where it might be spent on food and shelter and not on the cigarettes and alcohol that plenty of homeless folks seem to have on their person. At least that way the money can be used constructively to help even if it doesn't address the immediate needs or wants of a person on that individual day.

All that aside, we made our way along the path past another homeless person who was wandering the lawn who shouted something at us, the other few tourists or another homeless guy that was indecipherable that didn't sound friendly. We quickly moved on to find our way to the Old Post Office.

We had planned to go up the tower to take a look but the place was deserted and by the time we found a sign stating which entrance to use, we were already running behind schedule so gave it a miss. Afterall, we didn't want to be towed for idling... in this usually warm winter it just wasn't cold enough for us to stay there for long.

Instead we walked past the FBI building where a very enthusiastic lady from out of state sung the praises of Washington and told us how she'd been up the old post office tower before... at least someone was having a good time in this city!

Next we found civilisation as we walked past Ford's Theatre. Norngirl was amazed that I didn't know the reference as to why it was an infamous location, ah well, I knew a matter of seconds afterwards that it was the theatre where Abe Lincoln was assassinated in 1865.

The streets were still quiet but we soon discovered the population of Washington DC appeared to be having brunch. So we joined them and had brunch.

It was a quick brunch though for our itinerary had us down to be at the Verizon Centre to watch the Boston Bruins Vs Washington Capitals. I'll be putting together a separate post on our 3 hockey games from the trip (so I'll put a link here once I post it near the end) but for now, here is the cool inside of the Verizon Centre, a cool place to watch hockey!

Finally having found something happy to do we were in better spirits and walked down the hill to the mall where we saw a few more sights along the way.

Sights like this place that I can't find the name of and that I didn't know what I was looking at at the time...

And the Capitol Building... from this angle, nestled in a construction site.

Our destination was the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum, the one with this big piece of modern art outside it that reminded me of the road system in this city.

And here is me taking a photo of the national mall through the reflection of it in the windows of the museum.

The National Air and Space Museum was awesome, I especially liked the space exhibits. I could have stayed in there the best part of the day but we only had a couple of hours until it closed. From seeing yourself through a live thermal heat camera to a simulation of a NASA moon landing there was plenty to see and do.

There seems to be something about ice hockey and museums that makes for a fun day - like our awesome day in 2010.

After leaving the museum it was getting on a bit and the sun was starting to set.

The evenings entertainment for us was a monuments by moonlight trolley bus tour but to get to Union station we had 2 buses to catch - we waited for 5 minutes before opting to walk it to just catch the 2nd of the two buses and we walked up to Chinatown. Hard to miss Chinatown in Washington DC, the start of it looks like this:

In that time, our bus didn't pass us so it was a good choice. It wasn't such a good choice to leave that bus stop after 10 minutes and walk to the station. Our bus went past us about half way. Ah well, at least we knew we'd get there on time + the place looked pretty in the twilight of a cloudy dusk and into the dark of the late evening, so walking, although bad for Norngirls hip, was a nice way to see the city a bit more.

Anyway, before too long, there we were at Union Station and in time for our tour with time to grab some food in the station's food court.

Washington had grown on me a little but there was still much to see that day, albeit in the dark... on the Monuments By Moonlight Tour...

Exploring the Cavehill and Cavehill Country Park - Part 1

My feet kept sliding backwards, it was clear I had taken the wrong path in my trek to the summit of the Cavehill in the Cavehill Country Park. It dawned on me that this was probably why the sign said the equivalent of 'take the sheep's path at your own risk'. It really hadn't looked this steep from the bottom. Oops.

I caught my footing and clambered back to much  sturdier ground that was scattered with plenty of fixed-in-place rocks. I negotiated my way over them, on all fours at times. It was like being a kid on a climbing frame again.

Conscious of eroding the hill quicker than nature and other people were already doing, I did my best to not cause the scree I was walking on to relocate further down the slope. I dodged the rabbit droppings that were peppering the ground and after a quick stop to rabbit spot, I was all but a short climb of some steps from McArt's Fort.

Before we head up those stairs though, here is where it all started...
The Monday before last was the Monday following the weekend of joy that crescendoed with Leeds United being promoted from League One to the Championship. So whilst feeling on top of the world, I had planned to use one of my days off to head a little higher in the physical sense of the term. So when the weather forecast had given the indication that Monday was the best day of the week to be heading outdoors, I made a vague plan. The idea was to make my way to ASDA on the Shore Road, to buy some supplies and then set off walking towards the Cavehill Country Park and, via Belfast Castle, make my way to the top of the Cavehill where I would reward myself with my lunch.

I know Divis at 478m is the highest elevation of Belfast's Hills but at 370m the Cavehill won out, mainly because it was closer and I couldn't fathom how to make it to the top of the Divis hills with just public transport and my own two feet (at least in any reasonable length of time) - though having found the link there I think that this trip might be do-able in the future!

Kitted out in the sort of gear you'd wear to play 5-a-side football but with a coat over the top, I beeped my items through the self-service checkouts and started my walk.

From ASDA this was my eventual route:

Path depicted using Google Earth

The first part was a breeze. It began well as I hadn't even passed too far by the old gateway to the Fortwilliam area before I had spotted some wildlife. It was a grey squirrel foraging around but it was already on the move before I had the sense to try and take out my camera. I was soon at the Antrim Road and walking up Innisfayle Park and into the grounds of the park.

The incline started to pick up as I approached Belfast Castle itself. Belfast Castle is a castle only in the palace type definition of the word as it is a sort of Victorian stately home, but is never the less an impressive structure with quite a view.

Having found myself here plenty of times before, I didn't go snooping around and just passed through the gates to head onto the forest path. The path leads up to an odd feature of the Cavehill, a depression surrounded by tiny-hillock like mounds and boulders, an area known locally as the 'Devils Punchbowl'. The path is lined with trees and from a gentle start gets quite steep about 3/4 of the way up to the Punchbowl. Being unfit and wanting to make it to the top as soon as possible (I was very hungry by this point) I took a quick rest and took on some fluids to keep me going.

I set off again and soon made it to the Devils Punchbowl. Once there I had a look at the quickest route to the top. I was in two minds as to whether to stick with my original plan of making the steepish clamber or take the easy but longer hike. Sat on the edge of a hillock looking up at the hill I made my mind up. Or was there a little devil on my shoulder telling me to do it? Whatever the real reason, I decided I was going to head up the steep route.

With slightly heavy legs I began the walking-clamber. At first it is a slight hill heading south beneath the cliffs, then with the large basaltic outcrop looming, the path became earth and rocky scree. With the path uneven and very loose in places I was in two minds between looking up incase of falling rocks and looking down to ensure I wasn't going to be heading backwards.

Inbetween the glances up and down I caught sight of something moving. Two rabbits bounded in opposite directions and out of site. Like Alice spotting a glimps of the white rabbit, I had to follow, although unlike Alice, I had a camera with a decent zoom so didn't have to get too close. Having spotted a rabbit moving I had the camera on and aimed. But where had it gone? I never saw it leave. I took a photo and had a look. Still nothing, but...ah wait, there it was! It was camouflaged against its habitat, presumably to make it harder for the birds of prey that stalk the hills to make the wee thing their next meal.

Back on the move, I found myself facing a literal uphill struggle. I could perhaps make better progress on a solid base of rocks. With that plan though came the problem of it being steeper. I ended up having to use my hands as well as my feet. It was feeling like the wrong choice, but in so many other ways it was the right choice. I was feeling free and having fun, even if I was having to avoid putting my hands in rabbit droppings.

I persisted and only got myself in a twist the once which required sitting down and spinning around. Having got out of that pickle I was soon on a short walk on flatter ground between two outcrops feeling quite proud of myself. I was near the top but couldn't yet see anything infront of me but rock, grass and path. The informal path reached a proper one and a cattle gate too. I was almost at the top, a climb of the steps away from the view from McArt's Fort.

As I made my way up the steps, the anticipated panorama was hesitant in appearing and a continued view of grass meeting the sky met my eyes. Then there it was, Belfast and the surrounding area, in the distance I could see the North Down coast and further afield. The Mourne Mountains were poking in and out of the clouds and the city was bustling by below me.

Sadly there was quite a bit of cloud so the view from the top of the Cavehill wasn't quite as far reaching as it could have been, but it was quite a sight never the less and here are some of the sights I captured on camera from (and in one case hanging over) the edge of Napoleon's Nose:

   

Once I'd absorbed the view, I sat myself down and unzipped my backpack. I took out the goodies I had bought and dug in.

Settled down for a short stay, as you do. I set up a windmill and with the wind up there it spun like it had never spun before (yes I am a big kid, did I not mention that already?). Also except from birds, planes or the wind blowing it off the cliff, I was protected on all sides from food thieves and could really enjoy the hour or so I loitered watching the world go by.

Reluctantly, I had to make a move and head down the hill. I packed up my things, making sure not to leave any trace of my presence. The question in my head was then, which way?

After hopefully joining me in a short hypnotic interval with the Hypnowheel of Belfast, please do visit the next page - Part 2 of Exploring the Cavehill and Cavehill Country Park to find out what I came across next.