Italy Discovered

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  • Nov 02, 2000 - Leaving SFO
  • Nov 03, 2000 - England - FIRST TIME!
  • Nov 03, 2000 - Rome - Day 1
  • Nov 04, 2000 - Rome - Day 2
  • Nov 07, 2000 - Rome - Day 3 and Venice
  • Nov 07, 2000 - Venice and Rome
  • Nov 08, 2000 - Back to California
  • Friday, Nov 03, 2000

    England

    Wow! A whole new country for me. A place with a different past and history. We only have a 6-hour layover, but still. It's a brand new world, one where I've only seen in movies or read about in school.

    I'm not sure what time the airplane crew is keeping. It's very quiet now. Most of the passengers are sleeping. Even the crying babies nodded off. With the drone of the engines and the wind, it's quite serene, and the time seems to be just flying by. (Hahhaha I kill me!)

    11/03/00 3:13 (PST) - Flyin' High

    Guess I didn't sleep much as it's tough to dose off on a plane. I did get about 45 minutes of actual sleep. But around 2:45, daylight suddenly brought the cabin and passengers to life. Now, breakfast is being served, so it seems sleep time is officially over.

    One of my first great sites came as I looked out the window and onto the horizon. The clouds were scattered about and far below us. Underneath that, I tried to make out the land below but could not. I then realized why. We were over the ocean, not land. That made sense because I then could make out the ocean below us. There seemed to be white specs everywhere which I presumed to be chunks of ice. The view was simply astonishing.

    11/03/00 3:53 (PST) - Food, Glorious Food!

    Breakfast was great! There wasn't a lot of food, but it doesn't take much for me to fill up, so I am full. I even had a cup of coffee as well. Again, it was tough to eat in such cramped conditions, but I adjusted once more. A person has few choices; he can either adjust, or pay tons of extra cash for better seating. Or one could just not fly at all.... I chose to adjust

    11/03/00 6:22 (PST) 2:22 (GMT) - A New Country Discovered!

    Flying over the England coast, we could see it. It being everything such as houses, fields, rivers, soccer arenas. This was it! This was England! The air terminal was standard, and as we journeyed through the hallways, I could feel more of England in the air...

    Our next task was to get into London. We were thinking of taking the express rail, but since it would cost about $80 (US) to get there and back we decided to take the Tube.

    The Tube is London's version of BART. It's above and below ground and sort of chugs along from stop to stop. Unfortunately, it's killing a lot of our time in England and may limit our sight-seeing but that's okay, we came for Rome. London was a bonus.

    The train allowed us to see the landscapes of England to a degree. It's very green and reminds me of spring in California. We were been blessed with beautiful weather. The sun is shining and we are ready to see London!

    11/03/00 8:33am (PST) 4:30 (GMT) - I Remember London...Sort Of.

    Zoom! Did you see it? London was close to a blur! We now take the Tube back to Heathrow. The sun is setting now as daylight leaves us again. Back in California I'd be sleeping right now.

    The good news is that we had just enough time to see a few big London sights. Our first was Westminster. It was breathtaking. You exit the train station and then look up. The main tower is just hovering over you. The unbelievable architecture is painted with gold. But that was just the beginning. I snapped many pictures of magnificent buildings. I didn't know what half of them were but they looked cool and that was good enough for me. We walked through St. James Park and I took many photos there. The sun was turning everything a golden glow that just amazed me and I couldn't pass up the picture opportunities. As we walked along the Memorial Path of Princess Diana we made our way to the Palace. Our final stop was Buckingham Palace. But time was running out, so we had to take pictures from a distance. Yet, that just wasn't good enough for me. I had to get one of the guards! I sent Misty toward the train with our bags and raced up to the gate. It took a few minutes to get there. Traffic is thick in London and street lights tend to take their own sweet time especially if you are in a hurry. I got to the gates and snapped a few quick shots of them and then the guards. Then I raced to catch up with Misty. We scurried back to the train station to find our train.

    The train station was now packed, (note: we did not know at the time what "packed" was) for it was Friday. Lots of people had places to go including us. There weren't any train delays and I enjoyed my last bit of London scenery as we traveled the slow train back to the airport.

    11/03/00 10:42 (PST) 6:42 (GMT) - Heading for Rome!

    I'd normally be on my third cup of coffee right now back at work, but instead, I've just boarded our second plane flight. We're now getting ready for Rome! We were happy to make the most of our layover though. Alas, this flight has been delayed a bit--though we were told that we'd be leaving 35 minutes later than scheduled. It turns out the air space in Europe is pretty crowded right now. That's okay, I don't mind if they delay for that. I'd prefer not to bump up against any other planes up there so for now...we wait.

    11/03/00 12:26pm (PST) 8:27pm (GMT) - In the Air Again

    Up, up, and AWAY!! We finally got clearance for takeoff and headed into the bright blue sky. Our meticulous readers will wonder how the sky could be bright blue at 8:27pm in the fall, so I'll change that to the black sky. Takeoff was a bit more abrupt this time since we were in a smaller plane. Leaving England gave us a different view. Since it was dark out, we got to see all the lights that lit up the cities. This let us see the roads, neighborhoods, and the streetlights...and London's bad traffic. Yes, they too have miles (kilometers) of backups. After being in the air a while, we even got to see Paris from above! Wow, all these famous places and we only paid for Rome. Our "dinner" was officially titled a "snack." It was delicious though. I even got a few mini brandies and a coke, so I mixed a few drinks and got a light buzz from it.

    I'm getting pretty tired now. I've only slept about one hour since yesterday. The lack of sleep is beginning to catch up with me, but then again, since the plane is speeding along at about 600 miles an hour, it should take some time to catch up.