Moving on...to Amsterdam!

After visiting Germany, we traveled up to the Netherlands, also known as Holland. We spent a day in the capital city of Amsterdam and got to see where Anne Frank lived when her family was in hiding. That was very neat to see.

Amsterdam is an interesting city. Now if it isn't confusing enough that the country has two names, people who are from Holland (or the Netherlands) are called Dutch. The Dutch, in olden days, were great sailors and masters of the sea. 

Amsterdam is a city of canals. Because it used to be a very important shipping port, there are canals all throughout the city. They are all connected by tunnels and bridges.  We were lucky enough to get to take a boat tour of Amsterdam.

Every single house has one of these funny hooks at the very top. You see, the doorways and staircases are very, very narrow.  Whenever anyone moves into a different house, they use these hooks, called "furniture hooks" to move the furniture out through the windows! I'm sure you've seen cartoons or movies where they lift a piano this way and it falls to the ground...I don't want to know how many smashed pianos there have been in Amsterdam.

Because this is a city of canals, a lot of people have houseboats. There are apparently two kinds:  legal and illegal. You know a houseboat is legal if it has running water and electricity, which can only be obtained by registering your houseboat with the city. If you don't do that, you don't get plumbing or electricity, and therefore, it is illegal for you to be living on the canal.

The other type of transportation you see a lot in Amsterdam is bicycles. There were literally bicycles everywhere. At the train station, there was a separate parking garage...for bicycles.

Fun fact:  the Dutch were the first to settle in what is now the state of New York. Before the English took over, New York City was called New Amsterdam, and New York the colony was called New Holland. Neat, huh?

Another Castle Visit

I have already shown you one castle--Bodiam Castle, which is now mostly ruins and was built hundreds and hundreds of years ago.  I thought I would show you a more modern version of a European castle.

This is Neuschwanstein Castle in Fussen, Germany, which was built by King Ludwig II starting in 1869.  Ludwig was called the "Fairy Tale King", and when we look at Neuschwanstein, it is easy to see why.  You might recognize it--the Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland was modeled after Neuschwanstein.

Ludwig II loved Richard Wagner, who was a composer. Wagner wrote many operas, and Ludwig had decided to make Neuschwanstein a monument to that.  All the paintings and tapestries show scenes from these operas. You cannot take pictures of the inside, so you will just get to see lots of pictures of the outside as I tell you more about Ludwig and his beloved Neuschwanstein.

Ludwig was king of Bavaria, which is an area of Germany in the south.  He loved this land--it is easy to see why! Neuschwanstein is nestled in the Bavarian Alps.  This was one of four castles Ludwig had planned. The first two had already been built, and the fourth was never built.  Why, you ask?

Simple:  a band of people in the government didn't like Ludwig.  They did some tests on him and had him declared insane (there is dispute today as to whether or not those tests were faked, the doctors given false information, etc.).  When you are insane, you cannot be king, and so they forced Ludwig to step down. This is where the name "Mad King Ludwig" came about, by which he is sometimes called.  

So the government made Ludwig move out of his beloved Neuschwanstein, where he had only lived for 172 days. The very next day, Ludwig was found dead. He had drowned mysteriously in a lake with his psychiatrist. There are a lot of theories as to how he died (was it suicide or murder?), but to this day, no one knows for sure. Immediately following his death, all construction on his castles stopped. Neuschwanstein is unfinished to this day--the third floor has never been complete. And the fourth castle he commissioned was scrapped, never to be built.

Only 6 weeks after his death, Neuschwanstein was opened for visitors.  Despite the claims that he was "mad," the Bavarians loved their king.  There are monuments up for him everywhere. The people of Bavaria will never let the memory of their "Fairy Tale King" die.

The Hills are Alive...in Salzburg!

Today we have another day off of school! It is a bank holiday...don't really know what that means, but schools and banks are closed. I thought I would continue with our trip.

After we left Italy, we went up to Austria. This entire day was like a dream come true for me.  You see, my favorite movie ever is The Sound of Music. When I was in high school, we did the play and I got to be Maria. I've always wanted to go to Salzburg (where the movie was filmed, home to the real von Trapp family).

This is the hedge tunnel. If you haven't seen the movie, just bear with me.  If you have seen the movie, you will know that this is where the children are riding bicycles and singing "Do-Re-Mi."

We also saw Residenzplatz which is a big plaza area with a horse fountain.  In the movie, Maria crosses this plaza singing a song.  A little known movie-fact:  in the background of that scene, you can see the real Maria von Trapp as an extra!

Another place we went was Nonnberg Abbey, which is the place where Maria is training to be a nun before going to the von Trapp home.  We couldn't go in, but we could see the gate...and this amazing view of Salzburg!

The Festival Hall was also off-limits, as it is used today for concerts and such things. But I was able to get some nice pictures from the outside. I had to just imagine the stage where the family sings "Edelweiss," though.

Our final stop was the Hellbrun estate, which houses the pavilion from the "Sixteen going on Seventeen" scene.  As we walked to the estate, we saw such beautiful scenery!

I could have stayed in Austria the entire time...but I don't think my family would have liked it if I didn't come home!

National Holiday!!! (And a city destroyed by a volcano!)

I have all sorts of fun things to talk about today, the first being that I did not have school today! My students and I got a day off because of Prince William's wedding. Instead of going to London where all the craziness is, I stayed at my house and watched it on the telly.  We had tea and scones and party-poppers for the kiss on the balcony. It was so exciting...and in case you haven't seen one yet, here is a picture of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and her husband, Prince William (who became Duke of Cambridge this morning at around 8:00).

Now then, I also mentioned a city destroyed by a volcano.  Not here in England--in Italy!  Some of you may heard of Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius.  While we were in Italy, we visited the ruins of Pompeii.

One of the most amazing things is that Pompeii was a port city, meaning it was on the sea.  As you can see from this picture, there is no water anywhere near the ruins. That is because after the volcano erupted, the sea receded.

In 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius literally blew its top.  Volcanic ash and rock fell on to the city of Pompeii and completely covered it, killing over 5,000 people.  The reason everything is in such good shape today is because of the layer of ash that fell onto the city. 

The buildings were completely preserved.  There are large storehouses of pottery and tools and other such things that were unharmed in the volcano's eruption.  Because of all this amazing preservation, scientists can really see what life was like in Pompeii and can make conclusions about what it was like all over Italy during that time. 

Yes, this is a person from Pompeii.  It does require a bit of explanation.  You see, when scientists and archeologists started to excavate the city, they kept finding all these empty pockets in the ash.  Someone noticed that these pockets had bones in them and realized that they were where people had been when the volcano erupted.  They quickly filled some of the pockets with plaster, and now they can see the position that the people were in when they died.  Kind of gruesome, but it goes to show how much of a shock this was for the people of Pompeii. They found people sitting at tables or cooking, just going about their daily lives.  Little did they know that sleeping mountain behind them was going to explode!

This is a very famous statue called "The Dancing Faun."  A faun was a mythological creature.  Historians do not know who lived in this house, but they know that this person was extremely wealthy and had good taste.  The house is massive, has two gardens inside the walls, and very few decorations.  They have never been able to find any sort of record of who might have lived there.  This would be like if some millionaire had a mansion, abandoned it, and left no trace as to who they really were.

Going to Pompeii was strange.  It was hard to look at the ruins and imagine them as a city.  People would have walked on the streets and lived in the houses. There are several places they have identified as bakeries based on the kind of things in the house. People just lived their lives here! Now it is hard to imagine that.

Tomorrow, I will show you the other key part of the Pompeii story. I hope you enjoyed learning about Pompeii!

The Island of Capri

Some of you may have seen pictures of Italy in movies or on t.v., maybe in a magazine article about tourism.  Generally when you see Italy in such places, it is a lot of beaches and clear blue water and whitewashed buildings with terra-cotta roofs.  When I went to Rome and later the town of Naples, I thought that maybe this Italy did not exist. After all, the cities were kind of dirty and nowhere near the water.

And then I went to the Island of Capri.

Capri was like a tropical paradise! The island is only 4 miles long and 2 miles wide, rather small.  We took a boat tour around it and got to see all these amazing white cliffs.

There is a place there called the Blue Grotto.  A grotto is like an underwater cave.  You can take a row boat into the grotto, rowed by an Italian man who sings to you. The entrance to the grotto is so small that you have to lay down in the boat to get in, but once you're in...

The light shines in through the grotto opening and looks like it shines from underneath--like there was a lightbulb down there.  This is also a place where some jellyfish hibernate, hence all the jellyfish. Our sailor pulled one out of the water!

We rode a chairlift up the mountain on the island and got an amazing view.  The water here was bluer than anything I have ever seen--bluer than the sky even.

I don't think I can really say anything else about Capri. I'll let the pictures talk for themselves--after all, a picture is worth a thousand words!

Ciao, Roma!

Our third and final day in Rome was very relaxed.  One of the first things we did was stop by this lovely fountain.

This is Trevi Fountain, and it is huge! There is a large sculpture/building behind it, as you can see in this picture.

Here is the actual fountain.  Not only is it huge, but it is very pretty. We ate our lunch sitting on the side.

As did a lot of people. There were people everywhere, just chilling by the fountain. Climbing on the fountain. Throwing coins into the fountain. I've learned some interesting things about coins over here--I'll bring back some Euro-cents and pence to show you. (I made a wish, too, and tossed in a 5-Euro-cent coin). 

Rome was nice for the most part. It is hard going to a country that doesn't speak English. We learned some phrases, such as "thank you," "do you speak English," and "where do I buy tickets?" Not always easy to remember, but we made it through.

Tomorrow we will still be in Italy, but no longer in Rome. Get ready for some awesome Italian history/geography!

Rome, Day 2

On our second day in Rome, Italy, we technically visited another country. This country is very small--only 0.17 square miles.  We didn't even need to show our passport to enter.

This is Vatican City. If you are Catholic, then you will know that a very important person lives here--the Pope.  The pope did not come out to where we were, though, so we didn't get to see him.  But we did get to see this amazing church.

This is St. Peter's Basilica.  It was designed by Michelangelo and built over the site where St. Peter was buried.  It is said that his bones and coffin are in the catacombs beneath the church, but we weren't able to go down there and look.

This is The Pieta. It was sculpted by Michelangelo and one of the few pieces of artwork this famous painter actually signed.  The sculpture sits behind bullet-proof glass because in the 1970s, a very angry person hit the statue with a hammer and damaged it.
You may have heard of Michelangelo.  He is the fellow who painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  Guess where the Sistine Chapel is?  That's right--in Vatican City!  We were able to go in, but we could not take any pictures. I found these online so that you can see what I got to see. It was amazing! 

I don't know if you noticed the columns in the first picture. There is something very special about them.  You can see in the first picture that the columns go around the piazza, or plaza, and that there are rows behind the first row. Well, the architect who designed it did something really cool. There is a certain spot where you can stand.  When you stand there and look at the arc of columns in front of you, you notice something cool.

They are all perfectly in line! Isn't that crazy? What a smart guy!
Tomorrow is our last day in Rome...I wonder what we'll see!