Rome!

It has been a very long time since I have posted any new adventures.  As 2012 is rapidly speeding by, I think I have to get on top of things again.  Thank goodness I have many great adventures already planned for the year!  

But let me tell you about the first trip I took to Rome a few weeks ago....

I had not seen Sandra in a year so we planned to meet up in Rome (while she is living in Germany for the year). Rebecca also joined me for the trip.  Little did we know that we would be visiting Rome during the most snowfall they had in the last 27 years!

We arrived to snow Friday night and made our way to the hotel (only because Sandra came looking for us as we were a bit lost). The next morning we set out to see the sites. 

It was rather crazy to see palm trees with snow!

The Italians were out playing in the snow as the whole city was shut down. Everyone was having a great time. These people were making a snowman.

We decided to jump on the tram because we thought it would be the best way to get into the city, however, the tram was not running! We only figured this out after a 15 minute wait. Here I am waiting at the tram station.

From there, we decided to take a bus which was absolutely crazy. There were very few buses running and they were packed. It took us about 30 minutes of walking to get to the first stop on the bus line so we could get on.

Here is Rebecca and I on the bus.

The bus we were on was great as it dropped us right outside the Colosseum.

It was just so massive.  Here is Sandra and I standing in front of it.

A little video.

I tried to take a number of photos of myself with my camera....

At one point, we were in the middle of about 100 people having a snowball fight in front of the Colosseum! Italians and snow!

From there, we started to walk our way through the city. There were hardly any cars on the road so all the people took over the streets. It felt like we were at some big event.

We walked by many Roman ruins.

We also passed many statues. This statue had a snowball located in a strange place.....

The statues were amazing covered in snow.

We passed the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele.

From there we continued to walk the streets. All three of us were very good sports as we had been walking for a few hours and it was really cold.

We then headed to the Trevi Fountain.  I was surprised it is just in the middle of group of buildings. Somehow in my mind I thought it overlooked a grand square.

Here is Sandra and Rebecca.

We were lucky to get the last bit of daylight. How many times do you see this fountain with snow on it?

From there, we found a cute little restaurant to grab lunch.

Rebecca has been to Rome a few times for work so she knows the city pretty well. She took us to a nearby church called Sant'Ignazio Di Loyola.  It had wonderful painted ceilings.

From there, we walked over to the Pantheon. Since it had snowed, the whole city had shut down and all the monuments were closed. But it was nice to see the outside.

From there, we walked to the Piazza Navona.

We ended the day with a cocktail bar and good food!

All in all, we had a wonderful weekend trip. We had lots of good food, wine, and laughter. Can't wait to do it again!  I will now have to go back when it is much much warmer!

China, China, China (Part 3)

After our great day on the Li River, we were convinced by the people at our hotel that we should go see the light show on the river.  We really did not know anything about it, but they said it was one the most popular things in the area.  So we headed out to the show.  Here is the entrance.

We were rather shocked to find out that we had second row seats in a 3,000 seated outdoor stadium.  Here is a shot of the stadium as we waited for everyone to get seated. There were also very few Westerners there.

The stadium faced a huge lake that was surrounded by mountain peaks.  It really was beautiful.  As the sun set, the entertainment started.  We really did not understand most of it, but there was over 600 people performing.  There was lots of singing by girls in stunning outfits.

There were also men floating on boats, doing amazing things.

More singers.

There was so much going on that you really couldn't take it all in.

The end of the show was really neat as it was pitch dark and all the performers came out with lights on their costumes.

What we found out afterwards was that the whole show was designed by the same man, Zhang Yimou, who did the opening and closing shows for the Beijing Olympics!  Most of the 600 performers were from the surrounding area, many of which were farmers.

The next morning we rented some bikes and took a ride through the countryside.

They were just starting to plant the rice fields.

We saw a number of farmers working the fields.

Here is Rebecca with great scenery behind her.

Here I am.  This photo was taken with one of Rebecca's cool IPhone apps.

We kept stopping to take in the view.

We road through a village and the doors were all decorated.  I like this one with the rabbits.

On the way back to the hotel, we passed this Discovery vehicle on the side of the road.  Don't know what they were doing in the area but probably taking in the landscape.

After our great bike ride, we took a cooking class in Yangshuo.  We were driven to a local market where we met our chef.  We started out with some of the pond life.  Some eels anyone?  There are also frogs in the bags!

 

Snails?

Here is a video in the market.

We walked around and talked about all the vegetables on the tables.  Here is some lettuce and the chef was telling us that they cook a lot with the stem (which most of us never see in the store).

 

This looked like a weed of some sort.

This is some type of radish.

Lots of chilies.

Look at this enormous melon!

 Some dead ducks and sausage anyone?
 

We saw bags and bags of noodles.

You could also buy cooked food.

 

Besides the dogs and cats we say hanging in the butcher area (yes...dogs and cats), we also saw live chickens, bunnies, and geese for your dinner plate.

We also saw lots of eggs.  The ones that are blue are their "1,000 year old egg" which is actually pickled and black on the inside.

Here is some pickled bamboo.  This is what bamboo looks like on the inside.  Very interesting.

After the market, we walked over to the cooking school.  It has a few cooking rooms overlooking the river.
 

 A beautiful setting.

We suited up and cooked for a few hours.  Here is Rebecca ready to get going.

 

We had a very small class and learned how to cook many different things like egg dumplings.  Here we are prepping.  Look at the size of our knives!

 

One of the father's in the class took photos of everyone to make sure we captured the event.

Making egg dumplings which was very easy.

Showing off our skills.

A demo from the chef.

Afterwards, we got to enjoy our work.   It was all really good.

Of course, afterwards, we were exhausted.....so we had to sit down and relax with a few drinks.

It was a fantastic day!  More to follow...