Getting to Rome and the Vatican Museums

On Tuesday night we left Ineke's home to prepare for our very early flight the next day. Since our plane was to leave at 6.30am and we needed to be at the airport by 5.30am --the latest--which was too early to ask for a ride, we decided to sleep in the airport. No biggie. Done it before. Problem: the trains were extrememly delayed and we missed the last bus to the airport and were forced to spend 8 hours in the South railway station of Brussels on the coldest night Brussels has had in years.

And it was cold. -10 degrees in a station with no heat. It was uncomfortable, but kind of entertaining. We foiled the plans of a pickpocket who was attempting to steal from us. Apparently I yelled quite loudly at him, which is fine, since he left and when he tried to return in a few hours and I yelled at him again, he left again. Mat wants it noted that he chased him away.

We spent a few hours in a kebob shop drinking tea to warm up by the heater and then we spent most of the night in a sealed room, which managed to have some heat. We made the 4.30 am bus ride to the airport where we slept for the first time, getting a total of 45 minutes on the bus and 1.5 hours on the plane (though neither was comfortable). Needless to say when we finally made it to our hotel....we slept. We slept from noon until 7pm, had dinner and slept again from 11pm until 9am the next day.

So our first real day in Rome didn't count, so we made alot out of the next one: we went to the Vatican Museums.

We also had a lot of rain.



Note the wet pants. Our feet never really dried from this walk (and I had an umbrella) .

Now I knew that Vatican City was a country on its own, but I didn't realize that it's really just a building with gardens contained in very high walls. Note the tennis court. Behind that, you're looking at the walls that drop to Rome.

See how large they are. We're now in Rome. On the other side of the wall is Vatican City.

The part of the Vatican that is open to the public is a series of many museums that display the art and cultural collections of the Vatican, as well as beautiful courtyards like this one.

This is a famous pinecomb, but I can't remember why.

There are countless marble statues. This one is of an unnamed woman who wanted a staute of herself done in the likes of Venus. The interesting thing is that she has a removable wig, so her hair can be kept up to date with the fashion of the times.

Every surface of the Vatican is covered in a painting of some kind. There are thousands of statues and

each room has a design in the elaborate marble floor.

A statue of Minerva (Greek name of Athena)

This is the octagonal courtyard.

The Sistine Chapel

Now I know I'm ill-educated, but I had no idea that the Sistine chapel is actually inside the Vatican. I also always thought it was a dome. It's not. In fact, the Sistine chapel is a very long room with incredible frescoes on the walls and ceiling and with a very detailed marble floor. Because it is a church, there is supposed to be no talking---and no pictures, but with 400 people in a room, those rules don't really stay.

Here is the most famous part of Michelangelo's painting.

the floor

The Vatican is simply overwhelming. It is grand and elaborate and beautiful.

even the crosses are fancy.

Adam and Eve in a painting with over 200 diiferent animals.

the virgin and child in stained glass. It is breathtaking.

These are three paintings by Raphael.

This is The Madonna of Foligno. Note the angels in the clouds.

This is the Transfiguration

Raphael's Room of the Segnatura

This is another painting by Raphael. The School of Athens. It shows the combining of Christianity with knowledge (Jesus is walking with Plato)

Raphael's The Liberation of Saint Peter From Prison.

A piece of modern religious art.

After a long day at the Vatican, we exited on this very cool stairway and into the rain (yes, still). We are very lucky that it's only rain though, since everywhere in Europe (except Italy) is having the coldest winter in a while. It even snowed in Spain today. There are apparently 8 days (on average) of rain. Hopefully they don't all come while we're here.

Real snow is Belgium

Belgium got snow and a whole 2 inches. It isn't much in Canadian standards, but it's the most they've had in over 5 years.

Mat got out the shovel for some exercise

While I made a snowman (with Ineke's help of course)

We then headed to Leuven, the nearest large city, and home to one of Europe's oldest Universities.

The city seems quite nice normally, but with a thin layer of snow everywhere it's hard to tell

The snow did make the buildings beautiful.

But once again...not quite the Leuven that the Belgians are used to.

I decided to wear my new London winter boots. The key here is London. London doesn't get snow...and therefore no ice. These boots are waterproof-ish, but have no grips for ice.


Therefore the long walk we had planned through Leuven became a torturous game of me grabbing Mat, who was walking exhaustingly slow, while I tried to keep two feet on the ground. The fun of winter.

Well this little taste of winter (and yes, only a fraction of what you've got at home) was enough for me. We'll be heading to Rome tomorrow, to bask in the ancient city's almost double digit temperature.

Rome here we come!!

(Since we'll be staying in hostels again--i.e. no internet--the blog was be sparse for a while.)

Brussels

Brussels is the capital city of Belgium, as well as the capital of the European Union and the 'center of Europe'.

The Auto Museum



The Arch de Triumph

This building housed the European Commission, but they've had to move, since it has been under renovation to rid it of asbestos.

Atomium. Made for the world fair. Has 9 atoms to represent the 9 provinces of Belgium.

The oldest hotel in Brussels

a church

The palace of the royal family.

a view from the center of the grand place (a giant town square with gorgeous buildings)

Grand Place

Inside on of Brussels' oldest shopping arcades

the most famous street in Brussels. Now home to countless seafood restaurants.

overlooking Belgium

The Old England Department Store. One of the oldest buildings in Brussels. Now home to the Museum of Musical Instruments.

This is a logo for a restaurant. Here you can see what looks to be a small boy peeing. That it is. It is the city's beloved Mannekin Pis.

He is famous and is replicated in many forms. Story goes that there was an attack on the city and the invaders had lit canons. The young boy (only 5 years old) saw this and extinguished the danger through urination. While this statue is popular for many reasons (mostly because of the humour), he is also known for wearing costumes.

The day we visited they were celebrating 200 years of braille. Here is Mannekin Pis dressed as a blind boy.

Cute

In the city museum we found a collection of some of his costumes (there are thousands).

Here is Elvis.

and a Montreal Canadian

Now you may think it's a little sexist to have a statue of a boy peeing and not a girl. Well...here is the statue to make it equal.

The peeing girl. Not quite as cute. She's actually unknown (not on any maps) and is locked behind bars in a tiny little dead end street. Doesn't seem quite fair.