Easter Break in Europe (Rome and Paris)

     For the last two years or so, Jamie Atwood and myself have been planning a high school trip to Europe for the 2014 Easter break. When we started the planning process, it seemed so far away and would never come. The high school teachers were not too happy with us planning our own trip and taking students from their school. This was because the high school always does their own trip and they didn't appreciate us taking some of the kids away I guess. We understood this, but wanted to have this experience and share our love for history and culture with students. Jamie served his mission in France and has continued to have a passion for the country by teaching French at the Junior High. I love History and learning about how people lived in different parts of the world. This was a great experience for us both to share things that we love with students. So Jamie and I decided to plan our own trip. We passed it with the board and started planning our own Europe trip. We took some of the best kids from the high school to come with us on our trip.

     Where to start? It was such a crazy trip that was so fast paced. Everyday was filled with running from one great monument to the next with a little bit a free time sprinkled here and there. I will do my best to explain some of the places we visited and the great things that we were able to see and experience. The problem is that the picture will never totally explain how great and unforgettable these places were to me and all those visiting in our tour group. It was a once in a life time experience that I am so grateful that I was able to be a part of.

     I had to leave for Europe six days after my daughter Lennon was born and in that six days I grew very attached and I quickly realized that leaving would be a little harder than I thought. The one thing that made me feel better about leaving was knowing that Kristi was going to be spending the time that I was gone at her moms house. I knew that Dixie would take great care of Kristi while she was looking after a new baby. So with all that craziness, we left for the airpot.

     We left Saturday morning from Cardston and drove a bus to Calgary to the airport. Cody Toone was kind enough to drive us up there so that none of us would have to pay to have our vehicles parked at the airport for the time that we were gone. He also was kind enough to come and get us at the end of our trip, but more about that later.

     We flew from Calgary to Amsterdam, which is a flight time of eight and a half hours. Now I am not good when it comes to amusement park rides, so I was a little worried about how I was going to handle a long plane ride. Thank goodness the plane ride was nice and smooth and I was fine and didn't get sick at all on the way over. We were able to fly over the North West Territories and the top of the Hudson Bay. It was cool to see all the breaks in the ice and the way the land was laid out. We had an hour lay over in Amsterdam before we flew to Rome Italy. Now as we were flying over Amsterdam we could see the many tulip fields covering the ground. Great colours of pink, yellow and red covered the ground it a beautiful manner. It looked like a beautiful place and I would love to visit this someday. Too bad our lay over didn't give us anytime to explore this beautiful place - maybe another time. From Amsterdam we took a smaller plane to Rome, which took about two and half hours. Finally about twelve hours or so later we were in our final destination.

 



















  We didn't even have time to rest when we landed in Rome. We met our tour guide and we were off on a site seeing tour of some of the sites in Rome. Everyone was so tired and we felt like we were walking with bricks in our shoes.

We started by meeting at the Fountain of the Four Rivers.

     This is a fountain in the Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy. It was designed in 1651 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini for Pope Innocent X whose family palace, the Palazzo Pamphili, faced onto the piazza as did the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone of which Innocent was the sponsor. The base of the fountain is a basin from the centre of which travertine rocks rise to support four river gods and above them, an ancient Egyptian obelisk surmounted with the Pamphili family emblem of a dove with an olive twig. Collectively, they represent four major rivers of the four continents through which papal authority had spread: the Nile representing Africa, theDanube representing Europe, the Ganges representing Asia, and the Río de la Plata representing the Americas.

     We got our first gelato here. Gelato is Italian ice cream that is so rich and creamy!! This would be the first of many gelatos that we would have while we were in Italy. I think I would go back to Italy for this one reason. haha.

From there we went to see the 
Temple of the Unknown Soldier:
The monument holds the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with an eternal flame, built under the statue of Italy after World War I following an idea of General Giulio Douhet. The body of the unknown soldier was chosen on 26 October 1921 from among 11 unknown remains by Maria Bergamas, a woman from Gradisca d'Isonzowhose only child was killed during World War I. Her son's body was never recovered. The selected unknown was transferred from Aquileia, where the ceremony with Bergamas had taken place to Rome and buried in a state funeral on 4 November 1921.

We continued to walk around the city and walked around the Theatre of Marcellus:
The Theatre of Marcellus (Latin: Theatrum Marcelli, Italian: Teatro di Marcello) is an ancient open-air theatre inRome, Italy, built in the closing years of the Roman Republic. At the theatre, locals and visitors alike were able to watch performances of drama and song. Today its ancient edifice in the rione of Sant'Angelo, Rome, once again provides one of the city's many popular spectacles or tourist sites.

It was named after Marcus Marcellus, Emperor Augustus's nephew, who died five years before its completion. Space for the theatre was cleared by Julius Caesar, who was murdered before it could be begun; the theatre was so far advanced by 17 BC that part of the celebration of the ludi saeculares took place within the theatre; it was completed in 13 BC and formally inaugurated in 12 BC by Augustus.

We saw the Temple of Hercules :

Dating from the later 2nd century BC, and perhaps erected by L. Mummius Achaicus, conqueror of theAchaeans and destroyer of Corinth, the temple is 14.8 m in diameter and consists of a circular cella within a concentric ring of twenty Corinthian columns 10.66 m tall, resting on a tuff foundation. These elements supported an architrave and roof, which have disappeared. The original wall of the cella, built of travertine and marble blocks, and nineteen of the originally twenty columns remain but the current tile roof was added earlier.Palladio's published reconstruction suggested a dome, though this was apparently erroneous. The temple is the earliest surviving marble building in Rome.

   

One of the best days in Rome was the day that we were able to visit and see the Coliseum and the Roman Forum. This is one of the things that I was the most excited about. To see where the Gladiators fought and lost their lives for the entertainment of the Roman leaders and subjects. 

The Colosseum is situated just east of the Roman Forum. Construction began under the emperor Vespasian in 70 AD, and was completed in 80 AD under his successor and heir Titus. Further modifications were made during the reign of Domitian (81–96). These three emperors are known as the Flavian dynasty, and the amphitheatre was named in Latin for its association with their family name (Flavius).

The Colosseum could hold, it is estimated, between 50,000 and 80,000 spectators, and was used for gladiatorialcontests and public spectacles such as mock sea battles, animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Classical mythology. The building ceased to be used for entertainment in the early medieval era. It was later reused for such purposes as housing, workshops, quarters for a religious order, a fortress, a quarry, and a Christian shrine.

The Roman Forum 

The Roman Forum (Latin: Forum Romanum, Italian: Foro Romano) is a rectangular forum (plaza) surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a marketplace, as the Forum Magnum, or simply the Forum.

It was for centuries the center of Roman public life: the site of triumphal processions and elections; the venue for public speeches, criminal trials, and gladiatorial matches; and the nucleus of commercial affairs. Here statues and monuments commemorated the city's great men. The teeming heart of ancient Rome, it has been called the most celebrated meeting place in the world, and in all history. Located in the small valley between the Palatine andCapitoline Hills, the Forum today is a sprawling ruin of architectural fragments and intermittent archaeological excavations attracting 4.5 million sightseers yearly.

Many of the oldest and most important structures of the ancient city were located on or near the Forum. The Roman kingdom's earliest shrines and temples were located on the southeastern edge. These included the ancient former royal residence, the Regia (8th century BC), and the Temple of Vesta (7th century BC), as well as the surroundingcomplex of the Vestal Virgins, all of which were rebuilt after the rise of imperial Rome.

     We visited Trevi Fountain, which is one of the largest fountains in Rome and one of the most famous in the world. When you are there, people are supposed to throw a coin with their right hand over their right shoulder and this is supposed to bring you back to Rome someday. It was said that close to $3000 Euros get tossed into the fountain each day.

We also visited The Pantheon (Temple to all the Gods of ancient Rome)

The building is circular with a portico of large granite Corinthian columns (eight in the first rank and two groups of four behind) under a pediment. A rectangular vestibule links the porch to the rotunda, which is under a cofferedconcrete dome, with a central opening (oculus) to the sky. Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. The height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same, 43.3 metres (142 ft).

It is one of the best-preserved of all Ancient Roman buildings. It has been in continuous use throughout its history, and since the 7th century, the Pantheon has been used as a Roman Catholic church dedicated to "St. Mary and the Martyrs" but informally known as "Santa Maria Rotonda."The square in front of the Pantheon is called Piazza della Rotonda.

     One of the best Trips was to Pompeii. Pompeii was a city outside of Rome that was used as a type of "get away" for the rich. It was a port city that had many travelers to and from the city. The city had a bit of a dark side as well. It was full of brothels that are still in tact and portraits that show "interesting" things haha.The city was close to a volcano called Vesuvius.
     Vesuvius erupted and buried the city in up to 25 meters of ash. The city and all the people within the surrounding area were destroyed. The city was later discovered and unearthed.

The city of Pompeii was an ancient Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area, was mostly destroyed and buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

Researchers believe that the town was founded in the seventh or sixth century BC by the Osci or Oscans and was captured by the Romans in 80 BC. By the time of its destruction, 160 years later, its population was probably approximately 20,000, and the city had a complex water system, an amphitheatre, gymnasium and a port.

The eruption was cataclysmic for the town. Evidence for the destruction originally came from a surviving letter byPliny the Younger, who saw the eruption from a distance and described the death of his uncle Pliny the Elder, an admiral of the Roman fleet, who tried to rescue citizens. The site was lost for about 1,500 years until its initial rediscovery in 1599 and broader rediscovery almost 150 years later by Spanish engineer Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre in 1748. The objects that lay beneath the city have been well preserved for centuries because of the lack of air and moisture. These artifacts provide an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city during thePax Romana. During the excavation, plaster was used to fill in the voids between the ash layers that once held human bodies. This allowed one to see the exact position the person was in when he or she died.

The Vatican / Sistine Chapel / St. Peters Cathedral

The vatican is the smallest internationally recognized independent state in the world by both area and population. We had to go through security just like at a regular border to get into the city.

The Sistine Chapel (Latin: Sacellum Sixtinum; Italian: Cappella Sistina) is a large and renowned chapel of theApostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in the Vatican City. Originally known as the Cappella Magna, the chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who restored it between 1477 and 1480. Since that time, the chapel has served as a place of both religious and functionary papal activity. Today it is the site of the Papal conclave, the process by which a new Pope is selected. The fame of the Sistine Chapel lies mainly in the frescos that decorate the interior, and most particularly the Sistine Chapel ceiling and The Last Judgment by Michelangelo.

We were not supposed to take any pictures in the Sistine Chapel, but I snuck a few in and that is why they are so blurry. Anytime it would start to get noisy in the chapel, someone would get on a microphone and say "Shhhhhhh Silencio". 

Designed principally by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, Carlo Maderno and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, St. Peter's is the most renowned work of Renaissance architecture and remains one of the largest churches in the world. While it is neither the mother church of the Catholic Church nor the CatholicRoman Rite cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, St. Peter's is regarded as one of the holiest Catholic sites. It has been described as "holding a unique position in the Christian world" and as "the greatest of all churches of Christendom".

The Beard in Europe

My beard seemed to be a hot commodity in Europe. Everywhere I went people were looking and commenting on my beard. I caught so many people taking pictures of my beard and they didn't think that I knew. It started to become a running joke within our group that I should be like one of the people begging on the streets for money. But Megan and Maddie Powelson decided that it would be funny if I made a sign to wear that said "Touch my beard, just for 1 Euro". They had our tour guide write it out in Italian and they made the sign for me. On the train from Rome to Milan I wore the sign and had many people give me weird looks. I had one guy come up to me and say that he could pass up the opportunity.

We took the train from Rome to Milan and then climbed aboard another train (Night Train) that would took us from Milan to Paris. This night train was a train that we would be sleeping on for the night. We had six people in our train cabin and it was a little stuffy. Each side of the train car had three beds then a small space and three more beds on the other wall. Luckily I was able to snag a top bunk and that was a little better.

Paris France

     We hit the ground running in Paris as well. The Bus picked us up at the train station and we dropped our bags off at the hotel and we were gone on a walking tour of paris. The hotels that we stayed in are different than those back home. The rooms are tiny and the beds are so close together in the room. The beds in Italy had a little space between them and the beds in paris had no space in between them. luckily the beds moved and we were able to slide them apart.






     Our first trip was to the Louvre Museum. We only had about 3 hours to explore as much as the museum as possible. This may seem like a lot of time, but when it comes to the Louvre this is not nearly enough time. We didn't even see a quarter of the stuff in that three hours. It would have been nice to stay longer, but we had so much to do in paris.

The Louvre or Louvre Museum (French: Musée du Louvre, pronounced: [myze dy luvʁ]) is one of the world's largestmuseums and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, France, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seinein the 1st arrondissement (district). Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 60,600 square metres (652,300 square feet). With more than 9.7 million visitors each year, the Louvre is the world's most visited museum.

The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection, including, from 1692, a collection of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture. In 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years. During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nation's masterpieces.

The Notre Dame Cathedral

 Notre-Dame, is a historic Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. The cathedral is widely considered to be one of the finest examples of FrenchGothic architecture and among the largest and most well-known church buildings in the world. The naturalism of its sculptures and stained glass are in contrast with earlier Romanesque architecture.

As the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Paris, Notre-Dame is the parish that contains the cathedra, or official chair, of the archbishop of Paris, currently Cardinal André Vingt-Trois. The cathedral treasury is notable for its reliquary which houses some of Catholicism's most important first-class relics including the purported Crown of Thorns, a fragment of the True Cross, and one of the Holy Nails.

The Arc de Triomphe 

The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile is one of the most famous monuments in Paris. It stands in the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle (originally named Place de l'Étoile), at the western end of the Champs-Élysées. It should not be confused with a smaller arch, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, which stands west of the Louvre. The Arc de Triomphe (in English: "Triumphal Arch") honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionaryand the Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. 

This was one of the best views of paris. You could see so much of the city from the top of the Arc de Triomphe. It was amazing to be in Rome and Paris where the history is so rich. The culture is so old and preserved that it really seems to give the people a sense of belonging and true patriotism.

Napoleons Tomb

The buildings house the Musée de l'Armée, the military museum of the Army of France, the Musée des Plans-Reliefs, and the Musée d'Histoire Contemporaine, as well as the burial site for some of France's war heroes, notably Napoleon Bonaparte.

Palace of Versailles

     This was the Palace of the King and Queen of France for many years. This place was massive and as we walked around we all we in awe that people would have been living in this place. There were over 2000 rooms and over 4000 people living in the palace at different times. We were able to see the rooms that the kings and queens spent most of their time while in the Palace. The French were interesting people at this time in life. They rarely bathed because they thought that the dirt on your skin was a way to keep out bacterias from entering your body. Because of this one of the tour guides told us that the King would put Lard on his head to stop lice from getting on his head from the wigs he would wear. Also the women would put a lead based make up on their face that would cause all their hair to fall out, and this is what lead many Kings to have "flings" (up to 52) with other women on the side. The Kings and Queens were treated as direct massagers of God. There was a railing that surrounded their beds so that no one could get close to them. They were waited on hand and foot. The  Kings bedroom had nothing painted on the ceiling so that no one would be detracted, but pay only attention to the King.
     The gardens around the Palace were amazing and went on for miles. We rented a golf cart so we could get around them faster. Marie Antoinette had a palace away from the palace to get away from the regular palace life. Then she had another place away from the 2nd palace to get away from that life.

The Catacombs

We had to wait outside in the pouring rain for two hours to get into the Catacombs, so we were all hoping that it was worth the wait. By the time we got in, the line was reaching all the way around the whole block. We were not disappointed!

The Catacombs of Paris or Catacombes de Paris are underground cemetery in Paris, France. Located south of the former city gate (the "Barrière d’Enfer" at today's Place Denfert-Rochereau), the cemetery holds the remains of about six million people and fills a renovated section of caverns and tunnels that are the remains of historical stone mines

The people settling this part of Paris put their cemeteries right in the middle of the town. Over the years there became to many dead and they decided to take those who had been dead for a long time and put their bones in the roofs and walls of many buildings. This continued to be a problem for the people in Paris. Later on they decided to put the bones underground in the mines that were not in use anymore.

The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower (French: La Tour Eiffel, [tuʁ ɛfɛl]) is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars inParis. It was named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it was initially criticised by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world; 6.98 million people ascended it in 2011.The tower received its 250 millionth visitor in 2010.

 

      We saved the Eiffel Tower for the last day that we were in Paris. Again it was a day that looked like it was going to be raining all day. We had stopped for dinner and when we came out it was pouring rain, but we had to see the tower. We made our way over to the tower and when we were almost there it stopped raining. This was the best thing that could have happened, because when we arrived at the Tower the rain had chased many of the people away, so the lines to get up the tower were so short. We were able to get up the tower quickly and the view was amazing.

Pere Lachaise Cemetery

 The Doors singer Jim Morrison died in Paris and was buried in Pere Lachaise cemetery. This was one of the main things I wanted to do while in Paris. While many of the others in our group went to shop and have some free time a few of us made the trek to see the grave site. There was a fence around the grave, but I had to get a picture beside it so I hopped the fence and took a picture quick. I also left a few guitar pics at the grave as well. We were also able to see Frederic Chopin's Gravesite as well.


































Moulin Rouge

Moulin Rouge is best known as the spiritual birthplace of the modern form of the can-can dance. Originally introduced as a seductive dance by the courtesans who operated from the site, the can-can dance revueevolved into a form of entertainment of its own and led to the introduction of cabarets across Europe. Today, Moulin Rouge is a tourist attraction, offering musical dance entertainment for visitors from around the world. The club's decor still contains much of the romance of fin de siècle France.

Sacre-Coeur

The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris, commonly known as Sacré-Cœur Basilica and often simply Sacré-Cœur(French: Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, pronounced [sakʁe kœʁ]), is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in Paris, France. A popular landmark, the basilica is located at the summit of the butte Montmartre, the highest point in the city. Sacré-Cœur is a double monument, political and cultural, both a national penance for the excesses of the Second Empire and socialist Paris Commune of 1871 crowning its most rebellious neighborhood, and an embodiment of conservative moral order, publicly dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which was an increasingly popular vision of a loving and sympathetic Christ.

Night Boat ride Around Paris

     To finish off the tour of Paris we took a boat ride at night up and down the Seine river. We were able to see all the monuments in France lit up at night. This was a great way to end the tour and get ready for the long plane ride home.

     The Plane ride home was Brutal. We had to get up at 4:30am on Sunday, but we went to bed at about 2am. So we didn't get a lot of sleep to prepare for the long ride home. On the plane from Amsterdam to Calgary I was in a middle seat of the plane and couldn't move very much to my left or right. Needless to say, I got very air sick and had the worst headache the whole plane ride home. By the time the flight was ending I was not sure if I was going to get out of the plane with out puking. I was able to hold myself together and get out of the plane, but then I had to wait at the border service to claim the goods I was bringing into the country. I was so sick......as soon as I could I got outside to breath some fresh air. Luckily I was able to hold myself together on the bus ride home as well.

     I was so happy to get home and see my family especially Lennon who I was only able to see for about six days before I left. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I am so glad I was able to go with this group. We were able to see so many things that have a big importance in the history of this world, and we were able to share it.

Extras