Rome

Buongiorno,
Weve been busy the last week. Went to olympia in Greece and saw the Ancient Olympic arena *first pic*, then on to Pompei (after two trains broke down and everyone on the train had to be transfered to busses) to see the Scavi Ruins, and now in Rome. Today we went to see the Basilica Di San Pietro (which was free since it is the last Sunday of the month), the Sistine Chapel closed at 12:20 so we plan to see that tomorrow morning. We also went to the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Fontana Di Trevi (where you throw a coin into the fountain and they say it will ensure a speedy return to Rome). As you can tell we are staying busy. having a great time. Arrivederci!

Back in Italy

Hey everyone,
Thanks for the comments on the blog, its nice to know you all are thinking about us while we are away. we visited olympia before leaving greece to see the ruins of the first olympic, the really old ones. it is actually smaller than you would think, but very cool. After a Stay in a nazi style hostel in Olympia we went to patras to catch the ferry back to Italy. When we got there they £$$&up our tickets and almost made us buy new ones back to Italy. We made a stink and threatened to call someone and all the sudden the ticket comp came. We made it back and now we are waiting for another train. we will post more pictures next time, cant here.
Tom and Heather

Paros

We made it to Paros, one of the Islands off of Greece three nights ago. It's a hard life buzzing around town on our scooter visiting all of the beaches, renting lounging chairs and umbrellas to shade us from the Sun that shines from 0700-2030 every day with a temp that reaches 85 degrees. Were doing our best to see the bright side of things though, our tans are looking great, and the water is beautiful. It starts out green at the shore but as you move farther out it gets a little more blue until all you see is clear blue water! We went to butterfly valley yesterday and took a ton of pictures. We have had a great time in Greece and we know we could spend the rest of our trip visiting the other islands, but were off to the mainland tonight and then we will work our way back to Italy. Its hard to post pictures here since the prompts are all in Greek. We will get you some soon. Heather and Tom

Santorini

Hi Everyone!
We made it to Santorini on Friday after our overnight ferry ride on the deck (or should I say Teenage Booze Cruise)! We have a campsite complete with fridge, kitchen, swimming pool, bar, and restaurant. Saturday we rented a scooter and buzzed around the Island, hit red beach and saw the Oia sunset (they say it is the best in Greece). Yesterday we took a boat tour to the volcano and swam in the hot springs, had lunch in Thirissa and went swimming again (it's hot here), and our tour ended about 5:30pm. Then we had to walk up 588 stairs from old port back to Fira. Each stair took about three steps so we had a great workout. Anyway lots of fun here wasting the day away at the beaches, eating gyros, and enjoying cocktails.  Take care. Heather and Tom.

Athens and the Ruins

Temple of Olympian Zeus
Parthenon Temple at Acropolis

Panathinaikon Stadium
Hi Everyone!
As you can see we have finally figured out how to put pictures on the page, bad news though-it takes forever so only a few pictures per entry. Today we went sightseeing all day long, the acropolis, Odeum of Herodes Atticus, Temple of Olympian Zeus, Ancient Agora, the Panathinaikon Stadium, and on and on. We started our day at 0800 and by 1500 we took a siesta in the National Gardens. It was intresting seeing everything but the hoards of tourists were always in the way. Tom has other words to describe them. Tomorrow we are off to either Paros or Santorini Island. We are having a great time. Heather and Tom.

Athens!

Just got to Athens, but the winery that we went to in Patras was really cool. Achaia Clauss was very old from the mid 1800's. Lots of cool stuff to look at,the old barrels of wine had extravagant art carved in them. The oldest was over a hundred year old batch of wine. Any way cool stuff, and drank a few bottles of wine waiting for the tour with some friends we met from Denmark. Stayed at Rion beach, lots of cool photos, still trying. Wish us luck!
tom and heather

begining of Greece trip

day one is pretty uneventful, the ferry trip was 15 hours long and we sat in airplane type seats. bad news on the pictures, i(tom) accidently erased the italy pictures of the Amalfi coast. so no pictures yet. we are still trying to figure out the picture posting also. so if you see some pictures on this post it means that we figured it out.

The Almafi coast

   We made it out of Naples, barely. It is not the cleanest city in the world, but it was fun. We got on the train to Salerno and then took a ferry to Almafi. It is so pretty here, the water is turquoise blule and very clear and the people are a lot nicer to us than in Naples. We found a hostel up the hills that let us put a tent under the lemon trees in the yard. Every house here has a lemon grove in their yard. We had our first authentic Italian dinner, a small box of wine and pasta with a jar of sauce on top from the local grocery store.
   The view is the best I have ever seen from where we are staying, it is about a thousand feet up the mountain side with the best view of the Mediterranean. Its breath taking. Will send pictures as soon as we figure out how :)
Tom and Heather

best plane trip ever!!

Hi Everyone!
We made it safe and sound to Italy! On our trip from St. Paul to London we were bumped from economy class to first class!! Hooray for us!! I felt like royalty. We were served a four course meal, champagne toasts, cloth napkins, and roomy seats with real pillows and pillow cases.  So we had a wonderful flight, but when we landed in Naples we were informed our backpacks were still in London. !!  Oh well.  
   We spent the day running around Naples, and for all of you who thought it would be yucky, you were right, what an armpit of a place!! Well time is almost up and hopefully our bags will arrive soon!!  We will write more when we get some sleep and can find a computer that works faster.
take care, heather and tom.