Leonard Family Around the World Adventure

Monday January 28 th . The is the second time I am writing this – I hit save just a minute ago and lost a full 30 minutes of work. I am really starting to hate word 2007 and Vista – I have never lost this much work t to software lockups. I got up at 7 and woke of the Girls at 8am. We grabbed a quick bite – included with room and then headed to the car for the stressful drive across town to return it. We only got lost a couple of times and eventually got the car returned in one piece – no problems. We struck out on foot – firs to the Piazza Santa Maria Novella – it was under renovation so we did not stay long. From there we headed to the Basilica de San Lorenza and paid to go inside. It was beautiful. From there we headed to the Cathedral – it was amazing – it seemed nearly as large as St. Peters in Rome. We paid to make the climb up the duomo. The views from the top were spectacular but I had a small attack of vertigo. There were only about 15 to 20 other tourists – I can only...

Sunday January 27 th . We got up this morning, had a quick breakfast packed up, checked out, put the luggage on the left baggage area and then the long walk to our car. Drove back to the hotel and packed up and then headed for Firenze. Traffic was light and we only got lost a few times. I highly recommend arriving by car on Sundays. The traffic is much lighter, the traffic restrictions are fewer and parking is free. We came in through the Ichelangel overlook where which overlooks the Arno and you can see most of the city. We found the information area – they could not recommend hotels but we walked to the Hotel Dante and they had free parking and a mini-apartment with kitchenette for 100 euro. We decided to take it and then walked around exploring for a while – we checked on one other hotel but it was closed for the season. The hotel is just off the Piazza S. Croce. There was a street fair/market in the Piazza where they were selling chocolate. The girls indulged. We got lunch...

Friday January 25 th , 2008. Up this morning at 7am. I work on my blog and do not wake the girls until after 8am. It is a beautiful day – it looks like an early spring morning in CA where it is crisp but you expect t to warm up during the day. I sing Aria happy birthday I cannot believe she is 14. We grab our breakfast which is included and decide to take a day trip to San Gimignano (still cannot even begin to fathom how to pronouce it). The hardest part of the drive is getting away from Sienna – the rest is very smooth. Again it feels like driving in the foothills or Napa region in CA but with fortresses always in the distance. The town is a medieval town with many towers. We enter the main Piazza and walk around. We visit the rocca or remains of the fortress walls. Spectacular views. I can imagine this place being less fun in the peak season with the small roads it could be very crowded. About 50% of the stores are closed and we seem to be sharing the town with a few tourist...

Thursday January 24 th . Did not sleep well again. Woke up at 4am to work on blogs. I think I am a little home sick – trying to ignore it and not long for home but I am a little anxious to get back to work. I really would like to find a place to settle down with internet access for a few days to catch up on things. Maybe we can find a long weekly rate somewhere. I can hear Aria sighing – my typing must be bothering her. She will be 14 tomorrow. Not sure what we are going to do today – perhaps continue on to Sienna or Firenze. I wish I spoke Italian. I read the guide book for a while and given the number of things to do in Tuscany we decided to head to Sienna. We have the car for a few more days and we can use it to take days trips out of Sienna. We grab our pastry and cappuccino breakfast, load up and head out of town. The drive is actually quite smooth – we head towards Napoli so we can catch the highway to Firenze without hitting the ring road around Rome. One stop for drinks, b...

Wednesday January 23 rd . We decide to check out and drive to Pompeii and then head towards a suburb of Rome – Frescati. The smell of smoke really is the deciding factor – I cannot stand it anymore plus off-season in Sorrento does not offer many things to see. Skipping the Amalfi coast drive – too nervous about the drive and encountering traffic on a very arrow cliff lined road. It is nor raining although it stormed hard the all night. It is crisp, clear and chilly. We make the drive to Pompeii – and magically do not get lost. Pull right into a parking area a few hundred yards from the entrance. Parking all day is 10 euro – they sell us a guide book 7 euro and there is even a restaurant for when we are done. Pompeii is awesome – I am glad we did not skip it. It is very large – deceptively – we start slowly and realize this could take a couple of days. The wind is blowing pretty hard and we are not dressed very well. Allysha is not feeling very well but hangs in there. The theat...

  Tuesday January 22, 2008 Did not sleep well – I am thinking about home and work. Lack of internet access and time to work is bothering me. Some sort of parade/political display this morning – garbage is not being picked up so the merchants in the piazza cannot work. I know there is also a problem in Napoli – one of the reasons we did not stop there. We met a military couple on the Nile cruise that warned us. I wonder if it has something to do with the Mafia. We have our free breakfast – pastry and coffee and decide to walk around and see the sights. We find a museum of local Art – the lady seems surprised to have any visitors. It is pretty neat – a ton of old photographs of the town and examples of the incredibly beautiful wood techniques – inlays, painting, carving, and mosaics. Absolutely stunning. We take the 2pm Ferry to Capri. Catch the bus from the port to Capri town – another resort town shut down for the winter. We walk around many things inducing most of the hotels a...

Monday January 21 st . We wake up and decide to head south. We rent a car (Lancia) 250 Euro for the week and a 50 euro fee for being able to return it anywhere in Italy. Unfortunately we could not get a GPS as that requires the car to be returned to the original rental location. My GPS has stopped working -very disappointing. Our destination is Sorrento which looks like a resort town – I hope we can find cheap boarding in the off-season. The Drive takes a lot longer than it should as we get lost but eventually make it. Some very long tunnels connect the Peninsula with the Napoli region. We arrive as the Sun is going down and park in a garage. We head out on foot looking for lodging, The hotel Pam picked during the drive wants us to rent 2 rooms at 300 euro a night – no thanks. The next hotel offers us a room for 200 Euro but Pam asks inside a bar which sends us to a hostel - Ostello Le Sirene which gives us a room for 80 Euro including parking. It is a little cramped but it ...

Sunday January 20th. Pam negotiates a 20% discount at the hotel for another day and we decide to stay. We drop off another load of laundry on our way to Termini Station where I buy a Train Italia Orario – Train Schedule which is actually more like a catalog -it is huge. We board the metro and get off at the Coliseum station. First we visit Palatine hill and our Roma pass got us in for free. The Palatine hill is a large group of ruins very cool and some nice views including the Circus Massimo. Next the Roma Pass allowed us to skip the lines straight into the Coliseum where we got 2 audio guides as recommended by Mick. Very cool, but a little disconcerting to think of the events that took place there. Strange that killing was considered entertainment. We stopped for dinner – it was very good and then walked across the bridge Castle San Angelo which is a museum it too was amazing with tremendous views of Rome. We were there during sunset which made it even better. And of course the a...

Saturday January 19th. Up early – I have sore throat -Pam has been ill for a couple days and now I seem to have caught it. First priority as we left the hotel we dropped off laundry about ¼ mile from our room. Then we walked back to the hotel and tried to call and make reservations for the Borghese museum as they only allow a small number of people in for a 2 hour visit. The ticket office was closed but we decided to walk over anyway. We entered at 9:45 which only left 1:15 minutes and rather than paying for just the museum we purchased a 3 day Roma Pass that included entrance to another site and transport on buses and metro A and B for three days and discounts to other sites. It was 20 euro each. The museum was beautiful and the audio tour was well worth it. If you remember to bring headphones 2 people can use a single audio guide as plugging in the headphones does not disable the internal speaker – as a matter of fact I will start carrying the splitter I brought. The wall and ce...

Friday January 18 th Up early this morning as we leave for the airport at 8am. We said goodbye to Hany and Kathy and Gen – it was very sad. Aria and I spoke about returning to Egypt someday, after learning Arabic. Taken To the airport and we were escorted through check-in – very nice service. Again sad to be leaving Egypt but looking forward to Rome. We ate breakfast and our flight left on-time. It was 3.5 hours with a one hour time change backwards. Painless! Into Italy – customs and passport a breeze. Pam got us a room in northern Rome within walking distance of a park called Borghese – not sure if this is a good location or not but it was recommended by the tourist information lady. We took a cab for 40 euro. About a 30km drive and cheaper than all of us on a train. The room was nothing too great, a queen and 2 singles – one room with tiny bath for 130 euro's. Seems expensive but the first room is always the hardest as you do not know the layout of the city yet. It tur...

Wednesday January 16th, 2008 Up at 7am grabbed a quick breakfast – very excited today we see the pyramids. We were on the bus headed for Giza Plateau by 8am. We arrived very quickly about 8:15am. Found out there was an extra ticket to actually enter the largest pyramid but the smaller pyramid was included. Applying our experience from King Tut’s tomb we immediately rushed to get the extra ticket – we were luck as the number of people allowed entry to the Pyramid is restricted but everyone in our group that wanted to enter was able to. The Pyramid was amazing – I tried to imagine what it looked like when it was its exterior was intact – what an engineering marvel. The entrance is about 30 feet up and the path to the burial chamber is arrow and steep. It opens up eventually and into a surprisingly large chamber with a sarcophagus on the right side as you enter. There were no markings or paintings inside the pyramid. No pictures either but some people smuggled in cameras and took p...

Thursday January 17 th , 2008 We hired a driver from the hotel 250 EP for six hours. It was a little tight fitting 6 in the car but we managed. First stop the Museum – there was a line but we made it inside by 9:45am. The whole time in Egypt I have been trying to imagine what it must be like in summer – I am very glad we visited in winter. We spent a few hours exploring the museum – it was amazing. We paid extra to see the mummy exhibit which we had skipped yesterday and I am glad we did – it was very interesting and stirred many emotions and ideas. I especially liked the mummified cobra *which you can see as part of the regular entry fee and some of the fake mummified animals – a scam thousands of years old). So much to see – I actually bought a guide book and glad I did. We could not locate our driver at the designated spot and time – fortunately I saw where he had parked and headed into the garage – he was asleep. We loaded up and headed out. Next stop an overseas carrier TN...

Tuesday January 15 th , 2008 I am up early this morning – 5am and work on the blog entries. This morning we must put our luggage outside our doors as we depart. We are to visit the Aswan Dam as well the unfinished oblisk in a quarry before flying back to Cairo. We are taking dinner at the hotel – opting out of the optional belly dancing dinner. It is hard to believe we have been on the road for 41 days. I have not had any news of regarding the house or anything else for that matter – again time is warping it has only been 3 days since the email from Art and Elaine yet it seems to be over a year ago. In Cairo I plan on getting internet access. Another busy day ahead of us and tomorrow is looking large in my mind – Giza, The Sphinx and the Egyptian museum. I am having some difficulty putting all of the detail into the blogs regarding the sites we have visited. I think I will need to go back over the entries I have created and add details – soon hopefully before they are forgotten. Per...

Monday January 14 th , 2008 The day starts with a wake-up call at 6 – breakfast ends at 7 as we disembark to take a horse drawn carriage to the temple of Horus. It is a great temple with wonderful reliefs. Pam takes a car back to the ship as the horses gave her a very bad asthma attack. As we are boarding the ship Aria purchases an unfit for the dinner this evening. After we are onboard she realizes there is a piece missing but Hany – one of our guides goes to remedy the situation. We are back onboard by 11 and on our way again. Lunch and afternoon tea. I decide to sign up for the Giza and Egyptian museum portion – they give us a break and only charge for three instead of four. The ship is moving quite slowly with a most other ships passing us. We see a couple of cruisers under sail and the professor tells us they are a very luxurious way to travel the Nile. Aria wants us to return after she graduates high school – just her and I to trek into the desert and camp. I think it is a f...

I wake up at 5am -I get to see the sunrise – very beautiful. I do some work and debate paying for internet access – it is very expensive. I downloaded pictures – it seems that we are missing some – I do not see any photos of the Water Palace from Jaipur for example. Nothing I can do about it. I also validated that we had maps loaded in the phone for Egypt – looks like we are good to go. The Marriott we are staying at in Mirage city is very nice. It has a water park with wave pool, great workout facilities, a spa, 5 restaurants and a golf course. The room rate is pretty good but everything else is very pricey. It seems to be NW of Cairo. I wake the girls up at 7am and we start to discuss what we are going to do. Aria takes her malaria pill and becomes ill and I start saving with the razor provided by the hotel but can only finish half of may face before it becomes dull. Ouch – it has been a while since I shaved. I weigh myself 88 kg's – less than 190 lbs – I hope the scale is accura...

Sunday January 13, 2008 Some of this morning is in the previous entry. The girls are still asleep and I am getting ready to head downstairs to check on them. My fingers are cold from typing on the deck. This morning we are cruising and it seems a good opportunity for the girls to do some school work and for me to catch up on some work. We are going to pass through a lock later and then stop at a village of Edfu. The cruise on the Nile is very peaceful – I am reminded of the Agatha Christie novel as I walk the decks and meet the 40 other people on the cruise – each with their own story. A couple from L.A – teachers, another teaching couple from Missouri, people from Florida, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, a Professor and wife from NY – they actually give us an unpublished book to read. An Egyptian man married to an America on vacation from Cairo. The girls order cartouches – charms for a necklace with names spelled in hieroglyphics – they are pretty cool. Aria purchases and Ankh from...

Saturday January 12, 2008 I am writing this entry (and the previous) Sunday morning sitting on the top of our Nile River Cruise Ship – The King of Thebes. I just watched the sunrise. It was spectacular. We are cruising up the Nile towards Aswan – Upper Egypt. As the Nile runs south to north Northern Egypt is called Lower Egypt and Southern Egypt is Upper. East is Sinai and west is well – desert. We are rabidly closing in on the half way point of the trip. The dates are really blending together – I am glad I am keeping blog's. Each time I make an entry I have to look at the calendar to see what day it is and what day of the week. It is a little chilly on the deck of the ship so I might end up finishing this later. I have so much to write about as we did so much yesterday. It was an exhausting day and a little overwhelming – I am so proud of the kids – they were real trooped being up so early – so much walking and so much to see and learn. Allysha crashed when we got back to...

Thursday January 10, 2008 Up very early and on our way to the airport – we arrived by 3am. We took a picture with Mr Sing – I gave hime my contact information and got his – ecept for an email address which I hope he will send to me. I told him all of the amounts that we had spent to hopefully ensure he would get his commission. I have grown quite attached to him and hope to see him again someday. I had daydreams of helping fund his dream of setting up a spare parts store front. I gave him 100 US and 500 Rupees – I would have given him all of the rupees I had remaining but I am afraid to go anywhere in India without money – including the airport – who knows what bribe might be necessary – what unique tax might be imposed. We checked in and the ticket counter lady asked for more money – I told her I had paid last night and thankfully had the receipt. We were at the gate by 4 am. I was envious of Allysha's ability to curl up on the chairs and sleep. Pam and I made a couple of ca...

Wednesday January 9 th , 2008 Up early this morning about 5am. A busy day – the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and back to Delhi. I spent over an hour blogging. Still do not know if we have tickets for our departing flight. Got a couple emails – our house sounds like it is in a terrible state – the washing machine seems to have failed and even after the first cleanup leaked again. I wonder why they do not just turn off the water to the machine in the meantime? I try not to worry too much. We have to get internet access soon so we can figure out what is going on and what we are going to do. Hopefully tonight. We are well over a month on the road. I am looking forward to our upcoming Egypt segment – I just hope we can get internet somehow. I have not been able to work much during this last week and expect the same next week. I should be able to catch up in Italy where we can slow the pace. I am concerned about what our burn rate is going to be in Italy – everything has been more expensive than ant...

January 8 th , 2008 Tuesday Up early – I have been catching up the blogging entries over the last few days. I am writing this on Tuesday January 8 th at 5am so I am only a day behind at this point. This visit to India has been a whirlwind of sites and sensory overload. I have learned and experienced much. I can feel my perspective broadening with each day. We still had no confirmation of our tickets to Cairo – did receive an email from our travel agent (Shonne) that she had a backup plan so I am hopeful we will reach Egypt as planned. I am surprised at how difficult it has been to get internet access and to keep up with blogging. I think it is a by-product of trying to fit so much into this visit to India. Each segment from Delhi to Jaipur, Jaipur to Agra and Agra to Delhi is about 250km. That is about 6 hours of driving because of the road conditions. I actually work on some blogs on the road today. We travel through Rajasthan to another state – our drive pays a tax for oper...