Rome.. full of pizza, pasta and gelati!

Last weekend, Josh and I set off to Rome. This was his birthday present from me and I was happy to get away as well!! We took off from Terminal 4 .. our usual terminal now it seems! Al Italia was actually a really nice airline! After a 2 hour flight, we landed in Rome and took a cab to our hotel. We were near the Trevi Fountain and close to other main spots!! Our hotel was really nice- only about 6 rooms but offered the most amazing breakfast!

Saturday March 5th

We started the day with a 9am tour of The Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Josh had never been to Rome before, and I barely remember it so we needed to go see these places!! Our guided 4 hour tour was amazing! There were only 5 of us and our guide. We started at the Colosseum, then the Forum and ended on Palatine Hill. It wasn't too cold out but it wasn't sunny either. We learned a lot and were amazed by all the history!

After our tour, we walked towards the Pantheon. We stopped to have a pizza lunch - delicious! We ended up at Piazza Navona - a gorgeous square near the Pantheon. I bought some paintings and grabbed some lemon gelati. After eating our gelati, we made our way to The Pantheon. There were a lot of tourists but we still went inside. As we continued on our way, trying not to get lost, we went to the Trevi Fountain. It was just as pretty as I remember. We decided we needed to see it lit up at night. After a short break back at our hotel, we walked to The Spanish Steps. I was so excited to see them again... but they were under construction!!! Scaffolding everywhere! It was sad , so I bought a painting of them instead- just like last time I was there! We ventured to another Piazza to find a restaurant recommended by Kar. It did not disappoint! I had rigatoni carbonara and Josh had Gnocchi with fresh Buffalo Mozzarella. We also had some appetizers and a bottle of prosecco. It was a great dinner! After a quick stop to see the Trevi fountain at night, we headed back to the hotel for bed.

Where the gladiators walked in!!

Closed Spanish Steps :(

Ahhhh so amazing! 

Sunday March 6th

After eating our delicious breakfast, we set off on the underground to The Vatican. It was hot and sunny today! Everything was closed there so we couldn't go in, but we did have a good look around. We couldn't get into the main square, as there were chairs everywhere. We figured something must be getting ready to happen. There were still tons of people!! We wandered back towards central Rome to the monument to Victor Emmanuel II. Our guide from the day before told us that you could take an elevator up to see views of Rome. She was right! It was a great view and we could even see the Colosseum and Forum. After seeing Rome from a different view, we wandered back to Piazza Navona for one last Italian meal. I had pasta and we both had more gelati for dessert! Our flight was at 5 so we had to start making our way to the airport around 2.

It was a great trip away and Josh really enjoyed himself. I love Rome!

The Vatican 

Some hot weather!! 

Where we went to the top of! 

Forum and Colosseum in the background! 

Piazza Navona- cappuccino for you mom! 

Outside the parliament buildings 

Berlin

Over half term break, Jess and I went to Berlin. We left on Saturday the 13th and arrived early evening. Neither of us wanted to go into city central, so we just had dinner near our hotel. It was a massive hotel that was right near an underground station!

The first day (freezing) we went on a 4 hour walking tour!  We were given a crash course in Berlin history and all the famous buildings. We had a delicious German lunch and continued exploring the streets and shops. After grabbing some snacks and some drinks, we went back to our hotel. We attempted to go out dancing, but ended up at a bar. The train system was so easy in Berlin that we had no problem finding our way back!

Reichstag Building

Brandenburg Gate

Concert Hall with a demonstration for refugees

Reichstag made of chocolate!

Berlin's famous bear! They had many different designs across Berlin.

On the Monday, we went to the East Side Gallery. This is where artists from all over the world painted on sections of the wall. It was amazing to see the variety of art styles and famous paintings! In the afternoon, we wandered to Museum Island. We chose a free museum to go into (Humboldt) and also went in the Berliner Dom. It was a gorgeous famous cathedral. We even climbed all the way to the top!!  We had dinner at this restaurant in Alexanderplatz. It was such a cool restaurant! Basically, you ordered your meal through a tablet and collected it when it was ready. It didn't feel like a fast food plate though because the food was amazing!

Trampolines in the ground!

Berliner Dom

Inside Berliner Dom

Top of Berliner Dom

On Tuesday, we went on a whole day trip to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Oranienburg. It was about a 30 minute train ride to the little town. Our guide took us around the entire concentration camp and told us the history. It was sad to see and hear the stories that took place not that long ago.
After arriving back in Berlin, we went to Potsdamer Platz to try to find a place for dinner. We were surprised to see tons of red carpets and paparazzi! It was Berlin's Film Festival. We saw some actors and actresses but had no clue who they were.

Monument at the Concentration Camp

Where the building would have been. There are few left standing.

Three days were enough to see Berlin so on Wednesday we decided to hop on another train and go to Schloss Sanssouci. It is a park with 5 or so palaces on it. They all used to belong to King Frederick. The town that is was near was so adorable!! We walked through the grounds and went into the actual palace called Sanssouci. It was a guided audio tour.  We went for a late lunch in the city of Potsdam (where the train took us) and grabbed some souvenirs. After a long , cold and snowy day, we decided to eat dinner at the hotel. We had a relaxing night of Currywurst, sparkling wine and paprika pringles.

Half frozen lake!

Steps leading to Schloss Sanssouci

I am happy I went to Berlin, as I had always wanted to experience it!

Other updates: I went on an Edible Garden course and absolutely loved it! Josh and I were dog sitting his family's dog so spent the night at their house. We took Lexie on a walk behind the house and it was like being in the countryside! So pretty. I said goodbye to a good work friend as she headed back to New Zealand, but we had a really fun night!

English adventures!

New foster cat- Marble

Amsterdam!

This is a bit of a late post! Two weekends ago, Josh and I went to Amsterdam for the weekend! We left from Heathrow on Friday night and arrived around 10 pm. We were staying in a lovely Mercure hotel about a twenty minute walk from Dam Square. We were so tired that we just went to bed as soon as we arrived!


The next morning we woke up to hail and rain! It was not a good way to start the day but we soon found our way to the tulip market, which was amazing! We both bought wooden tulips, and I even bought some tulips to grow in a can for school! We continued our walk to Dam square, they had set up thousands of tulips for National Tulip Day. This happened once a year where you could pick up to 20 different coloured tulips to take home and replant! The line was insane, so we didn't pick any! They had bands playing and lots of press. We then went to our allocated time for the Anne Frank House. It was so interesting to see the actual house they were hiding in. After our tour, we walked around Dam Square and did a bit of shopping. At 5pm, we had booked tickets for a canal tour. We were also very lucky because they had a special light show that was ending on the Sunday! It had started before Christmas. Different artists created special lighting features that were placed around the canals. It was amazing! After a nice sushi dinner, we walked through the Red Light District. That was definitely a strange experience! Everything is so close that we were able to walk all day!

Waking up on Sunday, we had seen pretty much everything we wanted to see! We stopped at a cheese shop, where we sampled all of the cheese! We settled on Coconut Gouda and Pesto Gouda. We also bought 4 mini mustard jars... they even had wasabi mustard! From Dam square, we walked through the Jordaan area and did some more shopping. Then we went to Amsterdam Dungeon- the same company as the one in London. It was SO scary! You went far underground to hear about Amsterdam's cruel past. It was so much scarier than I thought- the actors were so unpredictable!

All in all, it was a short trip but I am so glad I got to experience Amsterdam! It had a cool but strange feel to it. It was just a nice getaway :).

So many tulips!

Some of the light show!

There was a whole row of chandeliers! 

Some exhibit in a mall.

Anne Frank Statue