Pink Snow

The city of Brussels has been putting in a new tram track between our house and school for about a year now. I think the new tram track is a great idea. I think closing three lanes is a bad one. Consequently, I have been exploring the back streets. Brussels is not designed like a Roman city with strait, orderly streets. It more closely resembles a wad of string that has spent too much time in the back of drawer and has collected an impressive quantity of lint, dust, dirt, twisty-ties, and stray hairs. Brigham Young would not approve. So, exploring the back streets as a time saving measure is a risky proposition. It does, however, have it's definite charms as we discovered on our way to school last week. There is a tiny neighborhood hidden away that must at one time have been factory housing. Hundreds of identical brown cottages with identical green shutters line the narrow streets in a convergence of quaint that is sometimes hidden in biggish cities like Brussels. The best part of this neighborhood is the profusion of cherry trees in full bloom. We happened to drive by on a blustery morning and it literally looked like we were in a snowstorm--a pink snowstorm. I don't know if you can see the petals falling in these pictures, but the air was full of swirling, floating pink and there were drifts in the yards. It looked like someone had gotten happy with a giant container of pink frosting. Plus, we missed the traffic and got to school three minutes early. Nice.

Jiggity Jig

Matthew and I are back from Florence. That statement was preceded by 23 hours of travel time which included amazing BO, stomach flu in the ranks, very tired but spectacularly civilized children and a little itinterary deviation.
I never before realized that when your night train is 40 minutes late leaving Italy, that puts you in the middle of Swiss commuter traffic which necessitates being sidetracked (literally) for 40 minutes while the Swiss get to work. And when you are sidetracked for 40 minutes in Switzerland, that means that the Italian train can only take you as far as Dijon before it needs to turn around and go back to Italy. And that means that you have to pack up 120 twelve year olds on 15 minutes notice and jump on another train that will take you to Paris, but not to the station where the buses are waiting. So of course the buses have to drive to the new station, which is really so much more sensible than taking 120 children to the buses. However, because the buses have been waiting so long, the drivers are entitled to a 45 minute smoking break and the teachers are a little bleary eyed, and the DVD player doesn't work and we are under no circumstances letting these children off the bus because heaven only knows how long it would take us to round them up again, and so, it only took Matthew and I 23 hours to get back from Florence.

It was completely worth it.

Brief Intermission

I must call a brief intermission from the cruise recount. I am in Florence with the 6th grade fieldtrip (not bragging, just stating the facts). I will finish up with the Med in a few days and maybe have a few pics to share from the adventures of 100+ twelve year olds exploring the roots of the Renaissance in it's birthplace. A few quotes from the day:

"When are we going shopping?"

"But Dr. Redmond, I am mature."

" The gelato we had after lunch was not as good as the gelato we had after dinner."

"Why are there so may dead people in this church?"

"Can I share your umbrella?"

"There are no frescos in this church because it would confuse the simplicity of the architectural form." A 12 year old came up with that astute observation.

I think we may have a few Renaissance minds of the 6th grade variety.

Rhodes

Of all the Greek ports, Rhodes was my favorite...I think...

The day was gray, but that just added to the appeal of the old walled city, and did nothing to dampen the spirit of the vendors or the tourists.

Dave and the little guys explored the outer walls


while the big kids and I worked our way through the old city.

I found a lady weaving a carpet. I always wondered how they were made because you hear about the number on knots per inch, but I could never see the knots. Well now I know...and it is pretty cool! Plus you get to weave with a knife in one hand. That might discourage interruptions.

This was my favorite part of the city--built in the 1300's when the Knights of Rhodes held power in the city.

The Colossus of Rhodes stood guard over the port until an earthquake sent it tumbling in the 2nd century BC and the remains were melted down and sold by the conquering Arabs in the 7th century.

We didn't miss it too much. The real appeal of Rhodes was the 4 euro RayBans.

Further Observations on Egypt

Camels have really bad breath. Donkeys have soft noses. Egyptians transport their food in little trucks packed to the brim. Rules in Egypt are more like guidelines.Blackberries get really good reception at the Pyramids. Belly dancers during lunch can be rather distrubing.

More so than men in skirts.

In Cairo, people live in the cemetery.I have an easy life.

Cypress

On Saturday we spent the day in Limassol, Cypress, and to be honest, it was generally appealing but not fabulous. We did not go to Paphos, which is supposed to be fabulous--at least UNESCO thinks so. We were frankly a little tired after camels, belly dancers, and enthusiastic vendors. So we stuck with Limassol. Which was really OK. Plus I got to pose with Jacques Cousteau. As a kid I watched The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau every Sunday night right before Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom and it was nice to see his wax self right there in the Limassol equivalent of Souix Village. Sponges, and shells, and tacky jewelry galore.

Benj had a moment of Pirate regression (do you remember his multi-year pirate phase when he had either the dough hook of my KitchenAid or a plastic dagger stuck down his pants at all times?) with Captain Menacing.

We found a great graffiti wall and took some Passey classics:

Thank Sarah Palin for this one.

Sarah and Benjamin channeling their inner emo.And we found a great church with a real, live, Eastern Orthodox wedding in progress. Great chanting. Julia was a little disturbed by the fact that the Bride and Groom were tied together. She may be too young to get the symbolism/foreshadowing of that one.
We bought some cool leather bracelets.
And we checked out the ocean. Dave gave a few stone skipping lessons and then it was...
back to the ship for dinner. Nice , huh?

Ancient Wonders

Can you name the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World? Before the cruise, I thought I could, but it turns out I was missing a few. Matthew and Julia helped me fill in the holes:
The Great Pyramid at Giza
The Lighthouse at Alexandria
The Colussus at Rhodes
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The Mausoleum at Halicarnussus
The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia
I can now and forever name them all. What changed, you ask? Well, our cruise was called Ancient Wonders, and it only took me 4 days on board to realize why--we were going to see the sights of the Ancient Wonders! Pretty amazing how that works, huh? We just wanted to see Egypt and Greece, but we got world history thrown in for free! The Hanging Gardens were too far inland for the cruise ship, but we hit all the rest. Only the Ancient Pymamid is still standing. The rest were destroyed, mostly by earthquakes, but it was still pretty cool to see where they were.

We docked in Alexandria, site of the Ancient Lighthouse, and I'll let Julia give you the rundown:

Here's Julia:
"We woke up and went to breakfast then we got off the boat and met our tour guide. She was nice. Her name was Faten. It was a long bus ride but Faten talked a lot about the history of Cairo. It was really boring but she said that it would help us. Then she talked to us about the stuff you could get like necklaces or bracelets or rings that would have your name on it in hieroglyphics. I got one-- it was a necklace. Its called a cartouche. It's really cool. When we got there we went to the pyramids they were really cool but you couldn't go in.
Sarah and I got to ride on and camel.

And Matt and Ben on another one. And Anna went on one on by herself. It was awsome. They ride us out into the desert and take us back again, but still I rode on a camel and I got a cool head thingy. Then we went to the sphinx. It was really big with no nose. Then we went to a castle and a mosque where you had to take your shoes off.

We went to a papyrus place where they make papyrus and you could get t-shirts too, but they were really ugly. The we drove back to Alexandria. We ate dinner at the buffet. Then we went to bed."

Yep, that about sums it up. Pretty Amazing.
Two Ancient Wonders down, five more to go.