Day 116 April 26 {2010} I picked Heath up from the hospital at 5:45, and we headed to the airport. We ate breakfast and did our best not to fall asleep before our flight.
We flew from ABQ to Atlanta where we had time to change US $ to Euros and eat lunch. Here is our plane.
We sat on in Exit Row seats, but sat on the runway for an hour before take off! Sharron, our flight attendent sat with us and we chatted for an hour. Heath didn't know why I took this picture, neither do I, but we did have tons of room!
We finally fell asleep, but after 10-20 minutes, Heath was woken up b/c a passenger became sick...he thinks he had kidney stones. Sadly, we never fell back asleep!
Day 117 APril 27 {2010} We arrived in Rome at 8 am April 27...exhausted, but excited! We got our luggage, found Globus (our tour company--who did a great job!), got our first "cafe" trying to get us some energy!
Then we went to the hotel...with some crazy traffic, took a shower (which helped with the energy tons!).
Before we left, in fact, months ago, I applied for tickets for a tour of the Excavations under St. Peter's Basilica. So, Heath and I headed off on our own for our tour to the Vatican City. Here is our first picture of it...It was very beautiful and much larger than I imagined!
We arrived too early for the tour so we explored St. Peter's Cathedral and sent post cards to the kids. There were not a ton of people there, but chairs were set up in the square, we wondered why? The basilica was so beautiful! I didn't realize how many statues and mosaics were in the church.
And our tickets to the tour...which was cool.
We were part of about 13 people on the tour. It was fascinating to go beneath St. Peter's to see the cemetery and the family "Crypts" (We can't remember the exact word used here). It was so interesting to hear the history of the excavations and how St. Peter's bones were found directly under the basilica! So cool--the only thing: We're not Catholic and didn't realize the meaning of St. Peter to the Catholics, especially those in this group. They were incredibly moved at the spot of Peter's bones. They prayed and were tearful while Heath and I stood there, stunned that they were moved to tears. Apparently, we are clueless, but the moment was one we probably won't forget.
After the tour, we returned to the hotel. The group went out for dinner, yum! At this point Heath had been up for 48 hours, and I was on to about 38 or more. Tired, we were! We did meet two couples close to our age: Dolly and Mike (from Houston) and Jason and Michelle from CA.
We fell asleep on the way back to the hotel and promptly crashed when we got in bed!
I'll continue to write about the trip and show pictures over the next few days. Thanks for reading!
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