Rome - Hong Kong - New Zealand

Our last night in Rome was noisy and bright. An amazing thunderstorm hit Rome during the early hours of the morning. It was pretty incredible. Lucky we are leaving Rome today.

We got a taxi to the airport. It was an eventful ride with our driver whizzing in and out of traffic when he could. It was very busy on the roads because of the rain.

We arrived in Hong Kong about 6:30am, and we were all very tired. We booked a room at the airport for a couple of hours to catch up on sleep. I really needed it and I hated it when mum and dad woke me up.

After a bite to eat and a doze in the taxi we got to Disneyland. WOW! It was not as hot and humid like it was two months ago but it was still about 27 degrees.



We went to Fantasyland first, and then Tomorrowland and briefly Adventureland before we had to head back to the airport.











I loved this ride!!!


Yee..ha!


We saw the parade go down the main street. It was fantastic.









My favorite ride was the one in the small world. It was so good we had to do it twice.















These guys were so good. They were drumming with bins and shovels and things.











It was getting dark as we left and the castle looked very pretty.

The flight home was long, but I had a good sleep and watched a couple of movies. I just couldn't wait to get home though and see Oma and Opa. It was sooo good to see them and it was nice to get home and play with my toys. Can't wait to catch up with my friends too!

What a holiday!

Location:Somewhere over Oz?

Roman ruins - our last day in Rome

We were going to head off to the colosseum this morning but didn't get there till the afternoon as mum and dad had to do some juggling with the luggage. The bags were too heavy.




Luckily it didn't take all day and we set off to the colosseum. It is a huge building. It is in ruins but not much as I thought. It was damaged by earthquakes hundreds of years ago, but the Romans started to demolish it when the games were no longer popular.



When there were games on, it could seat up to 70,000 people and it had a big cover to shade people from the sun... Pretty amazing for a building that was built nearly 2000 years ago! Sometimes, they even filled the arena with water and had ships floating in it!



Under the arena there were tunnels to move the gladiators, slaves, and wild animals around.


These marble pillars didn't fall down. The Romans took them down and recycled the marble in new buildings.


After the Colosseum, we went to a 12th century church called San Clemente. It was built on top of another church that was built in the 4th century, which was pretty amazing. But even more amazing was that that church was built on top of a Roman house and a Roman temple that were about 2,000 years old! The Roman house still had tiles on the floor in a herringbone pattern and a spring was still bubbling up fresh water into the house.

It was a little bit scary, because the older buildings were under ground. And each time we had to go down another level. It was quite a surprise because from the outside you would never have guessed there were buildings underneath it. It makes you wonder what else is buried under Rome!

Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos down there.

Every day we took the subway. On a scale of one to ten the appearance of subways in Rome scored a measly two. They were filthy, dusty, had wires hanging everywhere and they smelt bad. Also there were few escalators so you didn't really want to be using them when you had to get around with a lot of luggage.


They were reliable though. These trains were covered in grafitti.

Location:Rome

Holy day

Tried getting up earlier this morning so we could skip the queues at the Vatican.



However, we didn't get there until just after 9 but luckily a man asked if we wanted to join a group tour. It was supposed to be just leaving but didn't till another hour or so and the group ended up being about 45 people. It was good though.



We had an Italian guide who knew some interesting tales and information and the tour took some 2 hours or so. (He's the one with the white beard).


















Just before the Sistine Chapel the tour finished and we made our own way throughout Raphael's rooms and the modern collection.













Some 100 or so photos later we made it to the glorious chapel.


It was packed. Everyone looking up to the ceiling



and admiring Michelangelo's frescos of the creation.



And more...







After the Sistine Chapel we saw more religious art.....








This is the remains of a preparatory sculpture by Bernini. You can see how it has been built up over wire, twigs and straw.






Me posting two of the four postcards we ever sent on our trip, at Vatican City Post Office.


Can you spot me and dad?


When we got back home, from some grocery shopping mum and dad started packing all our stuff and shopping into our suitcases. They were very heavy!

Location:Roma