Just another reason to hate driving here

Just look how close the houses are to the road!  Not all of them are this close, but a lot are!  Plus the road is narrow and people drive so fast!  There is another one that I pass on the way to Mildenhall that I will post later!  (Isn't that door pretty?)

The Old Priest's House - Fornham St. Martin

This old church and cemetery are adjacent to the Woolpack Pub.  The information I found said this building was built in the 17th century!  There are tombstones that are so old, you could not read the inscription on them.  The oldest one that I could still read, the person died in 1779 and he was only 21 year old.  That is a long time ago!  It is was very interesting that there were a lot of young people buried there, young I mean 20's and 30's, that died in the early 1900's.  Thank God for the modern medicine of today!

Going to the market at Bury St. Edmund's

I left my room about noon Saturday to go to the market at Bury St. Edmund's.  I had been there once on the newcomers tour, it seemed like a nice quiet little village.  Saturday's are evidently a different story!  They have a market that everyone has told me is wonderful.  I wanted to go check it out myself.  I heard the fruit is great!  I found my way to the village, and it was packed!  I drove around this very small village, will very narrow streets for an hour looking for some place to park.  I finally decided that next time I go to the market I need to be there really early while there are still parking places!

When that didn't work out, I decided to find some place for lunch.  I stopped at a neat little pub called Woolpack.  It is located in Fornham St. Martin.  I have to try the Steak and Ale Pies everywhere I go.  That is a flaky puff pastry on top!  I have to try the fish and chips sometime!  Doesn't this look good?

Driving by GPS

I am not sure if I have mentioned that I am not fond of driving over here!  First of all it is driving by GPS!  A wonderful British lady, that I call Ms. Brit, tells me exactly where to go!  That sounds easy enough, WRONG!  The roads here are VERY dark! 

Last night when I was leaving the base, I turned the wrong way out of the gate.  Let me first justify that by saying you can't exit from the entrance gate.  So, I wasn't exactly sure where I was when I left the base.  Ms. Brit kept saying turn right, I could not see a road to turn on, and of course there was someone right on my tail.  Did I mention they drive really fast over here?  Anyway, every time I didn't turn right, Ms. Brit said recalculating.  After I missed four right turns, I entered a round about, which I don't like either.  She said take the fourth exit, of course I turn too early.  So, she very patiently said recalculating.  Her next command was turn right, there wasn't anyone behind me so I was not going to miss this turn.  Mind you it was only 5:30 p.m. but it was pitch dark and I turned right, on what turned out to be a one lane dirt road the went between two farms.  As soon as I turned on the road, there were what seemed like millions of eyes staring at me.  Of course it was not actually a million, but there were at least 100 rabbits that were staring me in the eye, and immediately scattered!  Ms. Brit said go 1.7 miles, so I drove on.  About a quarter of a mile down this road, a herd of at least six deer ran across the road.  Let me tell you they have some really big animals here!  The rabbits were huge and so were the deer!  I am still on the one lane dirt road with nothing in sight, there was no place to turn around, so I sure hoped Ms. Brit knew what she was talking about.  Finally I came to the intersection and she said turn left and an immediate right, so I did.  At her instruction I drove another mile, which lead to a really nice paved road.  The only problem was there was a gate between the dirt road and the paved road!  So there was no turning left for me!  Fortunately, there was a little area that I was able to turn around and head back down the dirt road to where I started.  I followed Ms. Brit's directions which lead me right back where I had come from, past the gate at the base.  That is when I realized the I had turned the wrong way!

No wonder I don't really go any place after work!  I was doing some praying that I didn't break down, have a flat or get stuck in the middle of no where!  I sure am glad that Ms. Brit knew how to finally get me home! On the bright side, I did have a service member tell me yesterday that we are gaining four minutes per day of daylight!  Hopefully by the time I am ready to come home, it will be daylight past 5:30!

Rome In Pictures



I thought this was so neat.  There was one street that was lined with these
tangerine trees on both sides of the street in the middle of Rome






The Coliseum

 



The Coliseum

 



These two statues at the top of this stairway are more of Michelangelo's creations.





Building that was behind the official Olympic track.  The highest point in the front of the building is where the official lap counter stood to count the number of laps and spot the winner of the race.




You can see the official track that is the front of the building.






Typical street in Rome.  Very narrow street with cars parked on both sides of the street.

  As you can tell by these pictures and the captions, or lack of captions I don't remember what these buildings and statues are called.  I am just trying to give you an idea of what Rome is like.  It is a very big, old city!  In Rome there are ruins that are well over 2000 years old.  And the statues, they are everywhere.  Every other block is a famous Plazas or Square with a statue or fountain. You can see that many of the building have balconies that have beautiful plants growing over the side of the balcony.  The temperature was in the lower 60's, so the temperature was not bad.  Rome is a very beautiful, ancient city, with so many sites to see.  I am sure you could stay there for weeks and still not see everything. 

In one of the little street cafe's where I stopped for some limoncello, I met two young men that were from Chicago.  They were spending the semester studying abroad. We discussed their adventures.  I thought it was very interesting that as we were sitting in the street cafe, the little shop next door was just opening and it was 5:00 p.m., the Chicago boys said in Rome it is kind of like Mexico - they take a Mediterranean Siesta!

St. Peter's Square

My first adventure in Rome was going to the Vatican.  There are five entrances to the Vatican, only two entrances can by used by the visitors.  This is one of the entrances leading into St. Peter's Square.  Look at the people, just think I was there during low season.  Which the books say that there is only about a three to four week period from mid January early February that is considered the low season!  You can see that the sidewalks are all cobblestone, many of the streets are cobblestone also, and many streets are basically closed to car traffic and the cafes set tables up in the street.



This is St. Peter's Square, it hold 700,000 people standing.  As you can see to the left is the Nativity scene and Christmas tree.  The square screens to the right and left of the pictures are used when the Pope holds mass at Christmas and Easter so that everyone can see him.



Look at the top row of windows, the second one from the right, this is the window that the Pope address the people on Wednesdays and Sundays.

The line to the right is the line to get into the Basilica.  I did not in on Saturday, I waited to go to mass Sunday morning.

St. Peter's Basilica. 
The Center balcony is where the new Pope is introduced to the people, whenever we get a new Pope.

 Two of the guards that were in the square.

In the upper left of the picture, the building with the triangle roof, with the antenna on top is the Sistine Chapel.  The window that is in corner of this building is where the black or white smoke comes from when the decision is being made about a new Pope.

The entire Vatican is surrounded by a wall.  It is the smallest state in the world with a population of only about 900 citizens.  They have their own money, passport stamp, and everything sold inside the Vatican is about 25% cheaper than in Rome.  (That doesn't include the gift shops!)  They also do not have to pay any  Roman taxes.

Vatican Wall.  I had no idea that the Vatican was surrounded by a wall!



A guard standing in one of the entrances for the residents or employees of the Vatican.  The buildings inside the Vatican look just like other buildings in Rome.

 

Guards without their coat.

St. Peter's Basilica

This is probably one of Michelangelo's most famous sculptures.  It is absolutely beautiful!



This is looking to the front of the Basilica.  It doesn't look that far, but it really is huge!



The Altar.  To get an idea how large this is, the Priest was a fairly large man and when he was standing behind the altar, his head did not even reach the brown area above the altar, (the area that begins at about the top of the candles). 
So as you can tell, it is huge!

The domed ceiling above the Altar area.

To the right and the left of the alter, there were domed ceilings on each side,
they each had huge wooden cabinets with the pipes for the pipe organ.  This is the dome that was in the center.



There were so many beautiful statues and sculptures in the Basilica!





The Nativity scene that was set up in the Basilica, it had a running fountain that was like a stream. 
There was a radiant light coming from behind the angel and from baby Jesus.




One of the many columns, you can tell how large this is by looking at the people standing there.



Holy Water font



I know this picture is a little fuzzy - but I thought it is worth sharing since it is the tomb of  St. Peter. 
His remains are down the steps and to the back of this area. 
You could not actually go down to the tomb. 

 I went to Church Sunday, January 16th at St. Peter's Basilica, it was absolutely beautiful.  On Sunday's you can't rent the audio tour, so I didn't get the full history and story of all the sculptures and areas in the Basilica. After the mass, in one of the little chapels to the side, it is the area that the do all the Baptism's, I assume that is where they do all the Baptism's because there were two babies being Baptized after the mass.  There was a huge Baptismal fount.  The mass was in Italian, so I didn't understand any of it.  I tried to follow along by memory in English, but I must say it did get a little confusing!  I certainly knew the sign of peace and when to go to Holy Communion!  Regardless of your language, those two parts of the mass can always be identified along with the Creed.  I did buy a book on the Vatican, St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museums, so I will learn more about it, and want to go back I am sure!