Vatican Museum, including Sistine Chapel

The Vatican Museum was full of mosaic's on the floor.  The deep blue stone is blue lapis and green is jade.
 They were all very beautiful

This is an ancient tomb.  Inside it is like a big bathtub, with a built up "pillow" area on one end.

There are so many statues that I took pictures of.  It is impossible to post all the pictures on this blog.



You could not take pictures inside the Sistine Chapel.  This is a description of the last judgment area of the ceiling. It actually depicts from the creation of Adam to the last judgement.  It is breath taking.  I can't even imagine Michelangelo laying on his back painting it.  It is huge!  They actually restored the ceiling in 1980, it was actually just cleaned with special cleaner and paper.  There was one small square area that was not restored so that you could see how it looked prior to the restoration.  It was very dark, due to the smoke stains from the candle light, I mean let's face it, it was painted between 1508 and 1512, that is a long time ago!



The ceiling of one of the beautiful rooms in the museum.

Isn't this beautiful?  It looks like sculptures or carvings in the ceiling doesn't it?  I was not, it was actually painted. 
The entire ceiling of this room was covered with paintings like this.

Some more beautiful ceilings in the museum.

This was out on a patio overlooking the Vatican Gardens.



A the view looking up and down a beautiful spiral stairway the leads the way out of the museum.

My hotel adventures in Rome

The place I thought I was staying was about half way down this street on the right.  Borgo Pio is a very traditional old area of Rome, just outside of the Vatican and St. Peter's Square.

Relaxing at a street side cafe close to the hotel, waiting to get to my room.

I was taking a break at another cafe when I saw this!  It was really neat seeing them walking to St. Peter's Basilica.



Across the street from my apartment at the new location.

 When I arrived in Rome, I wanted to get to the hotel as soon as I could so I could start exploring.  The Vatican Museum was only open on Saturday, so I planned on spending the day there.  I took a taxi to 64 Borgo Pio, which is the B&B that I was staying.  When the taxi dropped me off, I said where is the B&B, he said I dont' know but this the the address.  The building was like an apartment building in New York City.  I saw the name by beside #14 said Bed and Breakfast, so I started ringing the bell.  Then Corrardo arrived on the sidewalk.  We went up to the room - four flights of stairs later, he told me the room was not ready but I could leave my bag.  He told me to meet him back there at 6 p.m. so I could go to the museum and then come back to my room.  That sounded reasonable.  By 5 p.m. I was tired and ready to rest in my room, so I sat at a little street cafe across from the building and drank a glass of limoncello, it was very good.  Finally at 6:10 p.m. I started ringing the bell for #14, when another resident of the building let me in, so I went back up the stairs and started knocking on the door and ringing the bell.  A guest of the B&B let me in the B&B and called Corrardo on her cell phone.  He finally showed up about 6:30, to tell me that I was at the wrong place.  I had rented something much better, "an apartment".  At that point I was really tired.  I didn't care if I had rented a couch somewhere.  Anyway, I followed him walking about a mile to my apartment, directly across the street from the Vatican Museum - exactly where I had just came from!  I was not near as happy because it was further from where I wanted to be the next morning!  But, I was glad to be able to take my shoes off and rest!  The free internet was a really sorry connection, so I hardly got to talk to Stephen!  I guess my advice is be careful about booking your room on the internet when you go to Rome.   

Once I did get settled for the night, I could hardly sleep because I started worrying about how I was going to get to the airport Monday morning! 

My Roman Holiday

I traveled to Rome for the holiday last weekend.  It was an amazing adventure!  Rome is such an old city.  It was really awesome to be in such a religious place also.  The building had pictures and mosaics of Virgin Mary and baby Jesus.  They were beautiful.

Indy 500 Centennial Tour

Mario Andretti

Jack Arute and Al Unser, Jr.

Johnny Rutherford and Martin Plowman

Larry Foyt, son of AJ Foyt and Davey Martin

Sarah Fisher and Cameron Haven

I just happened to walk over to the Liberty Club after work today and they were preparing for the Indy 500 Centennial Tour, so I hung around.  I am glad I did it was really neat.  Made me think back to when I was growing up and my Mom and I would watch the Indy 500.  I always thought Mario Andretti was so handsome.  I remember Al Unser and A.J. Foyt.  Anyway, the Indy 500 Centennial Tour is to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Indy 500 and to honor America's service members around the world.

Good Wednesday morning.

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day.  It is a shame that I had to work.  The weather has been cloudy overcast and damp ever since I got here.  Man I can tell with my hair – it is really trying to curl!  I was at my office at RAF Mildenhall, which is about 15 or 20 minutes from my home base.  Of course it took me about 30 minutes because I couldn’t find it in my GPS, so I was just following the signs!  Then when I got on base, it took a good 30 minutes to find the right building.  They say that base is about the same size as Lakenheath, but I think it is much larger!  I had a full morning of interviews then a briefing at 1:00.  This was not my full four hour briefing; it was a much abbreviated version.  They wanted the 30 minute version with another 15 minutes for questions.  It is hard to reduce four hours to 30 minutes, so I just touched on everything, without a lot of detail on anything!

I left the base last night at the Bird in the Hand gate.  Bird in the Hand is a Pub that Margie Morrison’s son-in-law told me to be sure to visit.  I had Chicken Tikki Marsala for dinner.  I was expecting some type of chicken marsala,  It wasn’t, it was more like a chicken curry with a piece of nan (Indian bread).  It was good, it just wasn’t what I was expecting!  How weird, I just Googled Chicken Tikki recipe and it is a chicken curry, I guess the marsala threw me off!

I am getting a little more comfortable driving in the UK, but I hate those roundabouts!  Give me a four way stop sign anytime!  Everyone says within a month I will love them and miss them so much when I go home.  I am not feeling the love yet!  I would say that has probably been the closest that I have been to an accident, I wasn’t really that close, just enough to scare me and make me realize I don’t know what the heck I am doing!

Well, I have another full day of interviews; they didn’t even schedule me a lunch today.  Good thing I brought some peanut butter and crackers!  I will tell you all about my trip to Rome later.

Cheers!

My first weekend and the second week

Saturday, January 8th,  I was supposed to go on a walking tour in the city of Bath, but I was tired!  Basically I have been going nonstop since Christmas Eve.  I really needed some down time, so Saturday I slept in and it felt great!  I went to Church here on base Sunday morning and then went to RAF Alconbury to stay for two nights. 

I had my first briefing on Monday, January 10th, it went really well.  I had eight service members present.  That was a really small group compared to the briefings that I had in Okinawa.  I usually had at least 20 service members in each brief in Okinawa.  Tuesday, January 11th, I travelled to RAF Molesworth, which is an Intelligence Base, I don't have an office there, so I sat up a table in the NY Pizza Deli from 11:00 until 1:00.   No one stopped by, so I started visiting the tables asking if anyone had any VA questions.  I drummed up some business that way!

Wednesday, January 12th, I had my first telephone briefing with Bahrain.  There were 18 service members present.  It was different giving a telephone briefing.  You can't see your audience, so you can't tell when they need a break and what their reactions are to the briefing.  Bonnie, the TAP Manager at Bahrain, said that she received good feed back from the group, so I guess it went alright!

Immediately after my briefing I had to drive to RAF Menwith Hill, which is located at Harrogate.  It took about four hours to get to there.  I spent the night at The Sherwood House B&B.  I told Morgan that was where I was staying, and she asked if I was in Arkansas.  I guess she thought I was going to be spending the night at Martha and Bernie's Sherwood House!

It is really strange driving strictly by a GPS.  I really had no idea if I was going right, I completely depended on the GPS.  The drive to Harrogate was interesting, the road signs said "The North" and on the way back the sign said "The South".  I guess they really look at it you are either going the North or the South!  Getting back to the GPS, Thursday morning on my way to the base from my hotel, I was almost at the base and the GPS said to turn left.  I did and ended up in the middle of a sheep field.  So I decided that I just heard it wrong and so I turned around and made about a two mile block and when back the same way, this time when the GPS said turn left, I turned right and ended up at the base!  I had a briefing at Menwith Hill and there was about 8 service members there.  I had several interviews after the briefing.  At 3:30, I packed up and headed home.  Four hours back to Lakenheath, in the rain!  It felt great to get in my bed that night!

Friday, January 14th,  I had my first briefing at my home base, RAF Lakenheath.  There were 18 service members and one spouse present.  The briefing went really well.  I got a few e-mails from participants with compliments after the briefing, which always make me feel really good - like I helped someone!  Like I said on facebook, it doesn't matter how many of these briefing that I do, I still get nervous!

Wow, I made it to this weekend, which I spent in Rome.  I will tell you all about that trip tomorrow!

Bury St. Edmunds

Friday, January 7th, I went on the Newcomer's tour, which included driving us all around the base and the villages nearby.  The tour ended at Bury St. Edmunds, which is about 20 - 30 minutes from the base.  We had lunch at a great pub, Queen's Head.  I had the Steak and Guinness Pie, I love the steak pie.  I still have to get some fish and chips, but every time I see steak pie on the menu, I can't resist. 

Original stained glass that was made in about 1320.

Ceiling of the tower at the St. Edmund Cathedral

This is the tower of the Cathedral. and the ruins of the old abbey.

 Entrance to the Abbey Gardens, among the; remains of the old Abbey, built in the 11th century.

Angel Hil, which is a war memorial.

The village of Bury St. Edmunds is an awesome little place to visit.  There are the remains of an Benedictine Abbey that was built in the11th century.  The cathedral Bury St. Edmunds was also built in the 11th century.  There is one stained glass window that was built from broken pieces of glass in about 1320.  It was a really nice tour.  I am sure that I will be returning to Bury St. Edmunds for more exploring on my own!