Saturday, May 28, 2011

Second Time's the Charm!

I never would have guessed that I'd be this young and already on my second marriage! At least it's to the same person...I guess some people are just special enough to marry more than once :)

When we got engaged and entered this whirlwind of change that has only just begun to settle down, we thought that the circumstances that pushed us to have a courthouse wedding were "not ideal". We're traditional people. But, looking back, many of the decisions that we have made have been by trusting God and doing what our instincts tell us to do, and we always end up on the right path. That first "legal" wedding was so much more special than we were prepared for it to be, and it gave us a comfortable window of time to plan our church/family wedding the way we had envisioned it.

Having 9 months of marriage experience before getting married ended up being a really special time for us to reflect on what our commitment means, and really appreciate what we're doing as we planned out our wedding day.

Planning a wedding from another country is about as diffiult as you would expect it to be, and the further you get into it, the more it takes on a mind of it's own! We're so thankful for the help of our families (especially both moms)...I don't think we could have pulled it off without you! Everything turned out beautifully, and it was so nice to see our families all in the same place. It was also nice to be back in America, and back in Lawrenceburg where everyone makes you feel like family. Thanks to everyone who shared our wedding day with us.

Last, I'd like to thank our photographer, Jessica Brown from MOONBelle Photography. Having beautiful pictures to preserve our memories was so important to us! You can see Jessica's pictures by clicking on the picture below:
Wedding and Reception

We also have lots of wonderful pictures from friends and family who came to the wedding, which you can see by clicking on this picture:
Wedding Pictures from guests

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Our Engagement Pictures

Okay, Okay, so we were already technically married when these pictures were taken. In fact, it was only a few days before the second wedding because we were in Germany until the week before! Photographers often have an "engagement session" included in their packages, which is a good time for them to get to know you, and what you want. Our photographer was Jessica Brown from MOONbelle photography. We had our engagement session at David Crockett State Park in Lawrenceburg. Going on walks in the woods is something that has always been a cornerstone of our quality time together :)

Click on the picture below to see our pictures!
Engagement Pictures

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Rome, Italy: Part 4- Vatican City

My first experience in Vatican City was being shuffled out by Swiss guards with very large swords.

We were wandering around town, doing as the Romans do, and we passed this huge gate, which was wide open. Billy said “that’s an entrance into Vatican City”. Of course, I immediately jumped through the gate so someone could take a picture of me in two countries at once (Vatican City is a sovereign nation). Little did I know that not anyone can just walk through the ‘border’…but the armed guards were quick to inform me.
We walked around the corner into St. Peter’s Square, the large gathering area outside St. Peter’s Basilica.


The walls surrounding the square are lined with statues of saints. It’s easy to overlook how giant these statues (and so many of the statues in Rome) are, because they are placed on such giant structures. Each of the saint statues in the semicircle in front of the basilica are easily 3-4 times life size, and there are so many of them. One thing that struck us over and over again during our visit is the amount of time it must have taken sculptors to make even one of the thousands of statues we saw. It must have been the life’s work of so many people during that time.
A few days later, we went back to actually see the inside of the basilica. Like all of the major attractions in Rome, you should plan when to go ahead of time because there WILL be insanely long lines. After waiting for a while to get into the basilica, we went through a set of guards who told me I could not enter because my skirt was too short! Apparently the dress code for the basilica requires that you cover your shoulders and knees. So, Billy had to run and get a scarf that I could wrap around my legs, and we were on our way.


St. Peter’s has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world! It was absolutely huge, and every inch of it was ornately decorated. Every corner had giant statues and pieces of art. Famous Italian artists Michelangelo and Bernini have works of art on display here.


One of the most prized pieces of art in the basilica is Michelangelo’s “Pietá”, a statue of Mary holding Jesus after he was taken down from the cross. A friend told us that recently a man attacked this statue with a hammer and badly damaged it, but it has been restored. I’m not sure how he made it past all the metal detectors! It was like airport security coming into this place…


Another well known piece is a bronze statue of Saint Peter. People touch his toe for good luck.


Toward the front of the church is a beautiful bronze altar that is 100 feet tall. Like the statues, it’s hard to appreciate the sheer size of it in the context of such a huge building. Below the altar is a staircase that descends into what is claimed to be Saint Peter’s tomb. Saint Peter was one of the 12 apostles, and Catholics hold him as the first pope of the Catholic church. We happened to visit the basilica just one weekend after the beatification of Pope John Paul II. The pope’s casket was being held inside the basilica, for followers to come and visit.

One of the highlights of visiting Vatican City was our climb to the top of St. Peter’s. The dome above the basilica’s altar is 450 feet tall (the tallest dome in the world), and you can climb almost all the way to the top! I think it cost us about 3€ each, but if you wanted to take the elevator, it costs more (and the elevator only took you so high…you still have to walk quite a bit). It was A LOT of stairs, and they were very, very narrow. I had to wonder what someone would do if they had an emergency and needed to get out. It just wasn’t possible…you had to keep going. Every once in a while there was a small window where we could see how high we were above the city.


We came to a viewing ledge on the inside of the dome, where we could look down over the inside of the basilica through a fence. If you are afraid of heights, this would not be your cup of tea!


It was only from this ledge that were close enough to the ceiling to see that it was not painted; the beautiful ‘frescoes’ we saw from the ground were actually tile mosaics! It made how real they looked even more amazing.


As we got further up into the dome, the staircase became slanted to fit the dome’s shape and you had to lean on the wall to keep climbing.


We climbed to a balcony that circles the dome. It was awesome…you could see the entire city! On the way back down, you can also go out onto the roof of the basilica.


A piece of interesting history about Vatican City is the guards. They are from the Swiss army; not Roman. This dates back to the 16th Century. Swiss guards were brought in to protect the Pope because they have a strong reputation of bravery and loyalty. In the Sack of Rome in 1527, Vatican City was invaded by Roman troops with the intent to take over. While a small group of guards moved the Pope to safety through an underground tunnel, all of the rest of the guards (who were completely outnumbered) died fighting to hold back the Roman army long enough for the Pope to get away. They have used Swiss guards ever since. To become one, you must be a single, young male who is a Swiss citizen and is well educated, speaks multiple languages, and has had extensive martial arts and combat training.

Because Vatican City is a sovereign nation, it has its own laws. Those laws allow the Swiss guards some interesting authority. For example, if any of the guards feels that a person is a direct threat to the life of the Pope, that guard has the authority to decapitate the person on site! On a lighter note, the Swiss guards still wear the same uniforms they have worn since the 16th century, and I have to admit…they’re kinda silly looking.

As I suggested, we had planned out the days and times that we would visit the major landmarks of Rome, so we would beat the huge crowds. A lady at the bus station specifically told us that the Vatican museum is open on Sundays, but come Sunday, she was wrong. We were leaving the next day, and we thought we had missed our chance to see one of the things we had looked forward to the most…the Sistine Chapel. But, we decided to get up early and be at the museum when it opened Monday morning. There were still huge lines. We didn’t have much time to go through the museum, but we still got to see a lot. If we get a chance to go back, we will dedicate a day to really going through this museum. We thought the Sistine Chapel would be the only major attraction, but it is only the most famous; there are so many impressive things to see. Every wall, ceiling, floor, hallway…even the entrance to the bathrooms was covered in beautiful frescoes. We walked through long hallways lined with statues, and others covered in paintings, and you just couldn’t take enough pictures. The pictures don’t do it justice anyway.


At the end of the museum is the Sistine Chapel, which was painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512. He painted over 1,000 m² of ceiling! The most famous part of his painting is in the center of the ceiling, where God is reaching down and touching fingers to Adam, which represents the beginning of human life. Also famous is the front wall of the Chapel, which is completely covered with a painting which depicts the ‘Last Judgment”- the final battle that leads to the Apocalypse.
Michelangelo supposedly modeled the faces of some of the people in the paintings on people he knew. For example, Saint Bartholomew was a self portrait, and the face of Judas (the apostle who betrayed Jesus) was modeled after one of Michelangelo’s enemies. Unfortunately, taking pictures is not allowed in the Sistine Chapel.
Today, the Papal Conclave (the time when the Cardinals meet to elect a new Pope) is held in the Sistine Chapel. There is a chimney on the roof, and when a decision is made on a new Pope, white smoke comes out of the chimney, from the ballots being burned.

Click on the picture below to see the rest of our pictures!
Vatican City

Friday, May 6, 2011

Rome, Italy: Part 3- The lesser known things

There’s just so much to say about Rome! I’ll try to intermix our cultural experiences with the things we saw, so I don’t sound so much like a tour guide!


After we left the hotel in Frascati, we went to stay in a monastery near Vatican City which was run by Spanish nuns, who did not speak any English at all. We obviously had trouble communicating, and I later realized it wasn’t helping when I tried to interject the few Italian words we knew, because they were speaking Spanish the whole time! Our stay there was an interesting experience, though. The hotel was very simplistic, but clean. We had a curfew of 11pm, every night, and if you missed the curfew, you had to find somewhere else to stay that night…without your luggage. This ended up being fine with us because we were so exhausted at the end of every day, we were in bed before the curfew. We didn’t even have keys to the front door- we had to ring the bell, and then a nun would stick her head out a few floors up, say something in Spanish, and eventually make her way to the front door after 5 minutes or so. These are the type of funny memories that can be frustrating in the moment, but we will look back on fondly forever.


One of the most popular sights to see (second only to the Colosseum) is the Pantheon. The Pantheon is a religious temple which was built in the first century. When it was built, it was the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world, and it still holds that record today, 2,000 years later. The dome has a large hole in the center called an “oculus”, which allows light and fresh air into the building. On the other hand, it also allows rain into the building, but there are drainage holes in the floor for that. The height of the dome and the width of the inner circle are exactly the same…a perfect sphere could fit in the space in the middle, which is pretty amazing for such an old building made of stone. Outside the Pantheon you can always find men dressed up as gladiators who you can take your picture with, and horse drawn chariots if you want a ride around the city.


One of our favorite landmarks to stop and hang out at was the Trevi Fountain. It is huge, with giant statues sprawled out across it. This fountain actually marks the end of one of the ancient Roman aquaducts, and the scene that is depicted by the statues is when the pure water was discovered near the city. Today people throw coins in the fountain for good luck, and apparently the money that is collected goes to programs to help the poor in Rome. On a side note, we had some excellent lasagna at a restaurant next to this fountain!

Rome is not exactly set up to be easy for a tourist to navigate, which was a little surprising. In fact, we had so much trouble that I would swear they do it on purpose, to get you to wander around more and buy things. Maybe we are spoiled now by the excellent public transportation in Germany, but Rome could make a few improvements. For starters, you do NOT want to attempt to drive in Rome, and don’t even THINK about renting a scooter…you will not live to advise the next person against it. Traffic in Rome is scary and chaotic at best. There will be a 4 lane street with 6 lanes of traffic; cars, giant tour buses, and hundreds of scooters weaving in between the vehicles. People think red lights are suggestions, not rules, and pedestrians walk right out in front of cars. I repeat- do NOT try to drive here. We bought a “Roma Pass”, which is good for 3 days. It gets you unlimited travel on the buses and local trains, and entry into 3 museums or other tourist attractions that you have to pay for. We thought “buses will make it so easy to get around”…wrong! The signs at the bus stops tell you the stops the bus will make (they all sound alike), but have no maps, so those names mean nothing to you. Everywhere we went, we had to use 3 different maps to try to piece together where we needed to go. The good news: once you get into the center of town, most of the major sites are within walking distance. And when I say “walking distance”, I mean you will be very, very tired of walking by the time you leave Rome.


Nearby the Colosseum was one of the largest and newest buildings we saw- a giant palace built by Mussolini around the time of WWII. It is huge, and bright white. It almost looked like it might have fit in with the ancient Roman buildings when they were new. That would have been an amazing sight to see. On the back of this building is a very tall glass elevator which you can ride in and see the city from high up.


Next to Mussolini’s palace was a huge stone column with carvings over every inch of it. These carvings spiral around the column from bottom to top and illustrate the thousands of years of Roman history.


Rome (and what we’ve seen of Europe in general) is full of extravagant churches. The more churches you visit, the more they all tend to look pretty similar. We knew we would be amazed by Saint Peter’s Basilica (I’ll talk about that in part 4), but we were just as blown away by a little church we just happened upon as we wandered down an alleyway. It was called the Church of Saint Ignatius, or “Sant'Ignazio”, and it didn’t look like much from the outside, compared to other churches in Rome. This church was as impressive as the Sistine Chapel, seriously. The walls and ceilings are totally covered with giant frescoes which represent the different people of the world (they had a section for America), and the altar was completely amazing. Everything was huge and shining like gold, and there were giant carved statues everywhere.


Billy was most amazed by the dome on the ceiling, which is actually an optical illusion. Once you get under it, you realize it is actually just painted on a flat ceiling! We later learned that this was because the neighbors didn’t want a dome obstructing their view. We would rate this church as much of a “must see” as the Colosseum.



Rome is full of piazzas, which are basically public meeting places…open areas with fountains or statues where people just hang out. Our favorite was probably the Piazza Navona, which had a fountain in the center with statues that were just unbelievably huge. This piazza also seemed to be the local art center. Every day, it was full of artists selling their work. Most of it was surprisingly similar- small watercolor paintings of landmarks from around Rome. There were also a lot of street performers, like the people who dress up and stand like statues, and then “come to life” when you put money in their hat. You’ll never believe what the most common one I saw was…the Statue of Liberty! I don’t get it…why are Romans dressing up as a French statue in New York? Billy and I were saving our money for someone who would just paint themselves white and stand outside like one of the many naked statues you see all over Rome :)

Click on the picture below to see the rest of our pictures!
Rome, Italy

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Rome, Italy: Part 2- Ancient Ruins and the Colosseum

One of the first things everyone thinks of when they picture “Rome” is the Colosseum. That was the case for me. What I didn’t realize was that there are literally hundreds of other archeological ruins spread over a very large area of Rome. In fact, the whole city is sitting on top of ancient ruins! After the famous fire in 64AD which burnt most of the city to the ground, a new Rome was built right on top of the old one. Ancient ruins are still uncovered in Rome, so there are new sights all the time. Still, the Colosseum is the crown jewel of Roman ruins, so I’ll start there.


The Colosseum actually looks quite a lot like your average modern football stadium, except that it was made completely out of stones held together with iron clamps (no mortar), had tunnels, shifting floors, and hydraulic mechanisms that would be considered impressive even today, and was built almost 2,000 years ago. It was finished in just 8 years, which is even more impressive when you imagine the types of construction equipment that would have been available to the Romans in biblical times. This ancient amphitheater could seat over 50,000 people.
Battles between gladiators were not the only events here; there were plays reenacting famous battles or mythology, public executions, and a lot of animal shows. Bones from almost every type of animal imaginable have been found in the Colosseum. There was even a special waterproof floor built to reenact historical sea battles. Until relatively recently scientists thought the emergence of waterproof concrete came much, much later than what is found here.


The floor of the Colosseum (which is now destroyed and reveals what is underneath) is full of tunnels where people and animals were held. Pulleys and a network of 80 vertical shafts allowed those people and animals to rise up out of the floor in different areas of the arena.
On one end of the Colosseum, you can see rows of marble benches. This is the area where senators and very important people sat during events. Seating in the arena was organized by a person’s class in society and strictly regulated. You can still see some places where inscriptions in the stone tell you who was allowed to sit in that section. In some cases specific names are given to specific seats.


Next to the Colosseum is the Circus Maximus, where chariot races were held- it sort of looks like a big track and field ring. There is also the Domus Aurea, which was (and still is) a controversial project from the emperor Nero. Legend tells that Nero stood in costume and sang as the whole city burned. Many even say that he started the fire, but historically most of this is probably not true. What is true, though, is that right after the fire burnt down all of the buildings around the Colosseum, Nero leveled the area and built a beautiful complex of extravagant buildings and parks, much of which was funded through taxes imposed on the people. Most of the Domus Aurea is gone today.


The largest collection of ancient ruins in Rome that you can visit today is part of the Roman Forum. The Roman Forum was the center of public life during that time. Elections and trials were held here, along with every other aspect of daily life. Today it’s hard to distinguish on building from the other, but they have maps which try to tell you what lies where.
One of the things that I really loved about the ruins was the way the plants grew around them. There were beautiful green vines everywhere, and bright red poppies poking up through the stones. It’s amazing to imagine how old everything is, and how many people have walked over the same stones since they were first put there.


The Roman Empire was the source of most of the major world inventions for thousands of years. Still, so many things about Rome make it seem like it is behind the times by today’s standards. It’s almost as if they were 1,000 years ahead of their time, and then didn’t change much after that…

Click on the picture below to see the rest of our pictures!
Ancient Roman Ruins

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Rome, Italy: Part 1- Frascati

We went to Rome for one of Billy’s project meetings, and we came back exhausted! Because there is so much to say about Rome, I’ll split the stories into 4 parts: Frascati, ancient Roman ruins, Vatican City, and the rest of Rome. First, I’ll tell you about Frascati.

This is the city where we stayed for the first 2 nights. It is nestled on a big hill that looks down over Rome. Getting here was an adventure. We flew by plane from Duesseldorf to an airport outside of Rome, and then took 2 trains to Frascati, the last of which broke down 5 minutes from our destination. It was nearing midnight and we were stuck in complete darkness while the train “rebooted”. But, we were back on our way before too long.


We stayed in a beautiful, very old hotel called Villa Grazioli. The main building of the hotel, where all of the meetings were held, had an interior that was completely covered in frescoes, art, old books, and really large furniture. This would be our experience in Roman buildings…it was as if the painters of the day looked at a white wall as a canvas. It was not “clean” looking; it was “empty” looking.


There was a shuttle that the hotel provided that would take us into Frascati, so we went there for lunch a couple times. It was a really interesting, very small town. If I wanted to work in Rome, I would definitely live in Frascati. Beautiful view, good food, everything was cheaper, and you do not have the crazy, crazy traffic!


Much of the interesting history of Frascati is centered around plague. In the center of town, there is the façade of the Church of Saint Mary (only the front is still standing- there are apartments right behind it!). In 1656 some plaster on the inside of this church peeled away and revealed a fresco of two saints who were considered protectors from plague. That same year, a devastating plague swept through Rome, but Frascati was unaffected. Ever since, those two saints have been considered protectors of the city, and the façade of the church which still stands has a statue of the saints on either side of the false door.


Almost 200 years later, another huge plague swept through Rome, and many people fled the city. Frascati was the only city who allowed the displaced Romans to seek shelter there, and since then the two cities have shared a flag and a close historical bond.

I would be crazy to write an entry about Frascati and not mention the gelato! It was much cheaper here than in Rome, and by far the best ice cream I’ve ever had. I don’t even know if I’m allowed to call it ice cream. My two giant scoops of stracciatella (chocolate chip) and pistachio were one of the highlights of my entire trip! The hotel we stayed at also had excellent food. Everything was traditionally Roman; oil and vinegar cheese and tomatoes, great pasta, and fresh bread with every meal.

Speaking of food, I gotta say…I fully expected my favorite foods in Rome to be pastas, but there was something better than that. I always loved Fig Newtons, but I had never had a fresh fig. Well, Rome has fresh figs, and homemade fig pastries. I think it may have been my favorite food EVER! If you ever go to Rome, see the major sites, get some pasta and gelato, but do NOT miss out on the fresh fig pastries! You should also try some of the local favorites which are odd in other places, like thinly sliced ham wrapped around melon balls.

Click on the picture below to see the rest of our pictures!
Frascati, Italy

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Externsteine


We took a day trip with our friends Gabby and Philipp to a rock formation named "Externsteine". Stone tools have been found at this location dating back earlier than 10,000 BC! A church and monastery dedicated to Saint Peter were also built here around the year 815 AD. During the years leading up to WWII, the Nazi Party siezed control over the landmark. Heinrich Himmler wanted to make it a sacred area which would glorify German history.



The area was really cool. There were a lot of people laying in the grass, eating their lunch...there was even a guy walking around playing bagpipes. There are stairs which lead all the way up the stones (which are over 120 feet high), and a bridge that connects the top of two pillars. The weather was beautiful and the view from the top of the stones was awesome.



After seeing Externsteine we went for a hike through the woods, and stopped for a nice game of frisbee :)
Click on the link below to see the rest of our pictures!
Externsteine