Texas Walker Ranger

Sunday, June 27

With the purchase of a Roma Pass, you not only get unlimited bus and metro rides, but you get to tour two of Rome's museums for free. Our first entry was used at the Colosseum. We decided to use the second pass at Castel Sant'Angelo. This Castle was featured in the movie Angels and Demons so it was kind of fun to see the inside. However, we couldn't really tell how much of it was used in the movie. I think if I go back and watch the movie, I will pay close attention to this part...we were able to see the walkway that does exist linking Vatican City to the Castle. The Castle actually was not originally built as a castle. It was built as a tomb for the Emperor Hadrian. However, as time has passed, the castle has been used as prison and as a fortress for popes under attack. Although the inside of the castle was neat (we had to go up a winding passageway and even crossed what looked like a drawbridge), it was really the views of Rome that were most impressive. We had our first real glances of St. Peter's Basilica and Vatican City.

Pictures from Saturday, June 26--Rome

Pictures from Thursday, June 24--Paris

Pictures from Tuesday, June 22--Paris

Pictures from Monday, June 21--Paris

When in Rome

Friday, June 25

Well we have made it to Rome. We actually made it to Rome after a very long train ride from Paris. Our train from Paris left at 6:54am to Lyon, France. However, before we reached Lyon we found out we had to change to another train in Belgan (spelling?) which luckily was just on the platform across from us. Finally making it Lyon, we boarded a train to Geneve (Geneva), Switzerland. Now I am sure Geneva is quite beautiful, the train station, not so much. It was especially annoying that when you purchased something they paid you back in Francs. From Geneve it was off to Milano, Italy.

Pictures from Sunday, June 20--Paris

If it isn't a volcano, it's a strike...

What a day we have had! First of all we do apologize for not having pictures in our last post or today. Once you hear what we've gone through, we think you'll understand. However, before we get to that we neglected to mention some of the other students who wanted us to travel to the Louvre and find the Mona Lisa. Credit also goes to Edwin, Juan Z., Darius, and Maria L. We promise to have pictures of her soon up here!

Paris, The city of light

Ms. Garcia on the blog today - We started the day figuring out the metro system, which thanks to London, is not very difficult, besides the fact that everything is in French (not complaining, just wish I had snuck into some of POMS beginner French classes). We met some fellow teachers from Georgia and had a nice chat with them. We were quite amused as they had confused us for Parisian teenagers! I'll take that compliment.

Better Late than Never...

Hey, everyone! Sorry we haven't blogged in the last couple of days. It's been crazy busy. We figure the best way to do this is to break it up by days, so here goes...

"Is all our life, then, but a dream?"

After a much-needed rest we headed out this morning to tour London. We were not expecting it to be so chilly here! I actually had to stop and buy a jacket before we could go any further. We ventured out on our own through the London Tube to Charing Cross.

Monkeying Around

Before we begin to tell you about our day, we must warn you that we are 30+ hours without sleep. We did find our Charlie the Charger mascot before leaving Houston.

Bon Voyage

June 14th is finally here! We are sitting in the President's Club relaxing before our nine hour flight. Our first snafu was a too-small laptop case for the laptop. Since we are stuck with it, we figured we could stuff it with some of the free snacks up here! :) A second mishap of the day occurred a few minutes ago when we realized we forgot to bring our mascot, Charlie the Charger. We will be hitting the airport gift shops momentarily to buy one. If all goes as planned we should begin boarding the plane at 2:55. Let's hope that the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland doesn't erupt any time soon. Talk to you all soon!

Thank You!

Thanks to everyone who made it out to Collina's on Tuesday night for our final get-together before the trip. We had a good group of 6th graders show up, but 8th graders...where were you?!?! :) A special thanks goes to Lisa Hill for making it all possible. The food was delicious!