London

Cold and rainy. What a shock. Don't need to see sights here so we can just look around and see what has changed since we last where here.

Met up wth Nick and Janet Cane in the Red Bar at the Grosvenor House. While we were chatting they closed the bar for a private party and a whole lot of famous rugby players came in. They didn't throw us out and Nick and Janet were thrilled as they are reat sports fans. It was bit of fun to stand chatting to Mike Tindell who is more famous for having married the queens granddaughter, Zara Phillips. Didn't see the queen so her grand son in law will have to do.

London and England have had the wettest year in 30 years and that is saying something. It produced a glorious spring with flowering trees so thickly covered in blossoms you couldn't see a branch. The parks were painted in every shade of green. Every bed awash with blooms. Stunning.

A day riding the double decker was in order. The crowds are horrific. So glad we didn't need to go in anywhere as we have covered the highlights in past visits.

 

The new shard is Western Europe's tallest building, looking just like broken glass at the top. The most graceful of London's new buildings.

Found this place for lunch. Blood thirsty lot those Brits.

 

 

Fullers ESB, lamb pie, mash and veggies.

Watched a rugby match on TV. Now that is a sport for tough men. Fun to watch.

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Musings

The big black Mercedes glides silently through the empty streets of Rome in the pale light before sunrise as we sit quietly absorbing that this long varied trip is mostly over. Two short stops, one in London for dinner with Nick and Janet, and one in Brussels to see Kekko, Julia and tribe. Then home.
Idle thoughts flash through my mind. Things we don't or can't or choose not to photograph.
Mostly my mind is still absorbed by Africa.
One is the baby giraffe in the Okavango Camp. We visit him everday, silently his body lies in the soft grass. Within hours of his birth he was gifted with something few of his species every experience, a quiet and natural death. The guide is surprised that predators had not found him and he is undisturbed for over a week while his mother grazes near by. Predation is the rule and law of this wild world. Eventually he is cleanly removed and life continues its cycle.
"Bugs", everbody asks about bugs. There are lots of bugs but they don't really cross our path anymore than at home. With a few exceptions.
The sundowner moth is one large moth that has a habit of plopping into a drink in the evening much to his chagrin as well as the drinkers. Unfortunately I met the sundowner bee and he was happily helping himself to my wine when I tried a sip. Small disagreement so I got a fat lip for a few days.

This big boy was hanging on Shippy's little house.

Dung beetle. He is very impressive.
A major presence are the millions or billions of termites. Their ghostly cathedrals rise in grotesque splendor on the plains, in the woodlands everywhere. Giving testimony to the busy lives of this industrious little insect they also serve as places for wart hogs to build dens, mongoose families to build burrows, snakes to hide from the hot sun and a high place for prey animals to place a lookout or a predator to look for prey. Of course behind the termite mound is also a nice private spot when needed.

Nyala, exotic and gorgous.

Look at those thorns. Doesn't faze the giraffe or rhino or elephant.

Good light makes for great pictures.

One stunning photo had Gary standing frozen for 40 minutes hoping for another. Hippo did not oblige.

Hard to capture that big head swaying back and forth. Elephant for "I see you and don't come any closer."

One of the three rough nomad lions. I can just feel the attitude this guy has. He and his brothers are here to take the women and the food and the territory.

We hated this bridge and then this day there was a guard. I did have ugly thoughts of being chased across that bridge by an elephant. The elephant could have cared less about us being there.

There are some basic changes in the way we view the world when life is stripped down to simple essentials. How easy it is to get up and dress and move into the day when the only descision is what is clean and will keep me warm enough. It is liberating.
Different senses come into play. It is easy for us all to notice how large trees reduce the temperature on a blazing hot day but how often on a cold dark night have you felt the air soften and warm under a spreading canopy?

The harsh blast of perfumed bodies in the Jo'berg airport bus is grating after nothing but clean fresh air.

Flying. Airport lounges and planes are a world unto themselves and the rules are easy to navigate and somewhat uniform.

The most impressive sight in an airport was the full crew for a British Airways 747 marching two abreast unto the plane in Capetown. 14 cabin crew and two pilots walk the length of the waiting area and down the clear glass jetway. Snappy, sharp, very reassuring.

The mind and eye are easily fooled. The forest of Africa is not manicured but full of dead trees, broken limbs and branches lying askew. Everyone, even the guide, stops to use glasses on what turns out to be a leopard log. After dinner and a few glasses of wine we had a young elephant right outside our door that turned back into a palm tree on closer inspection. Gary spotted him first so he gets the credit for that one.

Why do we in America have government healthcare and communist China does not?

One thing I won't miss is checking weather and getting it in Celsius

How close did we get to the animals?  Most common question.

Taken from our vehicle 

The back of the vehicle that almost tipped over on top of the leopards show how close they were to the mom and baby.  All the people in the tipped vehicle have been loaded into ours.

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Rome

Quiet days in Rome. We need rest and relaxation. This past month has been busy.

Our little home in Rome has had extensive renovation. The roof top garden is lushly planted and offers a wonderful retreat.

Hotel Scalinata di Spagna

One day we went across the Tiber on Ponte Sisto to spend the morning getting lost in Trastevere.

 

 

Largo di Torre Argentina in a large excavation in the Jewish Ghetto where volunteers run a shelter for homeless cats.

 

When we found this about lunch time we had no choice. Three hours later we headed home to nap after fried artichokes, cacio and pepe, and lamb insides. It was so good. My Italian gets fluent after a bit of wine. Had a great conversation with the cab driver about his car collection.

Friday poured rain and we ended up early evening in Piaza Navonna. Love that place.

 

Vibrant street life, music, street performers, and an interesting cross section of people. Pantheon is a short stroll away.

 

Saturday we took the metro out to meet Jill Di Benigno to spend the day in in Frascati and Castel Gondolfo to view the gardens of the papal palace. Pope Francis has opened them to the public for the first time. She showed us some of her favorite spots and then got to see something she hadn't seen before. It was lovely.

 

Castel Gondolfo is a tiny charming town with flowers tumbling over every wall and balcony.

 

 

 

 

 

The palace of the pope is built on the ruins of an ancient Roman villa. This is the summer residence of the pope but this pope does not use it. Too ostentatious for his taste so we get to see the gardens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jill takes us to one of her favorite spots. We take a turn onto a pot hole filled mountain road and wind up around curves through lush green forest overgrown with stunning wildflowers. Bowers of yellow broom and the lovely arching branches of soft pink wild roses perfume the fresh cool air. We finally reach a tiny car park where we can access this two thousand year old Roman road that leads to a lookout with stunning vistas of the two caldera lakes, perfect ovals of blue. The emperor used to build his huge pleasure boats here to enjoy from the terraces of his villa. This is a not a well known spot so no crowds of tourists here.

 

 

 

 

 

A lovely place to escape the heat and crowds of the city center.

A quiet Sunday in Rome.

From the hotel it is a short walk to the Borghese gardens and we spend Sunday morning here under the canopy of ancient trees with the families of Rome. There are pedal cars and bicycles for rent. A fancy horse show and pony rides. A merry go round and zoo.

Then in the evening we vist the stunning Teatro dell Roma for a lavish performance of the ballet Sleeping Beauty and dinner afterwards in a local Roman neighborhood restaurant hosted by my daughter in law Diana's mother.

 

Monday we started out to go the Rose Garden and never got our act together so we improvised. Maybe not getting in until midnight last night and over sleeping helped. One thing high on Jon's go back to list is Michealangelo's Moses in St Peter In chains church. Well we decided to wander down there so we got a lot of walking but a bigger shock. We both remembered Moses being twenty feet high or more. We have been to see him twice before so this is the third visit and it had made a profound impression. It must have grown more profound in our minds because he is barely eight feet tall. We both stood there wondering who shrunk Moses. The mind is not to be trusted.

On the way.

 

 

 

Little Moses

 

Still powerful after we got used to his size.

 

Last night dinner with Carol and Julia Mariotti in a tiny terrace restaurant tucked in next to a church overlooking the courtyard of the second oldest shop in Rome. Strangely no one knows where the oldest shop is. Great food and company.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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