Category Archives: European Destinations

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Hard Rock: Rome & Florence

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Hard Rock: Rome, Italy

If we are in a big, cosmopolitan, international city and we’re
not too sure about what food we want to eat for an evening meal, we usually
make our way to the Hard Rock Café. From experience in foreign countries, we
know we will get a good, satisfying meal. We truly enjoy experiencing native/regional
dishes, but evening meals can be SO expensive, and why pay $30 a person or more
for a meal that you might not enjoy when you KNOW you will enjoy a meal at the
Hard Rock Café even though it can be expensive as well?

Hard Rock Cafe: Florence, Italy

In Italy, we ate at the Hard Rock Café Rome multiple times
this trip, and we ate at the Hard Rock Café Florence twice during our stay
there. We were never dissatisfied, and we always left those restaurants full
and satisfied. We also bought our city tee-shirts! The music is always good,
and Carter and Ammon have a good time with the music and the food as well.

During this quick visit, Venice’s Hard Rock was only entered to buy t-shirts and to use the toilet facilities. ;o)

My family and I have a penchant for Hard Rock Cafes and other European destinations.

Some of my Parenting with Pride (please cruise and peruse!) favorites include Stunning Santorini, Oslo, Norway, Dollywood (Country Music Singer’s Theme Park) in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Marriage Equality in Tennessee .

Give me a “Google” with “Haven Caylor”. Blessings! -Haven

Ammon, Nana, & Carter: Hard Rock Venice, Italy

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Princess Cruises Promo with Ammon & Carter

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I hope you all enjoy Ammon and Carter’s commercial for
Princess Cruise line’s Reflections video channel, and I hope you all have a great Thursday. Haven, Carter, & Ammon

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Floreat Roma (Let Rome Flourish)

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Trevi Fountain Tuesday October 4, 2011

RomePyramidCestius

Cestius Pyramid & San Paulo’s Gate (Ostiense Gate)

I don’t know exactly what to say about Rome except for the
fact that it is overwhelming. I know there are cities which are older, but its
history is amazing. The area of the Palatine hill, of course, had
settlements way before 753 B. C. (Rome’s official “settling” year), but Rome has seen growths, fires, triumphs, tragedies, desolations, and flourishings. Last Saturday, I stood between theCestius Pyramid and the San Paulo Gate which the Ostrogoths marched through to make the final “Gothic” plunder of Rome, and imagined the  Eternal City’s gates locked and the city desolate. However, a 21st century motorcycle interrupted my image.LOL

I’ll write more about Rome near the
end of the “Fall 2011 Caylor-Brown Travels” blog compilation. By the way, it’s
great to be home! Hope everyone is well, and Happy Tuesday.

Inside the Sistine Chapel Halls (October 5, 2011)

One of Sean and Haven’s few “alone” times (October 4, 2011)

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Catching up 10-7-2011 (Florence/Firenze)

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Sunday-Monday

Good plane trip. Carter and Ammon slept well. Good nap at
the Hotel Raffaelo in Rome. It is near the Train Station Termini (McDonald’s
food, gelatos, all sorts of souvenirs).

Tuesday

The Roman Forum. We got to see a “discovery” from 2009. It
appears that the Emperor Nero may have had a rotating dining room. It sits up
on the Palatine Hill. They are excavating and studying quite slowly. The Roman
tour guide, Vivian, we had in October 2010 was not there, but her excavation
site is. Her dig is right across from the Temple of Romulus. After Nana,
Carter, and Ammon returned to the hotel for lunch and rest, Sean and I made a
trip back to the Colloseum. This time we were able to take our time and enjoy
the site. It was interesting “stealing” some tour guide information from the
other English speaking tours. Dinner at the Hard Rock Rome.

Wednesday

Up fairly early for the Vatican. Guess what? We missed
seeing the Pope by 15 minutes. He spoke at St. Peter’s Square at 10:30 a.m. ;
however, we headed to the Vatican Museum/Sistine Chapel at 10:15. The Sistine
Chapel was magnificent! If it wasn’t for the crowd, I could have stayed in
there for hours. For years, I thought Michelangelo’s “Final Judgment” was in
another “chapel” but it is right there (many of you already know that…LOL) on
the wall under the ceiling! Dinner was at an Italian restaurant around the
corner from the hotel. I had lasagna, but I can make better lasagna that they.
I think our American taste buds have a “mind of their own”. I have been in
Italy several times and eaten quite a few Italian meals, and I still think our
Italian food in the U.S. is just as good if not better than here.

Thursday

Eurostar Italia to Firenze (Florence). We are staying near
the Piazza de la Repubblica, and it has a carousel. Because we did not see it
last October, we put our bags down and headed straight to the Arno River with
the Ponte Vecchio. It was so cool! I could just imagine ol’ Dante Alighieri running
over and over the bridge trying to catch a glimpse of his Beatrice….so close
and yet so unobtainable. As we headed back into Firenze, we stopped for some
delicious gelati (strawberry, hazelnut, pistachio…yum, yum, yum!). We strolled
around the Brunelleschi’s Dome and Giotto’s Bell Tower and listened to an accordion
player. We ate dinner at the Hard Rock Florence then Carter and Ammon rode on
the carousel at the Piazza de la Repubblica.

Friday

After breakfast, we went straight to San Lorenzo’s chapel
(Medici Chapel). It took me 25 years to see Michelngelo’s “Day, Night, Dawn
& Dusk”, but I finally saw them! Woo hoo! Around noon, Carter, Ammon, Sean,
and I went to the Mc Donald’s at the train station. It was a great stroll. This
afternoon we have tickets to go to the Galleria dell’ Accademia to see “David”.

“Night & Day”

“Dawn & Dusk”

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Ancient Rome…it’s Ammon & Carter again!

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It is so much better when we leave for long trips on a
Sunday. Our burdens to get things done on Saturday are “lifted” a bit with
having both Sean and I to get things accomplished.

House Sitter Guy, thank you! You are a blessing. Mamaw and
Aunt Karen your vigilance when Guy needs a break is SO APPRECIATED, and
neighbors, your helpful eyes are a blessing as well.

This time the cruise itself is only 12 days. We start with an
Italy terrestrial tour: Rome, Florence, and Venice. Then the cruise: Croatia
(Dubrovnik), Mikonos, Santorini, Ephesus, Rhodes, Corfu, and Napoli. After the
cruise, back to Rome. The ships’ Internet is sooooooo slow, and I will not be
able to send photos. It will just be status updates. However, before and after
the cruise, I MIGHT be able to send some photos if we have Internet access.
Everyone take care and God bless. I am looking forward to sharing when we
return. Haven

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Roma est Antiqua, Roma est magna (Rome is Ancient, Rome is Great)

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(sung to
the tune of “Ten Little Indians”)

Unus, duo,
tres Romani

Quottuor, quinque, sex Romani,

Septem,
octo, novem Romani,

Decem
parvi Romani!

From 1989 to 1993, I taught 6th Grade Exploratory
Latin at Bagley Middle School in Chatsworth, GA. My forte had been Spanish, but
the state of Georgia requested that I teach two languages for the middle school
level. I had to teach myself enough Latin so as to teach 6th graders
for six weeks. You know what? I loved it! It also helped that a teacher who was
an expert in Latin and had helped create the Georgia Teacher’s Certification
Test for Latin at that time taught right down the road from me, and she helped me tremendously. Woo hoo!

I was singing the above song to Ammon on Friday night in
preparation for Rome on Monday morning. In my classroom, we use to sing that song as well. I was thrilled that I could remember the numbers! We are also pulling out our photos of our day in Rome, Italy last October when we cruised the Mediterranean so as to build Carter and Ammon’s schema as well. Enjoy your Saturday!

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“Bubble-bubble toil and trouble…”

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Do we have any Shakespeare fans out there?  Some of you may not know that the title of the blog today is a quote from Shakespeare’s MacBeth. If you do, you may also recognize
Cawdor Castle, Scottish King Duncan’s castle from the play as well.  As enthralled and dedicated as some of us may be with the literary genius of William Shakespeare, he always didn’t write with historical accuracy…….ohhh, no! LOL King Duncan did not die at the hands of Macbeth but during a battle at Pitgaveny, Scotland on August 14, 1040. Cawdor Castle was not built until the late 14th century.

Ammon, Carter, Nana, & Haven: MacBeth’s Cawdor Castle

On Monday June 6, 2011, we took a tour of Cawdor Castle.  It was a few hours after we hunted for the
Loch Ness “Dinosaur”. It is still a real home after 700 years! The family moves
out for the spring and the summer so tourists can see the historical residence
(and get a few British Sterling Pounds as well.. woo hoo!)

Cawdor Castle

Cawdor Castle

As you can see by the pictures, it was quite beautiful.
Ammon and Carter had a great time. They were allowed out of their strollers and
got to experience the castle as free people…okay, except for the leashes.

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Princess Cruise Lines

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Crown Princess

Overall, our family had a wonderful time on our British
Isles/Iceland cruise. It was our first cruise with the Princess Cruise line,
and we highly recommend it. We believe Carnival is great, but it has such
limited itineraries for Europe. Royal Caribbean has better itineraries but
their customer service had hit rock bottom as far as we were concerned along
with about another 6 other couples we chatted with on our February 2011 cruise,
and we all vowed to no longer use it.

Princess =

Princess
did several things we appreciated. The first thing was that they corrected
every minor problem we had. They knew we were the paying customer, and they
showed us respect. Another thing was their food was so good. This was the first
cruise in over a year where we actually gained weight.  Next, their excursions were very organized,and the Crown Princess crew  was so
helpful with the babies and their strollers. Lastly, Crown Princess’ future
cruise associate, Gloria Mallard, was fabulous. She was so accommodating to our
future needs, she treated us with kindness and respect, and she loved Ammon and
Carter. One evening while we were chatting at Gloria’s desk, Carter and Ammon
each started “drawing” Gloria a picture. Two days later, Sean and I went back
without the babies, and Gloria had taped the drawings up above her desk for
everyone to see. We were honored, and she said she absolutely loved Ammon and
Carter and their drawings.

Haven, Ammon, Gloria Mallard, Carter, Sean, & Nana

So, once again, if you would like to take a cruise we HIGHLY
recommend Princess Cruise lines. We, ourselves, have three more cruises booked.
Let’s hope we remain satisfied! I think we will.

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Dublin, Ireland

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“The only thing to see in Dublin is the Guinness Brewing Factory” was the reply we got from a fellow traveler with whom we shared a touring train in Monte Carlo, Monaco last October.  The question to this family from Northern Ireland had been, “What do you recommend seeing in Dublin?”  The truth of the matter was that we were not anticipating much out of Dublin, but, oh, my goodness! It was such a nice surprise.

Carter, Haven, Ammon (enjoying the vaulted ceiling) & Nana:St. Patrick’s

We had a short excursion that morning, but we had a great afternoon of shopping. We’re looking forward to wearing our Ireland-made sweaters we bought this coming winter. ;o)

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Reykjavik, Iceland

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Carter, Haven, & Ammon: Reykjavik, Iceland

Iceland is a unique island especially in the geological
realm of plate tectonics. Iceland is where the North American Plate and the
Eurasian Plate meet. This is one of the places on earth where the plates are
separating.  Not too far from Reykjavik,there is a plain at the meeting of the plates. This plain has sunk 200 feet in 10,000 years, and the Eurasian Plate rises above the North American Plate some10 feet or so. It’s so impressive to see those two continents separated by just a few feet.

The geothermal activity under Iceland helps the country be non-dependant on foreign oil. Our tour guide was proud to say that they are totally “debt-free to the Arabs”. Part of the activity is seen Iceland’s hot springs and geysers. They are awesome! We spent about a half hour at the Strokkur Geyser, and we go some great pictures: it was hard to pull Carter away. Strokkur Geyser near Reykjavik