At the end of June, I got to fulfill a life long ambition of going to Rome!!  I finally persuaded my husband to take me on the grounds that we were leaving Europe soon to live in the States, and it would cost 10 times as much to visit Rome from the States than it would from the UK.  Then I told him that we could take a road trip to Rome, driving his Fiat Coupe.  That got him really excited - James Bond-esque visions of us driving a sports car on windy roads through southern France and Italy, stopping periodically to make out or engage in some sort of gun fire exchange with some Russian spies.

     The road trip turned out not to be possible, but then the idea of going was in his head, and we found a way to fly cheaply on some decent flights and stay cheaply in some decent hotels, with not just us but Abigail, Imogen and Samuel as well.  It was a miracle!

     We got there on a Tuesday evening, and by the time we got to our hotel it was fairly late - about 9pm or so.  We were hungry, so we set out to get some pizza.  The late hour wasn't a problem - in fact, Italian restaurants don't really seem to get going until about 10, so we were fine.  We found a lovely restaurant that served us each our own, giant pizza.

     The pizzas were delicious.  Pizza Hut pizzas they were not.  Thin crust, but chewy and completely gorgeous.  Incredible cheese, lots of tomatoes.  I think the only one who was able to finish it was our Samuel!  The wonders of being a growing boy.  We would all need the calories for the rest of the trip, though.  I have never walked so far or been on my feet for so long as I was for the next three days!

     In the morning after breakfast we set off for one of the most spectacular sights in all the world - the Colosseum.

 

 

It's hard to get a sense of how big the Colosseum is from looking at pictures, but Tim did a good job trying to capture the size in these photos.  The place is immense!  The minute you see it the sense of awe is overwhelming.  When you go in, you continue to be in awe because it was such an amazing feat of engineering.  And organization!  Although you can't see it in these photos, each archway has a roman numeral over the top, so that they could control how people went into the Colossuem.







     What I didn't appreciate is the amount of people that would be there.  It was heaving!  The lines to get tickets were, it seemed, miles long.  We were instantly spotted by a private tour guide the minute we got out of the subway, and he told us that he could offer us a deal where we could skip all the queues and get a private tour of both the Colosseum and Palatine hill. Tim decided to take it, and looking back I think that was the right thing to do, but it was expensive.  The current wisdom is that you need a private tour guide in Rome because there aren't a lot of signs explaining what things are. 
     Here is inside the archway:

 

     Which then leads to this view of the arena:

 

 

 

      The main arena:

 

     Although most of the stone seating has crumbled away, the whole of the Colosseum had seats all the way around, up to the very top.  The stone was covered in marble slabs, as were the floors and walls of the archways, so the whole thing must have looked incredibly grand.  The senators and other government people got the front seats - the poor people had to sit up top.  Games and events would last all day; it was a place where business was done while watching the entertainment. 

 





 
     Perhaps one of the things that impressed me the most was the stage floor.  Beneath the floor there was a whole network of several stories of individual cells where they kept the animals that would be fighting the gladiators, and later, where they kept the Christians who would be brought here to be killed.  As you can see from these pictures, the stage was removable, so they could bring these animals up from beneath directly onto the stage. 

     Sometime in the 1800's, one of the popes put a cross in the Colosseum to honor and remember all the Christians who died here, being persecuted because of their beliefs.

    Here's the passage through the main archway around the Colosseum.  This would have been covered in marble, with torches burning high upon the walls every couple of meters.

 

     The thing that struck me the most was how modern Ancient Rome was in some ways, and yet so totally removed from us in other ways.  The Colosseum really does look just like a huge football stadium, and in a way the layout felt very familiar.  And the phenomena of politicians doing their business while going to a sporting event is something we still do today.  But what a sporting event!  Killing was the name the of game - not just animals, but people.  Of course we have violent movies and video games, and those lead to a host of evils, but it still isn't the same as watching a state-sponsored event in which people are killed, in real life, for fun.  I love learning about the Romans, but there is so much about them that I simply cannot understand.

 

  

     In England, there are two holidays in May:  a bank holiday Monday at the beginning of the month, and one at the end of the month.  Being the conscientious parents that we are, we always feel that we have to go and Do Something with the children on these days.  So, for the bank holiday at the end of May, we took our children to see Isaac Newton's house.
      This may make us sound more virtuous than we actually are.  Isaac Newton's house was only a 40 minute drive away from our house, and despite living at this location for almost three years, we had never managed to visit there previously, opting for air shows and trips to Cambridge or whatever else instead when we had some time off.
     But no matter - the important thing was that we actually went, and I, for one, am definitely a better person for doing so.  Isaac Newton lived on a farm, and fortunately he was famous enough when he died that people had a suspicion that it would be important to preserve it in some way, so most of the original buildings are still there.

 

     His mother, Hannah Newton, raised sheep for income, and on the estate today they raise a breed of sheep very similar to the one she did (apparently a rare breed with very long wool), so you get a great sense of what the farm would have looked like when Isaac was growing up.

 

 

 

 

     When you first go in, you can watch a movie about Isaac Newton, but it is told from the perspective of his mother, before he becomes famous.  It's only 10 minutes long, but it brought me to tears!  Isaac was a genius from the beginning, and so he was different from people around him.  Fortunately his mother wanted him to succeed, so she didn't hold him back, but she also expected him to fulfill his duties around the home and farm, something which he didn't always do very well.  He would go to the market, and forget to bring the horses back.  He would be asked to do his chores, but would be found in the hayloft reading books all day.  He would perform experiments with light and gaze at the stars, etc. instead of helping on the farm.  One day he stared at the sun for as long as he could, and was blinded for three days afterwards! 

     At the time we went, I was really struggling to write a philosophy paper and I was so frustrated with how long it was taking me, and how much I was having to just sit and THINK before I could produce anything.  But this movie showed how much Isaac Newton sat around and THOUGHT, trying to figure things out.  It doesn't make for good farming, but that's what it takes to make a great mathematician and scientist.  I saw how he differed in his approach and how he thought about things from so many other people he knew, and it inspired me so much.  God gave him a great gift, and he was given the freedom by his mother to develop it, but it wasn't easy for her.  She loved him but at the same time she didn't really understand him. 

     Here is the house in which he was born, and grew up.  Many famous people have made pilgrimages here, including Albert Einstein.

 

 

     And of course, there is the famous apple tree.  It is the SAME TREE that Newton sat under when the apple fell and inspired him to think about the force of gravity.

 

 

 

 

 

     After we toured the house, we went into the Science Center which they have there.  There are lots of experiments which you can do which teach about the principles of physics.  It is staffed with several volunteers who are all science teachers, and they were excellent - very outgoing and enthusiastic, as well as being very good at explaining things. I think I might even have learned something from them.

 

 

 

 

 

     Here is Samuel standing on the sun dial.  Can you tell what time it is?

 

 

     After the trip to Newton's house, we then took Imogen to a not-so-surprise party which had been planned for her by five of her friends from school.  About a month earlier, I had got a call from the grandmother of one of Imogen's friends, Katie Bunting, who was very sad that Imogen was going to move to America in the summer, and wanted to do something for her before she left.  So her grandmother decided that they should plan a party and invite all of the students in Imogen's grade to come to a party.  Very ambitious!  I don't know if I will be planning parties which involve inviting over 100 children when I am a grandmother!  We were so grateful, and we kept it a secret, but one day Imogen saw one of the invitations on the floor of the school, and so she figured it out.  I made her promise, on pain of severe punishment, that she not utter a word to anyone that she knew about it.  They worked so hard!  I didn't want it to be spoiled for them.  Anyway, about half the year showed up in the end, which was a great turn out.  There was lots of great food:

      Including some awesome cakes, which somebody took a lot of time to make!

     However, once people come to your party, what do you do with them, especially a bunch of 12 and 13 year olds?  Well, there was some present giving:

     And there was lots of dancing:

     Verity was the star of the show - she does the 'Gangham Style' dance better than anyone else!

 



     Imogen had a great group of friends, and she, perhaps more than any of our other children, really did not want to emigrate to the States.  How do you explain to your child that even though they have a wonderful life in one country, it is time to move to another?  The only approach I could take was to say that, unlike most people who stay in one place, she has been blessed with lots of friends, in lots of places.

 



     Once the Easter holidays were over, we then commenced an approximately three month farewell period, in which we tried to see, spend time with, and say goodbye to as many people as possible before we moved to America.  It started with     

 At the end of April we were privileged to be visited by an old missionary companion of Tim's.  Lars Holmboe is from Denmark, and he and his wife, Anna-Dorthe and their three children took a few days holiday to England, and decided to add us on their list of things to see!  They made the rather long drive from Stansted airport to Boston early Sunday morning to come to church with us, and we then had them over for Sunday dinner afterwards.  Lars was one of Tim's favorite companions, but Tim hadn't seen him since his mission, so it was great to catch up.  Scandinavians usually have fantastic English, so communication was not an issue - even their 12 year old son was quite conversant.  Lars is a high school literature teacher, so we talked a lot about education.  He got along famously with Abigail, which is always a good thing.  Here are the companions together, who have both accumulated quite a few more people since their missionary days!  By the way, it was still really cold!

     The next weekend was the first May bank holiday weekend, and so we took advantage of the extra day off school and made two road trips in two days to see family and friends.  On the fast Sunday Tim's cousin Johnnie and his wife Jennie were having their new baby, Benjamin, blessed in South End ward, which is in Essex.  We always struggle to get to church on time, so we fretted about how early we needed to leave in order to get to blessing which was at least a three hour drive south.  I think we left before 7am, and got there with one minute to spare!  We saw Peter and Lynne, cousins Heather, Lindsay, and David and his wife Claire and their children, and uncle Bob.  Oh - I almost forgot.  It was finally WARM!  Spring arrived the first week in May. 

     They had a lovely munch and mingle after the blessing, with good food and great company. Tim got to see a woman who he baptized on his mission, Anna Jones, who now lives in South End ward, and that was great for him to visit with her after so long.
     Jennie is a Kitsell, and the Bleakleys have lots of connections with that family, so it was good to catch up with that side as well.  In fact, Jennie's grandfather was the Stake Patriarch in Tim's stake when Tim was growing up, so he gave Tim his patriarchal blessing.  When we were dating, Tim went on and on about how unique and original is patriarchal blessing was, so I was thrilled when Brother Kitsell came to Benjamin's blessing and I was finally able to meet him.

     Here we are chatting about babies, breastfeeding, and other experiences of motherhood:

Verity with baby Benjamin:

 

 

     Although the day was fab, it was also very long, and we got home late.   But somehow we were able to persuade the kids to get back in the car the next day and drive three hours in precisely the opposite direction to the previous trip!  We went to go see Neil Nath and his wife, Jessica, who live in the north of England, near Darlington.  Neil was Tim's lab partner turned best friend when he was at Cambridge, and Neil was the best man at our wedding.  But once we all left Cambridge our paths rarely crossed again.  Neil married Jessica, who is the sister of a good friend of ours, so we have a double connection with them which is nice.  They have just had their first child, James, so we went to see the baby and to say goodbye before we moved overseas.

     They live near a town called Barnard Castle, which, not surprisingly, has a large castle. Jessica had to feed the baby and Neil had some work to do for a few hours, so we decided to take a quick look around this charming town and the castle.

     Very imposing from the outside:

 

 

 

     And very spacious on the inside - what is preserved is not just the ruin of the castle, but also much of the outside wall so you get a sense of the space of the mini-community that would have existed on the 'castle grounds' as it were, inside both the outer wall and the inner wall.

 

 

    The kids enjoyed climbing up the stairs into the towers to look out the narrow windows:

 

 

 

And the not-so-narrow windows, from which the views were amazing:

 

 

     They also enjoyed doing rolling down the slopes, and laying against the ivy which was very prolific:

     Soon Neil and Jessica joined us and we walked around the town.  Here is a stately home which was built by some aristocrats who needed a place specifically designated to hold all of items they accumulated on their trips abroad. It's a museum now, but since it was a bank holiday we didn't get a chance to go in. 

 

I was very impressed with Barnard Castle as a town; as a rule Cornwall and the Lake District are my favorite places in England, but there are some very nice spots in the northeast of England.