Ostia Antica, etc.

On Friday we visited Ostia Antica, which are the ruins of Rome's old port city.

The ruins of Ostia Antica suggest that the people there LOVED taking baths. The city had at least three extensive bath complexes, and many of the floors in the bath houses are hollow to allow hot air to pass beneath to heat the caldariums. 

In some of the surviving structures, you can still see the clay ducts that carried hot air through the walls to heat the space even more.

Currently the only inhabitants of Ostia Antica are the homeless cats, which are not at all afraid of humans. This one followed our group for a good 20 minutes, going from room to room with us. 

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We took a little walk to the top of Janiculum Hill, which is essentially the backyard of our neighborhood, Trastevere. This is the hill from which they fire the cannons every day at noon so the churches all ring their bells simultaneously. 

The hill is full of all sorts of monuments. This one is the newest, and someone has already christened it with the grit of Rome.

Anita Garibaldi has a statue at the top commemorating her badassery. She fought alongside her husband to defend Rome in 1849... While she was pregnant. Here she is depicted as a great multi-tasker -- riding a rearing stallion sidesaddle, in a dress, while nursing a baby and shooting her pistol into the sky.  

This photo has nothing to do with anything else. I just really like the cobblestones in Rome. They're dark basalt, and they're worn so smooth I want to suck on them like hard candies.

First few days in Rome

Here's the view from my apartment in Rome

Believe it or not, our apartment doesn't have a teapot, so I have to steep my tea leaves in a pot like witch's cauldron.

Here in Italy they have so little space that they try to use as many surfaces as possible for cooking, including the stove top. Our stove had a glass surface that would come down so you could use it for food prep when you aren't cooking on it, but you have to lift up the glass before you use the stove.

We weren't even in the apartment for a week before someone forgot and turned on the stove with the glass still down. 

It exploded like a bomb, and scared the living daylights out of all of us.

Last day in London

On our last day in London, we saw one of the oldest buildings, and one of the newest buildings.

In the morning, we saw the Tower of London.

This is probably the oldest hinge I have ever seen:

This is one thing I didn't expect from London... The grass is SO GREEN. This photo wasn't edited or filtered at all. The lawn actually looked neon green.

Instead of carving into this old tree that everyone else carved into at Hyde Park, we left $0.17 USD so that someday a little kid could dig it up and their parents could explain to them how American money is worth basically nothing compared to the pound.  

And we took some obligatory photos at Buckingham Palace. 

London has some of the prettiest puddles you will ever see.

If you ever want to see the view from the Shard, but you don't want to pay the money to get to the observation deck, just sneak into the bar:

If you look closely at this picture, you can see that the designers of this building cleverly encased the steel columns in mirrors so they blend in with the view.

On the way home, we found this undulating facade that may or may not be a fancy storage unit.

London

London only has a few hours of sunlight everyday, so it's lucky it is so pretty in the dark.

We visited a restaurant called Joe's, which was lovely, and I thought my sister would like it, so I sniped a few photos.

Justin & St. Paul's.

Along the Thames we stopped to watch the skateboarders.

The Eye was sort of expensive, but the machine itself is really cool.

And of course, an obligatory photo of Big Ben. 

First Day in London

After a 6 hour plane ride, we finally arrived in London. It's a really lush place, probably because it never seems to stop raining.
Here's the view from our flat:

The holes in our balcony railing are perfect for spying. 

We went to the pub next door to our flat for dinner.

Our flat is right at the foot of The Shard.

Tower of London

A walk in the business district

We found this huge hypnotic swirling water globe in the business district. 

The weather report says it should be sunny for a bit tomorrow morning, so my fingers are crossed!