Italy among other things

After a long flight to Amsterdam (on which I took a sleeping pill and slept all the way and I made Vivian take one, too, so she would not go crazy on the plane), Vivian and I had almost a whole day to wander around there. Trouble is, we didn't stop and get a map so we ended up spending a great deal of our day in the red light district. That as quite interesting. I dared Vivian to take photos of the ladies in the windows, but she wouldn't do it. When we got to Rome, we took a taxi to our hotel. Don't ever get in one of those cars where the guy comes up and tells you he is a taxi. He quoted us 20 euro to take us to the hotel and when we go in the real taxi line, it only took about 7 euro to get there. Beckie wasn't there yet and we were a bit worried, but she did finnally show up - she'd taken the wrong train! We spend two busy days there seeing all the things Vivian had missed on her one whirlwind day trip there in the summer of 2000. We managed to make it through will all our wits and wallets. On one city bus the man standing right behind us had his wallet stolen out of his camera case while we were all there. I think that he just put it in the camera case and the thief saw him do it. On Thanksgiving day, we ate dinner at the Hard Rock with a girl from Houston that Viv had talked to in the Amsterdam airport while we were waiting for our plane. She was traveling by herself and we just happened to run into her there. That was kind of neat.

Beckie did discover that she had been the victim of a theft while she was in Rome but it did not happen in Rome. Starting about four days before, she could not get my ATM/VISA card to work in any of the machines. They kept saying that her bank wanted them to confiscate my card but it gave the card back anyway. She called Reagan and asked her to run by the bank (since she used to work there) and see what was wrong...it seems that she was victim to the card fraud that has been going around Searcy. She am not sure how they got her information since she hadn't used that card in Searcy since September but someone was using it in MEXICO. They used it at a Burger King, Walmart and an ATM. The bank shut it down before it could be used anymore. The bank also has replaced all the money they stole.

Now, back to the trip. After Rome we took an overnight train to Taormina in Sicily and spend the day in that beautiful town. We went back to Messina and had to spend the night there because all the trains back north were full. That is a town were EVERBODY goes down to the main piazza on Saturday night and walks around or drives around. I have never seen anything like it! People, young and old, were everywhere walking around - kind f like at the fair! Next morning we took a ferry to Reggio di Calibria and strolled around there until time for our train to Naples. At the train station in Reggio di Calibria Vivian and Beckie were waiting for me to finish some necessary business when all these police started pouring into the station. They first thought it had to do with the fire was billowing smoke out of an office building but then a police officer came up and asked them why were out by the train tracks. When they showed him their tickets he said in a very serious voice that it was "dangerous" for them to stand there and he moved them back into a little hallway. They told him that their friend was still in a room down the outside of the building but he didn't quite understand. In about a minute a group of either soccer players or fans came trouping through the train station and the police made them walk between two lines of poilice officers until they got on the train. Right then, I came walking out of the restroom and walked right behind the police line and never knew anything was out of the ordinary. I wondered what was going on, but I just walked through them all like I knew what I was doing until i got to the hallway were Viv and Beck were and they jerked me in there with them and told me what was going on.

We spent the night in Naples and first thing the next morning went to Sorrento. I love Sorrento. It is a beautiful little town known for it's inlaid wood products. We found a great hotel near the station and roamed all through the town. The next day we took the ferry over to Capri. The views were wonderful but many of the shops have closed for the season. We decided not to take the bus or a taxi up to Anacapri because Vivian is so prone to motion sickness. I was afraid that she would be up there and not able to get down!

After two nights in Sorrento we headed back to Rome for Viv and me to catch an early morning flight home. Beckie went back to Firenze to get ready for the next round of company. It was a wonderul trip and if I can figure out how to put some photos on here, I will!

Last night, Tim didn't pan anything for my first ngiht home, thank the Lord, but Firday night, we went to see Grease at Arlington High School. It was great. Ed Riddick, the chorus director, played Teen Angel and he was awesome! I saw Bill and Jessica Ganue there and it was fun talking to them, too.

Tonight, the praise team Christmas party is here. You know how Tim was supposed to have the Christmas tree up...well he did have it up but not one ornament on it so I've gotta go get that done!