| October Break 2003 Rome, Italy |
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| As some of you know, the schools have different breaks (I think better) than the schools in the US. Although the girls only have 6-8 weeks off during the summer, they get a week in October, 2 at Christmas, 1 week in February, and 2 weeks in May. This allows for great choices for travelling. This October break, we decided to spend a few days in Rome. Originally, we wanted to head to Egypt, but the prices never came down, so instead we choose Rome. Last year, our October break was full of problems, and this year proved to be the same. If you read my update on the summer, you know that everyone but Anna was hit with the dreaded virus that starts with a few days fever and ends with weeks of endless coughing. Well, a few days before leaving for Rome, Anna came down with a fever. For most of our time in the city, Anna was pretty sick. She saw more of our hotel room than did the rest of us, poor thing. But she was a trooper and we managed to drag her to the major sites of the Colosseum and Vatican City. Our second "problem" was created during our attempts to save travel money. We booked our "to" Rome tickets via RyanAir and our "from" Rome tickets via VirginExpress. First a word about RyanAir -- RyanAir will say they are located in a certain city, but the reality is that they are ususally outside of the city anywhere from 30 min to 2 hours outside of the city. When we booked the tickets over the internet, both indicated Brussels as being the airport. What we did not realize was that Brussels-Charleroi was a tiny airport south of Brussels International. So our trip to Rome started with a very complicated series of legs to the journey: First drive 1 1/2 hours to Brussels International. Park the care at Brussels International. Take the train from the airport to the center of Brussels. Take a special coach from Brussels to Charleroi. Did I mention that this "trip" had to start at 4:00 in the morning -- that's 4:00 in the car and on the road. Once at the Charleroi Brussels airport, we checked into RyanAir. RyanAir is a discount flyer -- they don't assign seats, but do assign priority by when you checked in. We were the 2nd family to check in that morning.. Our plane was late, and as we all watched it arrive and seem to be ready, everyone stood and stormed towards the checkin/gate area. We then recieved an announcement that boarding would be delayed (who knows why) so for 45 minutes we stood, pressed together like the maddening crowd, waiting to be allowed entry onto the plane. Needless to say, for Anna (and me) this was a trial. She looked like she would pass out at any minute. When they finally announced boarding, they welcomed families with children first. This family with 5 children all of which were our childrens age or older pushed to the front to board. As I attempted to follow with my girls, the father was saying |
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