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Rome – churches, squares, and ruins everywhere

On the following two days, we ventured onto the other side of the Tiber. On Wednesday we did the northern half, while on Thursday we visited the oldest part of the city. Wednesday started a bit cloudy on the Piazza Venezia, we even had a few drops of rain around the Piazza Navona, but by the time we arrived to the Piazza del Popolo it was already too hot to stay in the Sun. The highlights of the day were the totally crowded Pantheon, the awesome but instanteniously melting ice cream we had at Giolitti, the Ara Pacis Augustae (the ‘Altar of Augustan Peace’, the only thing in Rome I had never heard of before our visit), and the small streets near the Trevi fountain (which was under massive scaffolding, so that we did not see at all).

For the following day, we had a guided tour for the Colosseum and the Forum Romanum booked well in advance, in order to avoid the queues. After a rainy morning spent playing Catan at our apartment, we took off. It turned out that besides us there was only one more couple in our group for the tour, which was a bit of a surprise, but then in the next few hours I got the impression that there are almost as many tour guides in this region as tourists… In any case, the Colosseum was very impressive, especially all the different tunnels and passageways through the structure. Then walking around the Forum really gave us the feeling of walking around in ancient times – with very little imagination necessary. I wish we could have seen the Forum around Augustus (not the month). Before taking the tram home, we still had a quick look at the Forum of Trajan and Augustus, bathing in the orange rays of the sunset. For dinner, we went to the same local pizzeria as on the first evening.

The next day we took the train to Florence, but that is something for the next post…

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Rome, Trastevere

I am a ‘bit’ behind schedule with the blog, but as always, this only means that we have a busy life, or at least better things to do than writing things here. So let’s jump back a few months! We went on a late summer (based on the temperature, at least) holiday to Italy for 10 days (8-17 of September), starting with 3 full days in the capital. We had a really nice AirBnB apartment in the Trastevere region on the southwestern side of the city, with direct connection towards the centrum by tram, and in walking distance from a train station where the airport trains stop. We also got some great dinner recommendations from our host, so we had the opportunity to eat at really authentic places (where we were more or less the only non locals), and avoid the tourist traps. The pizzas and all the ice cream were always great. The weather was also perfect (maybe a bit too hot for me but not too bad), we had only one half day with rain during the full holidays, which we spent playing The Rivals for Catan (back then, Clio did not kick my ass every time yet, unlike nowadays).

The first day we visited the Vatican, where unlike all the lazy people who preferred standing in line for two hours instead of buying a ticket in advance on-line, we got into the Vatican Museum without one second of queuing. We spend quite some time staring at all the displayed artwork and the frescos of Sistine Chapel and beyond. After a quick lunch, we still went into Saint Peter’s Basilica before leaving the ‘country’. Afterwards we walked around the Castel Sant’Angelo before heading back to the hills of Trastevere. This was a much calmer area with small streets, nice parks, and great views towards both the city and the Vatican. We finished our first day after visiting the Basilica of Our Lady in Trastevere, which is (one of) the oldest catholic churches in Rome. We spent the next two days on the other side of the Tiber, but that is for another post… See a selection of pictures below, and even more on Flickr!

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Another summer vacation in Budapest

Since Budapest is still Clio’s favourite city-trip destination (and Kürtőskalács-serving location), and my parents would not be very happy without me going ‘home’ once in a while, we spent 10 days in Hungary back in August. (Of course I also like going there, especially as a tourist…) First we spent a long weekend showing the city around to Clio’s father, then after walking ~70 kilometres in three days, we took it a bit easier and spent some time with my family.

Being a tour-guide for the first days also meant that I got into places I have never been before, such as the Opera and the Café Gerbeaud, while being with my parents gave us not only free food and lodging (I still love you guys!), but they also drove us to the village of Szentendre, the castle of Visegrád, and to the city of Esztergom on two of the afternoons.

Since the nicest view to The Cathedral and Primatial Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary Assumed Into Heaven and St Adalbert (wow, that is a long name) is from the Slovakian side of the Danube, we also drove over to Štúrovo (Párkány) to take a few pictures of Hungary’s tallest building.

I also got to kick my brother’s ass multiple times in FIFA 14, but we made up for it by taking him to a nice, hip and trendy hot-dog place. And finally the weather was not too hot either :) Looking at the pictures above you can also tell that we saw the Parliament in its full glory after endless years and years of renovation works (with a bunch of birds circling above it in the floodlights on the evening), and that we went to a huge candy shop to buy more than half kilogram of jelly beans… We will be back for Christmas!

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A long weekend in London

Two weeks ago on a Friday morning we hopped on a Eurostar train in Brussels and crossed the channel to spend a long weekend in London. After our arrival we immediately jumped into the jungle of the city, after dropping off our bags at the Qbic Hotel. Since we both have been to the British capital several times before, we decided to visit places which are either a bit less touristy, or which we both like a lot. This means that we have not seen, e.g., the Big Ban or the Buckingham palace even from far away. Instead, we walked across the Tower Bridge into an area of modern office buildings, and to the Butlers Wharf.

Afterwards, we went to Borough Market, where there were many nice stands selling yummy things. Here I must note that since these days everyone is looking for the hidden wonders of cities like London, these places are quickly becoming as crowded as the more typical, classical sights of the city. From the market we walked along the Southern banks of the Thames (which provides a great overview of London’s horribly chaotic skyline) up until the Golden Jubilee Bridges, where we crossed the river and took the Tube back to our hotel to check in.

After all the formalities, we had an early dinner in Pizza East in Shoreditch. The restaurant is situated in an old industrial building, so I loved the style (and the food too).

Since after finishing our meal we still had a lot of time and the weather was great (by the evening the temperature also became bearable), we decided to go to Greenwich, where we walked around a bit and enjoyed the view from the Royal Observatory.

By this time we were both getting pretty tired, so we decided to head back to the hotel. We had to hurry a bit to make it before the thunderstorms arrived, but we made it. Since the hotel had a very pleasant communal area, we sat there for a while and treated ourselves with some freely available coffee and hot chocolate before going up to our room. After walking more than 26000 steps, we had no trouble falling asleep (under huge pictures of Lady Diana and Justin Bieber)…

On Saturday after having breakfast at a nice coffee place just a corner away from our hotel, we started the day by going to the Science Museum. We walked around a bit, especially inside the gift shop and into the direction of the original Apollo 10 capsule, but Clio did not feel too good, so we went outside to get some fresh air a bit sooner than planned. Luckily the weather improved a lot since the morning, so we walked across Hyde Park before going for lunch. Here a deadly wild squirrel almost attacked me. It was vicious, if I tell you, just look at it!

After some serious walking we arrived at Bubbledogs, where they serve hot dogs with champagne (or in our case, with apple cider). Mmmm, it was delicious! We did not do much on the afternoon, as we were both still quite tired from the previous day, so we went back to the hotel, had takeaway for dinner (from Miss Chu), and watched TV on the evening.

On Sunday we walked around Shoreditch to check out all the street art, and visited a few Sunday markets, such as the Columbia Road Flower Market, the market along Brick Lane, and the Old Spitalfields Market.

After grabbing a quick bite from a Prêt à Manger, we took the Tube to Regent’s Park. We walked all the way up to the lookout point of Primrose Hill, which was quite nice. It’s a pity that the weather was a bit dull, so I could not take really great pictures. Then we walked back across the Park once more on our way back towards The City (under really dark clouds, but somehow we managed to stay dry), where we had dinner at Bone Daddies Ramen Bar (which was exceptionally delicious). Then to continue with my tradition of buying comics in London, we spent some time at Gosh! Comics looking for something scientific to read (managed to find 3 interesting books, already read 2 of them since then). After some further walking (and Tubing), we finished the day with around 25000 steps behind us.

On Monday morning we fist walked to Leadenhall Market, then we hopped on the DLR to visit Greenwich again. This time we went for the temporary exhibition Ships, Clocks & Stars at the National Maritime Museum. It was very interesting and well presented, so even though it was quite similar to an exhibition I saw a few years earlier at the Royal Observatory, I enjoyed it a lot. After this, we picked up something to bite in a small supermarket, and ate it sitting at the riverside.

On the afternoon we headed back to the hotel, checked out, and took the Eurostar back to Brussels. It was a nice weekend, with lots of walking around, nice food, and (I hope) a few nice images too. I used my new Canon EOS 6D on the trip, and there are even a bit more images on my Flickr.

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Conference in Toulouse

Last week I have been to The Space Photometry Revolution – CoRoT Symposium 3, Kepler KASC-7 joint meeting in Toulouse (France), to present the results from my latest paper. My talk was very well received, many people came to me afterwards to congratulate and/or have a discussion. But I don’t really want to talk about the scientific program (which was great, by the way, except for the once-again useless wireless connection), since this is more of a personal blog, so let’s see what happened outside the conference-room.

Memorable moments from the week: 1) torrential rain upon arriving in front of our hotel, which made us wait ten minutes not more than 100 metres from the reception. It’s been a while since I saw such a thunderstorm, the roads immediately turned into 10 cm deep rivers… 2) Germany trashing Brazil 7:1 in the semi-final of the FIFA World Cup, which was just shocking. I watched it from my hotel room, and at 5:0 I really started thinking if I was just dreaming. That was definitely sports history in the making. Every football match which does not have 5 goals in the first half hour feels boring since then… 3) Since Belgium lost the quarter-final against Argentina (thus finishing the tournament at 6th place), I did not get to give my talk wearing my original Belgian jersey with a blazer on top. Such a pity, it would have been very cool. 4) Conference-excursion to the city of Albi and to a local vineyard: the UNESCO heritage episcopal city (see pictures below) and the cathedral were all very nice, but it’s a pity it was a guided tour and not a free-for-all three hour stay, since I could have seen so much more by myself (or with a few people).

The vineyard was a bit boring, but the wine we bought there (I don’t want to say names, but it was not me) was quite nice (to enjoy on the bus on the way back – also by me). 5) The conference dinner was fancy (live music, pretty location), with great food, nice wine, and pleasant people around the table. 6) The pizzeria (La Pastasciutta) suggested by the local organising committee was simply perfect!

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