Happy New Year

I arrived home in Toronto last Wednesday. It's very good to be home and spending time with friends and family. I haven't taken many pictures since I've been back here, but I thought I'd put up some photos from Christmas Eve dinner at Nicoletta's parents' place in Caselline (I'm still full ;)











A HUGE grazie to Nicoletta, the Righini family, and their friends, for making me feel right at home when I was there. It was wonderful to meet you all, and I hope to see you again sometime soon!



I probably won't post again until I'm in New York (where I'll be looking at the cast collection at the American Museum of Natural History), so I hope everyone has a very happy New Year!

Firenze

I arrived in Florence on Thursday morning and Nicoletta met me at the train station. Nicoletta's family has an apartment near the centre of the city and they've been so kind as to let me stay there for a few days. It was great to see a friendly face from Champaign again, and after we dropped the ShapeCam at the apartment we wandered around the city a little.

Florence is absolutely stunning. The weather has been wonderful, so sunny and warm. There also doesn't seem to be a lot of tourists around right now. We wandered over to the Galleria Degli Uffizi to check out how long the line was, and there wasn't one! Not a single person was waiting to enter, so we walked right in. The wait to get in during more popular times of the year can be as long as 4 hours, and at first we thought we went in the wrong entrance. But we were in the right place, so we got to walk right in without having to wait. The same thing happened the next day when I went to the Galleria dell'Accademia to see the David. No line up at all, and only 4 people inside the museum gawking at the statue. So that's been nice :)

Here's the dome of the Duomo:



The Campanile:





Ponte Vecchio:



On Friday morning I walked into the centre and climbed to the top of the Duomo. This is what it looks like inside:





The view of the city from the top is fantastic:





I got a strange Italian man to take my picture:



Nicoletta called me as I was making my way back down, so we arranged to meet up again and eat pizza and gellato. It's been great to have a native Florentine as my very own personal tour guide to tell me all about where we are, what we're looking at, and what each building is ;)

Yesterday we drove north of the city to her parents' house for lunch. They live in a small town that's about 30 minutes north of the city centre. It's a gorgeous area, and the drive there was beautiful! Her mom made us lots of food, and it was soooo good. We barely fit back into the car afterwards ;)

This is the area around the town in which they live (I think its name is "Caselline"):







After leaving her parents' place we drove over to Fiesole. Fiesole is older than Florence; it was settled by the Etruscans in the 5th century BC. From Fiesole, you can get a really great view of Florence:



Here's Nicoletta with the entire city of Florence behind her:



As you can see, the sunset was gorgeous.





Tonight I'm going back up to Nicoletta's parents' place for dinner (so just to be safe, I'm not eating anything for lunch! ;) On Tuesday (if Tuesday is the 26th, I don't know what day it is anymore) I return to Rome for 1 night and fly back to North America the next day. I'll be in Toronto for 1 week, before heading down to NYC for 10 days, and finally returning to Champaign on January 13th. I've spent so much time in Europe this year (never thought I'd be back for a 2nd time when I left last May), and I'm sad to think it might be a while until I get back here again. I've visited 10 countries since last March (not counting Canada & the States). I guess it might be ok to stay put for a little while ;)

Cavemen for Kevin

On Sunday I took the train to Neanderthal. (Typing that just made me smile.) Yes, I went to Neanderthal. Neanderthal is a little town located right outside of Düsseldorf. The very first Neandertal fossil was found here (hence the name "Neandertal") in a cave in August, 1856. (Well, the first one that was found and recognized as being anything different from us.) This place is kind of like my mecca.

Here's the train station:



The town really just consists of the Neanderthal museum, the train station, a hotel, and a few restaurants. Here's an old statue of a Neandertal with the museum in the background:



The statue is an outdated portrayal of how we think Neandertals actually looked. This is acknowledged in a plaque next to the statue, but it's kept there for sentimental reasons. Here's a more modern portrayal from inside the museum itself:



But I think the artist took some liberation with his clothing choice. (Chaps? Nice.)

The original find site is a short walk along the river behind the museum. The caves are all gone now (blasted away in the search for limestone), but the actual site location is marked, along with the exact location of where more fossils were found in the early 90s.





The next day I visited the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn and got to see the original Neandertal fossils that were found back there in 1856. That was really, really, REALLY cool. I've seen lots of famous fossils by now, but holding this skull was just the most amazing thing for me so far.

I also had time to wander around Bonn. It's a very pretty college town and every other shop is either a shoe or book store (that is not a complaint). The university is huge; it's one of the biggest in Germany. Beethoven was born here too. Right in this house:



Pictures of Bonn:





Today I wandered around Cologne. Also a very pretty city. The cathedral there is massive. Pictures just don't do it justice:



Tomorrow I start my trek back down to Italy, meeting up with Nicoletta in Florence by Thursday. Pictures soon to follow!

Berlin

On Monday I went to the Museum fur Vor- und Fruhgeschichte to see two fossil skulls. Here's a shot of the museum:



It was a really pretty place inside too, with large sunny galleries and lots of exhibits. The fossils had to stay in their display cases, which made things slightly difficult. The glass could be removed entirely from one of the skulls, but it was mounted high up on the wall (well, ok, high up for me), which made picture-taking a little tough. I was able to ShapeCam the front and sides of the skull, but even with standing on a chair, I don't think that I got the top. I know I didn't get the back. The other skull was lower on the wall, but only the front of the glass case could be opened. Since the ShapeCam can't shoot through glass, well, let's just say that it's a good thing I'll be visiting the cast collection at the AMNH in January!

I only needed one day at the museum, so I've had lots of time in Berlin to walk around. I ignored my sore throat and sniffles because I hardly ever get sick sick, but then it blossomed into a full-blown cold. I haven't been sick since I was in Belgium! Why do I only get sick when I'm in Europe?? It makes sense, I guess, since when I'm traveling I'm coming into contact with a lot of people, and if I have to spend 9 hours on a train behind some guy coughing his lungs out...oh well. Still not fair.

I didn't stay in bed though, and I went out and probably infected lots of Germans. What comes around, goes around. If I have to suffer, so will you ;) Today I'm starting to feel a lot better.

Here's a picture of the Holocaust memorial:



Inside the glass dome of the Reichstag:



The Spree river next to the Berliner Dome:



Every single platz, markt, square, etc., in the city has a Christmas market right now. These are great sources of cheap dinners. It's a really good thing I'm no longer a vegetarian, because as I posted on he-who-shall-remain-nameless-because-he's-paranoid-now-that-he's-a- recent-PhD-looking-for-a-job's blog, these Christmas markets seem to be mainly about meat. (Martin's and Bernardo's dream place.) Steak, bratwurst, other kinds of wursts (currywurst is the worst of the wursts) , chicken, etc. Here's the one at the Gendarmenmarkt:



They also sell sugar. These booths reminded me of the scene in Sex and the City when Robert gave Miranda the "I Love You" cookie (never a good idea):



Christmastime at the Sony Centre at Potsdamer Platz:



There was one lonely Chanukka (Hannukah? Channukah?) market behind the Jewish Museum:



As you can see in this next picture, it wasn't nearly as popular as the Christmas ones:



But it did sell the exact same type of stuff, including tree ornaments, chocolate santas, and trees:



Are the red plastic ones Channukah bushes?

Here's some wall art:







Shout-out to my brother:



No, I didn't write your name there. (But you are a Mr. Potato-head ;)



Tomorrow I leave Berlin and head over to Bonn for my last European museum stop. I leave you with a replica of the Reichstag building created entirely out of chocolate:



(Sorry Daniel, it won't fit into my backpack.)

Pictures of ME ME ME and only of ME

Ok, ok, ok. Here are some pictures I took of myself today. I felt like a dweeb doing it, but this is how much I like you.

Here's a fuzzy one I tried to take of myself in front of the Humboldt Universität:



Here are two in which I'm kind of smiling:





Just to prove that I'm really in Berlin, I took one of me in front of the Berliner Dom:



Here I am trying to get a closer shot of me in front of the Berliner Dom. (Harder to do than I thought.):



Here's one for my mom in case she says I'm not smiling enough: