April 16, 2017
Well, I get to go first.
I forgot to tell you about our good deed yesterday. As we walked back from the church for the Japanese martyrs, we saw a young man pulling his suitcase with all kinds of shoe boxes and a big bag tied to it. He had a case that contained a guitar over his shoulder. I told David I bet he is a musician from one of the ships and his bags had on them Holland American tags. Well, just after he past us heading toward the train station we heard this crash. His large shopping bag tied to the suitcase split apart and everything went on the ground. We turned around to see if we could help and asked if he was from the ship. He was and he was on his way home. We couldn’t do much but I had carried a large bag from the grocery store in my purse and I gave it to him to put some of his boxes in. He said he would be okay and we wished him a safe journey.
Now, last night I had a strange dream. Michael (and he was a grown man), me and my mother were in a church in a service. The service had ended and we were getting up to head out. It was a very large church with many people. Michael said, “Don’t let your mother get away, you know how she goes off.” Well before that was out of his mouth, she was gone. So I put him in doorway at the exit and I went to look for her. I had to potty and I had passed one so I turned around to go and then couldn’t find it. That was when I woke up. Don’t know if we found my Mom or not. Really crazy.
So on to today. We arose at 6:30. David got a bath and I brushed teeth, washed face and hands and combed my hair. When he finished and made his coffee I made him toast. I had oj and a piece of my sweet cake. We were out of the house and headed to the train by 7:30. We made good time and got to the station before 8. There was a train leaving on track 2 at 8:30 but there was one on Track 1 leaving at 8:01. After making sure that was correct, we boarded the train on track 1 and off we went. It stopped at all the stations on the way so it takes longer. As we approached one stop there must have been 50 or more priests standing on the platform. They all boarded our train. As we approached St Pietro, our stop, they announced that if you were getting off you had to exit from one of the first four cars. We had no idea what car we were in, so we walked forward into the next car and asked the lady in there what car we were in now. She said 3 so we were good. Right after one of the young priests came into the car asking what car we were in, we said we thought it was 3. So he said good and sat down. We conversed and found he was from South Africa but had been in Florida and Texas. He spoke perfect English. He was young and white.
Well, we arrived at the station and exited. As it had been a long ride we needed to use the bathrooms. Now in the terminals it cost 1euro each to potty. They have a machine at the door where you can change your euros for coins. We changed two 5 euro notes for 10 one euro coins. Then, inserted our coins and proceeded through the turn stills to the appropriate one. Now this was a nice restroom. The toilet after you used it and flushed it pushed out from the back over the seat and the seat rotated all the way around and it cleaned the seat. No kidding. I just stood and watched. After washing my hands, the towel rack had a cloth towel which you waved your hand in front and it extended a towel. You dried your hands then it rolled up the dirty piece and put out new. Never seen anything like this restroom.
Well, leaving the station and going down the hill toward the Vatican on our usual path, we finally came to the ramp that went down and under the street and came out onto the edge of St Peter”s square. There were barricades and many police and military people. They said we could not go through but we could walk around back up the street and to the left to the other side. So off we went. We had to go through a tunnel, with very busy fast traffic in it and a very narrow sidewalk. Many people walked out into the street and passed us because we were so slow. We finally found our way around and after passing through a wand and search barricade we walked up to just in front of the square. There were some ledges on the side and we found a couple of seats where we could see the balcony where the Pope was to speak from and had a seat. The service was to start at 10 and it was quarter till. It actually started at 10:20 and the Pope was doing a full Mass inside and it was being displayed on a large TV and broadcast over speakers. We could not see the screen but could hear. At about 11:30 we were tired and it was probably going to be another hour or so before he came out. So we took a quick look into a shop right behind us. Well, we had no sooner walked into the shop and everybody came crowding into the overhang area. It had started to rain. One of those showers with the sun shining. It lasted about 20 minutes. We finally fought our way through the crowd and headed back the way we came to the station. At the station there were some soldiers, yes armed with automatic rifles, machine guns, and we asked what track the train for Civi... was located on. It said track 5 on the sign but we wanted to make sure. So we went down the steps to go to the track and validated our tickets on the way. Going to St Pietro the ticket checker had validated that we had the correct tickets. But when we got on the train coming home the guy never asked to see them. We were on a faster train coming home because it only stopped at some of the stops.
Getting home and spending 2 more euros we used the facilities. They were not near as nice as the ones in St Pietro. Then, we headed down to the apartment . We tried to stop some places to eat but they were full and had no room for us. So we stopped at the Pam store and bought bread and chips and then went back to McDonalds for lunch. Then home where he took a nap and I did not.
Well, he is ready for me to be finished so good night to all.
Well, two-fingered Granny is finally finished. She typed for 90 minutes and left me almost nothing to say.
However, there are two things I wish to point out.
First, Granny Carter was lost because of a potty break.
Second, I only needed one euro to go to the bathroom, she took the other 9.
Now, she is telling me what I can write that she left out over an hour and a half.
I took our McDonald’s fries back to the counter and told the woman they were cold. Cold. These fries are cold. She glared at me, and I said, “These are cold.” She took them, snatched them would be more accurate, and threw them in the trash and got us fries right out of the cooker. I think the cooks were chasing cows, because it took forever to get my double cheeseburger and her Big Mac. We ate the fries before they got cold again. We each had a milkshake, and they were very good.
Back in the flat we played two rounds of rummy and I lead 11 games to 10, having won the last one in only 4 hands – a veritable stomping!
We stayed in for supper, Bonnie making grilled cheese sandwiches on the apartment’s Panini maker. Very good. Our side dish was Lay’s Original Potato Chips, also very good.
I don’t think she told you that we walked almost 7 miles today, and I am beat. Off to post this, and then an early night.
TTFN
No comments:
Post a Comment