ROME FALL 2019
This year's trip to Rome was a complicated one for a number of reasons. About a week before we were to leave for Rome the Queen got a call that she was needed in a meeting that was going to take place in Singapore. We had just watched the movie `Crazy Rich Asians' which takes place in Singapore. We already had tickets to Rome from DC. The Queen left 5 days before me and traveled by way of Los Angeles (5 hours) to Singapore (17 hours). After the meeting she then went to Rome with a stop in Dubai. She arrived in Rome two days before me as I took our scheduled flight. This photo is the Queen in Singapore with one of her Korean co-workers.
This year our friends in Rome who live about two blocks from the Coliseum were on sabbatical in Japan for six months and we stayed at their apartment. When the Queen arrived after her long flights she could not get the key to work in the lock. It was evening there in Rome and she called me to see if I could help. I made some phone calls/emails and we managed to get an across the street neighbor to come to help just as the Queen figured out how to open the door.
On this trip to Italy we had been planning some other trips out of Rome.
London: When we had dinner with our friends from Rome to discuss using their apartment when they were gone they mentioned that their daughter who we have know since she was very young was going to be matriculating into Oxford when we were in Rome. Our friends were not going to be able to go from Japan so we told them we would go as her `surrogate' parents. My Rabbi friend from London who I met at AIPAC 5 years ago had also asked us when we were coming to London for Sabbath services and we were going to be able to come on the Oxford matriculation weekend. I have a cousin who lives outside London and we also could visit her at the same time.
Barcelona: The Queen has a science colleague from Barcelona who we have visited many times including going to her daughter's wedding in Barcelona. As we were planning this trip we learned that she had breast cancer and decided that we would stop in Barcelona on our way back to Rome from London.
Croatia: The Queen had wanted to go to Croatia for a long time and we saw that there was a trip with the same company (Santana) they we had used in 2016. Since it was a lot of money she looked at other options and found a London company called Bike Croatia. It was half the price, going to the same places and at a time where we could go. We decided to sign up.
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