DoubleD

The original plans for today was to sleep in, relax, and poke around the area. Instead, we decided to take a train south to Pompeii. To do this, we took a fast train direct to Naples. We had first class seats, so were able to reserve seats ahead of time. The first leg took a few minutes over an hour. That thing was fast! From there, we went below the Naples train station and hopped on another local train that would take us to Pompeii. This was like our C-Train’s back home, only a few decades older. We stopped at every possible stop along the way. We were expecting a 35 minute ride, and I’m thinking it was closer to an hour. The train and all of the stations along the way were covered in graffiti. ... read more

The reason we took this short trip to Italy was to celebrate Maria’s 40thbirthday. We wanted to do something unforgettable. Well, today was the big day. She’s now in her 40s! It is starting to show, as she seems to be napping a lot. We had an early start today. We were up at 6:15 am to get ready. We hopped in a cab and headed over to the Vatican. Literally a couple of hours before flying out of Calgary, a friend who is a travel agent, arranged for us a tour of the Vatican. I had unfortunately left this too late, and was not able to find anything on my own. She was a big help. Our tour was considered semi-private, in that there were only 10 people in our group, and we got to ... read more

The Deitz Travel Blog has resurrected from the dead. We last wrote about our travels in March of 2011, when we went to Qatar. We had decided to write down our experiences since it was such a different place than we are used to visiting. This time around, we find ourselves in Italy – September 2013. The purpose of this trip’s blog is to mainly keep the kids up to date on what we are doing. Some family may see this…I hope not to bore you. It’s nothing fancy…just the Deitz’s in Rome. I’m sitting down to write this at 11:30 pm local time – local being Rome, Italy. Maria’s 40th birthday is on the 13th and we decided to do something big for the occasion. It’s a long way to travel for a week, but ... read more

Almost 10 pm, and decided to do another entry. This is likely the last one. We go to the airport tomorrow night for our flight to London. We have a 6 hour layover and then a direct flight home...back Thursday afternoon. Today, We divided and conquered. Maria's mom had a driver take her to a doctor's appointment early this morning. She left me the car and I drove first thing to the golf course. There is one golf course in Qatar, Doha Golf Club. Every February, this course is the host of the Qatar Masters, a pretty big tournament on the European PGA tour. I think I've said, but past winners of the tournament have been Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Adam Scott...some big names. They have the massive trophy on display in the club house. The ... read more

Getting ready to wrap up our trip in Qatar. We leave Wednesday night (technically Thursday morning). A good chunk of Sunday was spent at Katara Beach. It's in the Cultural Village (which if you have read previous blog entries is where that coliseum amphitheatre and the Fish Market is). It costs to use this beach area - they give you wrist bands when you check in. I think it's the nicest beach area we've seen here. The sand is white and soft, and the water very blue. They have lots of activities, of which some are additional costs. We rented a 4 person paddle boat for half an hour, and distracted the kids from renting sea-dos. They have this massive inflatable play area in the water...it reminds me of that TV show Wipe Out. Ropes to ... read more

We didn't write anything yesterday - we didn't do anything different...just did some shopping and hung out at the pool at the Hyatt. The kids did do go-karting in the mall. They had a blast doing that. Noah had to use the washroom in the mall. He came out a minute later, panic on his eyes. He couldn't use these washrooms....the toilet was built into the ground! I never did go in to see it, but they weren't your typical toilet. He managed to make it to another store and used their washroom. Today, Nick woke up at 5 am and didn't feel good. He had a high temperature and achy. So, he stayed home with Maria's mom, while Maria, Noah, and I went to the Hyatt. We hung out at the pool until 2 pm. ... read more