A Day in Roma

It was a rainy day. Our tour of middle- and high-school students had just missed, for better or worse, the spectacle of hordes of mourners from around the world saying goodbye to the dead Pope.




The Vatican tours were still crowded but the streets seemed quite subdued. An occasional distressed Roman could be seen in out of the way places.





The outpouring grief was perhaps only a slight addition to the standard despair of a few, like this beggar, prostrate on the Spanish Steps.





However, life also goes on: the baglady and dog on their rounds at the Colosseum.

York

More train shots... Last summer I and my daughter visited friends in Yorkshire, England. We arrived in the Viking/Roman city of York at the Victorian train station, with its typical arcing skeletal roof.




We did a lot of sauntering around town, including along the ancient city walls and a twilight "ghost walk." Another attraction is the railway museum. Here is the view from beneath an old steam locomotive.




Another locomotive has been opened up like something from the "Bodies" exhibit to show the workings of a steam engine.