We awoke to the sound of car horns honking, so knew we had to have arrived in Italy! Our cabin was overlooking Vesuvius although it was completely shrouded in cloud so we could only see the foothills. Buildings filled every available bit of space and starting to climb up the slopes of Vesuvius.
We ate breakfast out on the Pennant Grill as the back of the ship gave great views of the city. The view from the starboard side of the ship was looking up to a large fortress on the hill. We also saw that Ruby Princess and Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas were in port.
We got off the ship in the morning and wandered around the harbour for a bit. We must have been accosted by 10 taxi drivers upon leaving the port gates and the roads were completely gridlocked. Everyone on their horns and kamikaze moped drivers weaving in and out of the smallest of gaps. Callum was fascinated and loved watching the crazy mopeds.
We had lunch on board Aurora before heading off to catch our coach for the trip to Herculaneum. As the coach could use the roads in the docks, we avoided the traffic jams, but you really did see just how run down this city was - not at all what we were expecting to see. What perhaps shocked us even more was the cardboard city that is sprawling out on the tiny stretch of land in between the fences for the ports.
Herculaneum is a small excavation beneath a town on the outskirts of the city. The roads are pretty narrow to reach the place and only a small portion has been excavated. It wasn't long before Callum was getting bored on the tour and just wanted to ride again on the bus! The tour guide helped a little as she got Callum to hold up the "23" sign. But whilst she was very enthused about the place, she would stop and talk for 20 mins at a time. It wasn’t just Callum that was struggling to cope – quite a few more elderly passengers were too. We kept up with the tour for about 45 mins before we broke away and just looked around the excavated buildings on our own. Quite fascinating how much was preserved.
Once back onboard we sat out on Pennants Bar until Aurora sailed. By now the cloud had pretty much lifted off Vesuvius although it was still pretty hazy. We went up on the sun deck and watch Naples and Vesuvius slip away. Back to the cabin to get showered and changed for the evening and we were lucky enough to be treated to an amazing sunset. The sun just slipped into the sea ... and no clouds to spoil the effect.
Quiz night followed yet again ... and we had a run of luck with the questions. We scored 17/20 and we won!! Our handicap is either a -1 point deduction for tomorrow night (or drinking the bottle of wine we won before we start!). We opted for a nightcap in Champions afterwards and it was deserted. Everyone seemed to be having an early night before they hit Rome tomorrow.
Callum went to Toy Box once more ... and asked if he could take his PJ's down tonight as some of the other children got changed before they put the movie on and they all settle down for the night. It worked a treat as Callum was out for the count when we collected him later on. Oh, we also had to take an enormous balloon hat back to the cabin with us. They said he'd be very upset if it got lost!!
No comments:
Post a Comment