Herculaneum and A Lost Bag

     Although we have been home for a few days,   We have not

had a chance to complete a blog on our last day.   Needless to say it has been busy here getting the house and yard in shape after being away for almost 3 weeks.  I have posted a series of photos from the trip that roughly match up with the post for the day. You can view it at :"Del Col Travels".

    Our afternoon trip in Naples was to the buried town of

Last Sunset

Herculaneum.  We had been to Pompeii before and chose the other local town buried in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.  Pompeii was covered in ash but Herculaneum was covered in mud.  The difference is that this city of about 2,000 people - the port of the larger city - is actually much better preserved.  Only a small portion has been reconstructed.  Most of it is under the current town.  As a result of the mud preservation, excavations revealed its well preserved Roman Villas.  After a slow start our guide turned out to be excellent.  At the end of the tour, we both think that we have seen enough ruins to last us a bit!
       Our trip home was long and although we had a direct flight, it took over 17 hours from the time we left the ship until we were picked up in Toronto.  Some of that was spent waiting for a bag that somehow was left in Rome.  One arrived, the other did not.  However we finally got our last bag today!   In all it was a great trip through the ancient worlds of the Mediterranean Sea region.

Morning In Naples

     Yesterday was our last sea day and we needed some time to rest after 4 heavy port visit days.  The ship has gone in code ? because of an apparent problem associatd with Egypt.  Talking to people and from the way I was a bit off for a week,  I think the problem existed earlier. Now if you want some butter for your roll, they give it to you.   We are told they are

serving everything in the buffet Although we spent most of the day in a relaxed mode, we did attend a line dancing session.  The instructor was very good and I had mentioned that I could give her a few new easy dances.  She did have some different ones already.  Later she found me and we did a mini-workshop near the elevators.  She did a quick video and seemed to appreciate the help.  In fact we talked about a "barn dance" that she knew.  I think she was referring to the "Barn Dances" that we attended while in Australia but the dance that she "worked out" while there reminded me of something that we did while we were there.
   

Yesterday also saw the last chanpagne auction.  We had attended the wine reception ( we received an invatition because we had aquired art in the past). Of course we entered the "free $2,000.00 worth of art giveaway".  Our name was called.  That makes 4 so far on Princess Cruises.  At least we had a selection of 12 pieces so we picked something that we can eventually have framed and put on the wall in the Florida condo.  We probably will paint the living room this next season and the print will already be there if our neighbour accepts it on our behalf.  We better call her when we get back to Canada.

     We arrived in Naples early this morning an since we gained an hour last night I was up just in time to catch sunrise directly over Mt Vesuvius.  I hope the photos capture the essence of the morning!  We have a tour this afternoon, so we went ashore to wonder the area.  First impression of Naples was not that good.  There was garbage all over the streets and it was certainly the dirtist city we have stopped at except for Alexandria.  As an aside, we are docked next to the Celeb Solstice.

     We wandered around but made our way to the Chiesa of Naples; another one of those wonderful old churches.   Service had finished so we had a chance to spend some time again in awe of the paintings and trappings of the church.  It did have the oldest baptismal font of any church in the west - whatever that meant.  Of course there was a church every 2 blocks especially in this older part of the city.   Judy had another of her near fainting spells so we came back to the ship and she is resting before we head out on the tour!

Athens On Our Own

     We just returned from a full  day in Athens.  The last time we were here (2003) the city was torn up as they we getting ready for the Olympics.  They also had one of those 10 year "rains".  It is fitting that as we leave Athens, it started to rain again but the entire day was nice.
     We took the ship shuttle to the city centre but would take a

cab the next time.  We had intended to do it on our own anyway and the ship simply provided transport.   Our first stop was the Acropolis Museum barely 3 years old and dedicated solely to the artifacts of the Acropolis.  It was a wonderful place.  The "floor" of the building has glass panels in it where you can see the restorers working on the ruins below.  A really well planned approach.  3 floors of artifacts with great models showing the changes over time.  A short movie also provided much information.  After the museum we really did not need a guide to the actual Acropolis.

      That was our second stop.  Again, they have continued to reconstruct the temples and it is in much better shape today.  We have all see the photographs of the hill with its various temples and a visit did not disappoint.  We then walked down to the Ancient Agora - literally meeting place but better thought of as the local market.  Wandering around we came across a church built in 1000 A.D.  A walk through a crowded Plaka

occupied the afternoon but we were not trying to buy anything so it was mostly a look and see type of experience except for a good gelato!  After having been to the Bazaar in Istanbul the place was a bit quiet.   On the way back to the bus meeting place we did get a picture of Adrian's Gate which marked the change from the old to the new city.  It is located very near the Temple of Zeus which we did not see the last time here. We had a short visit to this big temple.  We did have a bit of to kill so we did stop for a bottle of Greek beer and some spinich pie.
          Back onboard and headed to Naples now.  A sea day tomorrow is what we need after 4 days of going ashore!   Tonight's activities include the VIP Art reception (free wine) followed by a line dance party, dinner and then the Ultimate Deck Party - now being held indoors because of the rain.  It should stop later tomorrow, probably just when we are getting out of bed!

Kusadasi And Ephesus

      Our day in Kusadasi and Ephesus was all and more than we expected it to be.  That is because it was always a place we wanted to go back to and having done that, we were not disappointed.   The other good thing is that unlike the last time we were here, we did not hit the dock and have to stay for an extra day!   They have built another dock and a big new termoinal building.

Mary's House

       We had 3 things to do today.  The first was a stop at the House of the Virgin Mary. The Vatican has recognized this small (now rebuilt) house as the finall resting place of the Virgin Mary.  A small shrine was found when the ruins were first discovered about 150 years ago.   It is known historically that John took Mary with him to Ephesus when they left Israel.   Ephesus was the 4th largest city in the Roman Empire and was known for religious tollerance.  In any case, it was a good visit.  We did not go to the ruins of St. John's Church as we have done that the last time we were here.
     The real highlight was the full tour of Ephesus.  We were last there in 2003 and they have

done a lot of reconstruction in the past few years.We entered from the top of the city (the Magnesia Gate) throught the government district then down to the socal district.   The city probably had 300,000 people at the height of its population all based on a good harbour which brought trade from all over the Roman Empire.  The Library was there the last time we visited but this time you could get into the reconstructed structure.  We did not visit the terrace houses  (some houses had 4000 sq feet).  This was a choice of tours that we had made.  However our table mates did get there and were suitably impressed.   The Ampitheatre was there the last time but they have added to the

Ampitheatre

structure.  It is where St Paul preached before he was driven out of the city as he was disrupting the sellers of the Roman gods trinkets.   The via down to the now silt filled port with shops and columns has also been filled out considerably.  The water is now 5 miles away and because of the silting, the city's source of trade was cut off and the city died.  However the running water systems, red light houses, roman baths, temples, etc made for a good day!
      We skipped the carpet demo and walked the bazaar but the merchants did not seem to be as agressive as the last time .  Perhaps with the number of ships that do arrive here on a constant basis (2 others this day) means that they don't have to hassle as much!  Next Stop Athens.

Exploring Istanbul

    I just returned to the ship after getting ashore shortly after 8 this morning.  We did not take a ship tour for this port because of the information that we had before we left Canada!   We did take the local shuttle although if we had had more time (we needed to catch a 3 pm shuttle back) we could have easily walked.  If we are ever this way again, we would take the tram and save the jam (traffic that is). 

Blue Mosque

     Our first destination after we were dropped near the Grand Bazaar was the Blue Mosque, so nammed because of the thousands of blue tiles that make up the interior.  We did remove our shoes and walked over the nice plush red carpet that is throughout.  It is the largest in the mosque in the world.  There is an enormous anount of room on the inside.  The only person beyond the barriers that kept the crowd on the outside was a cleaner vacuuming the carpet.
       The next stop was Saint Sophia a church that was converted to a mosque after the fall of

Santa Sophia

     As we walked to the meeting point we passed anothre landmark that I wanted to see so I did go inside myself.  This was the Yerebatab Cistern built in the 5th century.  This truly was a find.  It took about 20 minutes to walk the perimiter.  It has hundred's of colums in it, some that are very ornate.  It is empty and no longer in use but if was originally filled with fresh water supplied by aquaducts.  It is hard to describe but I think the most impressive thing was that is is 1500 plus years old.
      A slow walk from the Cistern got us to the meeting point. 

Grand Bazaar

Judy went back to the ship on her own and I wandered around the Grand Bazaar for about an hour.  It is very easy to get lost in it.  There definately is a pecking order to the shops.  All the gold and silver places are near the prime gate - the high priced places.  If you wander some of the side alleys (all covered of course) you find the "other" stuff like carpets, shoes, shirts, etc.   How there can be so many shirt shops, etc. is hard to believe. 
       The trip back was an adventure as is any ride in these cities.  How the drivers can get those buses around and up and down those streets is a mystery.  We are about ready to sail for Kudedasi where we do not arrive until noon tomorrow.   We have to make 300 miles by then.   At least we will get to see a bit of this historic waterway in the light as we transit back to the Mediterranean..

Khios Greece

    Yesterday was a sea day and the whole ship seemed to be in a "sleepy" mood after the long days in Egypt.  There are only 1925 passangers aboard so the ship seems "empty" most days anyway.   The seas have been as flat as can be expected since we left Rome.  In a few minutes we head for Istanbul.

    We did manage to go to a dance lesson and attend a few

lectures but generally it was a peaceful day.  I really appreciated that.  I have been feeling a bit "off" for a few days.  All I want to do is sleep - which is what I did during the art auction.  We did attend the last show of Lenny Windsor.  We had seen him before.  He was a writer for the Benny Hill show and had some good stories to tell.  He was aboard on our trip last fall.  We did go to the line dancing hoedown last night but missed most of it as dinner was a bit late.
   

Local Beer

Today we did not take an organized tour, but opted instead to just wander around the small town of Khios.  It does have a world hertigage monistary but it did not seem exciting enough for us.  We did visit the local museum as well the the biggest Greek Catholic church in town.  We did end up at a sidewalk cafe and had a glass of "greek" beer.  I think I will pass on that when we get to Athens.  It was too bitter for my taste.
      Tomorrow is Istanbul.  We did not take an organized tour as we will be docked close to the sites and can take a shuttle if we don't feel like walking the short distance.  Weather continues to be warm and sunny.

Egypt - Alexandria on Day 2

     After the long day of going to Cairo, we were up "early" again and were off touring the city of Alexandria.  Although we were going to stay "local", the tour lasted from 8:30 until 2 pm.  Judy continued to mention how she was disappointed in the city.  I guess she thought that it would be something exotic and it is anything but that.  It is very dirty with holes all over the place.  No place except one that we visited was clean as we know it.

   The tour had 3 stops.  The first was the museum where local

Pompey's Pillar

artifacts were displayed.  It certainly did not have the flare of Cairo with the King Tut artifcts but it was well done.  They recently found thousands of artifacts - statues, pillars, etc. on the bottom of the bay.  Much had been dumped there to prevent naval forces from entering the harbour.
    Our second stop was Pompey's Pillar which is the tallest remaining ancient monument in the area.  It is made of solid granite and is the only thing standing in a temple area that had hundreds(?) of shorter columns.  All the rest are on the ground or in the bay!  I don't know if they re-erected this one column after the earthquakes that destroyed the temple.  Two things are of interest here.  First it was the only place that did not have the "dollar boys" hounding you at every step.  To be fair the museum was free of them as well.  The second was that the grounds did not have one piece of litter in it.  This is the older part of the

City Street

city with slums all around.  Here we are looking at this ancient temple and are impressed by the lack of hawkers and garbage!   The other item of interest here was the "daughter" library to the one destroyed by fire.  It was a common practice to have a library with temples.  It was carved out beneath the temple and some of the books that were saved from the great fire were stored in nooks carved (shelves) in the wall of the passageways.  Unfortunately these books were also burned on order from of the Christians later because they were "pagan".  Funny, some of the oldest bible copies were among the items.

Dockside Shopping

      The third stop was the Roman catacombs.  These are not like the ones in Rome where the Christians were burried but rather Roman catacombs.  They date to the first to third century.  They are on 3 levels.  The original one was for some wealthy family and then they just kept carving.  The lowest level if filling with water because of changes to the water table caused by the building os the Aswan dam.  It was under an old garbage dump and found when a donkey of a garbage collector fell  through the ceiling of the tombs.
       All in all a very interesting place. Next _ Sea day then Khios, Greece.

Camel Riding At The Pyramids

   The port of Alexandria was the starting point for our visit to the Pyramids in Cairo.  The day started very early - before 7:30.  By the time we cleared the Immigration, baggage checks, etc to get ashore we were underway to Cairo by about 8:30.  We were warned that it was going to be a long day.  It lasted over 12 hours.  Of course you can not go anywhere in Egypt without an armed security guard on the bus but it also meant that all buses had to travel as a group.  Can you imagine 20+ buses all headed to Cairo in a convoy with no stops allowed for the entire 3 hours ride to the Pyramids.

  My first impression of the Pyramids was one of disappointment - at the fact that Cairo has grown so large that the city now abuts the property.  Once on the grounds and on the hill, then the city seemed to disappear and the structures could be seen without the city buiding appearing to overshadow the location.  We were warned about the sellers and hawkers before we got off the bus but it is always a cultural shock when they come at you.
     We took our photos of the pyramids at the first stop and then decided to get a picture of Judy

On The Camel

on a camel.  Remember we were warned - $1 for a photo (everything started at $1) and $3 for a camel ride.  No ride just a photo please.  Then the hard sell.  Judy gets on and the boy handler gets the camel up.  Next they tell me to get in the picture.  So O.K. for that.  Off with the hat, on goes the "rag" a whip in my hand and I looked like Lawrence of Arabia.  Perhaps Indiana Jones! The man takes my camera and shoots a few photos.  He then asks for another $1.00 So that seems reasonable.  The next thing you hear is Judy screaming as this boy is taking

her for a "ride" in the desert.  Now they warned us about $1 to get on, up goes the camel and then they do not get you down unless you pay them.  Judy starts to scream more.   She can do that with the best of them as she didn't like it.  I start to boil as I can see what's coming.  I start to scream - Give me my hat back!  I scream louder, give me my camera!  I get the camera and the hat - 2 out of 3 ain't bad!  Judy is screaming louder!  The camel man asks for more money - remember I am holding out on the second $1.  I started to yell no more money until she is on the ground.  I figured it was the least I could do for her.  I guess the teacher voice must have come out because they finally "stopped the ride" and let her off.  Only then did I pay them.  One woman on our bus paid 20 euros to get her mother down and today we heard that someone payed 40 euros!  The lady did get the "tourist police" to come over and did get her money back!  Boy those Pyramids are sure something.

    We made a second stop at the Pyramids and finally went to the Sphink.  My impression was how small it really is in comparison to the actual Pyramids.  We walked around there for awhile, dogging the "only $1 U.S. dollar" boys.  Then it was off to the "shopping" stop at the "preferred" store (as usualy - at least no rug demo - that comes later in the cruise) and finally to the Mariott Hotel for lunch.  Lunch  - buffett - was good but not outstanding.  However they probably were feeding a 1000 people at at time.
    Cairo itself with their 20 million is dirty and crowded.  It seems like if you dig a hole to fix something, you leave everything on  the street.  So you see holes and dirt, bricks and trash everywhere.  The run down areas are very poor and dirty as you might expect.  I will let the pictures do the talking!
    The last stop was the Cairo museum which had about half the goods looted during the recent riots.  As a building it was less that impressive and the best thing in it was the original Tut artifacts.  I think we expected something more from such as famous museum.  A lot of the exhibits did not have labels on them and generally poorly lit.  Having said that, it was still an impressive place.
      After the museum was did the 3 hour trip back to the ship.  We did get stopped in a big traffic jam so the driver drove over the curb and median and reversed direction.  There were 3 lanes of traffic in each direction!  We all clapped when we saw the ship.  I suspect that it was because we had seen some truly amazing things and survived the dollar boys and the traffic.
    Next post will be touring Alexandria!

Mediterraneran Sailing

   Today is he second of our 2 sea days and we are enjoying the warm sunshine and fine sailing weather.  For the detailed readers you probably know that Da Vinci did not have anything to do with the Sisteen Chapel.  Enough said.
     Our trip down to the port took just over an hour and was the local commuter train which means that it was packed with people returning home in the latter part of the afternoon.  We arrived at the station but could not locate the railroad crossing under the tracks which meant that the walk around took about 15 extra minutes.  Taxis were all at the ships that were in that day.  In fact the next day there were 4 cruise ships in, including the Star Princess.  We found our hotel and then walked back to the seaside for a pizza and beer supper and a chance to relax after the 3 filled days.  We did try to get to sleep early but needed to change rooms later that night.
     The morning of boading we again walked the town with a stop at the local museum. This is an old Roman port so they have many artifacts from early times.  The hotel provided a free shuttle to the ship and when we arrived at 12:30 there was nobody in line and we basically walked right on.   The rest of the day was spent relaxing.
     Yesterday we sat around most of the day.  The port lecture was not very good providing little actual details for our visit to Egypt tomorrow.  I attended a "Spook" lecture in the afternoon.  The presenter was a British intell officer and he put me to sleep.  Judy figured it out faster than I did and was gone in 5 minutes.  Line dancing and a movie on deck filled the afternoon.  The Captain's welcome aboard/chanpaigne waterfall event was that evening.  Few people attended.  There are only 1925 on the ship and it is empty by this ship's standard.  It seems like people are somewhere else.  This ship has a lot of younger couples onboard, not like the crossing where few of the passengers are not retired.  In fact at our safety demo we had the most cruises of anybody! Hard to believe.
      Today we went to line dancing again and Veronica is probably the best instructor we have had on these cruises.  She moved the class along nicely and after 40 minutes we had finished a good workout!  12 bells just sounded.  We are 300 miles from Egypt and crusing at 21 knots.  Pub lunch and perhaps the Art auction come later.  Tomorrow is the 12 hour visit to the Pyramids.  We are resting up for the 3 hour bus trip.  More Later

A Find and Moving to the Port

   We still have  a bit of time so I thought that I would try to

Old Wall

finish the Rome portion of our trip.  We needed to take the train to the port so we decided to do some touring in the morning.  Breakfast and packing were the order of the morning.  We stored our bags at the hotel and headed South west on the metro for San Giovanni which is the church which is the home of the Bishop of Rome - the pope.  It is located just inside the old wall fortifications of Rome so that visit was a bonus.  The church itself was like all the others in the splendor of the interior.  We also had a chance to attend Mass while in the the church.  We then headed back to the hotel which took us towards the "Colosseo". 
    Our destination was San Clemante an

old church.  The church itself was very stark by any standard and you would not spend a second in the church.  The attraction was the area under the church.  They have done some excavations and you can enter the "older" church which goes back to 4-500 AD.  It still has some of the original frescos in it.   It was as big as the "new" church which was built on top of it.
 The real attraction however is what is under the "old" church.

  They have found the original  Roman ruins.  It included a temple (room) used for ancient worship by a group that was as popular as christianity in the early centuries.  A room for a school was also in the the area.  Then there was the series of rooms which was probably a Villa of some sort.  It had a small spring in it where the water was still flowing!  Running water in the house!   The place was very large - it seemed like room after room  was opened up.  It may have been used as a Roman Mint at one time.  Very very interesting.  A hidden find in Rome!

  The way back saw us stop at Santa Maria Maggiore.
Another hugh church but by then we were churched out.  We headed back to the hotel,   grabbed our bags and took the train to the port where we stayed the night before joining the ship.  More on that in the next post.  Today we are at sea, tomorrow the same, and then Egypt the day after! Cheers!

A Day At The Vatican

Waiting For The Vatican

   Our second day in Rome we decided to return to the Vatican.  Although we had been there before we thought that we should go back and spend more time enjoying all that it has to offer.  After a good filling breakfast we took the metro and were there in a few minutes.  Our first stop was the museum!
    What they say is true - long lines and wait.  It took us about 90 minutes to get into the place and you could barely move for the people.  At 15 euros a pop the place must be a mint!  We refused to pay the 45 euros for the skip the line and guided tour that sellers offerd every 1.5 feet while we were in the 2 block line.  Next time we may try to book the per entry

time on the internet which I think is available.   In any case we had the opportunity to visit all the exhibits as we were there for about 5 hours in all.  We did see the ancient holding as well as the "usual" tour stops of the tapestry gally and the decorated apartments leading to the Sisteen chapel.  There must have been 1000 people in that area with one one person doorway to get out.  Still a very good visit.  Pizza and beer followed the visit.

     We then headed to the church itself when by that time in the afternoon the lines were very short.  We dicided to go to the top of the dome again but becasue of time took the elevator the first half the way.  It was still close to 300 steps to the top.  It was a beautiful sunny day and because it was late afternoon the sun was in the best position for shooting the plaza in front of the church.  We then followed that with our second visit to the church iteslf - always a jaw dropping experience - but were too late to visit the grottos below the altar where the popes are burried.  Finally a visit to the special exhibit for the JP beautification occasion - quite well done - ended the day.  By now it was getting close to 6 pm.  We decided (why I don't know) to walk back to the Termini -which if you know Rome is across town.  That includes wandering along tiny streets to get to our hotel.  On the way we stopped at the Piazza Navona for a rest and of course the Trevi Fountain. Had to do those 2 areas!  Finally afer a pasta and wine dinner we finally made it to the hotel tired but satisfied.

Flying To Rome

   We are on ship and sailing near Sicily and we finally have a chance to get some computer time to bring you up to day on our travels so far.  Before that I have tried to get into my Primus account but can't read the e-mails so you need to post to this blog if there is something urgent.
    Our flight to rome was delayed for 45 minutes because of "paper work" and then something with the plane.  We did arrive around 10 am in the morning.   The flight itself was very uncomfortable because, although we had the emergency exit seat which in iself should have been a bonus, the seates did not recline at all.  That meant that for 8 hours of overnight flight there was no relief from the upright position.  In any case we did get the train to Rome in timely fashion and within a few minutes walk of the Termini we were at our hotel.  It was very close to a hotel we had stayed at before and down the street from the Diana Hotel.  The hotel was very nice and we would stay there again if needed.

Spanish Steps

   We dropped our bags and headed for some touring.  The day was overcast which later (as we left our wet weather gear in the hotel) the overcast turned to steady rain.  We took the metro and stopped at the Spanish Steps.  Rome is full of tourist this time of year and as expected the area around the steps had wall to wall people.  After taking our pictures we climbed the steps to the church and then to the Villa Medici and gardens behind the steps area.  After wandering the gardens for some time and as the rain started to get heavy we headed to the Plaza dei Popolo.  It was one of those places that we had seen but not visited.  The attraction there was the church

which has the famous painted of the conversion of St Paul in it.  Sorry the signs are not correct - church closed!  We waited for about an hour for the later opening but no luck! A bit disappointing but that is just the way it is.  In order to spend some time waiting we slipped into the Da Vinci Museum which is in the square.  What a find.  It had working models of some of his inventions.  We tended to remember him from the Sisteen

Davinci's Museum

Chapel aand Mona Lisa paintings but some of the inventions were something else.  He "invented" the transfer of power from one plane to another -i.e. the modern jack - and applied this to many things like a propelled cart. Ball bearings to reduce friction, a basic helecopter design, a parachute, elevation devices for morters and a system to repell scaling ladders from forts.  It was wonderful.  Little on his medical drawings and  paintings.
    By this time we were getting a bit tired so a short metro ride, some vino and pasta and bed followed in quick order.  A good sleep was needed!

Adventure Spring 2011

  We finally finished packing and the car is loaded.  It is hard to believe that we are going again but we try to keep moving.   Air Canada changed their baggage policy  -  one checked bag each so we managed to get everything packed into 2 bags slightly heaver than we normally take.  They allow 50 pounds per bag which is more than we can easily carry.  This will allow us to more easily get on and off the trains in Italy.

Sailing The Med

   One of the hardest things was trying to decide on the weather in the Med.  With our normal spring and fall sailings we need warmer clothes but we hope that it is almost summer there.
    This will be our 12 th cruise on Princess (stuck in a rut?) but now that we attained Elite status we can hardly pass up the perks.  The mini bar and free laundry are just a few of the things that go along with the 165 days plau that we have spent on the Princess ships.
       We will try to post from Rome if possible.  However once on ship we can get that done.  Another perk is enough free computer time to keep up on the happenings around the world!