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!