October 17, 2017.
Thinking about yesterday...it was just amazing that we rented a boat and spent the bulk of the day in the ocean seeing the island of Capri and the Amalfi coast. Just amazing.
After getting back tour apartment, we showered and then went down to the small plaza and ate at one of the restaurants in Atrani. The food was ok. Probably cheapest eatery we've been to. The waiter was an interesting fellow. But I'll leave it at that.
We then returned and lined up our stuff for our big, very long travel day. We all retired around 11 PM. However, I laid awake until 4 AM. I got up many times. I read the Desert News. I went online to respond to emails. I just could not sleep. It was the worst insomnia ever. And it came at the worst time as we were going to be up from 6 AM on Tuesday until 10 PM on Wednesday due to the flights we would be taking.
At 7 AM, we left our apartment to catch a bus to Salerno. We went down to the square and before we knew it, the bus was there and fortunately there were seats. After a few stops the bus was full of Jr. High aged kids going into Salerno for school...which is over 1 hour ride on the most dangerously windy and narrow road. I've never, EVER, seen bus drivers do what they do on this road. The bus is constantly stopping and inching by cars and other busses. And I'm not kidding, there is only a couple of inches between them when passing by very slowly. It was only 22 Km from Atrani to Salerno...but it take 1 hour and 10 minutes to do the drive.
At Salerno, we caught a train to Pompeii. Scott had us all download the Rick Steve's audio tour of Pompeii. So upon arriving at the Pompeii train station, we had to find where we could leave our bags. A lady flagged us over and said she would watch them in her diner for 2.5 euros per bag. So we left our large bags, but kept our smaller ones. We should of left those too. The walk to the ruins was about a 15 minute walk. And upon arriving to the ticket booth, there were a ton of students there trying to get ticketed to get in. It took a bit to get our tickets. Once in, we noticed that Rick Steve's, was not starting at the point where we were at. So we had to figure it out. That is when the journey began. We eventually found the starting point. But we walked and walked, in a circle initially, but finally found the starting point. The audio tour was awesome and helped explain a small portion of Pompeii. It is quite large. Much to see. We spent about 3 hours walking around seeing stuff...and those hand bags...wow...they became really, really heavy. One funny note...the most heavily visited site was the Brothel. It was actually an interesting place and you can only imagine what went on there. But the frescos on the wall could be considered a bit pornographic. They said it was their advertisements. Crazy times it was back then.
After leaving the ruins, we did the 15 minute walk back to the train station. We retrieved our bags, went into the station and grabbed some train tickets to Naples (Napoli). We wanted to go to Naples Centrale. But after a few minutes we noticed that Centrale was not on our list of stops. So we realized we were not on the right line...or so we thought. Well, I asked Scott to speak with a guy behind us. It turns out that one of our stops was combined with Centrale....so we were ok. The fellow was a Radiologist and very nice. He escorted us in the train station and made sure that we were ok.
It was now about 3 PM and Scott wanted to try to get to a pizza place that he had been referred to. But getting there was not going to be easy. We spoke with the cabbies and they wanted 20 euros to go to the pizza place and another 20 to go to the airport. We all agreed that was a little steep for pizza...so we just headed to the airport. The ride there was with a young taxi driver who idolized Johnny Depp, who played John Dillinger. He just kept saying 'American Gangster'...and then drove like a lunatic through crazy traffic.
We arrived at the airport way to early. So we just kind of relaxed and watched people. Our first flight to Rome went very well. The 2nd flight to Athens, started well, getting us all on board. Then they shut the plane down and it turned into a sauna! Holy smokes it was warm for about an hour. At the end, one Greek jumped up all sweaty and went down to give the crew a thing or two. Just as he started talking, the pilot came on and said they had been cleared to leave. Whew...it was warm. I was even fanning myself with Denise's Mexican fan she had!
It is now 2:30 AM Wednesday morning. We are all huddled around a little table at a bar just waiting for our gate agents to show up so we can check in to our flight to Santorini. Can you believe it...we're going to find Mama Mia's home!
More to come...Pictures:
On the train to Pompeii....
A relic Roman supporting some nice 'white' shades.....this is the 'forum'...the main entrance area into Pompeii.
Looking down one of the many streets in Pompeii....
This is the McDonald's of the day...they called these places 'snack shops' and apparently they had things available for consumption in these pots. These stations were through out the town of Pompeii. It actually was a city of 20k people.
Some bones of folks that have been unearthed....
The bakers and their brick oven bakery....
One of the many rooms that Rick Steve's took us into. If you want to know what it is...download the audio and listen to it yourselves! :-)
Two guys enjoying the audio tour....
A nice view of a Roman street in Pompeii...
Some artifacts that had been unearthed. They have many, many rooms of such things.
On the floor of the largest Colliseum there....
Upon arriving at the airport, we were concerned about the size of our bags for EU travel. Denise was thrilled that her bag met Aliitalia Airlines standards!
I was pretty pleased that I had no one next to me on my flight to Athens. What you don't see is that 2 more bus loads of people showed up and filled the plane. I had a mother and her daughter next to me.
Me watching movies on the flight. No just kidding. This is pillow thing that Ashley bought us for trying to sleep on the plane. I was so tired that this could have been a big rock.
It is 3 AM and we're still smiling as we wait to catch our plane to the island of Santorini!
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