Our European Vacation Where We Went and What We Did

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Our trip to Europe during the summer of 2007 was a relatively quick one, visiting only a few countries (Italy and Greece) and cruising on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, the Legend of the Seas through the Mediterranean. We saw some amazing sites, including some well known ancient ruins, beautiful ocean views and hillside cities, and ornate churches and monuments, including the Vatican. The weather was ideal; sunny and in the 80s or low 90s everyday, and wonderfully cool in the evenings.

Below is a day by day record of where we went and what we did. I planned on keeping a journal, but, like with so many other trips I have taken, I didn't. Most of what's written below is from memory, and I believe, pretty accurate. So if you're interested in seeing what we did during our vacation or planning a trip there and just want some ideas, read on and enjoy!

(You can click on any of the pictures on this page to see them full size.)

Around 5:00 PM, Mei-O and I loaded our bags into our van and drove out to Byron to pick up John and Grace, then back into Rochester to pick up Steve and Teresa. We were all travelling light, so the six of us and all of our luggage easily fit into the van. We made the hour-plus drive to Minneapolis and parked in one of the park-and-fly lots away from the airport. After a short shuttle bus ride to the Lindberg Terminal, we checked in and waited for our 9:30 departure. Our first flight would take us to Amsterdam, then, after a couple of hours layover, we'd continue on to Rome.

We arrived in Rome around 5:40 PM Tuesday afternoon. Both of the flights went smoothly, with the Minneapolis to Amsterdam leg taking about eight and a half hours. With not the slightest sign of any Immigrations or Customs control points, we walked out of the terminal and found our driver with a big "Stephen Kan" sign waiting to take us to our hotel in Rome's city center.

After about a half hour drive through the crazy Italian traffic, down major boulevards and narrow side streets, past many famous ancient ruins (I was surprised these were right in the city, not outside of it somewhere), we got to the hotel, the Best Western Universo, around 6:20.

Once at the hotel, we immediately ran into a major problem. We reserved three rooms for three days at 125 Euros per night, but as it turned out, that was the rate for only one person. The rate for two people per night was $175 Euros (about $230). There was apparently some sort of mix up when the reservations were made (even though the reservation request stated "two people"), and the hotel desk clerk was not budging one inch. John even made a call to American Express, the agency through which the rooms were booked, but no one would give in. We were stuck with the higher rate if we wanted to stay there.

While John was on the phone, I went outside and found a nice looking hotel just across the street (the Torino Hotel), and went in and inquired if they had any rooms. They did, and guaranteed me a rate of 110 Euros for two people. Since it was too late to cancel our first night at the Best Western Universo, we would stay there the first night, then move to the Torino the following morning. After all the frustration and anger (the Universo Hotel clerk we were dealing with was a real jerk), we all felt a little sense of relief, thinking things would be better tomorrow.

After finally getting things straightened out and getting our rooms, we walked around the local area for a while, checking out the restaurants' menus (which are usually posted just outside the door), looking for a place to eat our first Italian dinner. We were all quite surprised at how expensive everything was, individual entrees priced from 10 to more than 20 Euros (about $13 to $26), and eventually settled on a more family-style restaurant that was somewhat affordable. We ate dinner (not so great), walked around for a while, checking out the nearby train station (where we'd have to catch a train to Florence in a few days), then returned to the hotel for the night. Tomorrow morning after breakfast (included with the 175 Euro room rate), we would be moving across the street.

The Universo Hotel's breakfast turned out to be really good, much better than (at least in our experience) what you find in most American hotels. We started our second day in Rome off with a good breakfast, then checked out and moved across the street to the Torino Hotel.

At the Torino, our rooms wouldn't be ready till later, so we left our luggage in the hotel, and headed out to begin or exploration of Rome. We didn't have any planned tours this first morning, so we began walking. We soon came across the Basilica Di Santa Maria Maggiore, which, so early in the morning, had very few tourists there. We went in and discovered a spectacular interior with beautiful arches, columns, statues, lots of gold leaf, etc., and even got to view a service in progress in a small lower level room. It was quite impressive.

Leaving the church, we walked by the Rome Opera House, and as we walked by the open stage door entrance and peered in, a bunch of workers setting up for some event beckoned us to come in and look around. The place was grand, and as I stood on the stage, I sang a little (very little) Italian opera I knew (a few words of the aria Vesti La Giubba, often referred to as Ridi, Pagliaccio, from the Italian opera Pagliacci) - on the stage of the Rome Opera House!

As we continued walking, we found another church (there are obviously a lot of churches in Rome), the Basilica Di Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, went in and looked around a while. It was, just like the Basilica Di Santa Maria Maggiore, full of art and statues and marble and all the stuff you find in Roman churches. It also had an amazing organ that I would have loved to hear!

On our way to our next stop, the famous Trevi Fountain, we passed the Presidential Palace, where we saw a lot of guards with machine guns. The Trevi Fountain was just down the street from it, and, as we approached the fountain area, we encountered a lot of shops and restaurants, and a lot of people. We walked around the fountain area for a while, mingling with the crowd, then headed to a Chinese (!) restaurant to eat lunch.

After lunch, we walked around the city some more (we did a lot of walking during this vacation, as could be expected!), taking in the sights, and slowly making our way to a subway station so we could head back to the hotel for a quick rest before our afternoon tour of the Foro Romano.

We had booked two tours for this first full day in Rome. Around 2:30, we were picked up at our hotel for a tour of many of the ancient sites in Rome, including the ancient ruins of the Forum and the Colosseum. We were kind of disappointed we didn't actually get to enter the Colosseum, so we planned to come back later. The ancient sites in this area are really quite impressive, and when you think of all the history that occurred here, it was quite an experience!

From these ancient monuments, we went to St. Paul's Basilica, which, I believe the guide said was the second largest church in Rome (only second to St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.) As with so many of the churches we have seen in Europe, it was elegantly architected and decorated. This was the last stop on this afternoon tour, so we were taken back to our hotel to wait for our evening 'Rome at Night' tour that would start around 8:00 PM.

Our evening tour was pretty disappointing. We expected a Rome at night tour to be filled with beautifully lit fountains, ruins, and statues, but it was too early and too light for any of that. The tour took us to the Trevi Fountain again, where, instead of clamouring around the fountain with the crowds, we visited some of the local shops and checked out the street vendors. After driving around a bit, we ended up at the Piazza Navona, one of the most famous and most beautiful of Rome's many squares, and home of the Fountain of Four Rivers. The square was bustling with people just hanging around or eating dinner (probably mostly tourists!), artists selling their paintings, musicians performing, and street vendors hawking their purses, watches, and sunglasses.

With the tour over, we were driven back to the hotel. Still early (around 10:00), and not yet having eaten dinner, we decided to look for a restaurant. After walking a while, checking out the various menus, we decided on a restaurant with tables on the sidewalk (a lot of restaurants had outdoor seating) where we could sit and enjoy the ambience and the local sights as we ate, but, not being real hungry, we decided to order just three dishes for the six of us, each couple planning to share their entree. Unfortunately, even though the restaurant was nearly empty, they didn't want to serve us (they didn't like us sharing an entree), so we got up and left. Teresa, Steve, Grace, and John ended up going off on their own, eventually eating at a nearby Chinese restaurant (again!), while Mei-O and I headed back to the hotel to call it a night.

Thus ended our second day.

The breakfast at the Torino Hotel wasn't as fancy as the Best Western Universo's, but it was pretty good, with a lot of choices. Best of all, it was on the 7th floor roof garden, with a spectacular view over the rooftops of Rome. Eating breakfast up there on a warm summer day was really pleasant.

Around 8:30, a bus picked us up for our pre-arranged tour to the Vatican, something we were all looking forward to. Taking a pre-arranged tour is the only way to do the Vatican - the ticket lines extended for blocks. We started out at the Vatican Museum, which we wallked through rather quickly, then proceeded into the Sistine Chapel to see the famous wall and ceiling paintings of Michelangelo, then into St. Peter's Basilica, and finally exited into St. Peter's Square. No pictures were allowed in the Sistine Chapel. After a couple of hours at the Vatican, we were driven back to the hotel. It was about time for lunch.

Once again, we were faced with the difficult decision of finding a good, affordable place to eat lunch. We came across a place that offered 'self-service', which turned out to be a 'one-trip-to-the-buffet-table-all-you-can-eat' lunch. Most of the selections were cold vegetable dishes, and were really good. We all loaded up our plates (except Steve, who ordered a chicken dish) for around 7 Euros (about $9) per person. The place was pretty crowded, apparently a popular lunch spot in the City Center.

After lunch, we walked over to the Colosseum to get inside, having only seen it from the outside on our tour yesterday. Tickets were 11 Euros, and there was a line that we stood in for about 25 minutes, but once we got in, since it was so big, it wasn't crowded at all, and you could really get the feeling for the history that occured there. You could almost hear the roar of the crowd as the lions ate the..., well, you know. This is a three picture panorama I put together.

Our next stop was the Pantheon, originally built as a temple. It is considered the best preserved of all Roman buildings, and perhaps the best preserved building of its age in the world. It sits right in the middle of a residential area facing a bustling plaza with a nice fountain where people gather in the summer heat. The inscription on the top reads, "Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, built during his third consulate."

We rested a while at a McDonalds on the plaza, having some refreshing drinks, watching the crowds and street vendors. Mei-O, Grace, Teresa, and John checked out the 'fake purse' vendors, who carried knock-offs of Gucci, Prada, and other famous brand name purses for which they were asking anywhere from 25 Euros and up. They had a lot of fun bargaining with the vendors, which you had to do to get a decent price. We left, of course, with couple of purses.

After a good rest (we'd been walking most of the day!), we walked some more around Rome, looking for a place to eat dinner, finally settling on a pizzeria. Pizza isn't sold by the slice in Italy, but rather by the gram (something like 1.20 Euros per 100 grams), which made a good size fairly reasonable. Italian pizza is very different from what we're used to here, having different kinds of ingredients and a lot less cheese.

After dinner, and a little more walking around, we took a couple of taxis back to the hotel (we found a local Metro station, wanting to take the subway, but it was closed for the night.) And that was the end of what would be our last day in Rome. Tomorrow morning we would head for Florence.

Friday morning we woke early, rushed up to the Torino Hotel's 7th floor rooftop breakfast buffet (which opened at 6:00 AM), grabbed a bunch of stuff to go, then made the short walk to the Rome train station to catch our 7-something train to Florence, dragging our luggage behind us down the streets of Rome. In our private compartment for six (the perfect size for us), we passed many, many fields of sunflowers and a lot of typical rural scenery. Upon our arrival in Florence, we took two taxis to the Holiday Inn which turned out to be way outside of town. We checked into our rooms (no problem at this hotel), cleaned up a little, then headed back into Florence to the Duomo.

The Duomo, the cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore, is a famous landmark in Florence. Besides the beautiful cathedral, there is a tower you can climb to view the famous dome and the entire city of Florence 415 steps below! We made the climb (there are, fortunately, rest stops at various levels along the way), and took in the glorious view of the city and surrounding hills.

We had an afternoon tour planned, so after our time at the Duomo, we looked for a place to eat lunch. We found a sandwich shop that seemed reasonably priced, and ordered at the counter, planning to sit at their outdoor tables. When they realized that, all of a sudden the prices went up (a service charge, I suppose), and lunch ended up costing us a lot more than we expected (eating out in Italy seemed to always be an expensive venture, unless you just eat a few slices of pizza.) The restaurant was right near where we needed to meet or tour bus, so we took our time as it was still early.

When we got to the tour bus, we encountered another major problem - well, actually, two major problems. First, the tour wasn't going to the Galleria dell'Accademia where Michelangelo's David is. Seeing the David statue was actually our main reason for coming to Florence, but, alas, it was not to be. But worse yet, our names weren't on the tour organizer's list, so we weren't allowed to get on the bus. At 2:15, we watched the bus pull away.

We stood around discussing the situation with the tour organizer, trying to figure out how we could at least get our money back for the tour we didn't take. He eventually invited us to come back with him to his office to see if we could figure out what happened. After a while of checking records and reservations, he realized that the error was theirs, and we should've been on the tour. As it turned out, the first stop of the tour, the Uffizi Gallery, was within walking distance, so one of the women in the office walked us there, got us in quickly, and found the rest of the tour group which we were able to join. Whew!

The Uffizi Gallery is one of the most famous museums of paintings and sculptures in the world. Unfortunately, it was so crowded and so hot (the air conditioning wasn't working), that the visit (at least for me) was very disappointing.

When we left the museum, we walked a short distance to see the Church of Santa Croce, the principal Franciscan church in Florence, and the burial place of Michelangelo. We didn't go in (our tour was running late and the church was already closed for the day), we just stopped in the plaza while our tour guide pointed out a former residence of Michelangelo and talked about the church and a lot of other stuff about the local area. Eventually, we reboarded our bus to take a driving tour into the hills outside of Florence to view the upscale 'suburbs'. Everyone was really tired, so the long bus ride was a pleasant, relaxing forty minute drive.

When the tour was over, we ended up in the area of Florence around the Ponte Vecchio bridge over the Arno River, an area loaded with street vendors, restaurants, tourist shops, and plenty of tourists. We walked around and stayed there quite late, well after dark. We saw some street performers and even a wedding party, the bride and groom stopping on the famous bridge to take some pictures. And of course, we bought some more fake purses.

Since we had to be up early tomorrow to catch our train to Civitavecchia, we took a couple of taxis back to our hotel on our last night before our cruise.

This morning, as we checked out of the Holiday Inn, we were presented with box breakfasts, which we could eat on the train to Pisa (where we had to change trains to get to our cruise ship waiting in Civitavecchia). We took a couple of taxis to the train station, and boarded our train.

Our train took us to Pisa where we would have a two hour layover before catching our train to Civitavecchia. Read the story about our adventure in Pisa!

From Pisa, we caught our train to Civitavecchia where our Royal Caribbean cruise, the Legend of the Seas was waiting for us. Timewise, everything was going smoothly, and we felt quite a relief that we had pulled all this off with a minimal amount of trouble. Now we were looking forward to getting on the ship and enjoying the comfort and luxury a cruise has to offer!

After waiting in line for about a half an hour to get checked in, we got on board around 3:00 PM, and quickly found our cabins, all together on a lower level in the rear of the ship (the 'cheap seats'). They were inside cabins, meaning they had no windows, but we'd mostly just be sleeping there, not spending too much time in the cabin, so it wasn't a big deal. Just before setting sail, we, like everyone else on the ship, attended the mandatory evacuation drill. A couple of hours later, a tug boat began pulling us out of our berth, starting us on our way. First stop - Santorini, Greece.

We took it easy on that first night on board, eating in the formal dining room around 6:30 (check out the menu), then going to an evening show, Cameo Rascale, a family acrobatic act (there was a different show every night.) Tomorrow would be a day at sea all day as we chugged towards Santorini, so we would have plenty of time to relax, enjoy the amazingly wonderful weather, and do whatever we felt like doing on board the ship. And so, as our cruise began, day 5 of our trip ended.

As we set sail last evening, the captain announced that around 8:00 AM, we'd be passing through the Straits of Messina, the narrow passage between the 'toe' of the Italian boot and Sicily as we headed towards Santorini, Greece. We got up early and headed up on deck to catch the passing, with Messina, Sicily on one side of the ship and several cities on the other (Italy) side.

Most of the first day, which was to be entirely at sea, we spent casually exploring the ship. Mei-O and I checked out the breakfast in the formal 'Romeo and Juliet' dining room, and we all had lunch together there. We needed the rest after all the long days (rising early and going to bed late) and all the walking we did in Italy, so we basically just took it easy today.

Being a day at sea, tonight's dinner was to be a formal affair, so we all got dressed up for a fancy meal in the dining room.

After the meal, we went to see another evening show in the That's Entertainment Theater, a song and dance show entitled "Film to Footlights", featuring the Royal Caribbean singers and dancers performing songs from Broadway shows and movies, then ending the second day of our cruise as we headed off to bed, looking forward to tomorrow in Santorini, Greece.

Upon awaking this morning, we could see the beautiful island of Santorini, Greece in the distance. We weren't going to dock there, but rather, would dock offshore and take 'tenders' to the island for our tour. The capital city, Fira, sat atop the steep cliff of the crescent shaped island, the white-faced houses glaring in the morning sun. We met in the ship's theater, along with hundreds of others also planning to make their assault on the island, and, after some delay, finally got onto a tender to take us to the island. We weren't going to Fira first, but rather to a point south of Fira to catch a bus to take us to Oia on the north end of the island.

We walked for a while down the narrow streets of Oia, taking in the vast cliff and ocean views and the quaint little shops and houses, and even a church or two. I think, as tourists, we were supposed to do some shopping, but I don't think there was anything there any of us wanted. Oh, well.... After a while, we hopped back on our bus for the short ride to Fira.

In Fira, we first visited a winery, where we were treated to wine tasting (several varieties), along with little appetizers (olives, tomato slices, and cheese, which served as our lunch.) Then, once again we were turned loose on the streets to walk around and shop (which some of us did here.) Even if you weren't interested in shopping, the streets of Fira offerred a lot of interesting things to look at, as well as breathtaking views of the ocean and the steep cliffs of the island.

We could stay in Fira as long as we wanted - the official tour ended there. We were on our own to get back to the ship by tender, the last one leaving at 6:30, but first we had to get back down the steep mountain slope to the tender dock about 1,000 feet below. We could ride a donkey down, walk down the dirty, smelly donkey trail, or take a cable car. We chose the latter.

Once we got down from the mountain and back to sea level, we hopped on a tender and had a short, comfortable ride back to our ship, where we still had some time to spare before dinner. Some of us headed to the gym and some to the whirlpool and salt water pool to relax. Around 6:30, we all met in the dining room for another amazing dinner (check out the menu). In the meantime, our ship set sail for our next port, Piraeus, the port that serves Athens, Greece.

After dinner, we saw another show, Soul Mystique, a fantastic dance couple that incorporated quick (very quick, almost instantaneous) costume changes into their act, followed by a so-so magician, Mark Taylor. After the show, we went out to the pool deck for a while, where the crew was setting up a late night poolside buffet. I stayed a little later than everyone else, watched an ice carver create a dolphin out of a block of ice in just minutes, then grabbed a little midnight snack, before heading back to the cabin, ending day 7. Tomorrow morning, we should awake docked in Piraeus, Greece.

We arrived in Piraeus, Greece, the port that serves Athens, around 7 on another bright, glorious morning. Since we had another early tour planned, we headed to the breakfast buffet for a quick breakfast. Once again, we would gather in the theater to form into our tour groups. Today, we'd be headed to the Acropolis, a tall, flat hill in Athens which contains the ruins of several well-known classical Greek structures, including the Parthenon.

The bus ride took us to the base of a hill the we had to climb to reach the Parthenon and the other nearby ruins, so up we climbed. There were a lot of people from many, many tour groups, reppresenting many different countries. It was very crowded. As we climbed, we passed by an ancient theater that was being prepared for a modern day concert. The view of Athens as we climbed was breath-taking (pun intended!)

Many of the ancient structures we saw, especially the Parthenon, were being worked on by construction crews. Our tour guide told us that the goal was not to restore the buildings to their original state, but just to strengthen them and preserve what still remained so they would last many more millenia. Between the construction work and the sea of people, it was hard to get a good feeling for the grandness of the place. After leaving the Acropolis, we were taken to a souvenir shop to use their restrooms and pass a little time shopping. (Most of the tours included stops for shopping, very similar to what we encountered during our China trips.)

After 20 or so minutes of shopping, we got back on the bus and continued to drive around Athens, eventually stopping at the old Olympic stadium, originally built in the 4th century B.C. (it's been restored several times), where the first modern Olympics were held in 1896. We got off for about 15 minutes to stretch our legs and take pictures. We got back to the ship in time to catch lunch in the dining room. Afterwards, Mei-O and I and Grace and John decided to debark and walk around Piraeus, just in the general area around the docks. The ship was going to leave around 5 PM, so we had a lot of time to take in some local culture.

As we headed into Piraeus, one of the first things we saw was a beautiful church. Walking along a major street leading away from the dock area, we came across a typical big city shopping district, with all types of shops and restaurants where John bought a beautiful bronze statuette in one of the local shops.

Around 5:00, we watched from the pool deck as the ship pulled out of the Piraeus harbor. The Royal Caribbean Lines cruise ship Brilliance of the Seas was docked across the way from us, and as we passed her on our way out to sea, the two ships' captains exchanged a series of loud whistle-blows, acknowledging each other as if to say, "Have a nice journey!" We then rested for a while before once again heading down to the dining room for another great dinner. And after dinner, we watched another show, the Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers in "Swing City", a review of classic swing tunes.

After the show, Mei-O, Grace, and I went to watch a game of "The Quest", a team-oriented scavenger hunt that was played in one of the lounges. People gathered together in teams of 4 to 8 or more people (we didn't - we just watched), and, as the cruise director called out items she was looking for (a comb, two bras, etc.), teams scampered around the lounge trying to be the first to bring the items up front, the first three teams earning points towards a great prize (which turned out to be hats.) The game got pretty hilarious, as the final item was 'a man dressed as a woman!'

And with that over with, we headed back to our cabins to end day 8.

Today (the 4th of July) would be another full day at sea after leaving Piraeus, Greece last evening and now cruising towards Naples, Italy. This morning after breakfast, some of us attended a presentation by the captain, the chief engineer, and, I believe, the ship's hotel manager. We got a lot of interesting information about the ship (its top speed is about 24 knots, maybe 27 with a strong current at its back), and afterwards, we got to meet the captain, a really 'cool' guy.

There were a lot of activities going on on the pool deck this morning, so we headed up there to check them out. Members of the crew, from waiters and cooks and room attendants to the captain himself (hmmm, who's minding the ship?) marched around the deck in the "Friendship Parade", each carrying their country's flag, representing over 50 nations. We hung around the pool deck a while, then headed down to the dining room for lunch.

After lunch, we headed back up to the pool deck for some more fun under the sun (the weather during our whole trip was just perfect, as you can tell from the blue skies in all of our pictures.) Mei-O, Grace, and Teresa joined the poolside "Vampire Dance" class, while I marvelled at my wife and friends acting so out of character! And it was pretty good exercize for them, too!

There were a bunch of other activities to follow, including a hula hoop competition between a bunch of young female guests, and a "King of the Legend of the Seas" contest between a group of all ages, sizes, and shapes (ugh!) of male passengers, judged by the top four hula hoop contest winners. After each "performance" by the guys at the feet of the judges (they were asked to do muscle flexes, push-ups, etc.), the girls would decide who got eliminated by pushing the losers into the pool! It was pretty hilarious.

During the remainder of the afternoon, some of us went to the gym to work out, trying to cancel out some of the calories we devoured so far. Not me, though. I spent a long while in the whirlpool. And some of us just relaxed and did little. Later, after getting all dressed up, we all met in the dining room for our second formal dinner, a dinner with a decidedly "4th of July" flavor.

After watching the sun set as we passed through the Straits of Messina close to the Italian shoreline, we headed to the theater to see an amazing string quartet, String Fever, who really rocked the house, playing an energetic set that included all four of them playing Ravel's Bolero on the cello - all four playing it at once!

A surprise tonight. A midnight buffet was going to be held in the dining room, so while we waited for it to begin, we passed the time playing some cards. First the buffet opened for picture taking only - a lot of carved vegetables and fruits, ice sculptures, and beautifully presented dishes were always being photographed, so the buffet was opened for picture taking first (no sneaking a taste!), then the doors would be shut and reopened again 10 minutes later for the real event! Having had a big dinner, we all just grabbed a few tidbits, then headed back to our rooms to end day 9 of our fantastic vacation. Tomorrow would be a big day in and around Naples, Italy.

This, the last day of our cruise, was going to be a busy one. We had a full day tour planned which included a drive down the beautiful west coast of Italy from Naples south along the Amalfi Coast, then back north to visit the ancient ruins of Pompeii in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius. We left the ship around 7:30, boarded our bus, and began the day's journey.

As we climbed up along the coast, we stopped at a store that sold beautiful furniture, jewelery and music boxes, inlaid wood pictures, and other artistic woodworking objects, where Mei-O bought a small jewelry box. (This was also to be our last restroom break for a while.) After about a half an hour, we got back on the bus and back on the road. The scenery was already breath-taking, but it was just the start of better things to come!

The drive along the Amalfi Coast follows a narrow, winding road carved into the mountainside cliffs. All along the way, there are cities built right into the cliffs overlooking the ocean, with beaches, coves (where we'd often see yachts harbored, this area of southern Italy being very popular with the jet set), and houses of all sizes and shapes. As we passed one of the cities, our tour guide told us we had just missed Bill Gates who was there the week before in the world's largest yacht, which had its own helicopter and submarine!

We made another stop at one of the towns along the way, for sight-seeing and shopping, where we walked down the narrow streets, viewing local crafts in the quaint shops. I had a small 1 Euro ice cream cone (I found the ice cream in Italy really scrumptious!)

We got back on the bus for a short ride to Amaori where we stopped at the Panorama Hotel to eat lunch on the roof deck, with an exquisite ocean view and a really great meal, with a bottle of red and a bottle of white wine at each table. (The meal and wine was included in the tour price.) The comfortable breeze and the ocean view made the whole lunch experience even more relaxing and more enjoyable. This was pretty much the end of our Amalfi Coast drive. We'd now head back north to visit the ruins of Pompeii. The highway being so narrow made two way bus traffic nearly impossible, so our bus was required to take a different road through the mountains away from the coast to Pompeii. Off we went.

I think most of us agreed that the Amalfi Coast drive was one of the highlights of our vacation! The mountain and ocean views, the quaint little cities built into the steep cliffs, the beautiful day and delicious and relaxing lunch all made this day one of the most memorable.

After a long, relaxing ride back north (a lot of people on the bus took the opportunity to catch a quick nap), we were dropped off in a little square outside the entrance to Pompeii, where (what else) we could do a little shopping. After first visiting a cameo shop (carving seashells and jewelry out of them is apparently a popular Italian craft), we were then turned loose on our own to browse the shops on the square. This area of Italy grew a lot of lemons, and lemons (some as big as grapefruits) and lemon products (drinks, candies, etc.) were prominently displayed for sale everywhere. Of course, your typical stores full of tourist junk filled the square, many of them selling what was supposedly actual lava from Mt. Vesuvius. I was tempted, but was a little leery about whether it was authentic Mt. Vesuvius lava or not.

On the bus, our tour guide had given us our little radio receivers that we would need for our tour through Pompeii. Now, over our earpieces, we heard her rounding us up to join back together as a group to enter the ruins for our guided tour.

There is no way you can see all of Pompeii in a few hours (it was, after all, a city of 15,000 people when it was destroyed), but, there really isn't a need to see it all. As we walked down the streets of this once bustling city, our tour guide pointed out many of the interesting buildings (including what she described as the first fast food restaurant, a brothel, a grain-grinding mill, and many others) and interesting points about the city such as the presence of sidewalks and speed bumps. Under original frescos (that had never been retouched), inside glass display cases, lay plaster castings of citizens of Pompeii, caught in their death poses, buried in an instant back in 79 A.D. It was strange thinking about where I actually was and what all of these ruins represented, and about the people who walked down these same streets 2,000 years ago....

Walking around Pompeii, Mt. Vesuvius loomed large in the distance. At the end of the tour, we headed back to the shopping square to meet our bus to take us back to the cruise ship. All in all, this last day of our cruise turned out to be one amazing experience.

When we got back to the dock, the ship's captain, Nikolaos Antalis, was waiting to greet us (well, not just us, of course). We got back on the ship, spent a little time getting cleaned up and taking a few minutes to rest (it was a pretty exhausting day), then attended our final dinner. During the meal, the kitchen and dining room crew all paraded in and sang a song, a final goodbye to their 'customers' for the last six days. Around 7:00, the ship departed for the last leg of our journey, back to Civitavecchia, where we would wake up tomorrow morning.

After dinner, and after watching the sunset over the Tyrrhenian Sea for the last time, we headed down to the theater to see the last show, which included a goodbye from our cruise director and many of the crew members (and a really bad solo acrobatic act). Then, we called it a night. Our cruise was coming to an end.

Well, just as expected, we woke up early this morning in Civitavecchia, where we were to depart the ship and catch a bus to the Rome airport for our flight to Amsterdam, where we had about a two hour layover before catching our flight back to Minneapolis. The ride to the airport went smoothly, though, due to bad weather in Amsterdam (after 10 days of almost perfect weather, it was hard to imagine bad weather in Europe), our departure was going to be delayed a bit. We were a little worried about making the connection, but once airborne, it looked like we'd have plenty of time. Arrivederci, Italia!

It was really bumpy as we approached for our landing in Amsterdam. The pilot warned us the winds at the airport were really strong and it was raining, but as we broke out of the clouds and saw the runway maybe a hundred feet below us, we all felt a great sigh of relief - which lasted for about five seconds! With the plane buffeting like crazy, the pilot poured on the power and started a climb out back into the overcast sky. An announcement over the plane's PA told us it was too windy to land, and, since there wasn't enough fuel on board to try another landing, we were going to head to Rotterdam, a short distance away. And that's where we landed about 15 minutes later.

By now, everyone on the plane was panicky (not just us, but everyone), realizing we would all miss our connecting flights. Eventually, after maybe a half an hour sitting on the plane on the ground in Rotterdam, we took off for Amsterdam again, this time, landing without incident.

But, as we got into the terminal and checked our departure gate, with just minutes to go before our scheduled departure time and "Gate closing" posted on the departure monitor next to our flight number, we realized we had an extremely long walk to our departure gate and had litle hope of making it on time. John went ahead to try to get them to hold the plane for the rest of us, and after about a 20 minute walk, we arrived at the gate and found the plane still waiting. As it turned out, so many inbound planes were being delayed due to bad weather, the departure of our flight was also being delayed, so people like us could make their connections. We got on the plane, took our seats (quite relieved!), and sat for almost another hour before taking off for Minneapolis.

The flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis was routine. We got back to Minneapolis, got our luggage (we checked it on the way home), got a shuttle bus to our car parked in an offsite lot, and drove home to Rochester.

And that was the end of our last day of a truly great vacation!