Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Noyelles Travels
Saturday 31st October
Woke up at sea to a very grey day with increasing winds & a rising sea. d*** had his last acupuncture session & we had a late breakfast before making a very poor fist of the pub trivia quiz of Halloween questions, not our strong suit.
The ship is pretty stable although we roll & pitch slightly but very majestically. Luckily the wind is largely behind us for the crossing to Italy so the effects are minimised. Later the swell increased to 5m but it handled it without problems. At about 8.30 we passed through the Straits of Messina which separate Sicily from the mainland & we saw the pilot being picked up at 15 knots, rather him than me.
Sunday 1st November
Woke up to a beautiful calm morning & the ship came into Naples smoothly, docking at 7.30am on a pier between 2 Italian assault force ships complete with trucks, hummers & helicopters.
We left at about 8.30 & set out for the central station which turned out to be a long walk of 2+km through our old stamping ground. It was a surprise to see that the centre of the Piazza Garibaldi, which had been under construction on our last visit in May 2013 was still only partly
finished. We passed a street market of 2nd hand clothes & shoes with many stalls & also saw people checking the contents of large, roadside garbage bins so presumably life is pretty tough for a lot of Neapolitans.
After a short detour we found the Circumvesuviana line to Sorrento & caught the train, a very crowded but smart, 3 car unit. It took us about 70 mins to get there with the majority of passengers leaving at Pompeii to see the excavations, which we had visited before. The route literally goes around Mt Vesuvius, the volcano which engulfed Pompeii & Herculaneum in Roman times & still threatens Naples.
Sorrento, the terminus, is a beautiful tourist centre set on cliffs about 30+m above the sea, looking back towards Naples. All along the route we passed blocks of apartments, vineyards, fruit orchards & greenhouses as the soil is so fertile. Many places were very run down & the
graffiti has to be seen to be believed. It is all rather sad in many ways as nobody seems to care about the appearance of the buildings & the graffiti is pretty poor & amateur.
We wandered around had the obligatory coffees & checked the internet etc before catching a return train in the afternoon & making our weary way back to the boat for what we considered, a very well earned dinner.
- comments
Owen Loved the ice-cream chairs but could you sit comfortably in one and enjoy a coffee.
PETER Thanks for all the great stories of the isles....like me you have suffered from a HALLOWEEN FREE CHILDHOOD!! which I am so grateful for. All is well here ...wonderful party for Anna...many happy faces,especially Anna's.!! Keep the stories coming. Cheers from Peter and Alison.
Alison Bringing back memories now from long ago. Hope the knee is reacting favourably with the acupuncture Dick. Still a while to go! Enjoy.