Tomorrow ... Egypt!!!... or "Ride 'em Camelboy!!!"

Well it's finally here ... the long awaited excursion to the pyramids.

We will hook up with our "private group" (of about 130+ people) tomorrow
AM on the ship and disembark as a group to load up on 3 buses for the
3hr+ drive to Cairo from Port Said.

We will be in Bus #2 ,,, no doubt the best bus in the group!

Our excursion will have us visiting the Step Pyramid, the pyramids of
Giza including the "Great Pyramid" and the Sphinx ... and ... we plan to
"ride a camel" ... that will no doubt be an experience in itself.

Tomorrow night we are supposed to see a "Light show" over the Nile and
have dinner "on the Nile" (actually on the banks of the Nile I believe
the actual boat cruise we had planned got superseded by the Egyptian
government for some sort of special occasion.) We should get to see
some belly dancers and "whirling dirvishes" as entertainment during
dinner. We will be staying in the Cairo Hilton overnight and then back
on the buses to journey to Alexandria ... I believe there is to be some
museum time and shopping before we re-board the Grand Princess and start
our two days of sea travel back to the port outside Rome.

So don't look for posts from me for a couple of days.

Also I managed to get only 1 picture of the Mykonos stop posted to the
gallery ... the internet link on the ship has been awful today.

Bade

After the "season" the whole Island shuts down???

Mykonos ... is a small Greek island that attracts the rich "jet set" types from around the world in the months March through November ... after that the cruise ships stop coming and the island essentially "closes" for three months.

We are one of the very last ships expected to dock this year and it was evident that the island shop owners were preparing to close up for the winter.  Since today was Sunday we expected to see several closed shops but for the most part things were open ... in virtually every shop we entered (and we entered many) we were given the same "end of the season special sale price" spiel ... every thing is 1/2 price.

It seemed to me that the predominate items for sale were gold jewlery ... there had to be 30 - 40 "gold shops" all pretty much with what looked to me like the same goods.  The jewelry  is all apparently made in and around Athens and then sold on Mykonos because of a significant tax break.  Or so we were told.  Since Carolyn really doesn't  wear much jewelry I was happily surprised when she bought a lovely "Greek" necklace.

One of the most striking things about the island is the cube shaped homes, apartments and stores that dominate the sea shore and steep cliffs overlooking the sea.  Virtually all of these structures (99% easily) are painted stark white from top to bottom and they typically have blue trim on shutters, doors and window trim.  It gives the whole island a very ordered and clean look.

Although Carolyn and I did not make the short hike to see them the island is also famous for its windmills ... as early as the 16th century windmills have been a constant landmark on the island.  In the glory days these windmills were used to grind grain to make it easier to ship.  The island was on a main shipping lane and had an abundance of wind year round so an entire industry of grain milling grew up there.

Our travel companions all spent more time site seeing on the island than did Carolyn and I ... I think after the necklace buying experience we were both a bit in shock and caught a fairly early shuttle back to the ship.

Tomorrow is a sea day as we make our way South to the Egyptian port Port Said ("Sah eeed").   There we will disembark very early and be transported to Cairo, tour that area and then spend the night in Cairo and be bussed the next day to Alexandria.  It is unlikely I will be posting until we get back on the ship in Alexandria.  But we should have some tails and pictures of that part of the trip.

The Grand Princess looks exactly as it did in 2006 when we sailed her in the Caribbean.  We have a smaller stateroom than we did on that cruise but still a nice balcony.

The demographics of the passengers (all 2600+ of them) is about what you would expect for late season cruisers.  The significant majority are retired couples, mostly able bodied ... I have seen only a handful of children onboard.  There are some 20 and 30 somethings but not many.  When our docking time has allowed or we have a sea day I have managed to hit the jogging track and am so far the only person foolish enough to actually be jogging at the time.  The track is 1/10 mile (so bigger than the Alaska trip) and has a nice "padding" around most of the track.  I encounter a small handful of "walkers" but well less than 10 at any given time.  I strolled through the gym today and was surprised to see every treadmill, bike and stair stepper in use ... mostly by those 20 & 30 somethings ... but as on the previous ship it was hot and stuffy in the gym and I don't understand why there aren't more people using the track outside.  We have been blessed with picture perfect weather in all ports of call ... hope  that holds up.

We had a very nice dinner in the ship's steakhouse tonight and all agreed it was a great meal.

We have at this point only one small concern and that is as yet we haven't nailed down how we will get back to Rome from the port ... I've  been in email contact with one shuttle service that will accommodate the two drop off points we need since Carolyn and I are staying over in Rome and the other two couples fly out back to Germany very late on 11/22 ... the cost is fairly steep and we haven't yet settled on exactly how we are going to work that detail.


I'll post a few pics of Mykonos after my massage tomorrow ... yep life is tough out here on the high seas ...

Bade

Just how many mosques does it take ? ,,, or ... Which way exactly is Mecca??

Istanbul ... we definitely ain't in Kansas (or Texas) any more ...

This is a city of between 13 and 15 million people ... that's a lotta people and as far as I could tell they all drive cars downtown ... I thought the traffic in Rome was bad (and it was) but Istanbul seems to have more drivers and fewer associated hand gestures!

We began our tour today by being met by our guide and driver (you really can't imagine the relief I felt when I saw the "Mr Millsap" sign in our guides' hand as we exited the port terminal in a mass of humanity leaving the ship ... as with Ephesus I had booked and we all paid for this tour over the internet ... with no real clue as to whether or not we had sent our credit card numbers off to Turkey only to be used to supply weaponry to Al Ceada <sp>.  I feel somewhat responsible for these tours and until I actually see we have indeed secured what we hoped we purchased I'm a little on edge.

Our guide "Tolga" was a young man (34 yrs old) with a degree in Civil Engineering ... why he's guiding tours I can't really say but he was pleasant, informative, very direct about how he felt about the radical Islam clerics and spoke tolerably good English (sooooooo much better than my Turkish!!).

As on our previous tours he suggested we scoot boots to get ahead of the cruise line package tours of hundreds of people who were no doubt headed to the same sports as us.  Our tour was scheduled for as much as 6 hours.  (through the cruise line this was a $749 tour ... we paid just slightly less than that for the Ephesus and Istanbul tours total together -- we booked both tours thru the same company).

Our first stop was the Hippodrome which is basically not much more than a large elongated oval "area" where Roman circus (chariots and such) games were played ... honestly I didn't see what all the fuss was about ... it has several obelisks that mark the center line of the area but beyond that it's just a "space" in the middle of downtown Istanbul mostly covered in wide sidewalks and streets now days.  Tolga did a lengthy "lecture" on why the area was important to the Turkish people, how the 3 remaining obelisks were transported and erected but I was a bit underwhelmed.

Just next to the Hippodrome is the Blue Mosque ... this actually was worth the visit ... it is surrounded by 6 "minarets" which are the tall spires you will see in the pictures from which the Muslim faithful are called to prayer facing Mecca 5 times a day.  The minarets are in and of themselves a site to behold as they glitter with gold caps high in the sky and surround the mosque itself.  The "Blue" mosque is so named because of the more than 20,000 blue Iznik tiles that adorn its walls inside.  These are all hand painted and valued at tens of thousands of dollars each! The interior walls are also covered in many many tons of gold decorations.  The sheer size of the mosque is startling as you gaze up to the top of the domed ceilings.  To enter the mosque we were required to remove our shoes and carry them around in a small plastic bag until we exited.  While in the mosque our guide explained about how the call to prayer was done and how afterwards the "Imam" or head honcho cleric would then ascend a set of stairs and "preach" the daily lesson ... it is, according to our guide, these "lessons" that have in some instances corrupted the actual beliefs of the Islam religion and as in Iran have basically turned away from the Koran and instilled in the people many false beliefs.  Our guide said he has not attended a service in a mosque in over two years for that reason.  We got a decidedly different version of Islam than we often hear about on Western TV.

>From the Blue Mosque we walked over to the Topkapi Palace museum.  This was the former palace of the Ottoman sultans (the guys we see in the movies that look like they have a giant towel wrapped around their heads for a hat).  The absolute opulence of the artifacts in the museum was incredible!  Among many other things we saw jewel encrusted swords, belts, garments, knives, bows, and an entire glass "box" filled to the brim with loose emeralds ... big emeralds as in chicken egg sized emeralds.  Most amazing to me was the solid gold baby cradle with hundreds of emeralds, rubies, diamonds and other precious stones encrusted all over it.  We also saw a 56 carat diamond ... looked like it might be a bit gaudy for an engagement ring!  This is likely as close as I will ever be to several Ming dynasty pieces of pottery.

Leaving the palace we walked over to St. Sophia museum which "was" a mosque and a church at various times in the 5 or so hundreds of years since it was first constructed but is now solely a museum.  It was interesting to see the combinations of the Christian and Islamic holy symbols and icons juxtaposed against each other in this one place.

After we let St. Sophia's our guide walked us over to a small sidewalk restaurant were we enjoyed a "typical I suppose" Turkish meal ... there were no tacos or enchiladas on the menu!

Next we jumped into our Mercedes Bentz "minivan" and drove through again narrow, windy, crowded streets to the Grand Bazaar ...

Picture any Mexican Mercado you have ever been in ... now ... picture it covered with domed ceilings and housing over 4,000 shops, its own school, its own mosque, post office and police station. ... hence the title Grand ... this Bazaar was establish in the mid-1400's and is still going strong today.

We were given some helpful information about how not to get hopelessly lost in the warrens of the Bazaar and then shooed off on our way to shop ... it really didn't take long to become lost ...I'd say ... 3 minutes maybe 5 ... uh oh ... but in time we managed to find the key "street" Tolga had told us to look for and knew we coud escape.  None of our group was particularly taken with the shopping experience in the bazaar ... haggling is expected and the quality of goods is definitely suspect.  A few small items were purchased and we escaped into the somewhat chilly and blustery late afternoon air ... we met up with our guide who called our driver and specified where to pick us up ... due to the density of the area and the absolute crazy traffic congestion it was important to give the driver enough of a head start that he could arrive at the same corner as we did at about the same time or we would have a 30+ minute wait as he circled back aound.

We were delivered back to the port safe and sound and grateful that we did not try to do that tour of Istanbul on our own ...

Tomorrow around noon we will be at the small Greek island Mykonos which is said to be a destination spot for the world's "Jet Set Crowd" ... uh oh ...

Bade

IN Turkey, but by no means WAS it a Turkey ... or ... Please pull the rug out from under me...

Today's excursion/adventure started out pretty darn early ... our wake up alarm was set for 5:30AM to make a 6AM breakfast and hit the gangway at 7AM to meet up with our guide for a 4 hour tour to be back on ship by noon for a 1PM sail away.  Now in my mind getting up at 5:30AM on vacation just seems wrong ... oh well.

Today we docked in the Turkish port city of Kusadasi.  This part of Turkey is in Asia Minor ... Istanbul where we will be tomorrow is in Europe ... I can't even believe I just typed that!

For today's tour I had done some internet research way back in September and booked through an agency recommended by several travelers.  Our tour's objective was to see as much as reasonably possible in around 4 hours.  Sounds simple enough until you find out what you are actually going to see and the distances involved.  I had a bit of trepidation going into this part of the odyssey simply because we had booked this and the Istanbul tour on the internet and already paid in advance for the tours.  What if no one was at the gate wagging a "Mr Millsap" sign ... however; all was well our guide (Nelay) and driver were pretty much johnny on the spot and led us to a very nice Volkswagon "tour bus" outfitted for 10 or so passengers ... we had the bus solely to ourselves (6 of us) as well as the guide that spoke very fluent and easy to understand English.  This lady has been guiding tours essentially since the ruins were  opened to the public (just over 25 years) and was very personable and easily answered all of our questions about the local politics, economy, costs of living and so on.  It turns out that until 25 years ago the city was a small fishing village of a few thousand people but when the ruins at Ephesus were discovered the population ballooned as did the service and tourist industry.  We are in the final two weeks of the busy tourist season and in two weeks basically the whole area goes on holiday because the cruise ships stop coming.  The city is very clean and well kept and essentially "new" since much of it was built up in just the last 25 years.

So we are on board our private tour bus and our guide suggests that we boogie on to the "house of the Virgin Mary" to beat the hordes of tourists that have booked through the ship and will be coming in BIG buses shortly.  We motored several (20+) miles through the country side much like the Texas hill country and then started a very steep and windy climb up a VERY narrow road along a very perilous cliff ... I'm thinking about all those big buses behind us and am glad I'm not in one of them!

The "House of the Virgin Mary" was discovered after much futile searching by various archaeological teams when a nun that had never been to the area described a very detailed vision she had of the exact location.  Following her vision the searchers were able to locate the small house without difficulty.  This is the "house" where the Virgin Mother spent her last days on earth.  In 1961 Pope John Paul XXII proclaimed the house to be sacred and is now not only a "tourist attraction" but a shrine visited by thousands of faithful every year.

Leaving Mary's house we motored a short way back down the mountain road to the location of Ephesus.  I hadn't realized that the people living here at the time were in fact the "Ephesians" to whom St. Paul wrote his letters while in captivity. 

This was at the time actually a port city with the Agean sea right up next to the city.  The city had approximately 500,000 citizens at its peak.  While Pompeii was an amazing place,  to me Ephesus is even more breathtaking.  When you see pictures you will understand ... these people knew the earth was a sphere, that there were other planets, had a sophisticated underground sewage system and the streets were literally paved with marble.  The temples and even business buildings were beautifully decorated with friezes and frescoes and it was clearly a center of culture and sophistication.   One picture I will post early into the gallery is of the library ... it was at the time second only to the great library of Alexandria.

After walking for an hour or so through these ancient and proud ruins we hopped back on the bus for a quick picture stop at the Temple of Artemis.  This was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Back on the bus and back to the city of Kusadasi for some what else but SHOPPING ...

Our first stop was at an amazing store that sells upscale jewelery and carpets ... we watched a demonstration of how the carpets are made (truly amazing to see a woman continuing to work on a rug she started in January and still has about 3 months before it is finished) and then were taken downstairs to see what was for sale .... uh oh ...all I can say is "Oh my God ..." ..this store (underground) had several fairly large "rooms" with beautiful wood floors completely devoid of furniture except for the "couches" that spanned two of the four walls ... the owner had 3 or 4 "helpers" start taking carpets of all sizes and colors (and knot counts and fabrics...) and started scattering them about the room while we were served hot apple tea in tiny individual flasks ... uh oh ... all the while describing the quality of the various carpets and basically providing an education while making a very smooth sales pitch ... uh oh ...
Now remember that beautiful silk handmade rug Carolyn REALLY wanted but didn't buy because clearer heads prevailed ?... well not so much this time ... in 6-8 weeks we will receive an actual genuine hand made Turkish rug ... what can I say ... maybe it will be a "magic carpet" and I can sell rides around the neighborhood to try and recoup some of the "end of the season sale" price .....

We visited the shop that is actually owned by our guide Nelay and the ladies in our troop made additional purchases there.


Back to the ship and away we sailed ... next stop ... Istanbul ... uh oh ...

Bade

It's all Greek to me ... or "Please pass the Ouzo" ...

*ATHENS!! *... a city of 5.5 million friendly, bustling people that are
anxious to show tourists their beautiful city and the truly amazing
ancient artifacts.

When we disembarked this morning in the port city of Piraeus we
essentially had a very sketchy plan of "somehow" getting into Athens and
then on to the Acropolis, walk around the Acropolis for a while, then
find some way to get to the Palaka (the old shopping area of Athens -
picture a really BIG flea market with hundreds and hundreds of stalls
and shops - pictures will eventually find their way to the gallery I
promise) and then try to get back to the ship before it sails.

For people that know me well this sort of nebulous plan doesn't really
work for me ... as in it drives me quite insane. So ... as we exited
the terminal building and were thinking about the 30 minute to the train
that would take us "somewhere in Athens" we were accosted by several men
offering "taxi tours". Now usually I would be leery of hopping in a
"taxi" agreeing to pay 30 euro per person and hoping we weren't being
kidnapped by an ax murderer ... but my fear of not really having a plan
that offered surety of getting back to the ship before it sailed won out
and we agreed to at least take the taxi to the Acropolis (which was
basically a hell of a long way from the port) for the fee of $25 euro .
At this point we were "turned over" to "Visillas" a big burly man of
about 60 years old (visions of ax murder still popping in my mind) and
he led us over to his "taxi" ... a brand spanking new screaming canary
yellow Mercedes Benz ... a big one ... pretty nice ride for an ax
murderer in my mind. As it turns out the car costs 50,000 euro and the
taxi medallion cost 220,000 euro ...

As we motor to the Acropolis "Visillas" begins to describe the service
we would get for 30 euro per person (vs the one way trip) ... basically
for 120 euro we have hired him and his very nice taxi for the day ... he
will take us wherever we want to go, wait for us while we see the sites
or shop and deliver us back to the ship whenever we want. *SOLD!! *This
same "tour" purchased from Princess as an excursion is $799 ... if it's
for real we have scored big time.

As it turned out it was exactly as he promised, we went to the
Acropolis, the President's palace, the Olympic stadium built in the
1800's for the first modern olympic games, Jupiter's temple and then
shopping in the Palaka and finally to a wonderful restaurant on the
waterfront ... then back to the ship. The "tour" was perfect and the
weather was clear and comfortable.

If you've ever seen pictures of Athens you have seen the Parthenon on
Acropolis ... it is a *HUGE *columned structure way up on a hill top
overlooking the city. The construction of this temple of the Goddess
Athena is incredible ... the views of Athens from this vantage point are
breathtaking ... you see the massive size of the city and can just
imagine the goddess overlooking her "people" down below, From every
vantage point you can see some other ancient columned temple to another
Greek god or goddess. The fact that these structures were built by mere
mortals without benefit of powered tools and machines is mind boggling
and the artistry of these structures made mostly of chiseled and carved
marble is simply more than I can comprehend.

After we made our way down from the Acropolis we were all relieved to
actually find Visillas patiently waiting to take us to our next point of
interest. (it was at this point in time that I mentally "unclinched" and
decided we were very possibly going to survive the day after all)

Next we made quick photo stops at the Olympic Stadium and the
President's palace.

Next we visited the Temple of Jupiter, another columned structure (most
of these things are around here) but its sheer size is astounding (pics
in gallery) only a few columns are still standing but it is easy to
imagine what it must have looked like. At this stop we also reviewed the
Roman Baths.

Visillas then drove us down several impossibly narrow, crooked streets
that were overflowing with parked cars and people (did I mention the
"taxi" was a *large* vehicle? We "missed" lottsa cars and people by
well less than two inches on both sides) ... once again I'm pretty sure
I owe someone a new car seat. We were released to visit the "Agora" and
the "Palaka".

We walked around the "Agora" (sort of a Greek forum) where we saw an
amazing temple where a young kitten had taken up residence and basically
claimed the temple as her own ... she had several tourists (including
us) taking her picture as she posed for us.

Next we entered the "Palaka" ... the old shopping area ... basically
this place is a huge flea market ... purchases were made, money was
spent ... and after walking around the Agora and the Palaka for a little
over two hours we miraculously found our way back to our drop off point
to find Visillas patiently waiting ,,, *I love this man like a brother!
I am very likely going to see the ship again after all ... *

Carolyn ALMOST put us in the poor house when she discovered a stunning
handmade silk rug (about 4' x 6') for a mere $1800 ,,, she *REALLY
*wanted that rug ... it was beautiful ... but common sense, and the
realization that Igit, Belle, and Balam would also LOVE this rug,
prevailed and the shop still has it. Linda did purchase a lovely table
cloth from a very aged (and persistent) lady just as we were approaching
the taxi ... to Linda's credit she did haggle down to a good price.

At about 2PM now Visillas (once again through impossibly narrow and
crowded streets) took us to a waterside restaurant where besides a
lovely traditional Greek meal we ordered and drank Ouzo ... a licorice
flavored liquid fire ... it leaves a "glow" (ok a searing burn) in one's
throat and stomach and a smile on your face!

After a "late lunch" Visillas drove us directly to the ship ...
bypassing the lengthy shuttle ride from the terminal we had endured in
the morning.

All in all ... a picture perfect day in Athens ... guided by a wonderful
man in a beautiful taxi ... nary an ax in site

Bade

It was a hot time in old Pompeii in 79 A.D. ... or "I don't think we are in Kansas anymore Toto,,,"

I'll post some (of many many) pictures in the gallery ... they can
better describe what we saw today than my words.

We started the adventure with 5 of our troop walking through downtown
Naples looking for the "commuter train" station ... think Subway or "El"
in Chicago ... our group leader Woodie knew where it was back in the
1970's but surprisingly things have changed in 30 years so to say we
walked a "bit" out our way ... is like saying the Italians are a "bit"
crazy when they get behind the wheel of a car ... we did eventually find
the station and Woodie purchased 5 tickets that I was convinced were NOT
what going to get us where we going (Pompeii/Sorrento) but we bravely
boarded the train anyway and off we went.

This train run can justly be called a "milk run" ... between our
starting point and our end point (Sorrento) there were 34 stops to let
people on and off ... and we traveled about 50 miles round trip.

Our first departure from the train was Pompeii ... about half the way to
Sorrento. Pompeii is about 12 or 13 miles South of Naples.

What can I say to describe the experience of walking around Pompeii that
can possibly do justice? Simple answer is nothing ... I'll try but do
go to the weblog gallery and you'll get a better idea of what this
place is all about. (I'll post pics as soon as I can never fear -
probably tomorrow as it is a "sea day").

What you learned in school about Pompeii is that it was destroyed by a
volcano (Mt Vesuvius)... what you don't learn is how BIG the resort city
actually was. We started the walking tour about 9:30AM and walked until
we couldn't walk any more ... about noon ... and seriously didn't really
look at half of the site ... I was expecting something the size of
downtown Bulverde ... try about the size of Eden ... the population was
easily in the many thousands. The excavated sites revealed incredible
mosaic floors, beautiful and colorful frescoes painted on plaster walls
depicting a very grand and exotic lifestyle. There were hundreds of
"storefronts" that indicate a bustling economy with several very grand
houses with large gardens, fountains and columned vestibules. Pompeii
could I suppose be compared to Palm Springs ... wealthy families,
gladiators with a full coliseum and training area, a huge outdoor
amphitheater, several large and ornately decorated temples and an
incredible sewage system with sidewalks on both sides to help keep the
citizens from wading through sewage water.

Most school age children see pictures of the "people covered in lava"
... and that did indeed happen ... but the "lava people" in pictures
are actually plaster casts of the voids of ash the excavators discovered
and filled with plaster ... kinda a "lost wax" technique.

It's hard to imagine what it was like that day in 79A.D. ... Vesuvius is
an imposing mountain towering above the citizens of Pompeii ... to see
that mountain start belching molten lava and ash completely without
warning is mind bending ... there were apparently people very much like
modern day hurricane victims ... many of the Pompeii citizens did escape
with their lives ... but sadly just like today there were many people
that didn't believe they needed to leave until it was too late ... in
one form or another those people are still there today.

We boarded the train going further South at about 12:30pm ... 30 minutes
and about 16 stops later we came to the end of the line in Sorrento. We
went there with two primary objectives ... eat ... and to shop a bit.
Sorrento is an upscale artisan community with an emphasis on inlayed
wood items ... Carolyn bought several beautiful and unique items...
chaching!!!

We returned to Naples via the train (about one hour and fifteen minutes)
and hoofed it back to the ship. We figure all tolled the 5 of us walked
over 6 miles today ... a good workout and we are all glad for the
upcoming "sea day" to recoup before we invade Athens day after tomorrow.

Bade

Just a short flight from Rome and we are aboard ship ... or like the Israelites leaving Egypt...

I'm not really sure how to describe the trip from Rome to the port city of Civitevecchia ... we arranged for a minivan to "drive" the 6 of us from the hotel in Rome the 80 km to the port.  This in and of itself turned out to be a very good plan since the trains and public transportation buses had scheduled a "political action" meaning union strike for today and nothing of public transportation was moving in Rome. 

Rome we have learned is a city of between 5 and 6 million (not the 3 million I had previously been told) and like New York or Chicago in the states ... the populous of Rome depends heavily on public transportation ... subways, buses and trains.  As a result of the strike (which by the way was scheduled well in advance so every one has time to prepare) ... is simply that traffic in Rome is one huge (and I do mean huge parking lot.

It's really hard to describe the scene ... our driver and his minibus arrived on time (early in fact) and since there is never any available parking in downtown (and our hotel was very "downtown") anyway (picture George Costanza trying to park in midtown Manhattan and you have a fair idea of the normal day to day parking problem (and as far as I could tell no such thing as a high rise parking garage anywhere)) ... so our driver "Alessio" basically parked on the corner of the street blocking a couple of lanes and turned his blinkers on ... this while we loaded way more bags than his van was designed to carry and 6 full grown adults ... no problem! 

And off we go ... "oh my God"! ... picture a street absolutely filled on both sides with parked cars two deep ... now add to that picture two lanes of opposing traffic ... lottsa traffic ... and then add several hundreds of frustrated Italians honking horns, waving arms, yelling and making many excited gestures ... now enter Alession and our overstuffed minivan.  He's what I would call a "fearless" driver ... crossing 4 lanes of snarled, dead stopped traffic making a left turn through a totally blocked intersection in front of other large buses, trucks, many "Smart Cars" and so on ... no problemo! To his credit Alessio got us out of downtown and onto  "autostrada #1" ... kinda a IH35 toll road. 

OK ... we're juning down the highway through the beautiful countryside with well manicured fields, trimmed trees and very picturesque houses ... sweet!!  on our way ... hmmm ... just how fast are we going??? ... uh ... speedo shows 160 km/hr ... people passing us on
 occasion ... that's about 96mph ... in a minibus fully loaded ... I'm pretty sure between the traffic in Rome and the speed on the highway ... I owe the shuttle company a new front seat!

We did make it to the port in one piece ... the port city is very pretty and clearly a tourist hot spot.  Onboard the ship with no hassle ... one couple in our small group was visited by the upgrade fairy and scored a minisuite upgrade ... very cool! Way to go Jeanne and Paul!

It's good to be on the ship ... tomorrow is Napels/Pompeii/Sorrento ... probably a self guided walking tour since Woodie has been here before ...

Bade