Pompeii Day

BLOG: POMPEII DAY.

Well, it has to rain sometimes, and it did this morning. We were booked to go see Pompeii, so we got ready and headed down to deck 2 to get off the ship. This ship is smaller than the others we've travelled on, so it takes some getting used to. I'm going to feel a bit stir crazy on the 4 days at sea segment of the trip, I fear!

Anyway, the bus was fine, and the drive only 20 minutes. We saw a man making cameos carved out of shells, -very lovely and a fine art of bygone days. We took photos, and then got our souvenirs at the street stall outside. They had lovely venetian glass necklaces. We also bought lava stone bracelets to add to our travel bracelet collection!

Pompeii was huge. Nothing like I imagined. There was an amphitheatre, -since the Greeks had founded Pompeii and Naples, and then it had changed hands when the Romans arrived. (Naples means 'New Polis (city) ” in Greek, we learned!

The guided tour thing always makes me feel stir crazy since they stuff all kinds of unimportant minutae in the tour to make it look like they know their stuff, or to take up the full 2 hours with talking. We walked ahead, so that we could really experience Pompeii alone, without the crowd. That way the photos would be more focused, and with fewer people in them!

This tour gave us each our own microphone device so whereever we were, we could hear to tour if we put our earbud in. This gave us the option of listening in when we weren't taking photos.

The top level, -a kind of huge sports field surrounded by pillars- was most amazing. Beside this arena was an overhang, with shelves of items on it. After hundreds of rooms we'd photographed, it was great to find detailed items! Bodies metamorphosed in lava as they boiled alive, and pottery pieces, -in full size and undamaged by the lava!

So the photos are a bit gruesome today, but that childhood dream of seeing Pompeii is now checked off the list!

Tomorrow, 2 days at sea... to relax and get some writing done!

Also, the cruise company has decided to move us away from Cairo, so we're sailing all the way to Israel instead of Alexandria. We'll spend a day there, (Jerusalem at Christmas- very fitting!) and then sail down the Suez Canal and see lower Egypt, just missing the pyramids and the Cairo Museum, but getting to Luxor and The Valley of the Kings later in the week!

All is well. Life is becoming more sane at last! It's wonderful to be fed and looked after 24 hours a day.