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Date: 15 Sep 2010 08:50:59
Title: 40 37.86N 014 36.09E Amalfi
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Had a great day yesterday. Got up bright and early to take the bus to Pompeii. The bus ride was a hoot. We went all along the Amalfi coast on a narrow winding road that would have challenged a mule much less a 30 passenger tour bus. On two occasions we met another on comming bus and had to back up to a spot in the road with no curves and wide enough to pass the buses. I also go a little sea sick on the winding road.

We arrived in Pompeii about an hour later and this time had a live English speaking guide. The first time there we spent at least 6 hours, much of which was walking around in circles with a map in one hand looking real confused. This time the guide got us through the high points in about two hours. I even got to go into the six stall brothel this time. For some reason the tours stack up ten deep here and it is likely the most popular attraction in the old town. 'Sex sells.' even in ancient Pompeii.

After we were herded into the upscale dinning hall for a 12 Euro lunch that was billed in the tour literature as complementary, we were bussed to Mt. Vesuvius for a four hour hike to the top of the crater. That was about a three Ibuprofen walk for my knees... Everyone was reminding us of how dangerous the volcano still was. I think the issue was all the aging tourists walking up and down the thing... we did see an ambulance going up at the end of our hike.

Our guide explained that the 20,000 inhabitants of Pompeii and Herculaneum didn't know the mountain was actually a volcano. She then pointed out that there were now over three million people living on the volcano's slopes but that there were state run monitoring devices on the volcano now and that they would be evacuated if an eruption were imminent... right. There were reports that the viaduct engineers had been called in several days before the 'big one' because the drinking water's sulfur content had spiked, and there were a couple of small earth quakes in the area a few days before. I guess our brains haven't evolved that much in 2000 years... anyone been to New Orleans lately?

John and Jenny decided to take a train to Florence before returning to Rome - good choice... David is waiting. They checked into a nearby hotel and took all the boat laundry to the hotel laundry. We all went out for a 'last supper' and had what is likely the best meal of Italy so far. Two bottles of local white wine, veal in lemon and butter sauce, spinach cooked in butter and garlic and liquored baba for desert. We quickly said our farewells before it got too mushy and Katie and I took and after dinner stole up and down the main street of Amalfi with the rest of the tourists.

We are going to spend a day tidying up and turning Pipedream from a two star hotel back into a mean lean sailing machine and then it is off to Agropoli and the temple of Poseidon (Greek god of the sea) before heading to the Straights of Messina and crossing into Greek waters.




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