Europe Week 2

Kotor, Montenegro:

After another sea day we awoke to find ourselves anchoring in the Bay of Kotor at the town of Kotor.
We anchored off-shore and had to be tendered off. As we were leaving the port we purchased tickets for a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus. This bus took us along the shore of the inland waterway through many small towns to Risan located at the north end where there were Roman Mosaics to be seen. Risan is a town in the Bay of Kotor, Montenegro. It traces its origins to the ancient settlement of Rhizon, the oldest settlement in the Bay of Kotor

We passed the island of Our Lady of the Rocks, on the right, this one of the two islets off the coast of Perast in Bay of Kotor, Montenegro. It is an artificial island created by bulwark of rocks and by sinking old and seized ships loaded with rocks. The other is the Island of St. George on the left.

After we returned to Kotor we entered the Old Town where there were narrow walkways, restaurants and stores for the tourists and local alike.

As we passed through the gate, this lovely couple welcomed us.

We found a patio and ordered a beer and a bite to eat. We went for a walk around the town and while doing so we came across Gail and Annette who we met on the ship and kept running into, they are from Ontario, we also met Wayne and Lydia from Kitimat, BC who we spent a little time with but did not get any photos of then.

As we sailed out of the most southern Fiord in Europe we sailed past the other side of the Islands of St. George and the Our Lady of the Rocks.

The next day was a sea day of no consequence, which was used to sleep in, walk the decks, and attend happy hour.

Napoli, Italy:
We arrived the following morning in Naples in time to see the sun rising behind Mount Vesuvius.

We had pre-booked a trip to Pompeii for this stop. This trip would be a challenge for Pat, luckily she did not take her walker. This was a 2 hour walking tour where Stewart hooked up with Pat and walked her around the ruins which had very uneven terrain, but she made it.

The following is were gladiators are supposed to have trained.

After we had taken Pat and Bev back to the ship we went into Napoli for a walk around the city.

Rome, Italy:

Again sailing overnight arriving into Civitavecchia, the port for Rome. This port is located on the Tyrrhenian Sea, it is 80 kilometres west-north-west of Rome, across the Mignone River. We elected to do a self-tour to Rome, we caught the shuttle out of the port, boarded a local bus to the train station where we purchased return tickets to Rome. This train ride was approximately 1 hour each way. Once in Rome we found a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus for a tour of the city.

We found in Europe many people park by touch, as we watched they would get themselves into parking spots by touching/pushing the bumpers of the vehicles both behind and in front of them.

We thought we had booked a 21 day cruise only to be told by the cruise line that this was a back to back cruise, we found this out a people disembarked and others came aboard in Civitavecchia.

Napoli, Italy – Part 2

Again we sailed overnight back to Naples.
This time we took a Hop-On-Hop-Off tour of Naples, the available seats on the bus were not that good so most of the following photos were taken looking up through the open roof rather than out of the windows.

After boarding the ship Naples we relaxed on our deck enjoying the warm Mediterranean weather.

Messina, Sicily (Italy):
We arrived in Messina early next morning. Messina is a harbor city in northeast Sicily, separated from mainland Italy by the Strait of Messina. It’s known for the Norman Messina Cathedral, with its Gothic portal, 15th-century windows and an astronomical clock on the bell tower.

Nearby are marble fountains decorated with mythological figures, like the Fontana di Orione, with its carved inscriptions, and the Neptune Fountain, topped by a statue of the sea god.

Again we had no plans for this port, we found a taxi to give us an hour tour of the city, this was not the greatest tour, the driver did drop us off near the down town area where we walked for a couple of hours. Stopped in a local coffee shop off the beaten path and had a good, interesting and fun chat with the owner even with the language barrier, all was good.