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After a bad night's sleep I woke up at 5:55AM with a headache. 10 minutes later noises started to happen as we closed in on Naples. Renée was up soon after the alarm at 6:30AM. We went to the Oceanview Café for breakfast at 7AM. At 7:30AM I split away as we are on separate excursions today. (I had planned to go to Vesuvius in the morning while Renée was off to Pompeii with Joy and family. I would then visit Pompeii later during the afternoon, by which time Renée will have returned to the ship.) I took a walk along the top deck taking pictures.
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| Looking across the port as the Costa Magica docks adjacent to us. | The Crown Princess is nearby having followed us all the way from Santorini. |
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| A 360 degree 'spiral' panorama of Naples, and round past the prominent Vesuvius. The 2nd half was taken at the back of the ship and joined on hence the spiral. |
I went to the room to grab my stuff and some paracetamols and went down to the Equinox Theater for the 8AM meeting time. Renée and the Dangoors turned up soon after. They were ashore before me though just after 8AM. There were a lot of Pompeii groups! I'm glad I'll be there later after those groups finish - hopefully less crowded maybe? (Probably not though.) I went ashore at 8:10AM but we departed slightly late at 8:20AM. After escaping the port we drove along highway. There were good views of Vesuvius, although the lighting wasn't good this early with cloud cover, haze and backlighting silhouetting the peak a bit. We stopped at a jewellery factory at 8:50AM until 9:10AM. This bit for me was rather boring but not too long.
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| Passing Castel Nuovo on the way out of the port. | TODO | TODO | Up ahead Vesuvius (the bigger right hand peak, Monte Somma on the left being the outer rim of an older bigger volcano before a previous eruption) dominates the area. | Passing downtown Naples. |
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| Pictures taken inside the jewellery factory. They use material from shells and all sorts for their colours. | |||
Soon we were on our way again. (I wasn't the only one who would have preferred to skip the Jewellery Factory and have longer on Vesuvius.) After leaving the Autostrada behind we headed out through the suburbs and past ancient lava flows. The road was a fun narrow and twisty one with switchbacks up through a forest. The view over Naples was great. Soon enough the parking area and a number of small souvenir shops came into view.
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| Hitting the road to Vesuvius, which dominates ahead. | Now out of town and crossing lava flows. | Rock art on the side of the road. | Passing through a wood of umbrella pines. |
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| More rock art. | The view over Naples getting rather impressive now. | This is the hairpin bend that the coach had to do a 3 point turn to get around! |
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| Onwards and upwards. Somewhere between Vesuvius and Monte Somma. | Peering over the 1944 lava flow down towards Naples. | Another nice view as we carry on upwards. | Arriving at the start of the path at the bottom of the crater wall. |
Note: Vesuvius is 1277m high.
After parking up by the shops at the base of the crater we got out at 9:45AM. After a short wait to get tickets we were let loose onto the footpath. The path was a dusty grey pumice rock path with switchbacks but the going was good. A bit of cloud cover cooled the ascent a little. It took about 15 minutes to reach the crater rim. On the way up the hazy but panoramic view over Naples as well as the 1944 lava flow in the valley below underneath the Monte Somma ridge just got better and better. I could even see the cruise ship looking tiny from up here. The crater was huge and imposing, and much different to the Santorini volcano active crater. I walked round past more gift shops to the end of the path, taking many pictures and panoramas as I went. There was little activity with just one small area of fumaroles emitting a small amount of vapour. The sun came out too making the light better for photography. The lava here is much greyer than Etna or Santorini. People were asking me to take pictures of them and they took pictures of me too. I also attempted two Photosynth panoramas of the crater too. Then I doubled back the way I came. I picked up a pumice rock from the rim before I descended as well as managing a single picture of a Large Wall butterfly on the rim too. The descent to the bus took just half the time of the ascent. I bought a nice fridge magnet from the shops near the bus. I found the bus a short walk down the road at 11:05AM. The bus driver had a compressed air line and kindly blew the dust off everybody's shoes. Nice! Black to grey to black again.
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| Panorama of Monte Summa and the 1944 lava flow below. | Looking up the side of the crater wall. | The dusty pumice path to the crater rim. | Looking back to the start point after several switchbacks. |
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| The view over Naples gets better the higher I go. | A closeup of the port, where a tiny Equinox can be seen - 2nd large ship from the left. | One of my better panoramas of Naples and Monte Summa. | |
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| A super closeup of the Equinox. | Approaching the top. | My first view of the impressive crater. | Mike on the Vesuvius crater rim with Naples in the background. | Looking down to the bottom of the crater. |
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| A better view of the crater walls. | Walking along the crater rim path. Someone put souvenir shops up here! | The layered crater wall. | The remains of the cable car top station that was destroyed in the 1944 eruption. | Another spectacular view of Naples. |
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| Photosynth panorama showing the view of the crater changing as I walk around the Southwestwards side of the rim. | Steps ahead to get to the slightly higher Southern part of the path. | Another view down into the crater. | Arty look past lava blocks across the crater to the far wall. | Looking back along the crater rim path from the steps. |
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| Looking back to the lookout point at the start of the crater rim path gives the crater a sense of scale. | Panorama taking in the lookout point. | Lookout point down to crater floor. | ||
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| Mike at the Southern end of the crater rim path. | Photosynth panorama of the crater from the South. A puff of steam from the fumeroles can be seen. | Looking back along the path from the end. | A souvenir shop at the end of the path. | Another crater panorama from the end of the path. |
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| Panorama to the South and Southwest. | Looking along the Southern crater wall. | My best view of the crater floor. | Looking back towards Naples. |
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| Large Wall Brown butterfly on the crater rim. | Isn't the view great! | Walking back along the crater rim. | Returning back down the switchbacks to the start point. |
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| An old tatty Long Tailed Blue butterfly feeding on flowers on the crater wall. | Returning back to the start point. | |
We set off just after 11:15AM, winding our way back down the narrow road to the autostrada before carrying on to Pompeii. On the way down I realised the ISO was set to 200! Ah nuts! Grainy pictures. Hopefully they will still be ok... (Indeed they were OK when they were later processed as you can see above.) We got back down to the Naples suburbs just after 11:30. Now a cloud was obscuring the Vesuvius peak. But it soon cleared again. The upper cloud amounts were increasing. The guide suggested there would possibly be rain late afternoon.
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| Driving down from Vesuvius back towards the autostrada. | A cloud forms on the slope of Vesuvius obscuring its peak. | TODO | |
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| Another view of a cloudy Vesuvius. | Arriving at a very busy Pompeii, stuffed full of souvenir shops and tourists. | |
We arrived at Pompeii just before 12PM. It was very busy! I lost my refreshment ticket but got another thankfully. The pistachio ice cream I got was delicious! At 12:15PM back with guide, we started the tour. The plan was to meet at hotel Vittoria at 2PM if we got separated. We entered at the Entertainment area (TODO: 44 on map). We were shown around the Roman streets and into a house. We also explored a spa and one of the main streets with fast food shops and more. The finale was emerging in a big courtyard surrounded by columns and Vesuvius dominating the view in one direction. By now I was suffering from the heat a bit as well as not enough food. We got back to Hotel Vittoria at 2:05PM and had spare time until 2:20PM. I bought a fridge magnet as well as finding a loo. I had emptied my camelbak by now. Then after a walk to the coach park we got back on bus at 2:30PM. It was a smooth ride back to ship.
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Renée had gone to Pompeii in the morning. It was much cooler than when I went being earlier in the day. She saw the plaster casts and the city. Apparently her guided tour was only 45 minutes, followed by an hour of free wandering time. Renée and the Dangoors went back to Hotel Vittoria and had ice cream while waiting out the hour. Then Renée spotted my bus arrive just as she left. She then snoozed back on the ship until I woke her up when I returned.
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I got off the bus just after 3PM and back in the room by 3:10PM where I found Renée snoozing. She soon woke up and we swapped stories. At 3:30PM we went to the Oceanview Café. I went via Deck 15 Fwd to photograph Vesuvius again in better light (albeit still fairly hazy) while Renée went direct to Oceanview. Renée found Jane and family there and was chatting away when I caught up. I had 2 teas, pasta, garlic bread and a cheese free pizza! I was starving but now after that binge I was stuffed! I also saw Joy and Robert en route lounging and Jane and family in Oceanview with Renée. Then we went back to the room some time before 4:30PM to wash, change and pack. We were pretty much done apart from last minute bits by 5:30PM. So we rested until just after 6PM.
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| Views of Monte Somma and Vesuvius, with the lava flow from the 1944 eruption lying in the valley between them. The old monitoring station can also be seen clearly - the highest building in the picture. The suburbs of Naples go all the way to the lower slopes of Vesuvius! | Renée with a mocktail at the back of the Lawn Club on Deck 15 Aft, with Naples in the background. | ||
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| 180 degree panorama from the port round to Vesuvius. | A view over the car park at the entrance of the port. | Castel Nuovo. |
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| Another view of the buildings near the port. | That's a lot of motorbikes! |
At 6PM we went to the Lawn Club for a drink and to see the ship leave Naples at 6:30PM. We went to Deck 15 Fwd at about 6:40PM to look at Vesuvius one last time. Bad weather was moving in. There were a few spots of rain. Renée retreated to Oceanview to eat sushi. It was just a brief light shower though. Thunderstorms were building to the West and the cloudscape was spectacular. I joined her there at 7PM. I had 8 more sushi pieces (trip total now 120!).
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At 7:10PM we headed to Silhouette, taking some pictures of Capri before we went down. I also dropped off a completed guest questionnaire on way too. In Silhouette we swapped stories and we joined in for dessert. Joy had a birthday cake for her birthday in 2 days. Meanwhile increasing cloud outside heralded the end of the good weather as we headed Romewards. We had been lucky with the weather this trip so we can't complain! After the meal we had drinks in Jane's room around 8:30PM. We went down with them to deck 5 at 8:40PM to look at stupidly expensive photos. (None were bought at $40 a picture!) Then we left the others behind and went up to Deck 15 Fwd At 8:50PM for one last look. It had been raining some more and there were dark clouds behind us. The twilight cloudscape was impressive, and the Crown Princess ship was still shadowing us and all lit up in the dark.
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| Joy's birthday was on 24th, the day after the end of the cruise. So we decided to celebrate it early. | Renée giving Jane's balcony a try. | The Crown Princess is still sailing with us! | ||
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| Family shot in Jane's cabin where we gathered for drinks. Renée took a picture with me in it in the 2nd shot. | After dark the Crown Princess was lit up like a Christmas tree. It was hard to take a still shot but this will do. | Disturbed looking twilight sky heralding the bad weather to come. | |
We returned to the room at 9PM. After some last minute packing we left the cases outside the room as instructed for the porters to collect, and then retired for night. The ship docks at 4:30AM so I was expecting a very early wake up...
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