June « 2010 « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

June, 2010

Friday / honeymoon / photo — Comments Off
4
Jun 10

Leaving Equinox, back to Rome

We’ve had such a nice time on the cruise we don’t want to go back to a great city like Rome. Odd how that works. But I figured out why. At breakfast this morning the theme of the cruise ship finally sank in. Told you everyone here shut their brain off when they came aboard. The secret is in the name. We’re celebrities.

And I realized that, this morning, when the crew didn’t smile and say hello and bend over backward to do every little thing for you. They weren’t bad, by any means, they were just getting ready for the next cruise and we barely registered for them.

So we’ve played the role of the low maintenance, B or D list celebrities who don’t need anyone to fuss over them overly much. Now, in port and ready to leave, you notice that the crew have let the illusion go. Not that I blame them, some people come on the ship and really try to abuse the concept to a shameful degree. We met a few of those unfortunate folks. I’m sure, in crew quarters in the bowel of the ship and at the crew bar late at night, they all secretly loathe the passengers.

“He wanted another towel. That was the ninth one of the day, I think.”

We got to know the assistant maitre’ d who told us a few stories about some of the experiences he’s endured over the course of his long career. It’s just a job, but creating the illusion for some people can be a chore, I’m sure. He was going on vacation himself — “Anywhere but a ship,” he said — when he was done with our trip. He was ready to share a few stories.

So we had breakfast, lingered a bit and then finally worked our way down to the gangway. We picked up our luggage in a confused free for all — it is true what they say, embarkation and disembarkation at this port aren’t very well organized — and then tried to catch a bus in a Paris, June, 1940 atmosphere. It was almost comical, people have spent 11 days relaxing on a cruise and the moment everyone gets back off the ship they are jostling into semi-aggressive, anxious people again.

After about three rounds of buses we manage to sneak onto that will hold our luggage. The bus takes us to the port entrance and then we are on our own. We tote luggage to the train station, get tickets and then work our way to the proper line.

We had to go down a flight of stairs, walk 25 yards and then go up a separate flight of stairs. Architects here are funny, funny people.

So we rode back down to Rome. We carried our luggage through the terminal and to our hotel. I’m really tired of carrying luggage, by now. On the way I’m performing the mental calculations to see if it is possible to bring less stuff. The formal nights really kill you here, but I think we could have removed one bag from the equation.

This afternoon we wondered around to take the last few items off of our Rome list. We stopped by the Trevi Fountain, which was designed by Bernini among others. Took forever to create, but it was worth it.

Trevi Fountain

If you throw coins in the fountain, you come back to Rome, so the legend goes. We visited a pharmacy next to the fountain and also bought some art nearby, but I don’t recall if we threw anything in the fountain or not. I did see this guy, though:

What kind of apps do gladiators have on their iPhones?

We hung out on the Spanish Steps, the widest, longest, tallest and just gosh darn adventurous stairs in Europe. The guide books say this is one of the fine places to see and be seen in Rome, so I made a slideshow.

We walked around the squares, passing where the president of Italy lives purely by accident — there was a car fire that detoured us — shopped for gifts, watched a few street performers and enjoyed the lovely cobblestone streets and beautiful weather of a spring day in Rome. The weather has been great. My feet really hurt.

We had dinner at a place called Osteria de Mario. The fare was traditional Roman, so if you wanted ox tail you were in luck. We split a chicken meal, which was good, but we thought we’d ordered two. They messed up the change, though, so it all works out.

We caught a bus back to the room. (On our last day in Rome we’ve figured out the bus system, how’s that for more than 40 years of formal education between us?) We’re staying in the Hotel Margaret again, where we spent our first three nights in Rome. The owner, thinking The Yankee was by herself, booked us into her smallest room. She was very upset and apologetic about this, but the room was cute, big enough, didn’t face the road and had a softer bed. The discount she gave us just made it that much nicer.

They told us to come back on our next visit to Rome. We just might, it is a casual, low key place that’s relatively inexpensive and convenient to most everything. It is low frills, but it is clean and everything you need for a hotel room in Rome. Our recommendation, check out Hotel Margaret.

We’re just beat. After an 11-day luxury cruise there’s no reason to be exhausted, but today, somehow, took it all out of me.

We’re catching a taxi to the airport in the morning. We figured, after our walk from the terminal to the hotel today that we just didn’t want to carry the luggage back down there again. We’re staring at an absolutely full day of travel, this is a good investment, I think.

She put together a perfect trip.

You couldn’t ask for a better adventure, a more wonderful experience or a more charming companion. We booked for a great price a long time ago when no one was cruising — indeed, the ship wasn’t at capacity.

We saw an incredible amount of history and culture. We ducked a British Airways strike to get to Europe. We had good timing in missing the unrest in Athens. We had great weather and perfect seas. We met wild donkeys, smiling, helpful locals and people from all over the world. We scaled volcanoes, swam in the Aegean Sea and prayed at St. Peter’s. We laughed and smiled and created countless memories.

honeymoon / photo / Thursday — Comments Off
3
Jun 10

Naples, Italy

Mt. Vesuvius - Normally the clouds are above me.

Off the boat and into Naples. We’re on a bus. The last time that happened, in Turkey, we had a bus wreck. We are two with locals who are giving us a ride to Mt. Vesuvius and then a tour of Pompeii. One of the guys is aiming for a Beckham look. He’s wearing jeans and a suit coat, with a few loud pieces of gold. He’s driving the bus. The guide is wearing his hair a little long in the back, a near beard, some unfortunate sunglasses, a baseball cap and a jacket.

While it isn’t especially hot — it did make the mid 70s today — it is June. It is an unfortunate choice, this jacket. It is white vinyl.

But he is a nice, soft spoken guy. Very funny. They took us first to a little place in Naples where they make cameos from conch shells. They are handmade, an elegant and traditional Italian piece of jewelry. No one is sure why we’ve stopped there, though, and we’re all ready to get on the road for Vesuvius. We walk around with mild curiosity and then take advantage of the restrooms. We’ve been forewarned that the facilities at Vesuvius are dirty and of poor quality. Europe really has to get it together on this one.

So we move on to Vesuvius. We go up what he calls the Mama Mia Road. It is steep, narrow and full of switchbacks and blind turns. When another bus comes down the mountain toward us he says “Everybody breath in, maybe we’ll make it. Mama mia.”

You drive most of the way up the mountain. At a certain point the bus runs out of road and you’re on your own for the last 200 vertical meters or so. The path winds around the mountain, so the walk is a good one.

Your Vesuvius walking stick.

After you hand over the tickets and make it inside the hiking part of the trip an old couple give you walking sticks. Our handsome, vinyl jacketed friend has stayed behind. He’s made this walk before and knows better, it seems. We picked up a new guide at the top of the mountain. He told us about the last eruption, during World War II. That was just a flow (from the hike up the mountain you can see the remnants of that eruption, it looks like an unfinished road) and no one was injured, but a more serious eruption in 1906 killed 100 people.

Seismologists, he said, expect the next eruption to be a violent one. Three million people live in the shadows of the volcano.

We took a lot of pictures.

We threw her in to appease the volcano.

I have three hastily assembled panoramas. The ascent. The crater rim. The city below. Click each and magnify.

We had to be back down the mountain by a specific time so the bus didn’t leave us behind. I had to run down the mountain to keep up. At the bottom the old couple were collecting their walking sticks. Sitting at an angle you couldn’t see while walking up there was a sign requesting a tip for the walking stick. Because we are honeymooning, and I’ve learned the role society has assigned to me, I had no money on this particular hike. The old Italian man didn’t speak English, and I couldn’t say “My wife has my money,” in his language.

I did understand what he said in reply, though. (My god-parents-in law are Italian.)

So I’m laughing as I make the bottom of the descent. I tell this to The Yankee, who says the old woman tried to get money from her. As The Yankee reached for her cash the old woman hit her camera with the stick. She said “No” and walked away. That’s some restraint; I would have thrown the stick down the side of the mountain.

Our tour guide in Pompeii, nice jacket.

Our guide says they’ve uncovered about 70 percent of Pompeii. They started excavating before the United States was a country. To see it all, he says, would take about 16 hours. In our two-and-a-half hours he gave us the highlights, including this temple. These columns were brick which were intended to be covered. There were no toppled columns or debris found in the excavation, so archeologists says this temple was still being built when Vesuvius erupted.

Life was very much in progress here. Our guide rattled off the food inventory of one of the bakeries we visited. So well preserved was the city that we apparently know how many chickens were inside. Or our guide has an easy, believable yarn.

Vesuvius from Pompeii.

We had another War Eagle Moment. This being, by the numbers, the biggest one I’ve ever had. I was taking pictures in the House of the Faun, the largest private residence in Pompeii, when a few girls said hello. They were traveling Europe. One of them, it turns out, may be one of The Yankee’s students one day. It was pretty cool.

War Eagle, ladies.

I count 18 of them, all in the perfect group pose. And notice the Faun in the bottom of the frame. That is a replica. The original decorated the impluvium, a basin for catching rainwater, is in a local museum alongside many of the other famous pieces of art from the house. The famous mosaic of Alexander the Great on display in the home is also a replica. But they replicated the damage, too, so at least there’s that.

There was an exhibit from Pompeii a few years ago at the Birmingham Museum of Art. People don’t often think of it, but that museum is top notch and was one of only two places the exhibit toured in the United States. So impressive was the exhibit, we saw it two or three times. Even still, Pompeii is an incredible place. It was a bustling hub of travel and trade before the volcano, sat hidden and forgotten for centuries and is now host to more than 2.5 million visitors a year. Today it felt almost peaceful.

Want to see more of Vesuvius and Pompeii? Here’s the gallery.

This is our last night on the ship. After we packed our bags and We sat on the veranda of our stateroom and watched the ocean slide by. In the morning we’ll have breakfast and sadly get off the ship for the last time. It has been an incredible cruise and a near perfect honeymoon (did I mention we had another minor bus wreck on the way down Mama Mia Road today?).

But it isn’t over yet. We still have more fun in Rome!

honeymoon / Wednesday — Comments Off
2
Jun 10

Sea Day

The Yankee came back from a spa program today happily pointing out how lucky we are. There’s one more stop on our cruise and then the ship returns to it’s home port. We’ll all get off, people will start making their way back home or wherever they have to go next. The cruise itself is a 11-day embarrassment of extravagance, but we all know it is coming to an end.

Some people are already thinking about, and dreading, going back to work on Monday.

But we don’t have to. We’ll be traveling home by then, but we won’t be at work.

In a related story, summer breaks are wonderful.

Since we are traveling between Athens and Naples today this is a day of shipboard activities. I went to two glass shows. I like glass shows, always have been mesmerized by them, even as a child. They have a three-person team on board, a full studio on the topside deck, all electric set up, very fancy. They talk about how it takes 10 years just to learn how to do this with any degree of competency. They talk about how you have to enjoy the process rather than the finished product, especially in those early years where you break more than you make.

And then they just whip up something like they were pulling together a few snacks. It is a great show. Over the course of the trip we’ve also seen a musical, there have been other shows, opportunities to learn a half-dozen dances, karaoke, trivia, putting challenges, bocce tournaments, lectures, bingo (they are wild about their bingo for some reason) and a Newlywed game.

We entered, but did not get picked. They call theirs the Newlywed and Not-So-Newlywed Game. They had four couples, one married two weeks, another married two months, one married 29 years and another married 51 years. Oddly enough the newest of the newlyweds won.

There was also a Liar’s Club game, which could have been better, but it made for a low-key evening performance. I mentioned the library and the spa. There’s an impressive weight room, a lawn on the top deck, a computer lab, more restaurants than I can name. There’s a basketball court and a mini soccer goal, too. The ship is ridiculous.

Tonight there was a Jersey Boys show, and a Cirque de Soleil-type performance. I took some pictures, which can be found on the cruise ship page. Breaking up the pictures turned out to be a good idea, no? I’ve so far uploaded 344 pictures — not counting a slideshow and three panoramas — from the trip. We still have another day in Rome to go and our excursion tomorrow as well. We’ll be in Naples and visiting Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii.

We couldn’t have taken this trip right after we got married last year for a few reasons — mostly because I had to be back in school — but the wait has been well worth it given all that we’ve seen and done.

And, to top it off, we don’t even have to go back to work on Monday!

honeymoon / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off
1
Jun 10

Athens, Greece

Greece has seen better days; the bank is pretty humble, too.

We did not sign on for an excursion for our stop in Athens. Reading the descriptions of the offerings there seemed to be no complete tour that would satisfy. We decided, we’ll go it on our own — the cruise equivalent of roughing it.

So we leave the ship. You take a little shuttle to leave the port. You turn left and walk for about 20 minutes to the train.It gives you a sense of downtown Athens, which feels like it has been covered with a sheen of dust and everyone forgot to clean it 30 years ago. Rome, Athens and Istanbul all give off this vibe, at least in parts. They all feel like places that could have used a facelift in the Nixon era.

Greece is having financial troubles that are shaking the very flimsy foundations of the European Union, but in Athens you’ll find the nicest subway terminals you’ve ever seen. At the other end of our little train ride we exited into a little neighborhood beneath our goal.

After a (long) hike up the hill, and a wrong turn based on some bad advice, we made our way to the front gates of the Acropolis.

We were in a very long line.

There were a lot of people there. It seems our good fortune of missing the crowds had finally caught up with us. But the line moved quickly enough. Within a few minutes were out of the line, in the Acropolis and free to move about as we pleased. Of course everyone starts in the same place, the building that dominates the hill and our imaginations.

The Parthenon, Athens, Greece.

It is a curious thing. You read and study about these people and this place and time in history for forever in school. If you pay even a little attention in your regular comings and goings of life you’ll find references or allusions to the Greek influence on our contemporary world. You’ve tried to imagine what it was like, how they lived and struggled and excelled and loved. And now, suddenly, you’re here.

I’m not especially good at visualizing those things. I’d like to be, but my mind’s eye can only conjure up the ruins, or some anonymous artists’ representation of the ancients. There are many questions and, for me, just as many distressed columns. You can see the great scale and hints of the grandeur. The setting is beautiful in it’s aged austerity, but it is hard to conceive what these buildings were like in their prime.

Instead I wonder how the ancient Greeks could build the thing in nine years, but with all of our technology the current restorations have been ongoing for almost two decades — and repair programs have been carried out here several times over the last two centuries. This could be the problem:

Slow progress, there's only one guy working today.

Across from the Parthenon there is the lesser known Erechtheum, which was built between 421 and 407 BC, as a shrine to the Greek hero Erichthonius.

The Erechtheum is the temple on the northern end of the Acropolis.

We also visited the Roman Agora, which was located where the Greek markets had previously stood. We visited the Temple of Hephaistos, which is perhaps the best preserved Greek temple. We walked through a little museum, bought souvenirs for family, enjoyed a gelato and saw the massive Temple of Zeus.

The Temple of Olympian Zeus, with The Yankee offering perspective.

That’s just a massive place. There were originally 104 columns, 16 of which survived into the 19th Century. A storm knocked one over then and it has been resting in pieces as it fell ever since, which is just a blip for a site where construction started 2,500 years ago.

Notice the entasis design in the columns, there’s a place where you can stand within arm’s reach of one of the fallen columns. If you put your next to the column, stretching your fingers wide, your hand will fit within the convex curve.

There are a few areas where it is obvious that excavation is still being conducted. (When the money is available that is, meaning, perhaps, not for some time in Athens’ future.) Given the size and the history — the Greeks, the Romans, the Turks, all right here — you can only wonder at what else is waiting to be discovered.

We caught the train back, including a terminal switch, which is always an adventure when you can’t read the maps.

We’d watched, with a wary eye, the news about the unrest in Athens this spring. In our daily newsletter on the ship there was a note from the captain about this stop. There were no demonstrations planned, it said, but you never know. He urged caution in crowded spaces, noting that even peaceful crowds can grow agitated. I’ve covered a few strikes and protests, including a crowd or two that have been gassed, but that was when I was younger and more single.

These days, now that I’m more married, I’ve no desire to steer us into any thing that could be a problem. Fortunately the city was calm and restive today. We were typically surrounded by tourists, but the locals all seemed to be in fair spirits. What we saw of Athens — and everything we’ve seen in Greece after three stops — have been worth bragging about. The people generally keep to themselves, but when you meet them they all prove to be very warm.

With all that’s going on here it isn’t unreasonable to think that by your next visit the country may be drastically different, but perhaps not. Any place with this much history is capable of adapting and overcoming the current difficulties. You want things to work out for the Greeks. The changes that will come, economically and perhaps politically, will be tough, but their going to be a bellwether for a lot of countries in the near future.

Tourism will always be a big key here, for obvious and picturesque reasons. So, if you’re planning a trip, this is a nice one to take. And until you make it here yourself, I’ve got pictures and, coming soon, video of the things we’ve seen in Greece. Though I can say this: the better part of three days we’ve enjoyed here aren’t enough.

Tomorrow: We spend the day on the water.