Tuesday: July 8
Sorrento / Pompeii Italy, A High-test Lunch
When we showed up for breakfast, we canceled our dinner reservation for the Chef’s Table on the 12th, and made a new one for the 11th. During breakfast, Amy noticed on the Viking app, that we had been scheduled on the 11th for Manfretti’s, not the Chef’s Table. So we went back to the person doing the scheduling, and canceled the Manfretti’s and got one for the Chef’s Table. We thought it was a good catch.
However, as I sit here at 6pm typing this up, I checked the app to get the dates, and I saw that on the 11th we were *still* scheduled for Manfretti’s. I really don’t understand how they can screw this up twice in a row. We’ll have to stop by again tomorrow morning (they aren’t open now) and try yet again. This should *not* be that difficult.
This was our first all-day excursion. We boarded a bus, and drove a bit over an hour to Sorrento. The guide took us to a shop where they had a “demo” of doing wooden inlays. It wasn’t much of a demo. Basically they took veneers, cut them out carefully, and glued them to a substrate. The explanation was roughly of that level of complexity. One interesting detail was that he said that they were finished with two coats of water-based polyurethane. They obviously have much better success with that finish than I do.
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They had some really gorgeous pieces there with equally “gorgeous” prices. The store was rather crowded, and I was really paranoid that I would side swipe something with my pack and destroy a couple of thousand dollars worth of products.
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The guide had arranged a meeting location and time, but before I could ask her to recommend a shop, she disappeared. I was somewhat surprised that there was no walking tour of Sorrento, but in hindsight, it was mostly shopping, lunch, and scenic vistas.
We went down the street that our guide had recommended, and bought a few things at various shops. Then we cut over to the coast. The coast there was basically a very large cliff. You got great views, but to get down to the beaches and marinas there were a bazillion stairs.
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We worked our way back to the square and went in to an upscale pizza shop to get some lunch. We ordered a Margarita pizza to be split, and two what we thought were the non-alcoholic lemoncellas. We were on a tight schedule, as we had to be in, eat, and out in 40 minutes. When we were served, we found that our drinks were of the high-test variety. Amy liked it, but I didn’t care for mine. I drank a little, because I needed something to wash down the pizza. Amy drank a bit more of hers, but still not even half. She was really feeling it.
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We grabbed a waiter, paid our bill, and got to the meeting place with 30 seconds to spare. We waited a few minutes for stragglers, and then we returned to the bus.
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We drove maybe a half hour to Pompeii. It is rather filled with tourists. Our guide got our tickets, and then we went in. There was a little confusion because a few people not in our group came through the turnstiles as we were going through, and they messed up the count.
The tour was interesting, and we saw a few plaster casts, and some rooms with interesting wall art. One was apparently the room of a prostitute. We only had about an hour to go through there, but we could have spent all day there.
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Rather than losing a guest, our guide managed to pick up one. After we got on the bus and she counted us, she found that she had one too many! The new person had taken public transportation to Pompeii, was trying to get back to the ship, saw a Viking tour group, and just tagged along (without bothering to tell the guide). We didn’t throw him off, and instead he came back with us.
After we got back on board, I ran around taking some pictures. There was a large cruise ship docked next to ours. It was about to depart. To signal this, it gave three long blasts on a horn. Because of the nearby cliffs, there was a very noticeable echo. But because the delay was much shorter than the blasts, it sounded more like a blast from the ship next to us, followed a tenth of a second later by an answering blasts from the town. Then the ship’s blast would end, and then the other would end.
I checked out the infinity pool. The Plexiglas wall doesn’t lower. My previous time there just wasn’t enough water in it. I checked out the hot tub, but it was hot, and I didn’t really care for hot water.
Then I went down and checked out the pool in the spa. The spa apparently has another hot tub (which was closed for some reason) and a pool which was essentially a giant warm tub. That is, it had jets like a hot tub, but it wasn’t hot. While I was there, I checked out the steam room. It was amazingly steamy. I kept thinking that my glasses were fogged over, except that I wasn’t wearing my glasses. I checked out the ice grotto, which was not surprisingly very cold.
There was a really cold plunge pool that I opted not to try, and something where you apparently fill an overhead wooden bucket with cold water and then dump it over your head. This was another idea that I didn’t try.
I took a shower, got into my evening clothes, and then went to a lecture on the Renaissance. After that was dinner at the The Restaurant.
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I really like The Restaurant. It has the food and ambiance of a fine restaurant, but instead of going there for a special occasion, I go there almost every evening. It is usually not a matter of finding something that I would like to eat. It is more a matter of wanting multiple things, and trying to narrow it down to one.
They have an interesting way to serve the soup. They bring out a bowl with the “solids” in it. Then they have a small pitcher with the liquid component, which they pour into the bowl in front of you. I’m not sure why they do it that way rather than just bringing out the bowl already filled.
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After dinner, we went down to the theater for an ABBA show. It was very good, more like a cross between an ABBA sampler and an ABBA medley.
Tomorrow is going to be an early, long day. We’re heading out at 7:40 and 7:50 tomorrow morning. I think my excursion is scheduled for 10 1/2 hours.
Tonight should be interesting. The captain came on the PA earlier saying that the wind was going to increase, and also the wave height. Despite the ship’s stabilizers, there would be more ship motion tonight. It is now just before 10, and I can definitely feel the boat shaking and shuddering a bit more.