With a bit of a thick head, not a brilliant sleep and no rush to go ashore either.
Previously, we did a full on tour with Jo and two years ago, the HO-HO bus. From our cabin, we could see the Norwegian Epic (again) and another Carnival cruise liner, and we were on the same dock as before, so we had a perfect view of the car park area and also the HO-HO courtesy bus queue – which seemed to be growing longer by the minute as people pile of the three ships. As fast as an empty bus came along, by the time they had presumably collected the loot and boarded the passengers, the queue was as long again.
We thought we’d be smart and walked past the HO-HO port queue to the other side of Castle Nuovo (three minutes), where we knew the HO-HO terminus was situated. We got that wrong. They weren’t selling any tickets as the buses were full for at least a couple of hours.
We turned around and walked into downtown Naples.
Far be it for me to understand the finances of a large Italian port city, with several thousand visitors a day, bringing in a fair bit of overseas cash, but the City fathers may need to take a good look at the first impressions of a tourist arriving by sea. Badly broken pavements; litter galore; graffiti as bad as anywhere in Europe and a traffic system that is a total and utter shambles. Work is still going on (slowly) opposite the port, that was in evidence in 2011, (no idea what they are doing) but the city needs a massive clean-up and is now probably our least favourite Italian port city. Get out to Capri, Sorrento, Positano or Amalfi would be our suggestion to future cruisers. There are ferries right next door to our dock.
Our purchases for the day were limited to a packet of throat lozenges and an English newspaper (and I think the paper seller may have short changed me…) so as I wasn’t feeling 100% anyway, a cheap, short day. We are certainly not helping the local economy too much, but it is keeping our own costs under control.
Back on board, we relaxed – though we couldn’t lean on our balcony rail as it had been revarnished. Watching the cruisers from all three ships meandering back, I couldn’t help noticing that far too many seemed totally oblivious to the fact that they were walking down the middle of the car park road and that there were cars needing to get past.
We went down for the afternoon trivia quiz and teamed up with another couple who had been abandoned. We finished equal first with 20/21 (thanks partially to remembering the answers to questions set long ago). We lost the playoff as our fellow team member suggested that Queen Victoria took the throne at 19, whereas the other team got it right at 18. So near yet so far.
Sailaway out on deck 11 as usual, but my throat was really bad, but I think the chilli prawns (and the eggplant parmiagana) may have helped it.
The day’s medication was an antihistamine (which worked for Paula) and a Coldral tablet.
Not a late night as we have a 6:15am alarm set for tomorrow, intending to train into Rome with Teri and Alex, from the busy port of Civitivecchia, where 250 passengers leave us. Maybe the 21 day Rome – Venice – Rome cruise was a good option for many people - though there were very few sea days.
We have been pacing ourselves pretty well, but most of our group seem to have had the cough/cold bug at some stage and we still think the air conditioning is a major factor.
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