family – Lois and Clark Explorers

We woke up refreshed and ready to go. Today we had to take a tender into port. The water was a little more choppy and getting into the tender was a little bouncy to say the least. It was also another scorcher of a day. We walked around and did some shopping with everyone then they left on a ferry to go to another area to go to a beach. We did not want to go to a beach because we are doing it tomorrow so we thought we would just go to Castle Brown. According to internet research it was a short walk-9 minutes, with a slight incline. I don’t know what an extreme incline is to them but this slight incline was pretty much straight up. I found a nice shady spot and told John to enjoy. I was ok living vicariously through John.

We hung out a bit and had a gelato but, there was no place to sit in the shade. It was super crowded, super hot, and super expensive shopping. We decided to head back to the ship. The water had gotten a little rougher and like an idiot I decided to sit up on top of the tender–thinking the fresh air would be good. Needless to say, there was fresh air but the tender moved so much more on top. And the guy driving our tender was moving so slow. I am usually fine if i am moving swiftly through the water but that wasn’t happening. Although I have a patch, I was getting a little motion sickness. We made it to the ship and I went and took a 2 hour nap. I went to the buffet with John but couldn’t find anything appealing. Ended up with a hamburger and fries but couldn’t eat much. By this time everyone else was coming back. We watched Christy’s tender come in but they were inside so we didn’t see them in it.

At 6:00 the Ventriloquist was performing in the Reflections Lounge so we went to see that. The girls joined us and then we left to get dinner. After dinner we went back to the Reflections Lounge with Loen and Bazlo and played the Musical Murder Mystery. It was a lot of fun and we didn’t win but then you had to know the name of songs and I am the worst person for that. Luckily there were a lot of oldies and John actually knew a lot of them. I decided to go back to the room and work on the blog and then get a good nights rest while John went to the theatre to listen to a pianist.

Tomorrow is our last stop. We will be in Florence and then the next day we disembark in Rome or near there.

Here we are at the old gate to the walled city. Today we took a bus to the old city as it was way too far to walk. Today’s temperature when we left was only 83. And yet the temperature continued to climb through out the day. It started out really nice. This is where the Game of Thrones was filmed but we did not take that tour. There were so many steps and once you got up above everyone you walked in the bright sun (there was no shade). It just sounded horrible to me and since I didn’t watch Game of Thrones.

It was a great day in town. We met up with Christy and Leeman and the kids and Shelley. The kids weren’t loving it and wanted to go back to the ship so we took them and Shelley back to the boat on the bus. We got real lucky because one bus was pulling away and the next one coming in so we were first on board.

We took the kids to the pool. Of course they had to check out the buffet first. The boys had ice cream and cakes and all kids of sweets. Sefina grabbed pizza, steamed dumplings and a slice of watermelon. The pool wasn’t as refreshing as the one at the vineyard but it still felt good.

The kids slowly deserted us and headed off to play with their cousins so we meandered back to our rooms. The rest of the group wanted to go to the dining room instead of the buffet but John and I opted to see what the buffet had to offer. After eating we, John and I, went up to deck 11 to watch the sunset. Another beautiful sight. The kids all came up and we sat in the lounge and then headed for the Whitney Houston impersonator. She was amazing. I didn’t think anyone could do her justice–I was wrong.

Tomorrow we have to get up at 5:00 am to see us pull into port. We have been told it is an amazing sight. Can’t wait!!

We started our day with a morning walk to see the sunrise. This was around 5:30 am

I woke up about 1:00 am and could not fall asleep. I could hear the kids upstairs so I knew they were awake too. I could see the sun was coming up so I called to them to come downstairs and go for a walk. Christy was up too so off we went. Who’d of thought I would be caught up and walking at that early hour. No one! lol

After our walk we had breakfast here at Fattoria Laloggia. We drove to a parking lot to take a train into town because rental cars are not allowed to park in town. That is reserved for the locals. It is a huge fine if you park a rental in most of the big cities in Italy. The drive was about 20-30 minutes (much longer on the way in due to traffic) then the tram/bus was about 15 minutes. From there we walked everywhere. It was 93 degrees and so crowded. We knew this would be the case before we got there but it really took a toll on me. Whew! Lines were out the door and wrapping around building around the block. We really saw nothing because of it. I was too hot to even eat. The kids wanted a gelato and I didn’t even want that. But, luckily we were able to get a seat inside and I could sit down in air conditioning and rest. I was ready to go and so were the kids. Bazlo said, “She’s too old and we are too young!” So we took them with us and went back to the pool. Best part of the day.