Salerno, Sorrento and Pompeii in 3 parts (Part 1)

Yesterday evening and night we crossed from Croatia to Salerno, Italy.  I had signed up for an excursion called Taste of Sorrento and included a visit to Pompeii.  My dad grew up fascinated with National Geographic and I always enjoyed the issues that showed the excavations going on in Pompeii.  So this might be my chance of a lifetime to see it.

The ship was docked by 7 am and all aboard would not be until 6 pm.  My excursion left at 7:30 am so it was up early to get breakfast before we left.

Up there is where we are headed as we leave the port area.

This was the view from the top.

Our small tour bus, maybe 10 of us, left Salerno and headed to Sorrento.  Along the way we stopped at a small hillside farm for our taste of Italy.

They demonstrated how them make mozzarella cheese, cot to cheese, salami, bruschetta and lemoncello.  So during the demonstration on a lovely covered veranda we were served a plate with each of the items on it.  It was funny because 2 of the farm dogs suddenly appeared about the time the food was served.  They would lay there head in your lap hoping for a morsel.

We also went down the hillside further to where the family also produces lemoncello.

A little quilt inspiration in some old tiles.

Then back in the van to take us back up the hill to the bus to more on to Sorrento.

Day 6 - Venice, Italy

I'm not sure what time we left Kotor.  Probably as soon as everyone was back aboard, because we had to cross the Adriatic Sea as our next destination was Venice, Italy. There was quite a storm overnight but I never heard it.  But did look out the window a couple of times to see how high the waves were. Venice was going to be a 2 day stay.

We didn't arrive in Venice until after 1 pm.  So the morning was spent getting a little sun and lunch.  Everyone was on deck taking lots of photos as we entered the Canale Della Giudecca headed for the terminal.

Piazza San Marco

At 4:15 pm we finally docked and got off the boat for my first excursion.  I took the Venice panorama, a tour on a private motor boat that took us to see all the islands in the lagoon.
This was a nice way to get an overview.  Tour took a little over 2 hours.

Venice at sunset

I got back about 6:58 pm, had dinner and retired for the night as I knew I has a four hour walking tour scheduled for tomorrow.

I'm not sure which tour Debra took today.  I know on one of the two days she took the tour to Murano glass and Burano lace. She even bought a chandler which really intrigued many of the quilters.

Day 4, At Sea, Saturday, Aug. 20th

To go back and touch on Barcelona, I was amazed at the many types of architecture we saw there.  I found myself thinking it would be fun to go back sometime and hire a guide who specializes in architectural tours.

The day we arrived we got there at 5:30 am and our rooms weren't available until about 3 pm. So the tour company arranged a bus tour of Barcelona.  One of the places that we got out and walked around was this cathedral, The Sacred Family, designed by Gaudi.  It was begun in 1882 and is really different from any other type of building in Barcelona.  It takes up a fairly large area of the city, maybe a six block area.  So we walked around the entire structure.  Barcelona was in the 90 degree temperature range so it was pretty warm.

But now back to shipboard.  Classes were held in a conference room and since they couldn't get machines so the first day was a hand piecing hexies day.  Day 2 covered back stitch applique.

Claire Vlasin Quilts - Off to the Smithsonian

I will get back to my trip shortly but wanted to pass this on.  Claire Vlasin was a member of the Capitol City Quilt Guild.  She was a collector of quilts and beaded evening purses; Ray was a collector of Czech glass.

Part of Claire's collection is going to the Smithsonian, 43 quilts and later some will be going to the University of Nebraska.  Last winter I spent quite a bit of time appraising Claire's quilts for Ray.  In April I got a call from Ray that the Smithsonian shipping people would be there to box and move the quilts to Washington DC.

He thought I might like to come and watch how such a move is done and be sure they got the right quilts.  So April 18 I was there when 2 guys from a  moving company out of Chicago arrived to pack the quilts.

 I can't say they represented the company they worked for very well.  Holey paint spattered sweat pants and I think the other guy needed a size larger pants  as by the end of the day I was well aware he had black underwear on.  But I guess that is neither here or there.

With the list they has I started to pull the quilts in order.  They used large acid free boxes that held 3 quilts each.  I think after we started they realized that they didn't have enough boxes and we would need to put 3 in each box.  We also decided to label the boxes with the numbers of the quilts inside.

 Ray wanted his picture taken with this crazy quilt as it was a 40th anniversary gift for Claire.  I think this one was hard to part with.

I believe it took 4 hours to get them all packed.  Ray and the crew standing in front of the pile of boxes that held 43 of Claire's precious quilts.

Day 3 - At Sea, Friday, August 19th

Just to back up a bit about Barcelona.  When we visited the church down from the hotel, I noticed a sign that said "lift to roof".  Deb was game so for 3 euro we took the tiny lift up to the top of the church.  Here were some of the views.

Today is our first full day at sea.  Our first port of call will be Kotor, Montenegro but  that is .  So for now we are getting to explore the ship and starting our classes with Bonnie.  We were supposed to be sewing her Razzle Dazzle quilt, but sewing machines couldn't be secured for the trip.  So instead Bonnie gave a lesson on paper piecing and then a lesson on back basting applique with her Spanish Rose pattern.

There were 50 quilters along for classes, some husbands and some children.  Our conference room had 3 large windows looking out on Deck 5 so we often had many people curiously looking on.
We had quilters from allover the US, New Zealand, Germany and I think maybe Australia.

Day 4 would be much the same as this.  Realized that I forgot to mentioned some of the Gaudi architecture we saw in Barcelona.  Maybe some pics of that next.

Day 2 - Barcelona

Today is the day we board the Brilliance of the Seas for our 12 day cruise.  Very anxious.  The bus would not be picking our group up until 11 am so we had some time to kill.  We had been told that in order to visit many of the churches we will see you can not have on shorts that come above the knee and shoulders cannot be bare.  Deb had on a sleeveless top so we went looking for somewhere she could buy a pashmina or shawl.  We hadn't seen anything in the shopping area we visited last night so we headed out from the hotel going in the other direction.

This building had been pointed out the day before as a farmer's market.  We quilters were attracted to it for it's hexagon patterned roof.  So we headed there. Great market with fresh fruit, fish, meat and a couple of souvenir shops.  So Deb found her shawl and we were off to the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.  The evening before there had been live music outside the cathedral.

There was a courtyard in this cathedral where there were fountains and, surprisingly, a flock of white geese.

A view of one of the towers from the courtyard in the cathedral.

Brilliance of the Seas, Royal Caribbean, not the largest of cruise ships, about 2,500 passengers, but plenty big enough for me.

This was our room, cozy huh!  Fortunately, for me anyway we had a large window, I don't think Deb enjoyed such a wide open view.

Before I go much further I guess I should introduce my roommate/fellow quilter, Deborah Mandrell.
Here with Bonnie Hunter. I think we got along very well.  We didn't do many excursions together so we always had lots to talk about at the end of the day.

This was outside of the spa.  Peacocks hold a special meaning for Deb.

This was the center of the ship. Deck 5 was the main floor.  Casino, shopping, our conference room for our class, the theatre.  This center area had a stage and every night before dinner there would be violin music.  After dinner pop music, sometimes big band and we had a Beattle's reunion band as well.

The 2 pools, top was where the most people hung out.  The 2nd was the salt water pool and was a much more tranquil place. There also a kids pool, basketball court, minature golf, gym, running track, pub and 3 additional restaurants that were seperate from the formal dining room and the windjammer buffet.

Well, that's enough for now.  The first two days are days at sea, sailing from Barcelona, Spain to Kotor, Montenegro.  These two days are when our classes are with Bonnie Hunter.