Today we took the ferry across to Rottnest Island for a little bike ride with the quokkas …
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It was a long walk to the ferry terminal (52 minutes walking) for the high speed ferry to Capri (Speed jet took 1hr) for €22 each, one way.
Capri is beautiful with it’s deep blue waters. We soon found out we couldn’t do the blue Grotto because there were too many people with a 2 hrs wait. So we decided to take the fenicular to Capri and look around.
Then a bus ride to Anacapri where we took the chairlift to Anacapri peak
We then decided we would walk from Anacapri to the main marina…down thousands of phonecian steps (well 921 steps to be exact) from Anacapri to the main marina coz that’s the way we roll…
The next boat to Naples was not till 7pm so we made a small detour to Sorrento..for a very brief stop
Feeling hot and tired we caught a 622pm train ( that actually left after 7 because they felt like it ) back to Naples.
Italian trains never run on time and there is insufficient information at any station to know what to do…I guess it’s all in the experience…and we managed
Back at Napoli, hot, sweaty and hungry we found a great place, just outside our B&B with the best pizza and great service ..even gluten and lactose free. It went down well with beer after a long hot day.
Our sleep last night wasn’t good..very noisy here at Casa Fortuna, but after a nice brekky prepared by Teziano we went off to catch a train to Varenna. The weather wasn’t on our side and neither were the trains from Lecco. Apparently the boats to other areas in Lake Como run from 1st June from Lecco…so a train it had to be!
As usual there was no easy way to find out which platform etc but we’ve been lucky to get info from other travellers..so we waited on platform 3 for 1.5 hrs till the 11am train came….don’t know what happened to the 10am one…maybe coz there was maintenance on the rail track??
Whipper snipper the grass on the track
No info on the boards
….better late than never and the weather was improving…
20 minutes later and we were at Varenna…beautiful.
Crossing the narrow platforms across the tracks to exit
Lunch at restaurant in the local Piazza. Great service and nice food.
After exploring the alleys of Varenna we hopped on a ferry to Bellagio..Another beautiful place
On the way back to Lecco from Bellagio by bus, the views were spectacular. The photos don’t do it justice
We then tried to find this restaurant in Lecco that was recommended..long walk later we come to Giovinini
Friendly staff
Tasty food
Hardly anything on the plate and overpriced. What happened to good old traditional Italian food and servings?? We were in shock that we didn’t even take a photo to prove it …but the beer was nice!!
All in all a long, beautiful day.. Very grateful that the weather improved and we were able to have this adventure.
Went to bed after midnight last night. Stayed up listening and singing along with the ship entertainment for the night (great singer James ?)
After a not so smooth nights sleep on the ship and the noises that came from what sounded like an injured “sea monster” from above Steven’s bunk…(which lead to a sleepless night) we woke up awaiting our arrival at Amsterdam.
It was bizarre to see kilometres worth of wind generators out in the middle of the ocean about an hour out to sea from the boat. There were literally millions. (Ok maybe thousand or so of them).
Well I must say we weren’t that impressed with the cruise itself. The staff were courteous but not friendly and sometimes quite abrupt… Food and drinks were very expensive.
Amsterdam Ahhh what an experience so far and we’ve only just gotten off the boat!
After a long bus ride from ferry terminal to central Amsterdam we found it quite difficult to know where what and how we should go to our hotel. Amsterdam is an “organised” mess and mesh of narrow streets, canals, tram lines, bike lanes bridges and overpasses … How people get around here is beyond me…. So after stopping in a cafe to catch our breath and gather our information and of course to have a coffee (people here don’t believe in customer service and can be quite abrupt in their manner) my trusty navigator (SRS45) got us on the number 1 tram to our hotel…
A good 15 mins away from city centre.. Too early to check in, we left our luggage at the hotel and with my SRS 45 sat nav… We set off on foot to explore Amsterdam.
It’s quite nice despite the chaos.. So was our little picnic by the canal.
Next time we come here we’re definitely staying in a canal/ river boat!
A leisurely 1 hr canal tour was informative and interesting.
I didn’t know New York was settled by the Dutch and many of the NY names such as Harlem came from Holland.
Next a fascinating visit to Anne Frank house ….then Greek for dinner opah!!
