Our final journey from the ship was supposed to be to Pompeii. On each bus tour on this cruise we were provided with poor quality local buses which had very little leg room – knees hitting the seat in front even for a short person like me, and bouncing over the rough roads which is agony for anyone with back pain. The concierge was not able to give me any satisfaction regarding the standard of transport, even when I asked for a private chauffeured car. It would cost about AU $500 for the two hour journey (and two hours return) but she couldn’t find out what sort of vehicle would be provided, ( I need one with good suspension) so in the end I gave up trying.
My sister made the journey and raved about the ruined city but she agreed that the bus journey was very uncomfortable. I have a small book on the history and her account of the wonders to be seen.
The next day was at sea. I think the Celebrity Cruise organisers hoped for future bookings from everyone on board, but for me, the best thing about the ship was the butler assigned to us. We also
Dinner with our English and Canadian friends
met a lovely English couple and a delightful young couple of Canadians who were living and working in the Bahamas. Our last night was spent with them, back in our favourite restaurant.
Then it was back to Venice, a taxi ride in the rain to the airport and the most disorganised check-in I’ve encountered anywhere. We were heading for Paris, the day after the Paris terrorist attack. Italian staff were super vigilant, (although we had no idea why) but on arrival in Paris we walked straight through customs, no checks, no armed guards, nothing to indicate that they had just experienced a serious act of terrorism. Susanne and I looked at each other in amazement. I concluded that all their security staff must have worked overtime the previous day and night, so they were sleeping it off when we arrived.
But then we were back in Paris, staying once more at the Hotel Windsor Opera, and ready to finish what we hadn’t seen and done on our earlier ‘Paris In Two Days’ which you may have read about here. Those of you who have joined my readers since then, might like to scroll down to the Archives and click on March 2015 to read about it. Our four days in Paris follows.