Day 6 Sunday July 14. Nice breaky although the only hot choice is one boiled egg. Magnificent cereal fruit bread ham and cheese choices though. Plenty of food. Cut lunches are interesting. The hotel will make you a sandwich but at Eu8 ($12), they don’t represent good value. So the deal is a walk to the town (nobody pre-prepares sandwiches), and the supermarket will make them up for you if you first go to the bread/roll counter, have them slice it (a must), then take the bread to the deli in the bag with the price sticker on it, and they will add the filling (primarily ham and/or cheese), add the incremental stickers onto the bag then you take it to the register. Very quaint but by the end, you have a decent roll at a ... read more

Day 3 Found our kickoff point for the day trip to Pompeii in ample time so some pics of the expansive Piazza Popolo. Bus trip to Vesuvius was uneventful so to the climb and rim walk of this volcano. It is apparently still active but there was no evidence of that. By all accounts however, it is folly to underestimate the power of this volcano…… Today however, it was safe if not more than a little steep. Lunch was in Naples – the birthplace of pizzas but if you ask me, they could use a bit of help from Ceasars in Glen Waverley – who clearly have them covered for topping! Anyhow, it was filling. Then off to Pompeii and the informative tour here. The thing that surprised most was the absolute size of this city. ... read more

Flying out Qatar into Rome on monday... read more

Day 13 Holiday is rapidly coming to a close and we are just starting to get into holiday mode. Today saw a hot and sweaty trek up Diamond Head (really a crater formed 300,000 years ago (or so…..) but tough enough for two ageing Aussies (and a few others I suspect judging by expressions). Anyway, well worth the 360 deg views from the top. We got to the trail head by public bus – which was late and overcrowded as it comes to pass that this particular route only has an hourly service. Coming home we decided not to wait and walked the 4-5 kms back to the hotel. Lunch then Chris did a bit of snorkelling (I chickened out as I didn’t want to infect my forehead with Monday’s op coming up). Tonight we booked ... read more

Much better today. Mastered the local bus system and with the help of Lonely Planet, found a nice hike to a waterfall and beyond through (at last) lush jungle foliage. It was great – and clearly surpassed anything that any of the tours to now has offered. Only danger was that after a fair bit of rain yesterday afternoon and evening, it was very slippery. Managed OK however. That said, the waterfall itself was a little bit disappointing – although the journey made it worthwhile. Perfect day weather wise – although the wind has stiffened tonight. The bus system seems to work very well and we forked out $25 each for a 4 day pass. At $2.50 a leg, that seems to represent pretty good value. Incidentally, we were befriended on the bus by a 50 ... read more