Palermo sail away

Back on the ship after our tour of Palermo, Mondello beach and Mount Pellegrino we had nothing better to do than relax on our balcony with a cold drink and wait for Room Service to deliver our Afternoon Tea which we had booked earlier that morning.

And at 4.30 it arrived and was delivered out to our balcony

We sailed at 6 p.m with the city threatened by some dark clouds. Hopefully the rain would hold off until we cleared the harbor. I shot some video....

Tonight, Sunday would be a Formal Night where people dress for dinner and to have their photographs taken by the 10 or so photographers working onboard. We skipped the photographs and went straight to dinner in Da Vinci dining room.

A simple Caesar salad for me

Carol had a salad with walnuts

Tournedos of beef with an onion tart

And neither of us can resist a Norman Love dessert, found only on Princess ships

After a fine meal we were ready for a show. This one was called "I got the Music" a fast paced song and dance show with a live band kicking the music along. The show only lasts 35 minutes or so. As usual a very slick and professional show.

From the show it was time for bed as we would be arriving in Salerno, near Naples at 7 a.m. We hung out an order for a Room Service breakfast at 6.30 a.m and enjoyed deep sleeps before my alarm went off at 5.30

When I awoke we were approaching the harbor....

An industrial port with cargo ships and ferries unloading- just what I like!

It looked like we would have a nice sunny day to go ashore

Our tour bus would have to climb up from sea level to those bridges above to make our way to today's excursion-the ancient ruins of the city of Herculaneum, buried by the volcanic eruption from Vesuvius that also struck Pompeii. As we had visited Pompeii on last year's cruise on the Ocean Princess we were very excited to have Herculaneum to look forward to today.

Another cruise ship from the Costa line joins us in the harbor

We've had breakfast from Room Service, which of course wasn't up to the standards of Sabatini's but cold pancakes and bacon was better than nothing and we had something in our stomachs to fuel all the walking we would do once we entered the ruins. My camera batteries were all charged and ready for a day's work.

The journey to Herculaneum comes next...