Eastern Mediterranean Travelogue 2009 by Steve J. Garrod




		We had a day at sea on Saturday, 6 June and it was much needed after several days in a row of ports and partying! Matthew had not previously visited the ship's bridge so I was quite excited to have him experience this for the first time. We waited in the Atrium to be accompanied to the bridge by one of the fabulous Front Office staff ladies. We were then given quite a comprehensive tour by bridge officer Rienus. Even though I have visited the bridge several times in the past, I always seem to learn something new and I walked away with a completely firm appreciation for all of the behind the scenes operations of the Holland America Line ships. This evening we had dinner scheduled at the Pinnacle Grill with Cheston and Amy. We met at the Pinnacle Wine Bar before enjoying a wonderful dinner and celebrating new friendships from the cruise. After dinner was the production show «That's Vegas». It was another show that I had not yet seen and really enjoyed it. After the show we headed to Northern Lights to finish off the day with great friends and drinks. I finally had the opportunity to catch up with Lindsay whom I had met previously and was shore excursions staff aboard the Noordam. We also caught up with many of the staff whom we had met throughout the cruise as well as our friend Susan. It turned out to be yet another in the series of fun-filled and dramatic evenings of the cruise. The following day, Sunday, 7 June was another day where I got a late start. That wasn't all that good given that we were only in Messina until 14:00. I basically walked off the ship to get a couple of photos and then returned. I had been to Messina before, however, and toured Taormina, etc. I headed up to Observation Deck 10 to watch our sail away from Messina. In the afternoon of sailing from Messina, the Noordam passed by Stromboli which is a small island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the north coast of Sicily which contains one of three active volcanoes in Italy. It is one of the eight Aeolian Islands north of Sicily. The island has a population of between 400 and 750 and its volcano has erupted many times and is constantly active with minor eruptions. Stromboli stands 924 meters (3,031 feet) above sea level and actually rises over 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) above the sea floor. The rest of the afternoon was used to pack my suitcase in preparation for disembarkation the next day. We still had one last night to party it up, though. We made our usual rounds after dinner of heading to the Ocean Bar to hear Lance sing and then finishing off at Northern Lights. No matter how much preparation was involved both mentally and packing bags, the final morning came abruptly as it usually does. On our way off the ship we saw Amy who was working disembarkation gangway and got to say farewell to her. Matthew and I had a transfer car arranged to pick us up in Civitavecchia on Monday, 8 June at approximately 9:00. We arrived to our hotel, the Hilton Rome Airport, just in time to be able to check in and go directly to our room. We had arrived early enough that we caught breakfast in the lobby and then headed to an Internet center to check in for our flights the next morning. Since we had a long day of touring Rome ahead of us, we caught a nap at the hotel before catching the hotel shuttle into the heart of Rome. Since I had been to Rome several times before, I was mentally planning out a plan of attack to see as much of the city as possible for the time we had for Matthew. It took us a bit to get our bearings after leaving the coach to head to the main points of interest. We had a pretty good map, though, provided by our hotel and were on our way soon. The main point of focus for finding our way around initially was the Fiume Tevere (Tiber River) and my goal was to get to the Coliseum as quickly as possible. The Tiber River is the third longest in Italy rising in the Apennine mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing 406 kilometers (252 miles) through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenia Sea. We were a bit hungry so we stopped off at a café which I had frequented on a previous trip to Rome for a bite to eat and we also ordered a carafe of white wine which nicely suited the warm day. After having a bite adjacent to the Coliseum, we passed by the Arco di Costantino (Arch of Constantine) for a photo . The Arch of Constantine is situated between the Coliseum and the Palatine Hill. It was erected to commemorate Constantine I's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge on 28 October, 312. After a bit more walking, we stopped by the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II. This is a monument to honor Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a unified Italy. From here we continued through several streets such as Via del Corso and Via dell' Umiltà until we reached the Fontana di Trevi (Trevi Fountain). Traditional legend holds that if we throw a coin into the fountain, we are ensured a return to Rome, so we did.












	After our visit to the Trevi Fountain, we proceeded to the Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps) at the base of the Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the church of Trinità dei Monti. This set of steps is the longest and widest in Europe. The fountain at the base of the Spanish Steps was built by Pietro Bernini with the assistance of his son Gian Lorenzo. We used this as our point to then turn around and head back eventually to our point of origination. We traced our steps back through the narrow streets and then finally back to the Coliseum. Given that it was quite a bit later in the day, we were ready for dinner so we returned back to where we had lunch but just one property over. There is certainly nothing better than having authentic Italian food with good wine and looking right at the Coliseum! As the sun began to set, we headed back to where we needed to catch up with the bus going back at via Luigi Petroselli at the Centro di Studi per la Storia dell'Architettura. Matthew needed to re-pack his suitcase from having thrown everything together on the ship so he did that and I enjoyed a beer at the Artists Bar just off of the hotel lobby. Our flight the following morning departed Rome Fiumicino at 7:05 and arrived in Frankfurt at 9:05. We did not have nearly as long of a layover this time in Frankfurt as our next flight was set to depart at 11:50. We did even more walking around, people watching, snacking, and waiting until our flight was ready to board. Oddly enough it was getting very near to boarding time and I still did not see the plane. It turned out that the plane was at a different gate at another section of the airport completely so we were shuttled out to the plane by bus. It was interesting boarding the plane by stairway outdoors. I hadn't done that in quite some time! The flight back was uneventful and long - just about ten hours in total. Since I generally don't sleep when heading to Seattle from Europe, I got quite a bit of reading done and enjoyed the in flight entertainment 'Pophits'. A couple of songs that I either learned about or got reacquainted with were 'Good Morning' by Lionel Richie and 'The Boy Does Nothing' by Alesha Dixon. On the flight over I had watched 'Slumdog Millionaire' which was just fantastic. We arrived back in Seattle in the early afternoon and Matthew's grandmother was there to pick us up and take us home. All in all, it was just a fantastic and memorable trip. The ports that I had visited for the first time were just spectacular. My favorites from this cruise were Dubrovnik and Santorini. The definite highlight of this trip was having met so many great people. We seriously really had a great time with all of the staff on board and also met other guests as well. While I had toured the Noordam previously, this was my first actual cruise aboard her and she is definitely a top rate ship and one on which I would sail again.