Jo said:
I have one questions, on the first nights dinner plate, what was the spotted egg?????
It's a quail egg. I don't know if they are pen raised or if someone raids wild nests. It had been hardboiled. Tasted just like chicken ; )
5/21 Sorrento
Today was the train to Sorrento. We left Rome, changed trains in Naples and arrived in the afternoon. The plan today is to do laundry the hotel had self serve laundry - and enjoy some down time. We knew the hotel had a shuttle, but they did not pick up at the train station in the afternoon. There was another meeting place in town, but we didnt know EXACTLY where. We got a cab at the train station and held on. The switchbacks and hill hugging roads lead to our hotel on a hillside above the Mediterranean. There were lots of olive trees, some grapes and a bunch of lemon trees.
The olive trees had bundled/wrapped nets suspended between them. At the harvest the nets are spread out to catch the olives. The lemon trees were covered with nets to keep the birds from the fruit.
I wandered up to the lobby and watched the arrival of three couples from the northeast US. All around 70, maybe 75 years old, they had arrived by car. The walls in this place, really all the hotels on this trip, were THIN. Very. I returned to our room and heard two of the couples arrive on our hallway. I think there was some hearing loss in the group as they spoke loudly and clearly. A few minutes later one of the guys arrived there was discussion about Joe. He had fallen and was hurt. Joes hurt. I heard that phrase a dozen times. Joes hurt. There were a lot of Oh, my God"s too.
Further eavesdropping revealed that he was going to the hospital in a hotel car. One of the women was going to accompany Joe and Joes wife. The conversation was nearly comic as the accompanying womans husband kept asking her if she wanted her tissues for the trip to the hospital. There were discussions about his insurance card, too.
Hours later we heard them returning.
5/22 Sorrento
At breakfast the next morning they were at a nearby table. Joe had injured his shoulder in a fall. I dont know if anything was broken. One of their party was going over hospital paperwork at the table. One woman asked Joes wife how SHE was, she responded that she was pissed.
We were headed to Pompeii and got on the hotel shuttle to take us to the train station. There must be some taxi driven prohibition on hotels servicing the train station in the afternoon. They could pick up/drop off at the train station in the morning only. Also on the shuttle were Joes wife and the other two guys. The shuttle made an unscheduled stop at the hospital to drop them off. Joe had been kept overnight.
I dont think it was life threatening, but their trip was completely derailed. All the discussion about his insurance was moot I think. Everything I read leading up to our trip was that you are expected to pay NOW and get reimbursement from your insurance company later. I felt so badly for all of them. They were about my parents age and I could not help but project them into this situation.
The train to Pompeii was uneventful. The site was like a time capsule. We all know the story of how Pompeii was covered after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The site is huge. The town had three ampitheatres small, medium and large. Every street had a bakery, restaurant, big homes, small homes.
There was no staff inside the site. They sold tickets and turned us loose. The joint was essentially run by private tour guides. I got yelled at by one for going on to the next room in a bath house. Just because shes got a blob of 30 people doesnt mean Im going to wait for her speil which I dont understand to end. I went around them. She started yelling at about the queue. I pretended to be German. Sue tried to act like she didnt know me, but we were tethered together by our headphone wires ; )
I've titled this one "Riot at the *****house"
Yes, Pompeii had all the vices of a big city. Apparently there was a lot to see in there as the tour traffic was backing up. Seriously. Googling will lead to some erotic images in mosiacs and frescoes. The guides were fighting among themselves about whose group got to go through the 30" door next. We worked our way down the left wall. And went to the biggest bakery.
These are flour mills.
This is a street complete with crossing stones and wheel ruts. They would flood/flush the streets. The stones were so that the residents could cross the street. The Romans had a standard for axle widths. Every cart could fit around the stones.
We returned to Sorrento and walked the streets and shopped a little. We picked up sandwiches for dinner and returned to the hotel.
Tomorrow we take the night train from Rome to Paris.
Ronda
Really. We aren't accustomed to tornados in New England. One touched down in Springfield, Mass - about 20 minutes from me! 
"I pretended to be German" 
And I almost started to cry with the money raised. 
We spent another hour or so in WWoHP and then moved on to other areas of the park. Staying on property is awesome. I love the unlimited front of the line access. We rode all of the Dr. Seuss rides several times, along with other high wait time rides. Later in the afternoon, we moved back to USO and rode some of our favorites. The crowd on Thursday was higher than Wednesday, but I did notice several large groups of middle school / junior high kids (field trips??). It would have been a wasted day without the front line access though.
She ended up looking at all of the Smith's with a check in of my date and found that my name was spelt incorrectly. No big deal. She worked her magic and set us up for all 3 of our stays in the same room, on the first floor and not more than 20 feet from the pool. Score! The room was small, but it wasn't unbearable (my biggest fear). I missed having a fridge, but I did manage to have ice cold beer. 
Once the beer was iced and the car was unpacked, we showered and headed to Raglan Road for dinner before the BMG show. 
Didn't win, but that doesn't bother me in the least. It was truly an honor to be nominated in the first place. The competition was rough. Our tiny little low budget musical was up against schools who have budgets upwards of $100,000 for their productions. Nothing like a little administrative support behind you
