Hook Mountain anchorage

We left Poughkeepsie Yacht Club with a following tide, a great way to start our Long Island cruise. A front came through yesterday so the air was cool and there was no threat of thunderstorms. We made many trips down the Hudson River for our yearly cruises and mostly it was motoring. This time was no different except when we got to Haverstraw, the wind picked up out of the north and we put up the headsail for a nice end to the first day. On the way we passed by West Point as usual but it’s always an impressive site.

The forecast was for a northwest wind which would have been perfect for the Hook Mountain anchorage. However, it was “promises, promises” once again from NOAA. The wind was out of the northeast and blew directly into the anchorage with gusts to 20 kts! The dink ride to shore for Hoolie relief was wild but we made it without getting wet. Hoolie appears to be back to his twice a day routine. We sat on the back of the boat and watched the lights appear on the Tappan Zee bridge, a very pretty sight with the lights like sparkling diamond necklass across the river. Tomorrow it’s Hell Gate!

Final Thoughts

Well, we had a great time. Four days in Spain, 12 days on the Royal Clipper and four days in Rome - what's not to like? We expected great service and great food on the Clipper and we got it. But, we also expected more sailing but we were more like a motorboat than a sailing vessel. Also unexpected was the 70 mph winds with 25 foot waves for a full day but the ship handled the weather safely although with a lot of rolling. Being driven through Rome to the airport at over 100 mph was something I would not want to repeat! Still, it all was a grand adventure and lots of fun.

As for the future, we plan on a cruise to Long Island Sound starting the end of June for six weeks, returning by August 15 to get ready for our grand cruise down the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) on Fleetwing to Florida for the winter. We have a dock reserved in Key West for the month of February. I will be writing blogs for both cruises so you'll be able to follow them right here.

I have to work on Fleetwing, our 42 foot Beneteau 423, to get it ready for launch later this month. I'm adding a Class B AIS transponder so I'll be visible on other ships' AIS detectors and an isolation transformer to save my zincs when in a marina, lots to do! So long until the end of June.

The Trip Home

The day started at 5:00 am. Our plane wasn't scheduled to leave until 9:50 but we were unsure of the traffic and the last thing we wanted to be was late. The news in the morning about the volcano was not good. It seems there was a cloud of ash over Spain that was drifting right for Rome. The ash is spread by however the winds happen to blow and now the winds were directing the ash in our direction! A previous day's flight had taken off but some of the passengers had been bumped due to the additional fuel required. With all the uncertainty, we figured better early than late!

The cab was on time at 6:00 am, great! We all jumped in and headed out. There are cab rides and then there are cab rides. I've ridden in NYC, in Paris and several other cities but we were in for a real "treat". It started out innocently enough with a romp through downtown Rome city streets at 60 mph. True enough it was early and there wasn't much traffic but there were plenty of side streets for cars to appear from. Gradually, the speeds between stop lights gradually grew, 65 then 70. Hummm, kinda of fast for the route I thought - but that was only the beginning. When we had first arrived, we took the high speed train to Rome from the boat terminal and were amazed when it reached 98 mph. I was in the back seat and watched the speedometer climb as we reached the arterial to the airport, sort of like our route 9 but four lanes mostly. We peaked out at 102 mph (the readout was in km/hr but I was doing the math as we sped along)! Going around corners, I held the strap above the door and Ann held on to the edge of the front seat. The G-forces required attention. So on the way to the airport, we were faster than the high speed train! In case you're wondering, we made it okay.

At the airport we were deposited at Terminal 5 and waited for it to open, we were real early - but not the first ones there! We later found out that the ones there even before us had been bumped yesterday from their flight. They were even more nervous about getting out. After passing through three security screens, we finally reached the main terminal with food and had breakfast. Then the long wait came and the interminable wait as wait listed names were called, every seat was to be filled!

Our plane was late in loading and we later found out that the airport was almost closed due to the ash cloud headed in our direction. It apparently was a close thing and we were lucky to take off at all. In fact, the plane did not follow the usual path to NYC. Instead, the pilot took us due north over Europe and took a turn west and then north of Iceland, over Greenland (pictured at left) and then down over Quebec and into NY. The northern route added 1.5 hours to our flight time. Finally we landed and it's great to be home, how sweet is the USA!

On to Vatican City

We had reserved Tuesday morning for the Vatican on the premise that it would be an off day for visitors, at least compared to Sunday or any other day of the week. We had finally figured out the maze of bus routes, mostly that is, and actually got within walking distance of the city. We were dismayed at the ticket line snaking around the corner, out of sight. We had tickets already but that meant there was to be a crowd. The Vatican was jammed packed with people, just a dense flow of humanity in a tide along the viewing corridors. Regardless, we found the Vatican just overwhelming in size and in the extent and impressiveness of the art. There are no words to do justice to our experience, just staggering. I've included a few small photos but they do not approach the physical experience of walking through the enormous halls with paintings and sculptures beyond number on display (such as the room on the right).

The peak of the visit was the Sistine Chapel. Calling it a Chapel is an understatement, it's huge and the paintings by Michelangelo are stunning in person, beyond words. They've been restored and the colors are bright and true but as in all cases of art, it's the composition that counts and Michelangelo has all the talents. We sat down on a side bench and just stared up at Michelangelo's masterpiece on the ceiling. The painting at the right shows the skill of the time period. The awning and people in the painting are all just on canvas even through the awning looks very 3D, you'd swear it's standing out from the wall - something added to the wall to enhance the painting. The illusion doesn't fade away until you're almost directly under it and can see that it's just a painting.

No visit to the Vatican would be complete without seeing Michelangelo's Pieta. I saw the sculpture once at the World's Fair in NYC long ago and was eager to see it again. We wandered around the St. Peter's until we found it by the front doors. It was as beautiful as I remembered. I took a photo but it was not the same.

We continued on to explore the rest of St. Peter's, it was like a small city with halls and corridors branching off at every junction, just awesome. We found our way back to our hotel by taking the right bus for a change (bus 40).

The Colosseum

Most of the museums are closed on Mondays in Rome so we decided to spend the day exploring the Colosseum, the place in Rome where the Gladiators fought. As we walked along the street approaching it, the size slowly became apparent, it’s huge. This time we opted for a tour guide. He reminded us that during the summer the temperature could reach 105F in the full sun while today it was in the 70s, nice weather. The Colosseum was built for the entertainment of Roman citizens and the seating arrangement was by how important you were in Rome. The tickets were hard to come by and were marked as to the seat number you had.

However, the form of the entertainment was something else. There were professional gladiators and then there were the slaves. The professionals made up roughly 5% of the combatants and you can guess who didn’t make it. The unfortunates who made up the 95% part were mostly criminals and conquered armies. In one notable time period, there were 10,000 gladiators slain over the course of two days! There were an estimated 500,000 slain over the lifetime of the Colosseum before the gladiator fights were stopped. Human life was cheap back then.

Also added to the mix was wild animals brought back from countries conquered by Rome which were set upon the slaves for the entertainment of the spectators. It is hard to imagine such things today. Some of the Olympic games were imported from Greece but they didn’t catch on, it seemed the Romans liked their blood.

It still felt strange to be walking in the exact paths taken by all those spectators so many years ago, walking on the same stones, sitting on the same stone benches, wow. The floor was covered with wood planks where now the underlying chambers are visible. Other parts have been damaged and some of the facing stone removed for other buildings in Rome. Now there is a great restoration underway as there is with all the antiquities.

In Spain and France, most of the cars were just as big as in the states but not so in Rome. There were many cars that were just one passenger big. They were so short that they could be parked directly into the curb instead of parallel parked. It looked funny but it was certainly efficient. Even more numerous were the many scooters, all over the place and dipping in and out of traffic, always going in front of everyone.

Through the Antiquities of Rome

Our hotel is close to the center of Rome with the antiquities in easy walking distance. We had breakfast out on our balcony served by the staff, very nice.

So today we walked over to the see what they call the antiquities, the places where the Caesars and the Roman Senate conducted their business. It is hard to convey the sense of wonder when walking on the same stones paths that Julius Caesar walked, to be in the Forum where Caesar was assassinated. You are right there - where it happened! We are so used to recreations on TV or Disneyland type reproductions of the events - but to really be there makes all the difference. The photos are rather ordinary but the "being there" is not, that's the part about being in Rome that's hard to convey.

The antiquities area requires an entry fee that's good for 24 hours and you can also get a headset for audio information. There's a massive amount of information available but for the most part we just wandered around which we found interesting enough. We sure made up for all the rest we got on our cruise, lots of walking for exercise.

We found a typical street side restaurant for lunch and we had, surprise, a pizza! Then it was on to see the place where Three Coins in the Fountain was filmed, The Trevi Fountain. It's not far from our hotel. When we arrived that place was mobbed! We had expected a round fountain that you could walk around and see from all angles. However, it's situated against the side of a building and has several rows of seating in front of the fountain for people to sit and admire the waters. Even with the mob on a Sunday afternoon, the visit was memorable, the fountain is more beautiful than in the photos. To see a video of a couple tossing the traditional two coins in the fountain, click here.

A few notes on getting around in Rome. The most frequent sight in Rome are tourists standing on street corners with a map (or maps) open, trying to figure out where they are at. The street signs are mostly a mystery and sparsely distributed at random around buildings. Add into the mix that the streets go in every direction and are rarely straight and with many streets intersecting at all angles at plazas. It takes awhile to even have any idea of how to proceed. When all else fails, we get out the iQue and plot a route.

We Leave the Boat and Head for Rome

We had to put our luggage out in front of our cabin door by 4:00 am so we put ours out the night before. We were up at 6:00 am to get ready for departure. All during our stay on the ship, whatever we needed was charged to our room card which we received when we boarded. It was like plastic money but now the day of reckoning arrived. In exchange for paying our bill, we received our passports back. All throughout the cruise, whenever we went ashore, we just showed our cabin card to pass through customs which only consisted of one person - we were always just waved through as long as we had that card. As far as I can tell, we never actually exited Spain formally and coming into Italy we were just waved through (no baggage check either).

We chose to brave the trains to reach Rome instead of taking a shuttle bus, much cheaper using the trains. However, we had to roll our luggage to the train station about 0.3 miles and up and down several ramps. Leathem had some knowledge of Italian which helped greatly. He finally sorted through the confusion and got our tickets for a train to Rome. On the way there, I clocked the speed at 100 mph using my iQue with its embedded GPS.

We made it off the train at the right stop (no mean feat) and was then faced with figuring out the Italian subway system to reach a point near our hotel in Rome. After several more ups and downs stairs with all our luggage (ugh!) we boarded the subway. The subway car was covered inside and out with graffiti! How disappointing. As a matter of fact, we saw graffiti everywhere on our way to Rome. The inside of the subway terminal was also covered with graffiti and it's all over Rome too with the exception of the monuments, which at least are kept clean of it.

Exiting the subway station, we had planned on finding the nearest taxi stand (per the guide book) and getting a taxi to our hotel - but that was not to be. We could see no taxi stands (we later found out that there aren't any, you're supposed to just hail a taxi, strike one for the guide book) and the taxis we did see were way too small for the four of us with luggage. With that we decided to roll along to our hotel, but in what direction? The streets of Rome are not laid out at right angles to each other like New York City. It's a very confusing array of streets at all angles, much worse than Paris. We finally gave up on using the map and I got out the iQue,  plugged in the location of the hotel and walked along the street holding the iQue out in front of me, following the purple line on the displayed map and finally reached the hotel (clickly-clack on the cobblestones!)

The hotel did not have an elevator but it did have a very helpful clerk who hauled our bags up the two flights of stairs. Our rooms are very nice and I would recommend the hotel to others, it's Hotel Giardino and it's centrally located,  close to the antiquities of Rome. It also has free WiFi! It's pictured in the photo above, the door is at the far right in the photo.

The first order of business was a ride on a two story bus around Rome just to get a quick overview of the sights. Tomorrow we'll do a walking tour and take lots of  pictures. We had a nice meal at a very small restaurant recommended by our helpful clerk and collapsed in bed. What a tiring day. I wish you guys in the states would take care of the stock market while we're gone!! We leave and everything falls apart!