Italy Diaries - Day 20 - London to Calgary

On our last day of the trip, we woke up at 8 am and had in-room coffee. We finalized our packing, got ready and checked out around 10 am. We took a taxi to the London Bridge station where we bought peri peri chicken wraps before boarding the 10:42 am train to Gatwick airport. We ate our sandwiches during the train ride. After reaching the airport, we dropped off our bags, passed through security and waited in a lounge.

WestJet airlines had emailed us a few days back that they had changed the time of the fight from a departure of 11:15 am to 1:15 pm. When we checked-in, we found out that the flight was further delayed by 20 minutes. After everyone had boarded the aircraft by 1:35 pm, the pilot announced that the airport had suspended all activity because of a passing thunderstorm. Even after the weather had cleared up, we couldn't take off for another couple of hours. That meant that we sat in the plane for exactly three hours before it took off! Our total journey ended up being close to 12 hours instead of the scheduled 9 hours.

During the flight, we were quite hungry by the time the purchase-only dinner service started so we purchased three main courses instead of two. The cabin service was quite efficient with several rounds of complimentary beverages. Towards the end of the flight, we also bought a cheese tray for snacking. Overall, it was a comfortable flight. We slept for an hour at the start of the flight and another hour towards the end of the flight. During the rest of the flight - between meal, beverage, washroom and stretching breaks - Samia watched a couple of movies on her phone while I wrote the three updates for London that I hadn't had a chance to write earlier during the trip.

Our flight landed in Calgary at around 6:45 pm local time. We got a ride from Sarim to our home. On our way home, we stopped at a burger joint to have dinner. After reaching home, we did unpacking and laundry. It's back to work for me in the morning whereas Samia has some more days off till the weekend for resting. Hope you enjoyed reading the updates. Till our next travel adventure, take care and ciao!

Italy Diaries - Day 19 - London Part Three

We woke up at 8:30 am on our third day in London and started the day with in-room coffee and biscuits. Then we got ready and left our hotel at around 10 am. We stopped at another chain Pod for a proper breakfast. I had Turkish scrambled eggs - regular scrambled eggs with some veggies and black pepper as toppings. Samia had a bagel with cream cheese and we both had smoothies as well. Then we walked to the tube station and took the train to Westminster station.

Our main sightseeing attraction for the day was the Westminster Abbey. We did a tour of this old church that is a symbol of continuity of the royal family. We did the audio tour offered by the church. In typical British fashion, you see organization at its best. It's the first church we've been to that had full time staff walking around and you could ask them any questions. The audio tour is also laid out in the most efficient way with very clear directions and excellent narration. The church hosts royal weddings, coronation of the new monarch and funerals. It's also significant as the final resting place of many English monarchs and famous people. It was a little weird to walk on top of stones marked with the names of the people buried under them but I guess when you have to bury so many people over the course of centuries in what's not a huge church, that's the only option.

We saw graves of pioneer scientists like Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin and the so-called Poet's corner with the graves of many writers and poets like Charles Dickens, Jane Austin, William Wordsworth and CS Lewis among many others. We saw the resting place of many kings, queens, members of the royal family and dukes. The church itself is a fine example of gothic architecture with its ornate nave and the so-called lady chapel. We saw the main altar with its decorative floor of Italian tiles lined with semi-precious stones. It's the location where English monarchs have been coronated since the eleventh century. After doing the audio tour, we exited the church but not before we saw the original oak coronation chair that was last used in 1953 for Queen Elizabeth the second's coronation and will be used next time for her heir.

Then we took the tube to Oxford Street for some shopping. After that, we decided to stop at the Turkish restaurant where we had dinner a couple of days ago, this time for lunch. We tried their combo deal that came with 8 appetizers to share followed by two small main courses - lamb for me and chicken for Samia. All 8 appetizers were outstanding and included hummus, baba ghanoush, yogurt with beans, falafel, cheese pastry, eggplant, mahmara and fatoush salad. We then had Turkish tea before ending the splendid meal with kunafe for dessert. We decided to rest up so we took the tube back to our hotel to rest for about an hour.

We left at about 6 pm and took the tube to the Greenwich station. We were meeting Samia's aunt Phoppo Appa for dinner. As soon as you walk out of the station, you see the Greenwich line which is the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) line that's the standard reference used for specifying time zones around the world. We met her outside the O2 arena which is a huge complex for shopping and restaurants. We walked along the River Thames for a very peaceful walk, very much unlike the busy touristy path outside the Tower of London. The weather had cooled down after a hot day and the breeze was just perfect. We walked to a bench along the river bank and sat there for about an hour catching up with Phoppa Appa while savoring the serene sights that lay in front of us.

Then around 8:20 pm, we started walking back to the O2 arena and reached Jimmy's Restaurant. The restaurant was picked by Phoppo Appa and it was an excellent choice. The restaurant offered an all-you-can-eat buffet for a variety of cuisines - desi, Chinese, continental, Thai, sushi and of course desserts. There were also stalls where you could get freshly stir-fried noodles and fresh naans. It was a delightful dining experience and we made the most of it since we needed a few hours to do justice to the variety of offer but only had an hour before the restaurant closed at 10 pm. Dinner was a treat by Phoppo Appa. After dinner, we walked back together to the tube station and took the first train together to the junction station of London Bridge. After a splendid evening with Phoppo Appa, we then took the train back to our hotel and finalized our packing for our flight in the morning.

London has been the perfect end to our vacation. There is so much to do, so much to see and such excellent food that we have decided that we will continue coming back, perhaps for short stopovers on our trips to Pakistan and other parts of the world. The cosmopolitan mega city is a unique blend of history and the global modern world with excellent culinary options and a worthy transit system. For urban explorers like me and Samia, it's the perfect getaway. We were lucky to not get any rain so perhaps that's why our experience was so good but we'll put that to test by making London a frequent destination in future.

Italy Diaries - Day 18 - London Part Two

London is the relaxing leg of our trip so we had decided to sleep in and woke up around 10 am. Last night we had again purchased butter croissants from the grocery store across the road from our hotel so we had them for breakfast, in addition to the in-room coffee and biscuits. Sleeping in late was a great idea in terms of catching up on sleep but since that meant a longer gap between meals for Samia, she started having symptoms that she typically gets before the onset of a migraine. We walked to Eat for a proper breakfast comprising hot oatmeal (which is called porridge in England), toast with avocado spread and latte. Then we went back to our room and Samia rested some more while I opened the windows to let in fresh air. Thanks to the caffeine, food, oxygen and rest, we were able to quell Samia's migraine before it had started. Then we got ready and left for the day at around 2 pm.

We took the bus to a stop close to the Westminster bridge, another iconic bridge over the river Thames. We stopped at a Pakistani restaurant for lunch. I had chicken achaari with rice and Samia had a beef burger. I also had a samosa. The food was pretty good which was more than we expected as we had stopped at the first place we saw after getting off the bus. It was a much hotter day as compared to yesterday.

Our plan was to do a walking tour using Rick Steves' audio guide. We started in the middle of the Westminster bridge where we could see the giant Ferris wheel called the London Eye on the East End behind us. We then walked to the end of the bridge to perhaps the most famous icon of London, the Big Ben. This giant clock tower is on one corner of the Houses of Parliament. The Houses of Parliament used to be the royal residence in olden days but is now the location of the two Houses of Parliament - the lower house called the House of Commons and the upper house called the House of Lords. House of Commons and the MPs that comprise it are the real governing power of England. We also saw the offices of the MPs in a modern looking building that's the real seat of power in today's England.

We walked a little further down to the parliament square that has statues of some famous world leaders like Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. The parliament square sits between the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and the adjoining smaller Saint Margaret's church and finally a boulevard called Whitehall that leads all the way to Trafalgar Square. We started walking along Whitehall and saw various departments' ministry buildings such as the foreign ministry and the defense ministry. We also saw the road that leads to Churchill War Rooms that chronicle the world war history. There were a few statues in the middle of the boulevard as memorials to women soldiers and a couple of generals. We also saw Downing Street being guarded by London policemen called bobbies. The Prime Minister's house at 10 Downing Street could be seen with a nondescript entrance a few houses down the street.

Our last stop of the walking tour was the Trafalgar Square, the important square that sits between the National Gallery, the road called The Mall that leads to Buckingham Palace and of course, Whitehall that leads back to Parliament Square. There was an event going on in the square where hundreds of Sikhs wearing orange turbans were present on the occasion of the anniversary of the 1984 massacre of Sikhs in India. We walked back to get an ice cream from McDonald's and then made our way to Churchill War Rooms. Unfortunately, we missed the last entry into the museum by two minutes so we decided to pass time in the Saint James Park across the road.

We sat there for about half an hour at a bench, savoring the shade of the green trees on the hot day with a view of a pond with different types of birds including pelicans. Then we started walking on a path that is a memorial for Princess Diana of Wales. We crossed a bridge that has some great views and then exited the park on to The Mall and continued walking towards the Buckingham Palace. It's the official residence of the Queen of England who is technically also the Queen of Canada. When I took my citizenship oath earlier this year, I swore allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the second and now here I was, at her residence, to thank her personally. Just kidding, the queen wasn't at the Palace which is signaled by flying the Union Jack on the palace. If she is in the building, the royal flag is flown instead. After having seen many palaces all over Europe, the Buckingham Palace didn't seem as grand as some of the others but it's unique because it's an active royal residence. We sat at the base of the giant statue of Queen Victoria in front of the palace for a few minutes before making our way to the closest bus stop.

We took the bus to Edgeware Road and passed the Marble Arch on our way. The Marble Arch was originally designed to be a part of the Buckingham Palace but Queen Victoria did not like it so it was moved where it stands today. We were meeting Samia's childhood friend Sameen and her husband Bilal for dinner on Edgeware Road. This road is quite well known to Pakistanis as many rich Pakistanis live around this area. Altaf Hussain, the in-exile leader of MQM also lives here. The road is dominated with Middle Eastern shops, shisha bars and restaurants. We met Sameen and Bilal at a Lebanese restaurant. We spent the next four hours chatting with them over dinner that was a treat by our friends. We had hummus, kibbeh and fatoush salad for appetizers. I had the mixed grill and Samia had chicken Shish Tawook for the main course and finally we had a Lebanese version of the Turkish dessert kunafe. After dinner, we took the bus back to a stop close to our hotel since the tube wasn't running anymore as it was pretty late. Then we walked back to our hotel and called it a night.

Italy Diaries - Day 17 - London Part One

We woke up at 7:30 am and after relaxing for about half an hour, we had the butter croissants that we had purchased the night before and then had complimentary in-room coffee with biscuits. Then we got ready and left the hotel at around 11 am. We stopped at a chain cafe called Eat that's one block away from our hotel for a second breakfast. I had an avocado and egg sandwich with ciabatta bread and Samia had a toast with avocado spread. We also shared a latte. All ingredients were fresh so everything tasted great.

Then we walked to a nearby bus stop and boarded the red double decker bus to London Bridge. When people think of the London Bridge, the image that comes to mind is that of a bridge that passes through two giant towers - that's not the London Bridge, it's the Tower Bridge. London Bridge is a very plain looking modern bridge and the name is perhaps more significant for a nearby station by the same name that's a major junction for the underground tube and rail service. Then we walked for about ten minutes to our main sightseeing attraction of the day, the Tower of London.

The Tower of London is a medieval complex of buildings that's still intact. It gets its name from a white tower that was one of the first buildings to be built within the complex. There is a main castle in the middle surrounded on all sides by towers and stone buildings, some of which serve as a museum now. One of the buildings is a chapel and one old barracks has been converted to a modern cafe for tourists. The buildings are behind a tall thick wall that used to be guarded. Beyond the thick wall used to be a moat filled with water and the other end of the moat was another thick guarded wall, shorter than the inner wall but still quite tall. There used to be only a couple of bridges connecting this fortress to the rest of the city but when those were drawn, it was virtually impossible to penetrate this stronghold. It was built in the mid-eleventh century by the then English king as a means of intimidating the residents of London with the power of the royal crown. Through the centuries, it was used as a prison for notorious criminals and enemies of the state and had state of the art torture techniques. Just outside the stone building complex is a small square that's now next to the ticket booth. This square has witnessed many executions that were carried out using a chopping block and axe. The axe and the chopping block are now on display inside the tower.

We bought our tickets and waited for about half an hour for the next guided tour of the Tower of London. These guided tours are conducted by the so-called beefeaters. These beefeaters were the guards of the tower and got the name because of the generous quota of beef that they got from the monarch. Currently, there are 35 beefeaters and to this day, they live with their families inside the tower. This was an extremely entertaining one hour long tour with typical British humor being employed while narrating gory stories and the history of the tower. We found out during the tour that among the many executed at the tower, some of them were members of the royal family that were executed on the monarch's orders. Specifically there was a king who had a few of his wives executed as they were unable to provide him with a male heir. We also found out about how one executioner botched an execution because he was drunk and needed seven strokes of the axe to kill the poor victim on his block!

After the guided tour, we went to the cafe to have lunch. To our surprise, unlike most tourist attraction cafes that offer very one dimensional food, it had a great variety of cuisines. We had a roast chicken leg with steamed veggies and butter chicken with rice. After the lunch, we got in line to see the most famous items housed inside the Tower of London - the Crown Jewels. We saw the scepters, orbs and crowns of various monarchs of the past including a crown that has the 530-carat Cullinan diamond from South Africa and the crown with the Koh-i-Noor diamond from India. We also saw the extravagant gold vessels that are used for royal coronations and important events. We also learnt that the royal crown can never leave England so when King George visited India just before the partition of British India, new crowns were forged for him and his queen to wear in India.

We also checked out the Fusiliers museum that pays tribute to the Fusilier soldiers of the British Crown. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the British is the continuity of traditions that they've held on to for centuries, with adaptations to keep up with changing times - they still follow royal protocols, still have a monarch, the palaces are active palaces, Westminster Abbey is an active church and in the same vein, the Fusiliers are active soldiers that still fight in wars around the world. There was a sample Fusilier backpack on display that people were invited to lift. It was very heavy and I could only briefly lift it, only to find out that the typical Fusilier backpack is much heavier than the one on display! Then we visited the Beauchamp tower where various prisoners who were held there for multiple years have left their mark on the walls in the form of engravings - quotes, last words or their coat of arms.

In the remaining time, we could've gone up some of the other towers or walked on the inner wall but instead we decided to visit the coin museum that's located inside what used to be the coin mint of the day located inside the tower. Now it's next to where the beefeaters live with their families. The coin museum chronicles the different techniques that were used over time to mint coins. We were surprised to find out that Sir Isaac Newton was the Master of the mint. When he wasn't busy theorizing gravity or the laws of motion, he would find new techniques to make the coin minting process more efficient. We learnt that to this day, British currency Pound Sterling has the face of the reigning monarch on it. This means that when a new monarch ascends to the throne after the much loved Queen Elizabeth the second, all currency will have to be reprinted. It was time for the Tower of London to be closed for the day so we decided to head out. Then we rested for a few minutes at a bench next to the River Thames and took a few pictures with the tower bridge in the background. We walked back to the London Bridge bus stop and took the bus back to our hotel where we rested for an hour.

We left for dinner around 6:30 pm and took the underground tube. London's transit system is the most comprehensive and efficient that we've witnessed anywhere in the world. Due to its coverage, it rivals the Japanese train system in Tokyo but is probably slightly better than the transit system of New York City or Paris. We got off at Oxford Street that's a lively shopping street. We passed through a narrow alley that opened into a square where our restaurant was located. It was a Turkish restaurant with delicious food and efficient service. We got hummus and mahmara for appetizers. My main course was a mixed grill plate with two types of lamb kababs and a chicken filet whereas Samia got chicken Shish Tawook. To make room for dessert, I had the traditional Turkish tea while Samia had mint tea. Then we had kunafe for dessert which is by far our most favorite middle eastern dessert. We don't have any Turkish restaurants in Calgary so the excellent depth of cosmopolitan London's culinary scene is our chance to enjoy delicious Turkish food. After dinner, we took the tube back to our hotel and went to bed.

Italy Diaries - Day 16 - Italy to London

We woke up at 7 am in Sorrento and quickly got ready. All our bags were ready to go when we went upstairs to the top floor breakfast room. We had cereal, yogurt, croissant and latte for breakfast and then checked out of our hotel a little after 8 am. Then we walkeyd to the nearby square where our airport transfer service car and driver were waiting. It took us about an hour to reach Naples airport.

We checked-in our bags around 10 am and then sat at one of the very comfortable lounge couches for about an hour. During that time, we used Rick Steves' pocket guidebook for London to plan out our trip. We passed through passport control and then boarded our plane around 11:30 am. The flight was delayed by a few minutes and then the pilot decided to take a longer route since apparently the labor strike in France is still affecting air traffic! After a two and a half hour duration flight, we landed at the Gatwick airport in London at 2:30 pm local time, after a one hour time adjustment from Italy. We got some sleep on the flight and used the remaining time to do some more London sightseeing planning using our very helpful guidebook.

The immigration processing line moved slow so we had to wait about 15 minutes for our turn. After we had passed immigration, it took another 20-25 minutes to get our bags since the baggage claim information screen was displaying the wrong carousel number so everyone was waiting at the wrong one initially. Once we finally got our bags around 3 pm, we purchased a couple of Nando's peri peri chicken wraps for a late lunch. Then after buying train tickets, we hopped on the Gatwick Express train and ate our wraps during the 20 minute ride. It was a very smooth ride and we disembarked at the London Bridge train station. Then we took a taxi to our hotel and were in our room at 4:30 pm after checking-in.

London is very different from North America and possibly the rest of Europe as well. It's unique - I'll give an example. The official London black taxi is a special car that we haven't seen anywhere else in the world so it's possibly a custom built car/design just for London taxis. It doesn't have a trunk in the back and the seat is all the way in the back. You have to help yourself by loading your luggage in front of your seat at your feet behind the taxi driver. The cars are right hand drive like Pakistan but the speed limits are in miles per hour like the US. 

Our hotel is in Central London and one of the best ones where we've stayed. They provide the usual perks of a five-star hotel like turn down service at night but also go beyond that. They have given us a smartphone with mobile maps and GPS that is free to use! It came in really handy later in the evening when we had to meet up with our friends from LUMS Sherry and Sana who live in London. We took showers to freshen up and then left our hotel a little before 7 pm.

We took the underground train, called the tube, for about 40 minutes after buying the Oyster Card that's needed to travel on the tube. Luckily, Samia had her Oyster Card from last year when she was in London for her MBA summer exchange semester so we only needed to buy just one new card and loaded credit in her old card. After getting off the tube, we walked for about ten minutes to reach a Persian restaurant that our friends had picked. The food was amazing. We had two appetizers, one made with eggplant and the other was yogurt with mint. Then we had a huge mixed platter with all kinds of kababs to share, in addition to lamb shank. Everything was delicious, specially the touch of real pomegranate seeds on the plain white rice. The dinner was our friends' treat which was very nice of them! They even dropped us back to our hotel. After that, we walked over to the local supermarket to buy water. We also got a couple of croissants for breakfast since there is no complimentary breakfast at this hotel. Till the next update from the capital of England, take care and goodbye!

Italy Diaries - Day 15 - Capri

On our last sightseeing day of what has been a thoroughly enjoyable two week trip of Italy, we woke up at 6:30 am in Sorrento. We got ready and then headed up to the top floor for breakfast. We got a table on the terrace with a clear view of Mount Vesuvius, the island of Capri and the calm sea. We had cereal, yogurt, croissant with Nutella and latte. Then we walked to a nearby piazza with a gorgeous view of the sea, the same view that we got from our breakfast table on our hotel's terrace. The pickup shuttle van arrived in a couple of minutes and we were on our way to the marina. Thanks to staying close to the marina, we were the last ones picked up which gave us a bit more time.

We reached the marina a few minutes before 9 am and met our guide. She explained the plan for the day and then we boarded the high-speed ferry to the island of Capri. The ferry ride took a little over twenty minutes to reach the island of Capri. The island is to the west of the Sorrentine peninsula with the Gulf of Naples to its north and the Gulf of Salerno to its south. The island has two main villages - Capri and Anacapri. Capri is almost at sea level whereas Anacapri is about 500 meters above sea level. After disembarking the ferry, we got on a smaller boat that seated about 20-25 people for a cruise around the island to see its geographic highlights.

We saw the high mountainous cliffs with expensive celebrity owned villas on them. We also saw some grottos - another name for caves inside mountains. One of them has a stalactite formation that looks like Virgin Mary and is very popular with Italians and tourists alike. Another grotto is big enough that small boats can pass through it and the mountain to emerge on the other side. We also saw the most famous grotto - the Blue Grotto - which gets its name from the magical whitish blue hue of the water inside the cave, a phenomenon caused by the sunlight that enters the cave. Only one small boat can go inside the grotto at a time and it is only open to tourists if the tide is low. The tide was high and the grotto was closed. We also saw the red colored lighthouse of the island and a road called "Mamma Mia" or "Oh my God" road. The road is on the way from Capri to Anacapri and gives the most breathtaking view of the village of Capri and its harbor. When American tourists used to pass that stretch of the road, they would always exclaim "Oh my God" at the sharp turn and the breathtaking view so that's how the road got its name. We also saw the three faraglioni rocks that are just a few meters away from the coast of the island with a giant "gate" between them.

After the cruise had finished circling the island, we got dropped off at the marina. We then opted for an optional leg of the tour which turned out to be a great decision in retrospect. We drove in a mini bus to the village of Anacapri and passed through the "Mamma Mia" stretch. The name is absolutely spot on because the picture perfect scene does take your breath away. You can see the harbor with its deep blue water, you see stationary and in-motion boats/ships and you see the houses of the village of Capri on the hill. Once we reached Anacapri, our guide told us about possible activities in the village. We couldn't do the chairlift/cable car ride to the top of the mountain so we had lunch. It was a fixed price menu with decent food. We had cheese ravioli and chicken cutlet followed by chocolate cake for dessert. After lunch, we walked through a shopping street and reached a vista point where we got the same view that we got from the "Mamma Mia" road. We took some pictures there and then walked back to the main square. We did some window shopping and shared a mango milkshake. Then it was time to meet with our tour group so we boarded the mini bus again, this time to the town of Capri.

If we had not taken this optional mini bus tour, we would've certainly missed what ended up being the highlight of the day. Our guide did a short walking tour through the main square of Capri with its church and bell tower and then a high-end shopping street lined with famous Italian designer brand name shops. We also saw a perfumery Carthusa that continues the perfume making tradition of local monks that had stumbled upon the recipe of making flowery scented perfumes when they had accidentally left some local flowers in a vase for a few days and the water started to smell like perfume. Finally we arrived at the gardens that gave us a view that'll always stay etched in our memory. The gardens have a few vista points that gave you views of the other side of the island. Luckily, we found the bench in front of the best view unoccupied so we sat there for almost half an hour admiring the scene in front of our eyes.

We saw the mountainous cliffs meet the sea with the deep blue water waves splashing against the rocks on the shore. We were viewing this from high above so the splashing waves seemed to create a white foam upon impact with the rocks. The sea bed near the shore was shallower with the water having a lighter greenish hue. We could see the pastel colored houses and villas on the hills and boats leaving their trails in water. The three faraglioni rocks could also be seen standing majestically in the distance. The clear blue of the sky and the deep blue of the sea water seemed to merge at the horizon, making the entire scene seem like a continuum of land, water and sky. After the two scenic views earlier in this trip - one in our Bellagio hotel next to Lake Como and the other in Monterosso in Cinque Terre, this was another memorable moment of serenity and calmness.

After the amazing half an hour, we walked back to our mini bus, passing through the high-end shopping street and the main square. We stopped for a quick gelato break and got pistachio and banana flavors to share. The mini bus took us back to the harbor in the village of Capri where we waited for our tour group for about half an hour. We were hungry so we had a slice each of marinara pizza that was okay. We met up with our tour group at 5 pm but the ferry was late so we had to wait till about 5:40 pm to get on the ferry back to Sorrento. We reached Sorrento a little after 6 pm and got on a shuttle van that dropped us off at our hotel. We were the second ones to be dropped off, thanks again to the proximity of our hotel to the marina. We rested for a couple of hours before heading out for dinner. We went back to the Kabab place that we went to a couple of days back. Samia had the same sandwich as she had last time but I got two sandwiches since I was really hungry. After dinner, we walked back to our hotel and packed our suitcases to get ready for the flight from Naples to London in the morning. Till the next update from London, take care and ciao!

Italy Diaries - Day 14 - Amalfi Coast

It was going to be a relatively laid back day so we slept in and woke up at 9 am. After half an hour, we went for breakfast to the top floor of our hotel. There are some really nice views of Mount Vesuvius and Capri from the dining area and the breakfast was also quite fancy. They had quiches, pastries, tarts and cakes in addition to the standard croissant, eggs, coffee, muffins, bread and cereal. We were going to drive on the winding roads of the Amalfi coast so didn't want to overeat and stuck to cereal and yogurt with caffe latte. After breakfast, we came back to our and got ready. We left the hotel at around 12:15 pm.

The Amalfi coast is a stretch of coastline on the Sorrentine Peninsula in Southern Italy. The Gulf of Naples is to the north of the peninsula whereas the Gulf of Salerno is to its south. The coastline starts a few kilometers after Sorrento on the Gulf of Salerno side and goes on for about 40 kilometers. It's that stretch of the road that's famous as a tourist attraction for its gorgeous landscape and is known as the Amalfi coast. The region is famous for its lemons that are used to make virtually all kinds of things involving lemons, specially limoncello which is a liquor made from lemons. You can see lemon products shops all over Sorrento as well.

We walked to the train station and bought tickets to the town of Amalfi for the sightseeing bus. The bus left Sorrento at 1 pm. It's a 90 minute ride to Amalfi although the distance is less than 50 kilometers. The roads along the Amalfi coast are winding so speeds have to be relatively slow. It's a beautiful drive with mountains on your left and the sea on your right. You can see different coastal towns from afar because of the curving road. The sea water was a clear blue that sparkled in sunlight and the occasional towns with pastel colored buildings reminded us of the townscape of villages of Cinque Terre earlier in the trip. After the drive, we reached Amalfi at around 2:30 pm. Other notable tourist towns along the Amalfi coast are Positano and Ravello. During our drive, we had passed through Positano whereas Ravello is another half an hour from Amalfi. We could've tried to fit one or both of those towns in our itinerary but we felt that the touch-and-go would not be worth the effort so we decided to focus on one town - Amalfi.

We walked to the main square of the town and like all other towns of this region, we saw many lemon product shops, pizzerias, gelato shops, restaurants and souvenir shops. We picked a recommended restaurant that served pizza since you can't miss having pizza when in the greater Naples area. Naples makes a fair claim to inventing pizza and they did such a great job of exporting it globally that now there is probably nowhere in the world where you can't get pizza. We had marinara pizza and vegetable minestrone soup with a side of grilled vegetables. Fresh ingredients meant that the pizza was amazing and so were the grilled vegetables. The soup needed some help from Parmesan cheese but with some generous help, it tasted good too. We also tried the lemon cake that was probably one of the best we've had, the secret again being fresh ingredients.

After lunch, we strolled around the square doing window shopping and then sat at the steps of the square's church to rest. Then we went out of the town square to the harbor and walked on a long narrow pier into the sea to get a great vantage point of the townscape. We took some pictures and then walked back to the main square where we took a gelato break. I tried cheesecake and yogurt flavors and Samia got hazelnut and mint. We sat on the chairs outside the Gelateria and indulged in people watching while getting our daily gelato fix. At about 5:20 pm, we decided to head back to Sorrento so we got on the 5:40 pm bus and were back in Sorrento at about 7 pm.

On our way back through the lovely pedestrian street, we stopped at a tourism company's office and inquired about their tour package to Capri for the next day. After getting all the information, we came back to our hotel and rested for about an hour and a half. We researched the tour package and it appeared to offer good value for money by saving us time and organizational efforts. We went out for dinner at about 9:15 pm and first stopped at the tourism company office to buy the day tour to the island of Capri. We also bought the airport transfer service tickets from our hotel to the Naples airport for Friday morning. That's when we will be taking a flight from Naples to London's Gatwick airport. We will be in London for our final 4 days of this trip.

Dinner was at a burger joint a few steps away from the Kabab place that we had discovered yesterday. This burger joint was ranked just one below the Kabab place so we had a feeling that it would be good. We were right - the burgers were juicy and tasteful. We had read in the reviews for this place that the owners don't speak any English so communicating with them was a fun experience. But their service was impeccable. They even gave us free dessert - fresh strawberries topped with cream and chocolate flakes. After dinner, we came back to our hotel and went to bed. Till the next update about Capri, take care!