Exploring Pompeii

Good thing the ship always reminds us what day it is when we step on the elevator each morning because the last three days felt like a year! We were all rested and excited to go on our first excursion to explore the city ruins of Pompeii. 

This was a common sight in our room each day after breakfast... Ice is a hard thing to come by in Europe (no restaurants will serve you ice water either), and even on the ship, it wasn't always available, so we would stock up in the morning to fill our water bottles and cooling towels for the day. We still ended up buying an unbelievable amount of water on this trip to stay hydrated in the summer heat, but at least some of it was cold, thanks to our morning collection of ice!

Before heading out for the day, Emily was determined to teach Ben how to braid...

He gave it a good try, but I don't think his future as a hair stylist is looking too good...

We stopped for a few pictures after getting off the ship in Naples before looking for our meeting place for our tour of Pompeii.

After navigating through the cruise terminal and finding our way out to the taxi & bus line, we finally found our tour and were on our way to explore!

To learn a little bit about Pompeii, here is a clip from Wikipedia:

"The city of Pompeii was buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Largely preserved under the ash, Pompeii offers a unique snapshot of Roman life, frozen at the moment it was buried,^[1] as well as insight into ancient urban planning.^[2][3] It was a wealthy town of 10,000 to 20,000 residents at the time it was destroyed.^[4] It hosted many fine public buildings and luxurious private houses with lavish decorations, furnishings and artworks, which were the main attractions for early excavators; subsequent excavations have found hundreds of private homes and businesses reflecting various architectural styles and social classes, as well as numerous public buildings. Organic remains, including wooden objects and human bodies, were interred in the ash; their eventual decay allowed archaeologists to create moulds of figures in their final moments of life. The numerous graffiti carved on outside walls and inside rooms provide a wealth of examples of the largely lost Vulgar Latin spoken colloquially at the time, contrasting with the formal language of classical writers."

It was so cool walking around the streets of this excavated city, and I was surprised to learn that they are still uncovering new things each day!

Our cooling cloths were a lifesaver on the hot days (which was all of them)... Now if everyone would just bring their own, then they wouldn't all have to huddle around each other to cool off!

The long narrow passageways through the town were so fun to explore, but with such a big tour, it was sometimes hard to hear our guide through the radio. We stayed up front to hear all of the history, but some people made quite a spectacle out of this... and it provided some laughs for the rest of us!

It was sad seeing some of the skeletons that have been found, but very interesting to see all of the preserved molds of people who had been covered in ash and stone with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Pompeii was quite well known for its many brothels throughout the city, and they would carve penises into the streets to show the direction of the closest house. 😳😳

Each brothel would also have a large carving on the building so everyone could identify it.

In the brothels, there would be many rooms with paintings above the doors of different sexual positions. Apparently, you would go to the room of the position you wanted and someone would be there to meet you! 

Can you imagine walking into a room and this was your bed??? Seems kind of crazy to me!

We ended up in the main square of Pompeii where we had a beautiful view of Mount Vesuvius! The area, called the Civil Forum, was the core of daily life of the city and is the focal point of all the main public buildings for city administration and justice, business management, and trade activities such as markets, as well as the main places of citizen worship. 

After exploring the ruins of this expansive city, we headed back to do some souvenir shopping, and were not quite prepared for how much the city embraces the history of their brothels!!! We had a blast looking through the tents of crazy momentos, and the shop owner of one of them had so much fun with our family's "acceptance" of their iconic gifts!

Getting back on the ship after a day of exploring under Europe's hot sun was always amazing because there was the coldest blast of air conditioning as soon as we stepped onboard. I could have stayed there all afternoon each time we returned!

Pompeii helped us work up a good appetite, so when we got back on the boat, Ben tried his first chili dog (well, he actually had two), and Emily's plate of carbs was quite impressive as well!

We were back on board and ready to move to the next place!

The kids picked out some awesome shirts from our Pompeii adventure (as well as a few "slightly" inappropriate gifts)!

We had some time to walk around the ship and check out some entertainment before getting ready for dinner that night.

Our trivia-loving family of course, went to the "Name that Flag" event with our secret weapon in tow: Our very own flag expert, Emily! 

She did amazing and got EVERY SINGLE ONE RIGHT!

When it came down to the final question, there were 6 kids who had tied...

Unfortunately, Emily didn't get the last flag fast enough, but she still won the elusive Royal Caribbean keychain that we would see as prizes throughout our trip.

Check out all of the flags Emily knew! We're so proud of you Em (and you totally carried our team)!!!!

We enjoyed a quick glass of champagne in the room while we got ready for dinner and before heading out to what became a nightly pre-dinner music trivia event!

Check out all of the music trivia we got right (with the help of a cool couple we met on their honeymoon, named Sarah & Paul... You'll see them pop up again later in our trip... A LOT)!!!! 

(Ok, so not quite as good as Emily's flag knowledge, but not too bad!)

A few pre-dinner pictures...

We were welcomed into the dining room each night by our favorite waiter, Gerald, and everytime he would see us, he would exclaim, "My family"!!!! He always wanted to know how our day was, what we did, and was always impressed with Ben's upscale menu selection each evening (I think the beef carpaccio and the quinoa stuffed peppers surprised him the most)! However, I think Emily was definitely his favorite ("Emily, Emily, Emily"!!!)! He tried each night to get her to order off the regular menu, but he knew it was in vain, and he always had a kids menu ready for her! As the week went on, he had special carrots made for her since he found out it was the only vegetable she would eat. We loved Gerald!

After dinner, Emily, Ben, and I took a detour on our way back to the room and enjoyed a beautiful sunset together on the ship's deck.

Emily took the time for a little bit of "off-ice practice" and worked on some of her skating moves on deck.

What a beautiful way to end a wonderful day together!

Sunset was definitely MY bedtime alarm, but Brian, Abby, & Emily had a little more energy left in the day to catch the night ice skating show. They had a blast while I cozied up in bed and promised I would go back and watch it with them another time...