We did our final chores around the house and headed to ABE airport around 12:30pm. A friend of Denises that lives near the airport offered to let us stow our car there and drop and pick us up. We checked our one bag, made it through TSA and headed to the gate. The flight to Philly and to Frankfurt were pretty uneventful and smooth which was good. The flight tonFrankfurt was 8 hours so we managed to catch a few winks here and there. I forked over an $50 each to get us to seat along the window since we were supposed to be in the middle 2 of 4 seats in the center aisle. Did that once coming back from Thailand and will avoid it if possible.
Our layover in Frankfurt was ~4 hours so we had some time to walk around. Denise got some eggs and I had soft pretzel and a German beer for breakfast. We sat at a big glass window with the sun blasting in. This really made us feel tired. It was around 7 am in Germany, but 1AM in Allentown. We also had to go through EU immigration and security(again!) in Frankfurt which stinks, but we had time to kill. The good thing was is that we didn’t have to do anything in Italy when we arrived.
We boarded our 2 hr Lufthansa flight to Naples and we almost there. Denise and I were seated separately so I slept a lot this flight. They served a cold Thai noodle salad which I ate a few bites and went back to sleep. The landing in Naples was one of the hardest I think I ever had. The pilot made a joke, in German, about it afterwards and everyone was laughing. I just laughed too so I didn’t look too stupid.
We got into the terminal in Naples and the baggage claim was right in the door. Unfortunately our bag was one of the last. We grabbed it and headed out the terminal to the buses. The Curreri Viaggi bus was sitting there, so we hopped it direct to Sorrento for €10 instead of taking the Alibus to the Circumvesuviana train to Sorrento. Then was around a hour and a half. After arriving in Sorrento we got our Sita bus tickets and headed down the street for a gelato and a cappuccino. We walked back to bus stop atn3:15 and bus was sitting there already. We hopped on and the bus left at exactly 3:30. The ride to Amalfi was harrowing yet beautiful. The bus had so many close calls on the narrow winding road along thencoast that I could not begin to recount them all. It is just crazy! We sat on the right side of the bus so we had gorgeous views of the coastline thewhole ride.
We arrived along the ocean piazza in Amalfi and made our way up to our hotel, the Hotel Amalfi. Our room is pretty basic, but is very clean and perfect for us since we are notnther much. The staff or owners are so nice and helpful. They gave us a whole lesson on Amalfi culture and when and what they typically eat. They also were running a free guided tour to Valle Della Ferriere on Monday, which gets me off the hook as tour guide for a day. There free breakfast is very nice too. Cereal and croissants, fruit, meat.
We enjoyed a great dinner at thenRistorante La Perla right down thenalley way from the hotel. The menu is so extensive that you could eat there everyday for 6 months without eating the same thing twice. They have several pages of just pizza! After our meal we headed back to our room and crashed.
