Friday, 10/22 - Pisa
I don't remember
where we had breakfast on this day. Possibly in the Taste, one of the main
dining rooms, since our excursion didn't leave until after noon. Or shortly
before noon. We started off with a long bus ride to get to Pisa.
We were there to see
the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but the bus didn't take us all the way there. It
took us to a bus parking lot near the edge of town, where we switched to a
'train'. It was an open air vehicle, as the small cars didn't have any windows
in the window slots. And it didn't operate on rails; it used rubber tires like
a car. I am reminded of 'trains' that the Shriners and some other organizations
use in parades, only the one we rode in wasn't painted so brightly.
The train was packed
rather tightly as it drove us through the city streets and deposited us about a
block from the Tower. We hadn't gotten a glimpse of the Tower as we approached,
as it is located in a religious complex, and there were some large buildings
between the streets and the Tower.
There we were met by
the specialist guide, who led us through another open market selling trinkets
and souvenirs until we could see the Tower from a particular angle. It looked
to be perfectly straight up and down. I wondered if engineers had actually
managed to correct its leaning proclivity, but as soon as we changed our
position, it became clear that the Tower had been leaning right at us. That
gave me a little bit of a chill.
We walked a quarter
of the way around the Tower and listened to the guide tell us all about the
history of the Tower, and the efforts made to make it cease leaning. When the
guide continued to walk on, directly away from the Tower, and around the
church, John was busy trying to get a good picture of the Tower. I wasn't even
sure he was aware we had continued on, and as the minutes ticked by, I began to
wonder if he would ever catch up to us. But eventually he did. I still don't
know if he got the picture he wanted.
For some reason, this
church had been built in two pieces; the main portion with the pews, which we
were not allowed to enter, and then a round or octagonal piece several yards
away, which we were also not allowed to enter. But the guide filled our ears
with 'interesting' facts about the church, like pointing out that the details
carved into the 40-foot tall doors got larger and more exaggerated as they went
up the doors, so that they could be seen by those standing on the ground. And a
lot of other facts that I can't remember now.
Then we walked around
the other side of the main portion of the church, and were soon looking at the
'backside' of the Tower. Now she told us that the Tower actually has a bit of a
bend to it, as the architects tried to compensate for the leaning by adjusting
the length of the pillars as they went around the outside of the Tower. But she
got me confused when it seemed she said the pillars were longer on the side
that was on the 'top' side, which would have made the lean worse. Consequently,
even when she took us to a position 3/4 of the way around the tower, I could
not see the bend that she kept trying to point out. My brain was confused, and
my eyes would not cooperate.
Finally, she took us
back to our starting point, where the Tower once again seemed to be standing up
perfectly fine, right after telling us all that if it were to lean just a few
more degrees, it would come tumbling down!
Well, I was ready to
leave. So we walked most of the way back to the 'train stop', where we were
given half an hour to go in the restaurant, use the bathrooms, visit the gift
shop and get some snacks, if we wanted. But please do not wander on our own.
Well, somebody got the memo that tourists were not to wander around on their
own.
As we all collected
in a group across from the restaurant at the end of our half hour, some
merchants from the market came over to try to sell us things. The guide finally
got a count to make sure she had all of us, and took us back to the train,
which took us back to the bus.
Traffic on the bus
ride back to the boat was horrendous, and at least once came to a complete
standstill as emergency vehicles made their way past us. It took us much longer
to get back to the boat than it took to get to Pisa, and we were beginning to
get worried that we wouldn't make it back in time, but we did. Later than we
expected to get back, but we got back in time.
I'm not sure where we
ate that night. It might have been the Irish pub in the middle of the casino,
which seemed to have some of the best food on the ship. But their menu didn't
change from day to day, so I guess they got lots of practice with what they
made.
We didn't have any
excursions the next day, but we were still pretty worn out, so we went to bed.
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