A Day on Capri

Today was a day trip to Capri so a coach picked us up at the hotel and took us down to the harbour to wait for our ferry to the island. The manoeuvring they do is interesting, coming into the harbour and swinging on a bow anchor through 90° and the revers back for loading. Some of them don’t run as clean as the others. Our boat was packed with rows and rows of seats, Thankfully the sea was like a mill pond, which is not always the case.
The crossing is quite short and we were soon docking in Capri Harbour, same technique with the anchor and swing this time 180°.

Then it was on to mini busses, these are just like miniature coaches taking about 20 people to go up the mountain to the cable car station where there was an opportunity to take the chair lift and that is what it ism a single suspended chair, to the top of the mountain.

The views from the top of the mountain were great looking back at the mainland. Well it is 589 meters above sea level and above some of the clouds. We did slip up as we stopped for coffee, moved tables and paid for someone else’s coffee as well.

Unfortunately we didn’t have long up there and had to make our way down to meet the others at the bus station to move off to another part of the island. The Taxis around here are all chopped off convertibles. We had strict instructions to meet at the bell tower after lunch if we wanted to visit the gardens.

Cars are not allowed past the point where you see the taxi parked but they do allow electric luggage trollies as used on railway stations and they are silent but deadly.

We beetled off to a recommended restaurant in one of the allies, away from the square for lunch and bagged a window table  with wonderful views.

Back at the clock tower we made our way to the gardens through the narrow streets and at some points steps. 

There is a path that runs all the way from the gardens down to the sea, its quite a walk and we would get to see it again later from a boat.
Again like good boys and girls we were all back at the clock tower on time ready to be loaded into the tiny coaches for a trip back down to the harbour. Its a hairpin bend job but of course all the drivers know exactly where to look and where to wait. We ended up in a coach with another holiday company, they just fill them up and go.

 

 

At the harbour was an optional sea excursion right round the island and with the sea like glass it couldn’t have been better.

	The whole trip round the island in a clockwise direction probably took us an hour. We were sat out on the top deck and the boat got very close in to the caves and rocks.

Back on terraform we caught the return ferry to the mainland, as we already had our tickets we boarded quite quickly and this time were able to get an upper deck seat with a much better view. Our coach was waiting at the port to take us back to our hotel up a rather interesting incline.

Thursday 4 December 2025 Cologne, Brussels, London

Last night again we boated through the night, mooing in Cologne at about 4-30AM.  The people it the top deck posh cabins were heard complaining about the noise as they rigged the gang plank to the top deck.
This morning was departure day, not an early start but had to vacate our cabin by 9am. Howard our travel manager was onboard to meet us, issue our seat and carriage numbers for the journey to Brussels and  at 10am lead us on the short walk to Cologne station. This was useful as I wasn't aware of this access, always using the other side of the station. We had well over an hour to waste before our train was due, so time for a wander and buy a snack for lunch and even find a seat for half an hour.

     
Our ICE train arrived spot on time and whisked us off to Brussels,  here our time was much tighter and thankfully the ICE train arrived on time, it was then a very brief walk to the Eurostar terminal where we checked in straight away and through to departures. Compared to St Pancras this place is quite Victorian, no auto returning tray system for the security trays, a man picks them up after use, puts them in a slot and pushes them back to the input. Here there is no drive conveyor to take your bags into the x-ray, you have to push and feed them in . Passport control were working at their normal speed with no fingerprint of camera, just look at the passport and stamp you out, unlike the next UK automatic scanning system. The embarkation lounge is off the side of the duty free shop in bit of a building site and you come back  through the shop, mixing with the passengers coming in for the next train to get to the platform. It made me wonder how many people catch the wrong train.
Again a good run arriving at St. Pancras just 5 minutes late.  From here it was the Victoria Line to Victoria Station, we even got seats, but I am sure every time we leave this station we use a different exit and cant get our bearings. We had a short walk to the Best Western hotel Victoria Place that we had booked, not the same one as last time by the train lines but on the corner of Warwick Way. This turned out to be first class for the price we paid and we will definitely use it again. Rather boringly for dinner we went yet again to Cyprus Mangal for an excellent meal.