Day 08 of 14. Oct 12, 2007.

This was the longest bus ride of the trip, 800M from Lourdes, from southwest of France, to the its southern route along Mediterranean Sea coastline, passing sovereign Monaco, crossing northern Italy to port Ancona, eastern seaboard of Adriatic Sea. After the 6AM breakfast at Lourdes, we left Lourdes early around 7AM, and kept a tight schedule on the bus route to keep up with time, except restroom breaks along the bus stops. The bus stops in Europe were private owned gas stations, with AM-PM coffee shop style; its parking was designed readily for 18-wheel trucks, bus and interstate transportation. Some shops were stylish, modern with lots of display merchandises, but maily grocery. The restroom lines were crowded sometimes depending on the traffic of the day. We arrived at port ahead of time for the 9PM ferry, departure at night.

The bus got to the harbor ahead of time with some daylight left, we waited inside the port for some time until the sun set below the horizon. All of passports, ferry tickets and overnight belongings were carried on hands, the rest were inaccessible inside the bus below deck.
We had dinner on the ship with spaghetti, Italian style at its best and decent foods with cafeteria style. We came across some pilgrims from Malaysia coming from Rome in the dining room, all were women.

We got to the outside deck to see the ferry departing the dock right after dinner, shore lights and its reflection of the port from the back of the ship was the only bearings as we were leaving, it was windy, rather cold even from the back of the ship, aft side, as we watched the shoreline disappearing. The front out to the ocean was pitch-black.

We arrived at Split by 7AM on the east side of Adriatic Sea overnight after the good night sleeping in the private cabin, without seasick. The cabin could accomodate 4 collapsible beds, had wooden panels, in the 60's style, and private small bathroom with shower. No stylish accomodation however adequate for a day travel. The diesel engine noise was humming low all night, with little rocking from the waves.

On our way back from Split, 11th day of the trip, the docking transition to the bus was seamless in the early morning around 7AM. The paperwork was in-line processed walk-through without problem. Our bus was pulled out from the below deck, and headed for Loreto, Italy.





__________________________ANCONA SEAPORT_________________________________

Ancona is a city and a seaport in the Marche, a region of central Italy, population 101,909 (2005). Ancona is situated on the Adriatic Sea and is the center of the province of Ancona and the capital of the region.

The city is located 210 km northeast of Rome and 200 km southeast of Bologna.
The town is finely situated on and between the slopes of the two extremities of the promontory of Monte Conero, Monte Astagno, occupied by the citadel, and Monte Guasco, on which the Duomo stands (150 m). The latter, dedicated to St Judas Cyriacus, is said to occupy the site of a temple of Venus, who is mentioned by Catullus and Juvenal as the tutelary deity of the place.

Ancona was founded from Syracuse about 390 BC, who gave it its name: Ancona is a very slightly modified transliteration of the Greek Αγκων, meaning "elbow"; the harbor to the east of the town was originally protected only by the promontory on the north, shaped like an elbow. Greek merchants established a Tyrian purple factory here (Sil. Ital. viii. 438). In Roman times it kept its own coinage with the punning device of the bent arm holding a palm branch, and the head of Aphrodite on the reverse, and continued the use of the Greek language. 1797 onwards, when the French took it, it frequently appears in history as an important fortress, until Christophe Léon Louis Juchault de Lamoricière capitulated here on 29 September 1860, eleven days after his defeat at Castelfidardo.

The port of Ancona is a major departure point for trans-Adriatic ferries.



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