My Birthday Trip to Capri

The day after our wedding, it was my 28th birthday and my husband decided to surprise me with a day trip to Capri as I had been bugging him about going there.  I don't know when he planned on telling me that we were going, but that problem was solved when the receptionist handed us our tickets the day before saying "here are your tickets to Capri for tomorrow."  I think she felt bad about the spoiled surprise.

We took a boat from Praiano to Positano and from Positano we took a speed boat to Capri.  The boat was very comfortable and not crowded at all.  Everyone was sitting or lying down comfortably on the boat as it sped out to Capri.  We got there in probably 1 hour (I didn't really time it) and the boat said to meet it back there in 6 hours.

  So we had 6 hours to explore Capri.  We went to the blue grotto, which is really amazing because it looks like the water has blue dayglo in it.  You get in a tiny little boat with maybe 3 other people and a guide that sings opera, you lie down in a boat to go through a very small hole and then you're in the Blue Grotto with about 10 to 15 other boats with singing guides looking at this bright blue water in otherwise pitch darkness.

After having the Blue Grotto experience, we decided to set out on a mission to find a beach to swim and sunbath.  Of course we walked through the "city" and looked in the expensive shops and had some gelato.  We walked past famous peoples' homes (I don't know whose).  We passed luxurious hotels that put our 4 star (our one hotel splurge in our whole lives!) in Praiano to shame.

  Finally, we came to a sign that said that 500 meters straight down were two beaches open to the public.  We knew that if we walked 500 meters straight down that eventually we would have to walk 500 meters straight up!  But we figured since we both marathon runners that we could handle the climb up and that the beach was worth it.  Well, when we got there, the two "public beaches" wanted to charge us 15 euros EACH to stay there.  We were hungry and we had to meet the boat on the other side of the island in 3 hours.  We had planned on staying at the beach for a maximum of one hour.  Not exactly worth 30 euros.  And I come from California where it's totally illegal to charge any kind of beach fee unless you're a redneck and want to drive your car on the beach.  So we made the 500 meter vertical walk up to find a restaurant.

We read about a restaurant in our guidebook which was next to the Virgin Mary Grotto (it really did look like Mary!) which sounded really good.  It was and the wait staff was of course very friendly, welcoming, and congratulatory about our nuptuals.  The food was excellent.  I had the rabit and we shared a bottle of spumante and then had that famous Amalfi Coast lemon cake.  It was a great birthday.