Jun 21, 2012 - and on to Venice

We walk to the station and catch a ride to Venice. On arrival we walk to our new home – across the grand canal and over two minor ones – again a pleasant surprise, our triple room has morphed into a two bedroom apartment – just love having all this space. We spend the rest of the afternoon and early evening getting lost in Venice. Down small alleyways, over numerous bridges, totally ignoring the map until it is time to return home. Mind you, following the maps is a challenge in itself – many ‘streets’ do not have names and quite often names...

Jun 20, 2012 - Floating around Venice

Venice is a beautiful city and I could spend a lot of time (and money) here. That is assuming that I don't need a wheelchair or anything on wheels because as you can imagine, there are bridges and steps everywhere. Once again I hit the art galleries, or should I say gallery - Gallerie dell'Accademia - looking for da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. Unfortunately it is currently being restored and not available for viewing. Not having any luck on the art scene anymore. So instead I bought travelcard and spent the next two days travelling on Venice's...

Jun 18, 2012 - Venice

Hi All This will be short, service is slow. We are leaving Venice heading for Croatia. We had a great time wandering around Venice last night. Weather has been beautiful but hot. As we were turning around to leave Venice this afternoon the alarms started. They called everyone off the decks. There was a fire in a ventilator. We could smell smoke but didn't' see any flames. We were held up while they changed a fan belt that had melted into the engine room. Are we jinxed or what. Tonight is our first formal night. Norma is feeling under the...

Jun 7, 2012 - Gondolas gondolas more flipping gondolas

Wednesday 7 June There is always that momento of panic when the train pulls out of the station. Are we going  in the right direction! Hopefully we are as Fred has settled in with his prosciutto and formaggio breakfast roll. Our days in Venice were so full and we had no wifi so the journal suffered. Actually it has been much more difficult than we anticipated to get access so I am very glad we were not relying on it as we did to book accommodation a day or two ahead in the States last year. We are now on the way to Slovenia and the plan...

May 31, 2012 - Day 20 - Venice leaving tomorrow

Day 20 - Venice - leaving tomorrow  Wow 3 weeks just flew by! After an early (er) breakfast this morning we walked around for a while then decided to go see St. Marks church. It's one of the biggest, most elaborate in the country and that's saying a lot for a country known for its big elaborate churches. We got a hint that said if we went and checked our back packs ( free) we could use the bag claim to by pass the hour long line. It worked like a damn. The only issue was we were told no pictures is I left my camera in my back pack. Guess...

May 30, 2012 - Day 13 Venezia and Lido

When we woke up, the sun was shining and it was another glorious day. It was hard to believe we'd had a thunderstorm last night but the terrace was wet and my cute little walking shoes were drenched. I'd put them out on the terrace for an airing. Had an omlette for brekkie, beautifully made by Deb. We decided to go to the fresh market as Pete and I went there last time we were here and I love seeing all the fresh produce. We want to buy some bits and pieces to take on the train tomorrow as well. I couldn't remember where they were located...

May 30, 2012 - Dat 19 -Venice/Murano/Burano

Day 19 - Venice - boat ride to Murano and Burano Got up fairly late this morning on the recommendation of our hotel. The was a large group for an early breakfast so we would have been crowded out. Got out of the first B about 9:15 and had a S. THAT by the way stands for SHOWER! Then I had the second S. THAT one stands for SHAVE! THEN we went for &B. Best &B we've had on the trip. There was fresh granola, house-made cappuccino and because we were late getting down we got hot scrambled eggs made fresh for us. These were the first eggs I have...

May 29, 2012 - Day 12 Venice

We both slept (on and off) until about 5. We decided to shower and get going...one reason being we needed to find the laundromat as we both need to wash some clothes. We had some fruit and then headed out. Thought we'd grab some brekkie along the way. We set out with Silvia's hand-drawn map and guess what, couldn't find the laundromat...it could be that it was early and it was closed (lots of the shops have shutters so you don't know what type of business it is until it opens). We decided to keep wandering as it's great just enjoying the...

May 29, 2012 - Day 18 - Florence to Venice

Day 18 - Florence to Venice by train Forgot to mention in the last update that Karen and I went to a Travel Agent to pre-buy our train ticket. It saved a ton of worry and lineup time.  We got up fairly early to have &B so we had time to pack and walk to the train station. About 9:00 I was 'brushing my teeth' and Karen was waiting for me to finish when I had this really weird sense of vertigo. I asked Karen if she felt anything and sure enough she did. Apparently ANOTHER earthquake hit Northern Italy...maybe worse than the first one  a week...

May 28, 2012 - Day 11 Firenze to Venezia

Up early this morning to get organised for our big trip to Venezia (it's only 2 hours on the train so not that big a trip really). We set off with plenty of time to get to the railway station for our departure at 9.25am. We walked part way and then decided to catch a taxi for the balance of the trip...Deb's backpack is very heavy and hard work...my bag on wheels is a pain where there's steps however the rest of the time it's a breeze. We arrived in plenty of time so headed across the road to Deanna Cafe and had a coffee and croissant to...

May 22, 2012 - Vivaldi in Venice

I liked Venice. The sky, the narrow alleys that are people streets, the water taxis, vaporetto aka water buses, the brownish water, the gleam of gold in St Mark's Duomo. I arrived from Florence after a quick trip on a 'bullet train' going about 150 mph, found Vaporetto #1 and took the scenic slow trip down the Grand Canal to San Zaccaria stop, one of the last. I saw the Doge's Palace and went down the three levels to the grim prison levels which were actually used within the last 100 years. The Hotel Fontana had a very warm feeling about...

May 20, 2012 - R & R in camp today

May 20 – Stayed in camp We stayed in camp today while 3 of our folks took the boat back to Venice to explore some more or to go to the islands of Murano and Burano (that we'd seen while on the cruise ship). Ivan and I worked on blog pictures. I did some hand wash and we took showers. Went to the restaurant to get on WiFi to send 4 more days of blog pictures and messages. Felt good to slow down after yesterday's marathon walking! Note: Ivan felt the earthquake about 4:05 A.M. But I slept through it. Turned out to be a 6.0 with the epicenter...