Our last view if the Rialto!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
a little update
One of the ladies at our dinner table is from Franklin Lakes, NJ. She actually knows Caroline from the Real Housewives!That's just 2 degrees of separation!There's a couple from Boston about our age, a couple from Ireland, and a couple from England. We've had some VERY intersting conversations about laws, government, and esp. healthcare. The English wife works as an administrator in a phys. rehab type of place. She was telling me about all the things they do including acupuncture and then just casually threw in, "but as we're on waiting lists, not everyone gets to see us" EVERYTHING is on waiting lists, and that's what they want us to go to! Yikes!
Today we were in Kusadasi, Turkey. We took a tour to Ephesus. Very cool, but oh so stinking hot. The hotest day we've had yet. We walked around the bazaar in Kusadasi a little, bought hats from a guy who is going to LA to live with his nurse girlfriend and study economics. He started at one hat for $15 and ended up selling us 2 hats for $13! I knew to bargain hardcore there! We were so hot and so zapped from the heat that we just headed back to the boat and the pool instead of walking around any more. I won't lie, Turkey intimidated us a little, but it was very cool to be there and all in all, we liked it.
Yesterday was Mykonos, Greece. Very, very cool, except we forgot to buy souveniers! It was extremely windy in the port/capital city, but that kept the heat away. After walking around for a while, we hopped a local bus to the other side of the island and the beach. It was perfect. The water was gorgeous and clear and sooooooo cool (almost cold, think San Diego). We ate an amazing lunch at the restaurant where we rented chairs for the day. Mostly fabulous. Turns out neither of us likes Moussaka! But, we had a greek salad, cucumber dill yougurt dip, which came with fab. bread and humus and we shared chris' chicken kebab. Yum! We just made it back to the boat before all aboard. My heart was beating soooooo fast! Hence why no souveniers! Guess we'll just have to come back. We saw a couple that I really wanted. Don't know why we didn't just buy them then. Lesson learned....again!
The day before was our first day at sea. My goal was to be at the pool early so we could get good seats and stay all day. We were basically there from 9 -5 with brief interludes for food. They made paella poolside, and it was amazing! We both loved it. That was formal night, and if I do say so myself, we looked good! We've had pictures taken every night, and I don't know how we're going to choose there are a ton of good ones!!
Our first port of call was Dubrovnik, Croatia. Wow! Beautiful. Another place I'd wanted to go for years. Been trying to convince Chris of it. And now I know why. I'd love to come back and just spend some time around Croatia. However, it won't be in July. It was HOT and in a very smally area, there were literally thousands of tourists. Three large and two small cruise ships were there that day. It was ridiculous with people. We walked around most of the city walls (which is a MUST do) and saw some amazing views. We went to the monastary with one of the oldest functioning pharmacies, and we walked around the old part of the city. And then we gave in. There were too many people, and it was too hot, so we headed back to the ship and the pool!
That's it so far in a nutshell! Tomorrow we're in Santorini followed by Corfu and one more day at sea, and then that's it. We can't believe how fast it's going and how surreal it is to acutally be in these places. But, we're totally enjoying it. It's a wonderful trip with both touring and relaxation. It's totally, 100% awesome!
Be sure to scroll down, i added a few pictures today. We found a Starbucks in the cruise ship terminal, and as with most of them, they had free wi-fi, so I started uploading pictures....but then we got tired of waiting for everything to publish, so we still have yesterday and today to get up there.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Living like a Doge.
The beach was much the same as yesterday and the day before. Hot sand, bare bubbies, few English speakers, crummy lunch, and piercing sun. Sounds stinky, but was totally fabulous. We caught the 2:00 boat back to Venice and took the long way home so we could hit our fave pizza spot. Now, previously we’ve had help heading that direction; a book, a map, something. Today, not so much. And we couldn’t remember which way to go. No surprise that Chris, Mr. Directionally challenged, couldn’t remember! I thought I did, and then I second guessed myself, and that got us in trouble.
Finally, after going across the same square like 5 times, Chris suggested we hit a hotel and ask for directions. Why didn’t I think of that? We did, and not only did we get directions, but also a map. We still had to walk across that same darn square two or three more times to figure out where the heck we were and which street to take, but finally we did. That’s part of the beauty of Venice, getting lost and seeing everything around you 14 times. There’s no reason to get worked up about it, that’s just how it is in Venice.
We got the pizza, and on the way back to the hotel, found a lady with paintings she’d made of sights in Venice. We always buy something handmade in the places we travel, and two of her paintings hit us, so we bought them. Can’t wait to hang them up. Although, we still haven’t hung up the ones we got in Scandinavia in the spring of ’07! We hit up the best gelato stand in Venice (Boutique de Gelato, or something like that on Salizada de Lio and came back to the hotel to shower and change.
The trip back took much longer than we expected, and it bit us when we got to Ca’ Rezzonico, our first sight for the day. It closed an hour earlier than Ricky said it did, and we couldn’t get in. No worry, it’s included in the Museum passes we bought at the Correr museum yesterday and they don’t expire for 3 months. So, we skipped ahead to our next intended stop, the Doge’s Palace. We didn’t do this museum last time we were here because, well, it’s a museum, and we’re leery of them. Boy, are we glad we went!
We entered, and went directly into the huge courtyard. It was about 5:00, and the light was just perfect. It was absolutely gorgeous! Took our breath away! We had no idea just how stunning this place would be and were instantly glad we’d come. We followed the marked route through the palace, all the while reading Ricky’s narrative. As I mentioned yesterday, it’s nice to have a story behind what you’re seeing, but we’ve quickly grown tired of Rick’s wheel of cheese inserted with the story, and his occasional veiled political comment. Shut up and tell me what I’m seeing. We saw where the Doge (appointed ruler of Venice) lived, legislated, and doled out justice, along with the Bridge of Sighs. The bridge takes you over the canal into the prison, where we could see carvings in the window ledges of the cells that were hundreds of years old. Blows your mind! I must admit, they had no photography signs all over the place, but I still had to snap a few pics. I just couldn’t keep going without. They can’t keep a Jamie down forever. I had to rebel. And, thankfully, I didn’t get caught!
Tonight, we decided we needed another splurge, as if last night at the cafes on St. Mark’s weren’t enough. So, after coming back to the hotel & getting ready for dinner, we went on a gondola ride. I won’t disclose how much it cost, but it was worth it. It was amazing. Yes, it still could have been better, but it was just what I wanted, a nice, relaxing ride through the real Venice (not just the Grand Canal) with the one I love.
The gondolier was nice, but talked to the other gondoliers more than us. He said this is 20th year as a gondolier and he owns his gondola. When I asked him if he lives in Venice, he laughed and said no, it’s too expensive, he lives outside of Venice. He also told us that he knew when he was 8 yrs old he would be a gondolier. His father was one as was his grandfather, it’s a family tradition. Very cool. Chris said he was hoping the guy would talk to us more, and I understand why, but we were still thrilled with the experience!
After the ride, we were starving, so it was off to dinner. We decided to go back to the same place as the first night. It was amazing then and even better tonight. The guy was working by himself and doing a decent job of keeping up with everyone. We had an appetizer of different Salamis & cheese. Oh my yum! Chris had spaghetti with swordfish, and I had some sort of purse-like pasta filled with smoked cheese and walnuts. Again, yum! There was a local couple sitting next to us, and they brought their dog in. Dogs are just part of the family here, and often go without leashes. Made me realize how much work we need to do with our own dogs.
All was well until the guy brought the check and told Chris he doesn’t take cards. Then it was panic time. For some reason, Chris decided to leave the bank card in the hotel room and ONLY bring his credit card. We were tapped out from the gondola ride, so he left me there to get money. When the ATM wouldn’t give him money off of his credit card, he ran all the way back to the hotel and got his card, rand back and got the money and returned to the restaurant. The guy working felt so bad for me sitting there along that he brought us limoncellos (an alcohol based lemon drink that will quite literally tickle your nose hairs). Finally, Chris came back and we could pay the man (including a hefty tip, he totally earned it) and head back to our hotel, but not without a detour for Gelato.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Another perfect day...
We loved today! Great, great day! We woke up, had breakfast (Chris relishing every moment of his cappuccino), and headed to the beach again. We loved it so much yesterday, we just had to go back today. We learned a few things yesterday. First of all, we decided to go earlier than yesterday. Yesterday’s location was good, and we wanted to be sure we got a good location again today. Also, we wanted to come back a little earlier. We walked to St. Mark’s square to catch the Vaporetto over to Lido (the island across the lagoon with the beach on it), thinking there was a public fountain there & we could fill up our water bottle. Oops, it’s just a little pigeon/bird bath! No biggie. So, we headed to the stop.
We ended up on the slow boat, but we were so close already that it didn’t really make any difference. Funny thing is, this one put us out at a different stop on Lido and when we walked across the street to hit the main drag, there was a fountain. Don’t think typical American water fountain here. Oh no! this is a fancy looking, two foot-ish tall out of the ground been there for a million years, running constantly fountain. They’re real big on the fact that the water is potable here, so they want everyone to have access to it all the time. Actually, we’ve found that all over Italy. Love it!
Long story short, we booked it the .5 mile to the beach, got the same spot as yesterday, and spent four blissful hours in the sun. Chris napped, I read. It was great. On the way, we stopped into a store and bought me a pen and pad so I could work on getting caught up on the blog while on the beach. If it’s all written up, I can just type it, no big deal. And if it never gets typed? No biggie, it becomes a journal!
I’m not gonna kid ya, there were a lot more bare bubbies today. A LOT more. I’m not sure I really get it. Italian men seem to cherish their arm candy, so why do they want everyone else seeing everything? To be honest, most of those we saw baring it all probably weren’t Italian, but some definitely were. Besides the bubbies, we’ve noticed a few things about the beach here. The fit & cut of a bathing suit isn’t really a factor. Just because it doesn’t exactly flatter you doesn’t exactly mean you shouldn’t wear it. Now in my little world, that’s not how it works. Here, you like it, you wear it, critics be damned.
Also, as we all already know, the Speedo is king, reigning supreme. Wow! Some of these guys want you to be well aware of their virility! Then there’s the guy that we’re still debating whether or not is a guy. Yeah, it’s that bad. If you can’t tell when they’re wearing a bathing suit, it’s *really* bad! He wears Speedo and is really, really overweight and has some pretty good sized man-boobs. If it’s a woman, she’s going topless the entire time she’s there. I don’t think it’s a woman. It’s really bad
Then there was an Italian guy wearing a white Speedo. A thin, very thin white Speedo. And then he got in the water. It was totally a train wreck. You don’t want to look. Really, you don’t, but you can’t help it. And, obviously he wants everyone to look. It really is a teeny tiny suit, the things songs are made of really. Obviously, it was quite a lot to behold. I offered to stop in this one shop with an entire wall of Speedos and find one for Chris. He didn’t take me up on the offer; nor did he find me funny!
We’ve also learned that they aren’t nearly as obsessed with sunscreen as we are. We stopped at a drug store to try to find some for my face since I left it at home, and they don’t have any that’s face specific. And, I totally got yelled at for squeezing some out and trying it. Too bad, so sad lady. I learned the hard way years ago that sunscreen is super-scented over here, and there is no way I’m buying it if it gives me a headache! You hardly see people applying the stuff, everyone who’s not a local is sunburnt somewhere, and the ones who are locals use the application process as a chance to engage in something totally sensual with their significant other in front of God and everybody! And they all, every last one of them, look at me like I’m a freak when I use the spray-on stuff. Zip it! That stuff rocks! And it’s the only way I can keep coming back to the beach every day.
I keep forgetting when the boats head back when we arrive somewhere. Thankfully, we’ve been pretty lucky. We haven’t waited more than 20 minutes and it’s usually 10 or less. Fortunately I remembered when the boat came from yesterday and we were able to get packed up and make it back for the 2:00 boat. That had still given us almost 4 hours at the beach. Wow!
After cleaning up, we headed back out with big plans! First, we went to San Giorgio Maggiore church. Getting there was an adventure in and of itself. Rick says to go to the San Zaccariah stop at St. Mark’s Sq. and take #2 toward Tronchetto. So, we get there and I look at the boards and then the map, and #2 doesn’t go toward Tronchetto, nor does it go to the church. So Chris goes to ask. He’s told it’s at the next pier. At this one, #2 goes somewhere else, but it’s certainly not Tronchetto. Chris asks again. Again the same answer, #2 next pier. Thank goodness Chris asked all those people! Who would have known there were 3 completely different places for the same stop? Not us. Thank goodness he asked. We never would have figured it out!
Finally, we got to the Church. I love this church. We went there last time. I don’t know what it is, but it just speaks to me when we’re inside. The way it’s built, just has this good feeling to me. So far, it’s my favorite church here. It has a very interesting “choir” and the monks still do a chanting worship every week. Last time we were here, the bell tower was closed for daily siesta and we couldn’t go up it. This time, no problem! We had phenomenal views of the entire city and lagoon. Amazing! We had a scary moment where we thought it was going to take forever to get back to St. Mark’s Sq., which is just across the lagoon, but a bus came up just 2 minutes later!
Next, we went to the Correr Museum. Okay, I’m not big on museums. They bore me. I get tired of looking at painting after painting after painting. They all start to look the same after a while. But, when I have explanations of them, I’m fascinated (although I usually get tired of reading the explanations after a while too). This was actually very, very interesting. There were statues and paintings, but there was so much more. There are paintings on the ceilings that have been there since the place was built. There are sculptures and rooms that are still lined with books and lit by chandeliers that were there when they were administrative offices of the richest city on earth and old maps of Venice and coins, and yes paintings. But, many of the paintings tell the story, the history of Venice. Very fascinating. Again, we were quite thankful to have the tour in our Rick Steve’s book. Although he drives us a little insane at times, it sure does come in handy!
After the museum, we wandered out onto St. Mark’s Square (the museum is at the back of it) and decided to sit at one of the ridiculously expensive cafes, listen to music and have a drink. We were going to see what was doing with our fave band, and what to our wondrous eyes should appear? A mariachi band. In Venice of all places! Chris was thrilled. Oh how that man loves a good mariachi. We talked to them for a minute, well I talked to them & Chris smiled and nodded. We settled on a café, sat down, and guess what, the mariachi band came and played there for a while (but not before the cops gave them a hard time). It was a wonderful experience sitting there listening to this great, although untraditional for the setting, band. The singer was amazing. Then the regular band took over, and they were great too. It really is a dueling bands kind of scenario. The band at one plays, then stops and looks over at the band of the café next door as if to say, “Top that.” But really, I think it’s done more out of respect and the two bands don’t want to play over each other. Funny thing, though our band was playing and was in the middle of a song when the bell tower clanged 8:00. They must be unionized or something because the band quit playing mid-song and that was it, they were on a break (Chris wanted to know how the girl on the front row got to wear a short skirt…she was on the front row after all. I said it was because she was Italian).
We didn’t really want to go, but it was already 8 and at some point we should probably have dinner. So we got the check. While we were sitting there our waiter must have left because some other guy was helping the tables around us. He gave us our check and made sure to tell us the tip wasn’t included. Now, this wasn’t a cheap little foray, be we knew that going into it and did it for the experience. On the menus, it says that service charge is included, but this guy literally would not go away without the tip and actually said again, “The tip sir, you haven’t left a tip.” If he’d just walked away, Chris would have left him twice as much as he did! It kind of left a sour taste in our mouths, but it was such a wonderful experience that we just blew it off.
Now we had to figure out something for dinner. This has been one of the hardest parts of our trip. I know it sounds like no big deal. Seriously, find a restaurant, sit, eat. Done. But, we want a great experience, and some nights we’ve been sorely disappointed. Tonight was great. Actually, we asked the front desk guy for a recommendation and he suggested a nearby place that’s in Ricky’s book. We tried twice before, it was closed both times. We thought since the guy at the hotel recommended it too, it was worth a shot. Still closed.
Finally we ended up at a place near our hotel. We didn’t get there until after 10! No matter, this is Italy, after all! We were worried about the place since it was in a high-tourist zone and was a little pricey, but it was wonderful. The service was good, the food was great. Chris got sea bass and the lovely older gentleman waiter prepared it tableside removing all of the bones. Just great, great, great. Can’t say enough good about Ristorante Marco Polo!
I can’t begin to tell you how hot it is here. It’s weird, the temperature is nothing like it is at home, but the sun is this burning, sears through your clothes into your skin hot. It takes about 2.5 minutes for us to start sweating and it’s all downhill from there. And when you’re deep in Venice where there’s no water, only still, hot air, it’s literally stifiling. We couldn’t eat at a couple places tonight because it was so hot in that area, I thought I might throw up. And that was at 10:00 at night! I keep saying what with the super-stll, non-moving air and the close proximity of the houses/buildings it’s a wonder more people didn’t die from things like the Plague.
Now, it’s off to bed and get ready to do more of the same tomorrow! What a great vaca. Wake up, go to the beach, come back & see some stuff. We’re doing it right! I promise to get caught up on the two days I haven't blogged about yet. I've been amazingly exhausted every night plus we had plug-in trouble for a while there and the computer was dead! I didn't want to get any farther behind!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
It was a day that will live in infamy
Or at least with us it will. Everyone has rough days on vaca occasionally, especially in a long one, it just goes with the territory. And sometimes it's good to get them out of the way early. Apparently that's what we did yesterday. While getting ready, we tried to plug in my hairdryer, with the converter mind you. It sparked & blew the power. Power came back. We thought we'd done something wrong, so we checked all of the settings & tried again. It sparked & blew the power again. This time it didn't come back on & Chris had to go down to the desk & have them fix it. Sounds like it's not a rare occurrence 'round here. We didn't try again & I let my hair air dry. Oh the humanity! Somehow, I lived.
We finally set out in our day a tad later than we'd hoped. We took the craziest long circuitous path to get to St. Mark's square, so by the time we got there I was just the tiniest bit frustrated. Now, you know when you're even the tiniest bit frustrated, even the smallest things get you worked up? Well even Chris was getting annoyed at the lollygagers! Seriously people, we gave an agenda here, get out of our way! I'm all about the wandering with no agenda...when that's your agenda. It wasn't ours. And, it was Sunday in Italy. All the locals were out doing their local thing, getting in the way of tourism. We finally got to the TI, found out they were of NO help to us, and headed to the vaporetto (water bus) stop. As we walked, I got grumpy. I'd mentioned to chris we should get a snack. I think he's started only listening to half of what I say. I felt like he blew me off, & he didn't hear me. By this time, I'm getting hungry, and there's nowhere to get anything.
So, we head to the vaporetto where we buy 7 day passes, but we have to pay cash & now we're down to only 20€. I saw an ATM the night before & suggested we get money, but Chris said we were fine. Now we only had a few minutes before our boat, no ATM in sight & no food to be found (besides ice cream) & a 40 minute boat ride ahead of us. I was a grump. We were doing the Rick Steve's lagoon tour & decided for sanity's sake to skip the first stop, the cemetery. So it was on to Murano where they do the glass blowing. Glass isn't actually made in Venice proper, hasn't been for a very long time fir fear of fire. Guess they were OK with fire there. So all was well. Not so fast. We still had little money, a hungry Jamie, and less than half of the restaurants take cards. To top it off, we got off on the wrong "bus" stop.
Chris had fun trying to find out where the ATM was from non-english speaking shopkeeps. Finally, he figured it out and we walked over. Fortunatley, it was the street we wanted to be on, so after lunch at a decent little restaurant out on a little square facing a canal, we had lunch. It was good, but we were ready to move on, so we started walking down the main street of Murano. Basically, all it is is shop after shop of glass. Mostly cheap crap next to even cheaper crap, but every once in a while there was a nice place in the mix. We stopped in a few, bought a few Christmas ornaments and a couple of rings for me. We wanted to see a glass-blowing demonstration, but after stopping into a sleazy place, we finally talked to a guy in a really nice on who said on Sundays it's hard to see because they only do it in the morning, and even then it's difficult. Add that to your book, Rick Steve's! But, at least we'd both seen it before, so we weren't that disappointed.
Throughout the city, they have these cool class sculptures that one of the glass houses has made. There was one rightr by where we ate lunch, so we started seeking them out. Very neat. It was obvious that some of the places were there for the tourist $$, but hated the tourists at the same time. Kind of a strange situation. We just happened to get to the vaporetto stop a few minutes before the boat to Burano, so soon we were off to another island.
Burano is famous for it's white lace and colorful houses. We couldn't give a hoot about lace, so we walked though the island/town looking at the beautiful scenery around us. We noticed on Murano that I was working a big blister, and after resting for so long between islands (40 mins) I was hurting for certain, but better to just go see it than give up. The island is quaint with curtains over the doors to block the sun (I guess) and lots of boats. It even has a church that leans like the one in Pisa. We stopped into a bakery and got cookies. I think they were like linzer cookies? Apricot jelly sandwiched between two amazing cookies w/a cutout in one of them. Yeah, that's pretty much the whole of Burano. Sat waterside drinking beer & eating pizza watching all the locals come back in from a day of boating while we waited for our boat. I was totally jealous and wished I knew someone to take us out.
So, the boat ride back. Yeah, that was an experience. We hadn't realized that the timetables actuatlly tell you when the boat leaves, not when it arrives, so we almost missed ours. And, it was a ferry, so it was huge. And it stopped and we had to change boats at some other place. It was crazy! Thank goodness for the guy who came through and told everyone! The reboarding was insane, an absolute crush of humanity. I can see how people get trampled in a crowd!
We made it back...finally. On the way back to our hotel, we did a Rick Steve's walking tour. Figured we might as well, since it was on our way and everything. On it, we ran across our fave pizza stand. Yay! So yummy! We came back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. Yeah, dinner. Chris picked out a couple of places in Rick Steve's book. First, he didn't bring the book and couldn't remember the directions, so we had to come back & get it (he's seriously directionally challenged). Then, we still couldn't find it. Yes, Rick gives directions, but they're not always the best, and here, directions can be challenging at best. So, after circling the same square several times, we finally thought we found one of them. But when we got our menus, I realized it wasn't the place.
And everything went downhill from there. It was some of the worst food we'd ever had. In our lives. Seriously, Olive Garden would have been better! Chris had cuttlefish (black ink squid?) and I had veal. His was inedible and mine was like a Lean Cuisine meal. Literally. Blech! Not only was the food bad, but the waiters seemed to genuinely hate their job. We couldn't wait to get out of that place! Afterwards, we took one last stab at finding the restaurants we'd been looking for just to see, and it turns out we'd walked by one; it was closed. On our way back to our hotel, we had gelato to tide us over and rehashed the horrible experience we'd just had.
The day wasn't bad, per-se. We saw some cool things, but it wasn't perfect. In all honesty, if I'd had a better attitude, that would have helped! Here's to tomorrow!
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Welcome to Venice, your luggage will arrive....later
A quick preface: sorry about the weird characters. This crazy Italian computer
doesn't like my apostrophes - I typed it on our computer & brought
it downstairs on a flash drive to get it uploaded! I typed this last night, so at the end of our first day.
It’s been a long day! Or I guess I should say a long 2 days!! We finally made it to Venice. After a 4 hour layover in Chicago and a 4 hour layover in Philly, we thought we were never going to get here! Our flight from Philly was excruciating. Chris had a lap sitter next to him (her name was Gracie), and while she was adorable and made friends with Chris, every time she woke up she cried! Fortunately, I tuned her out most of the time and was actually able to get a few hours sleep. Everyone’s grateful for that! They showed the movie Duplicity for the first couple of hours on the plane. Seriously, that movie stunk! Movies like that are why I don’t go to the movies very often any more. We were thrilled when it was over, but still watched every darn minute of it because when you’re on a plane for 9 hours, a 2 hour diversion is a good thing. I won’t lie, though, when the stupid thing was over and I did the math and we still had 6.5 hours left, we both almost cried.
We were crazy happy to land in Venice. It was a truly surreal moment. We planned and thought over this trip for so long, to actually be here seemed unreal! As we landed, there was regular ‘ole land on one side and water on the other. We were in the middle of the plane, so we couldn’t actually see Venice itself, but we could see pieces of the lagoon and it got us 100% excited! Our excitement would prove to be short-lived, though.
You can always tell you’re not in the US the instant you walk off the plane. Everything looks different, even the jetway was cool here. But, everything looks dim no matter what country you’re in when NONE of your luggage arrives! We were 2 of about 50 or so whose luggage didn’t make it. It was VERY frustrating! Everyone we spoke to said they had a 4 hour layover in Philly and couldn’t imagine how the managed to misplace all that luggage. Seriously, it was at least 100 pieces of luggage. Fortunately, the board in the baggage claim announced that delivery service had ended & I’d noticed the lost luggage window when I was looking for an ATM (which I didn’t find) & we headed straight over there. After everyone cued up, the line went pretty much all the way across the baggage claim area. Holy moley!
Everyone around us was leaving for a cruise today or tomorrow. The ladies in front of us were departing at 6 pm today. We thanked our lucky stars (and our travel acumen) that we were spending our time in Venice before the cruise rather than after. We saw all the silver linings of this whole affair, but I’m not sure my positive attitude would have remained so fully intact if we were leaving say today! We also had a fully stocked carry on, so we were fine with the whole thing. Actually, it made getting over to the island that much easier. We didn’t have to schlep 3 suitcases all over tarnation!
After an hour, we finally got through the line; mind you, there were only like 5 groups in front of us and there were three people manning the window! It’s what you should expect here, though. There is no reason to expect anything to get done fast here, so you might as well just go with the flow. We finally went through what they refer to as customs (walking through the “Nothing to Declare” door) and were free! We hit the ATM which would only give out 250 Euros at a time. Hello, you want us to spend money, let us get the money! With our extremely small fortune in Euros, we hit the snack desk and got salami sandwiches, but not before Chris was reprimanded by the worker girl that you HAVE to pay first.
We ate our sandwiches as we made our way along the 5 min. walk to the water transportation. We’d planned to splurge and take a water taxi since we had so much luggage, but since we didn’t have it, it didn’t make sense to spend that much money. I still wish we had taken the taxi, but don’t kid yourself, the ferry was cool. We hit some of the surrounding islands as we made our way to St. Mark’s square. I mildly regretted not taking the taxi as we saw the people going by us moving directly to their hotels and not taking the scenic route, but there was something nice about the scenic route. The slow introduction to Venice seemed just the way it should be.
And finally, there we were in front of St. Mark’s Square and the Doge’s palace. We are so thrilled to be here again. We were here four years ago on our first anniversary trip and we’ve talked about coming back, but I wasn’t sure we actually would or at least that it would be so soon. My wanderlust keeps us going to new and different places, but there’s something so nice about revisiting places you’ve been before. Know where things are and how they work makes enjoying a place that much easier. You don’t have to work at it quite as hard.
We got off the ferry and went directly to St. Mark’s Square. There was another ferry that would have put us closer to our hotel, but we didn’t want to wait and with no bags to worry about, it was easy to walk to the hotel. Actually, that depends on your definition of easy. This place is lousy with tourists. Yes, I know I am one of them, but egads are there a lot of people here. We thought it was bad last time and that was in Sept. This is the height of tourist season, and I swear the whole world has descended upon Venice! I think all of Europe comes here in the summer. We’ve seen some Americans, but mostly Europeans. And why wouldn’t they come here? Just standing there in the Square, you feel it; Venice is a magical place unlike anywhere else in the world.
We wound our way through the VERY narrow streets trying to find our hotel. Fortunately, I’d printed a map of the hotel’s location at home. I left the map at home on the desk, but I’d taken a good look at it when I printed it and we bought a great map at the tourist desk in the airport, so with just a minimum of lost-ness, we found our hotel.
Our room is……well, I think the word decent describes it. It’s not the best we’ve stayed in, it’s certainly not the worst. You pay through the nose in Venice, so we’re going with it. There’s A/C, breakfast, and wi-fi (that you pay for) plus an en-suite bathroom. That’s not always a guarantee in this part of the world!
We’d planned to drop our carry-ons, freshen up a little and go out and walk around a bit, but the exhaustion hit us like a ton of bricks, and we napped. I’m usually not a very good napper, but boy I did a bang up job this time! We napped for a good 2 hours and decided we’d better drag ourselves out of bed or we’d waste the whole day sleeping! When we went downstairs to leave, what to our wonderous eyes should appear? Our bags! Yay! If itàs going to be that easy, everyone should have their luggage lost in Venice!
We had an outstanding afternoon wandering around with no agenda. If you’ve never travelled with me, then you don’t know that I go nowhere without an agenda. I-must-see-it-all! As I’ve gotten older and a tad wiser and thanks in large part to the mellowing effects of my husband, I’ve realized that it’s not always necessary to see every sight on the list. Traipsing from one place to another from dusk till dawn doesn’t always give you a real view of a place. That’s a large part of why we’re here for a whole week. So we have time to enjoy and soak it all in.
Back to our wandering. We’re staying very close to the Rialto Bridge, so we headed that direction. You can try just walking straight over it, but it’s tough. It’s charms suck you in. There’s the shops, including several jewelry shops, that line the bridge (I’ve already found some things I MUST HAVE!) and then there’s the view. Oh wow! The view. Here you are, standing on a bridge that’s been there just this side of forever looking at buildings that have been standing for hundreds of years and “driving” by them are gondolas. It just takes your breath away. I don’t believe anyone who says they aren’t entranced by gondolas. They add to the mystique of the city.
We wandered around the Rialto area, looking at all the cheesy souvenir stalls with the occasional non-cheesy one thrown in here and there, like the one selling scarves and ties. Where else do you see a street vedor selling scarves but in Italy? We actually walked by that stall several times today, and one of the times I got one of those in-your-face reminders that we’re not in Kansas any more Toto! There was a family there looking at the wares all jamming out to techno music. The dad was thumping his chest to the beat, the mom was dancing, and the teenage son was bobbing his head. It all seemed so perfectly right.
We continued wandering, finding our favorite little bar/restaurant from our last visit and grabbing a slice of pizza from a little street-front place. Oh the pizza! You’ve never had pizza so good as here. It fairly melts in your mouth. And this isn’t the best we’ve had. We actually got some from this same place last time, and it was better than we remembered. We’re hoping to happen upon our fave place from last time. We’ll know if we see it, but this city is a veritable labyrinth, so directions can be iffy.
Pizza in hand, we ambled down the street to another square (there are lots of them here, big ones, little ones, ones with churches, ones with little parks) where a band had set up and was playing great jazzy type music. They’d been there for a while and had a good little crowd of locals and tourists. It was a great scene. We hung out for a while, just soaking it, enjoying that fact that here we are, in Venice, just hanging out. Very cool.
Eventually we decided to move on, and just around the corner from the band, we found the Rialto floating market, which is hosting a Thai market to commemorate 140 years of friendship (or something like that, can’t remember what the sign said & yes, it was in English, there’s English everywhere here) between Thailand and Venice. Whatever the case, we were the beneficiaries of the whole affair. Once we finally figured out what the heck it was all about, we dove in. We sampled wines (of the Italian variety, we didn’t question it), beer (of the Thai variety), and food. Oh my, the food! We had meat on a stick and this big dumpling-like thing filled with savory meat. I don’t know what it was, but I know I could eat it every day the rest of my life!
We made our way to the site of the local market which still had a few produce vendors selling their wares. I love markets. Love the fresh foods, love the bright colors of foods that don’t have to be violated with all the things we put on and in them to make them last in a super market. At the end of the market is the fish market, which has been there for literally centuries. All of the action was long over for the day, but the smell lingered. I can’t imagine what it was like hundreds of years ago! That smell reminded me of a show I saw on the travel channel. It was about the cruise ship that you actually buy an apartment on and then travel around the world on it whenever you like. It showed the members attending a special dinner during carnival at the fish market. I was thinking, if I could smell the fish hours after the stalls had closed up for the day (and gone, there was nothing in the place), how did they get rid of it for the dinner? And if they didn’t, can you imagine eating there? Ick!
From the market, we wandered through the back streets of Venice. We followed quiet, narrow lanes and saw little canals flanked by window boxes overflowing with flowers. We ate gelato on a bridge over a canal (I couldn’t finish mine…I know, crazy!) where we saw a guy walking with an 8 ft. oar in his hand. We found a large square with huge trees and restaurants in the corners and benches fully of locals chatting. We saw gondoliers hanging out trying to convince people to come for a ride and shopkeeps standing in their doorways trying to entince shoppers. All in all, it was a fabulous afternoon.
We came back to our room, changed for dinner & headed back out. We started out at our fave little bar from our last visit for cheap, but really good wine and prosecco and some really crappy cicchetti (bar snacks). Everything was fried, including the anchovies, which weren’t fried enough. We had them in the Cinque Terre and actually enjoyed them, but I think maybe that’s the only place in the world they taste good! We went ahead and ate a bunch of the food because, well, we paid 10 euros for it & we didn’t want to be rude, but man….ickk!
We still needed to do something about dinner and decided to wander until we found something. We stopped at a few places and finally stopped a little restaurant that we later realized we’d been to before. It turned out to be a chain now, but it didn’t matter, it was perfect. The food was fabulous. We got a cheese and salami plate that could have been a meal in and of itself. Chris had spaghetti carbonarra and I had a gnocchi concoction and we shared œ a liter of a fabulous white wine. Neither of the flavors were my absolute favorite, but they were both great! The waiters were wonderful and attentive and full of personality. We spoke very briefly with the guys (who turned out to be a couple) at the table next to us. The waiter even took off running after them when they left their bag from the lingerie store at the table!
Full and sleepy, we strolled back to our hotel passing by groups of Italian teens hanging out in front of ancient buildings. We couldn’t help but stop on the Rialto and enjoy the view by night. Just gorgeous! We stopped and watched a dance troupe on the street. They were slightly lacking. I’ve seen better street groups, and we decided they’d be voted of America’s Best Dance Crew straight away! We finally reached our hotel and poured ourselves into bed exhausted, but excited to do it all over again tomorrow!
Friday, July 10, 2009
On the road again!
Apparently I only use this blog when we travel, so here goes! We're in Chicago waiting for a flight to Philly. From there, it's off to Venice! We've been up since 3 am & only got am hour & a half of sleep. We can currently be described as grumpy bears! Especially me! But, the lack if sleep has been the only negative so far. We've had great people helping us! We actually got to the airport before the gate agents this morning, but when we finally got helped, the gut was great. He didn't even charge us for our overweight bag! Here, we had a lady help us a couple of times. We switched airlines so we had to get tickets here, & our new one airline, US Airways only has a couple of gates here. Get this, we're in a United terminal & they just don't update the US Airways info on the boards, so it always says the same thing, even when the flight departs from a different gate. Nice!
We talked about having Chicago style hot dogs, but I'm not sure it'll happen. We had breakfast at this nice little mediterranean themed place. It was airport food & it was actually good, but don't kid yourself, we paid through the nose for it. I had a frittata & Chris had a bacon, egg, & cheese filled calzone looking thing. I was totally the winner at that meal! Walking back to our gate, Chris decided a chocolate milkshake would make it a breakfast if champions, so we stopped @ Johnny Rockets. I got a terrible rootbeer float. He was definitely the winner there.
Now I'm trying to relax a little before we board another totally uncomfortable flight. When they're missing the armrests, airport sears are actually comfy!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Happy New Year!
Welcome 2009! I've decided to "do" a lot of things in the coming days and one of them is blogging! Yay me! We've rung in the new year in style; pancakes @ ihop (do they have 12-step program for pancakes?), making returns @ the mall (jcpenney decided in all actuality they didn't want to put my return on a gift card), watching the Rose Bowl w/bob, and now dinner and wii with friends. Watch out Shaun White, I'm coming to the x-games! All in all, a darn good day!
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