Arrivederci Venice!

Friday, April 15, 2011

                                 

We slept in today after a late return to the ship last night.  We had a long and exhausting day but the wonderful experience made the fatigue well worth it.  We met Ken and Dee on the Lido Deck for an 8:00 breakfast to bid them “aloha”.  They are leaving the ship after this first segment.  We will miss them.  They were our tablemates and we made several shore excursions with them and, of course, shared an extended day trip with them yesterday.  They are pleasant to travel with and we shared a lot of laughter.

We left the ship about 9:30 to explore Venice on our own.  There was a commuter train (People Mover) near the pier and the nearest location in the city was a simple one stop trip.  We then purchased an all day pass on the Vaporetto (water bus) and boarded the first boat available.  This gave us a nice introduction to the city, We left the boat at San Marco Square and began our walk of Venice.  St Mark’s Square was very  crowded, mostly with school groups.  I estimated at least 3,000 people milling around on the square.  The lines to enter the Doges Palace and St Mark’s Basilica were so long that we did not attempt to visit them.  However we spent plenty of time in the square and took dozens of pictures.

       

  

We left the square and wandered toward the Rialto Bridge, window shopping, people watching and absorbing the wonderment of Venice…a photo down every winding street and across every little waterway.  We stopped for pizza and beer (coke) just prior to reaching the bridge.  Great lunch in the piazza with more people watching.  Then some time on the beautiful bridges, followed by gelato, of course. 

 

               

Venice is filled with elaborate churches and we visited as many as we could,  We even lit candles for our friends and relatives who are enduring some serious health issues.  You know who you are and we remember and pray for you each day. 

Our feet were a bit sore by this point so we jumped back on a Vaporetto and made a complete trip around the entire 2 mile waterway of the Grand Canal, including crossing to Lido Beach.  Obviously the view was marvelous and the shutter button on our camera nearly melted!  Living on the canals poses some interesting transportation issues. Imagine moving your household, providing emergency services, taking your dog to the vet…

  

  

   

  

  

                 

  

  

  

When the water bus reached our stop near the People Mover we transferred back to the train for the 5 minute ride to the pier and were "home in our stateroom” by 3:30.  A truly wonderful, relaxing way to see the marvels of Venice with a minimum of fuss and stress.  After a short rest we went down to dinner where we met two new tablemates who joined the ship today for the last segment of the trip,  Ed and Joy are from Ottawa Canada and fit right in with our group.  But we already miss Ken and Dee.  We hope their trip home is safe and relaxing and that our paths will cross again soon.  What a great day!     

As always we try to keep you up with the goings on around and about.  The best story from Venice was told to us by our friends Liz and Bob.  They had dinner in Venice on the first evening.  They loved the atmosphere and stayed around listening to the music and just enjoying the evening.  By the time they returned to catch the People Mover, they could not get in to the building, nor could they read the signs explaining the hours and that it was closed.  Another couple was in the same predicament and doing what all good tourists do – they looked at each other, established that they were literally in and on the same boat so they decided to share a taxi.  Bob asked the other gentleman if he knew were the ship was docked in order to tell the taxi driver and he said, “Of course I do, it is my ship!”  Bob and Liz shared a taxi ride back to the ship with the Captain and his wife.

Sail out was scheduled for 11 pm so we tried to stay awake to see the beauty of Venice aat night.  I managed to get a few photos as we began the sail out, but Barney was fast asleep. 

  

Buona note!