Med Trip - June 17

Checkout day was a little bitter/sweet. It was sad to end the cruise but we had done what we wanted to do so left with no regrets. I had booked us rooms in an old hotel in Venice but we could not find the exact location on the map although we had an address. Since Inner Venice has only waterways and narrow walking streets, a taxi would not work. We had no idea how to get there. We asked at the water bus wicket but like most of Italy so far, the advice wad vague and mostly unhelpful. We were sent to the tobacco store that sold "people mover" tickets and we were told to walk to the station nearby and take it to the train station. We get to the station, and there were trains coming from both directions. We had no idea which one we wanted, and of course there was not one employee around to help. Others had the same problem. Finally we saw a little train logo and an arrow which suggested that we go to the right. The train, like a very short skytrain, came and we hopped on. 30 seconds later we arrived at the station. In the time it took us to figure out where to go, we could have walked there. We found an information booth with an actual human being inside but we were still not hopeful. I showed her my hotel email and asked how to get there. She suggested we buy a 24 hour bus boat ticket for 20 euros and we could travel as much as we wanted. She showed us where our hotel was, on an unmarked street on our map, and which water bus would take us right to the hotel. That was helpful! We got there smoothly and fond the hotel, a neat old building on a small little street, perhaps 100 yards down from the canal. We checked in, left our bags, and ventured out. The goal for the day was to visit three little islands, Murano, noted for its murano glass worldwide, Burano, noted for lace and brightly painted houses, and Torecello, noted for some old churches. Our passes covered these trips. We took the water bus to Murano, which took close to half an hour across the busy waterways. There were a good number of glassblowing factories and every single store on the island sold glass items at very high prices. Since I collect shot glasses, I did find a nice murano glass shot glass with real gold trip for only 85 euros, about $125, but I was not sure how it would look with the shot glass from Corfu which was only 1.50 euros. We hopped over to the other islands after the women were finished shopping. Burano was quite nice. Every house was constructed of brick, mortared over and then painted with very bright colours. There were vivid bright blues, yellows, pinks, purples, greens, oranges, etc. No two side by side houses were the same colour. After walking around, we took the water bus back to Murano so we could catch the proper bus back to our hotel. We had a choice of the 4.1 or the 4.2 which stopped less frequently than the 4.1. The 4.2 was arriving in 28 minutes when the 4.1 came along. Rather than waiting, we decide to take it instead. We discovered that it circumnavigated the whole city before heading inside. There were some 19 ports it stopped at before the one we needed, and took over 90 minutes. It was also packed full. However, our 20 euro passes got us a complete water tour of Venice for no extra cost. We arrived back at the hotel at 6:45PM and after a quick freshening up, we were off again. We ate at a local restaurant around the corner, along the bank of the canal. The food was ok, although if you did not want seafood, pickings were slim. They gave us a basket of bread and of course balsamic vinegar and olive oil, but no plate. We had to wait for every to order coffee afterwards. Not unusual service. We walked to St. Mark's Square to see how it looked at night. We meandered through many streets before we got there. I feel like I saw a great deal of Venice. We had heard something about a very high tide at 10PM, and to our surprise, the entire square was flooded, all but a narrow strip down the middle that was also slowly disappearing. Guys were selling water shoes, basically plastic bags you put over your feet so people could walk through the water. One restaurant had rows and rows of chairs on the square, all sitting in water. Across the way, another fancy restaurant had a classical band playing, and a few patrons sitting at tables, but service had been halted because the waiters, all dressed very fancily, would have to walk through a stream. Water spilled out over sidewalks on the Grand Canal. Many restaurants and other buildings had water up to their top stairs. We caught a water bus, which was jam packed at 11PM, for a few stops, then got off at the train station to gauge how far the walk to the hotel would be with suitcases, and to have a drink before turning in, beat after a long day.

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