What a magnificent way to arrive in Venice. On board our floating home, we sailed into late afternoon on the Wednesday afternoon a day ahead of our scheduled arrival. Unfortunately a medical emergency evacuation off the coast of Corfu meant our Croatian stop was cancelled, but the two full days and three evenings in Venice took the sting out of the disappointment. And boy did we make the most of that time.
Along with Michelle, Paul, Julie and Matt we took the free water shuttle offered by the ship for that first evening into Venice. We had a curfew of 1 am for last shuttle back and I think we were close to that time.
How wonderful to see the looks and get caught up in the excitement of four friends seeing Venice for the first time. The girls had trouble keeping their heads out of the shop windows as we travelled down alleyways soaking up the atmosphere that is Venice. It was a hot and satisfied group whom sat down for a few drinks in a lovely court yard just off the Rialto bridge.
Happy and tired we made our way back home after five incredible hours.
Thursday Paul and Michelle had a ship tour booked and we took our two day water bus pass and went to Burano. We had been there before but with not a lot of time to really explore. We sat for a pizza lunch and started chatting with the young couple seated next to us. Julian and Paula were from Germany and he was turning 18 in a weeks time. We spent a lovely hour with them, Julian gave James his card for when we go to Germany as they live near the best Riesling vineyards he said.
We made our way back to the ship had a shower and change of clothes and met the others and we went off back in for dinner on the waterfront and some more exploring of the area to the right of St Marks square. Another great night.
The last day we used our pass to travel around the local waterways traversing the whole Island. Took a side trip to Lido and found the beach, not clean like our waters and we wouldn’t swim there, but interesting to see how other countries enjoy their downtime. Also took a few walks around different neighbourhoods, getting a different perspective.
Had a lovely break in a park, got to video message mate Cathryn. Enjoying ice cream and beers.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Venice and be more than happy to go back again.
Offtolivetheworld 