Palaces, Prisons and Cicchetti, Oh My!

Today is Wednesday, May 4.  I'm going to start putting the date because I've had to post the following day.  I'm using my iPhone as a camera and it is taking a long time for them to appear on my iPad.  I should have just brought my camera!  

We had a full day today.  We started out by wandering around the fruit and vegetable market, located right next to our hotel.  There were some very interesting and colorful vegetables, along with fish that are very unusual.  Not to mention the live snails and little crabs.

From there we jumped on the vaparetto and headed to St. Marks Square.  We walked along the Grand Canal and admired the original art for sale.  We both bought small water colors.  Jim and I collect water colors that remind us of places that mean something personal for us on our travels.  We had downloaded a Rick Steves podcast that we followed around the square.  It explained what we were seeing.  We then went into the Doge's Palace.  It was full of incredible art and in some cases, over the top decor.  That lead us to walk over the Bridge of Sighs and into the old prison.  There was graffiti both painted and etched into the cells.

After leaving there we got some lunch.  We had our first pizza.  You'd think we were committing some kind of crime wanting to share one.  We were told we must order a side dish too.  We split a salad.  The waiter was a bit of a jerk about the whole thing, but the other guy that was helping couldn't have been nicer.  We headed back to drop some things at the hotel and then we did a little shopping.  

Finally it was time to meet Allesandro for our Cicchetti and bar tour.  What fun!  There were 10 of us, not counting Allesandro.  He was so funny and entertaining, all the while teaching us about Venitian history and customs.  We went to 3 bars, where we drank red wine and had Cicchetti.  They are small bites of food.  Their version of tapas and dim sum.  I'm not quite sure what everything was.  When asked, Allesandro would always respond "I don't know."  

The tour was from 6:00-8:00.  After it was over Marie and I decided to get on the vaparetto and try to see the sunset from the water.  We stayed on until it was dark, then headed back.  We were going to make this an early night.  It's 11:00 p.m. right  now.  Oh well, maybe tomorrow.

This trip was originally going to involve a week on our own and a two week Rick Steves Village Italy tour.  There was going to be a group of us from the Sacramento area, who met though the Rick Steves travel forum.  As it turned out none of us went on the tour.  David, who put the whole thing together, felt badly about the tour not working out for us, but I tried to tell him it wasn't anyone's fault.  He insisted on giving me some money for Marie and I to have a nice dinner.  Our Cicchetti and Bar tour was courtesy of David.  It was a blast, so thank you!  We are also going to have a nice dinner tomorrow, our last night in Venice.

Tomorrow we are spending the day on the islands, Murano and Burano.

Note - I'm going to post daily and insert photos when they are available.

First Full Day In Venice

To say I was tired last night is an understatement.  I was exhausted.   Much too tired to write much.  I will elaborate a bit on yesterday before I talk about today.

As I was standing in line to go through passport control in Frankfurt I was trying to decide how to approach the subject of getting my mother's passport stamped.  Then I started thinking about whether having someone else's passport is illegal and what could happen?  Would they take me into another room for integration?  Would I miss my connecting flight?  What would happen to Marie?  Yeah, I chickened out.  As we were flying to Venice I considered alternatives.  You know how some people bring an item, like a stuffed animal or something, on vacation.  They will pose the item in front of iconic sites like the Eiffel Tower.  Maybe I could place the passport in front of places?  I don't think so.  I will just keep it with me.

More about the water taxi.  I highly recommend it as a way to get to the island from the airport.  It meant we didn't have to take public transportation while we were exhausted.  We were dropped off as close to our hotel as is possible on the water.  Water taxis can be very expensive.  I did discover that a shared water taxi was not much more than taking the bus and the vaparetto.  There were 6 other people on our boat.  And it was so much easier.

So today, Tuesday May 3rd.  Our first full day in Venice.  We had specific plans for later in the day.  We slept in (a big deal if you know either one of us), showered and went down for breakfast.  It was okay.  There was coffee, tea and latte.  Latte means milk, so if you order one somewhere that's what you'll get.  They had nice fresh croissants, a few kinds of cereal and some really weird flavors of yogurt.  Coffee, pineapple, apple, banana...I tried the apple and Marie tried the banana.  It was really thin and kind of gross.  The croissant was good though.  Marie took some cereal that she thought was some sort of granola.  After eating some she came to the realization that it was probably oatmeal and hot water should have been added.  Oops!  I took some cereal that looked like cornflakes.  I would say it tasted like cardboard, but that is probably giving it too much credit.  Oh well, it was free!

It was probably about 11:00 before we ventured out.  We purchased a 3 day vaparetto pass at the airport, and we didn't want to use it until Wednesday.  So we walked.  And walked.  We went to St. Marks Square and bought a ticket that will get us into 4 museums.  We to the Correr Museum and we will save the others for tomorrow.  Then we walked, and walked, and walked.  Our destination - the Basilica S. Maria Gloriosa Dei Frari Church.  Commonly known as the Frari.  We had to get across the Grand Canal.  There were no bridges around.  So we took a traghetto.  It's like a gondola that is a ferry that takes people across the canal in areas that are sparse on bridges. 

 It was early afternoon and we discussed lunch.  Neither one of us was very hungry.  So we had gelato for lunch.  Why not?  The church was very interesting.  After that we headed back towards our hotel.  We were to meet with Lauri and Ed for a gondola ride.  Originally the plan was to meet at 5:30.  We changed it to 4:30, because the weather report said a storm was going to hit around 5:00.  Our meeting place was the Rialto Mercado vaparetto stop, around the corner from us.

After we met up we went in search for a gondola.  Ed was hungry, so after a quick stop for him to get a slice of pizza we resumed our search.. We didn't want a gondola on the Grand Canal.  We wanted to go on the small quiet canals.  We finally found one and away we went.  What fun!  We wound through some small canals and then the gondolier took us out on the Grand Canal.  Why?  He said we must see some important buildings.  We saw the 7 star hotel where George Clooney was married.  And some other stuff.  Who can remember after he distracted us with George?  Just kidding. We saw the University of Venice, a college of the arts and some other buildings that I can't recall at this time.  I did video a portion of that, so I will have to watch that.  We did learn why the canal is called the Grand Canal.  I had assumed it was because it was the biggest canal.  That would be grand, right?  Wrong!  It's because all of the houses lining the canal were occupied by very important people.  Grand people.  Hence the Grand Canal!

As we were on the gondola we could hear the rumbles of thunder.  The clouds were getting very dark. Then some raindrops.  But it never fully rained on us, even though the thunder sounded very close.  After we finished we talked about getting dinner.  As we tried to find some place to eat Lauri and Ed decided they were ready to call it a day.  They are heading to Budapest tomorrow.  We walked them to a vaparetto stop, then went back to our hotel for a pit stop.  

For dinner we went to Al Nono Risorto, and restaurant that several people recommended.    We both got the salmon with polenta.  It was very good.  As was the house wine.  They offered a 1/4 liter serving, so I got that.  Marie stuck with the 1/2 liter, because as she put it, she is more seasoned.  Another way to say that I'm a lightweight.  We sat there until the wine was finished, involved in conversation about some serious topics.  Enough of that now, we are on vacation!  Then it was time to call it a night.  Back to the hotel and we will be good and rested for tomorrow. 

Venezia!

We made it.  Finally.  After flights from Sacramento-San Francisco, San Francisco-Frankfurt, and Frankfurt-Venice, it made for a very long day. With no sleep.  We decided to enter Venice in style.  We took a water taxi from the airport to the Rialto Mercado stop near our hotel.  

The water taxi had just dropped us off.

Our room at Pensione Guerrato is very nice.  We settled in, then walked around until we could justify having dinner.  The food was good, as was the house wine.  A little more walking around, then back to the hotel for us.  It's early to bed so we are good to go tomorrow.  I'm sure the next post will be a little more detailed.  I'm just so tired...

Pre-Trip Thoughts

This trip couldn't come at a better time.  This trip couldn't come at a worse time.  Well, which one is it?  Honestly it is both.  I will be gone during some very important family events.  I will be gone for the primary election, and I'm leaving too early to be able to vote by mail.  But the last 5 months or so have been rough and I'm looking forward to getting away.  Once I'm on my way I will shed any regrets for what I'll miss and focus on having a good time.  

Part 1 of this trip will be with my dear friend Marie.  This is our 2nd European adventure together.  Some strange things happened on our trip in 2011.  If there is a recurrence of these things, it might be our last trip together.  😉

Tomorrow we depart for Italy.  We will spend three weeks there.  Our destinations are Venice, Verona, Siena, an Agriturismo east of Florence and Lake Como.  We will spend our last night in Milan so we can easily get to the airport in the morning.  Marie will go home and I will fly to Prague.  Jim will be waiting for me there.

After Lisa passed away in December my mother's passport was discovered.  I didn't even know she had a passport.  When it was given to me, I cried.  That may seem like a strange reaction.  I cried for missing her, and I cried for her unfulfilled dreams.  

She was a workaholic.  Some people work to live, but she lived to work.  She was very dedicated to her job.  She was not able to travel much between having 5 kids and working.  In her 30 years of marriage to my dad I think the only time she left California (besides our one and only family vacation to Ensenada) was a trip they took to Hawaii when brother Dave lived on the Big Island.  Her big dream was to go to China.  They were talking about finally being able to go.  But then the company she worked for was going out of business.  The trip would have to wait until she did what she could to close things down.  This was in 1984.  My mother was a healthy 58 year old.  She didn't have any medical problems at all.  So she thought.  Around April or May of that year the business was winding down.  She started experiencing back pain.  The doctor told her she had osteoporosis.  It got worse very quickly.  By early July we got the terrible news.  She had terminal and inoperable lung cancer.  The back pain was because it had already spread to her bones.  She was bedridden and in excruciating pain.  How could this be?  Just a few months ago she was fine.  Although the doctors said she had 9-18 months to live, they were mistaken.  She passed away August 26.  Less than 2 months after she was diagnosed.  My youngest brother had turned 15 years old just 9 days earlier.  

Back to the passport.  She got it on January 24,1984.  My brother Doug's birthday.  It was never signed.  It had no stamps.  It has never been out of the United States.  I have been fortunate enough to fulfill most of my travel dreams, because my mother's death taught me to not put things off or the opportunity may never come.  Amongst the things I have packed for my trip, right alongside my passport, is my mother's passport.  I will go through passport control in Frankfurt.  Maybe the passport officer will stamp not only my passport, but my mother's too.  Either way, from now on when I leave the country my mother, manifested in her passport, will come along.

Never Mind

The post is back where it should be.  All is right in my universe.

Out of Order!

There might be a way to put posts in a certain order, but it is beyond my limited tech capabilities.  Because I edited something on the last post from our 2014 Europe trip, it is now showing after the 2015 Seattle/Victoria trip.  If anyone knows how to place it where it goes I'm all ears.

It won't be long until I leave on my next European trip.  Stay tuned...

Better Late Than Never!!

I just realized that I didn't finish talking about the rest of our trip!

On Monday we took the bus to Edmonds.  What a cute town.  The goal was to go to the Rick Steves headquarters.  They had all of their products there to check out, and tons of travel guidebooks and maps.  We spent an hour or so there.  We then had lunch at a place that Jessica had recommended.  It was an excellent choice.  The food was really good and not expensive.  After lunch we wandered around some shops.  We spotted a sign at a place that said they had fresh cannoli's.  Yes please!

 

After a nice day in Edmonds it was time to return to Seattle.  We ate at the pizza place downstairs from our apartment.  The wifi from the apartment actually worked at the restaurant.

Finally it was Tuesday, 9/29/15.  If my dad was still alive it would have been his 90th birthday.  Time to go home.  It's kind of strange.  Usually when we take a trip we would be more than happy for it to last longer.  This time we were ready to go home.  We both felt that way.  It was a good time, but enough.

That's it for this trip.  Until next time...