A More Relaxed Approach to Vacationing and a Final Day Tour

The attempt at slowing down was a good try, I am still worn out though. We woke up Wednesday morning and hung out in the apartment for a while. Cindy is always trying to keep up with work stuff, I was trying to keep up with the blog, and the kids were being really quiet to not be noticed and forced into a walking tour. We finally got off of our butts and headed out late morning. After a short walk we decided to go ahead and eat lunch before getting too far.We found a nice square/piazza to enjoy a nice sunny warm day.

There was no real plan for the day. Thursday is a full day with a tour guide hitting a lot of the historical sites. Today was about enjoying the city, shopping, eating, and taking pictures. Around this area we had another brief incident. A local in a hurry decided to nudge Katherine to the side so he could get by. I didn't see it, all I heard was a stern motherly voice saying, "don't touch my daughter". I really don't understand the lack of patience of these locals. Do they know they live in a tourist city with really small walking areas? Why are they in the single busiest area at the worst time of day pushing people out of the way? I have stopped trying to avoid contact for these people that just do what they want with no common courtesy.

We headed across the Rialto Bridge again towards St. Mark's Square and the San Marco area of Venice. This is a very well known shopping and tourist area. We are going to be back here tomorrow for the tour, but what the heck?

Wait a minute, I have been here before. Las Vegas Nevada, the Venetian hotel. Except it was indoors with the ceiling painted blue with clouds. I am not sure which one I like better. Vegas was the original one, I was there like 15 years ago and saw this. Venice made a good replica, but I like authentic Vegas.

I am really starting to get tired of seeing scaffolding over many of the buildings in these cities. Don't they know it is tourist season? St. Mark's Basilica looks to have a lot of face lift work happening.

After making it outside of the square we were on the open waterway looking at the neighboring islands. There were a lot of shops and a lot of people around.

After doing some damage to the cash supply we walked back to the apartment along a different path and found some more amazing places.

Above and below were from dinner. Once again the view was great, the food not so much. Cindy ordered a filet medium, they brought a slab of fat that was raw. We sent it back and waited, well Cindy did, the rest of us ate. Finally they brought a better cut of meat but it wiggled on the plate when they set it down, raw again. Thankfully they did not protest taking it off of the bill and gave us a  bit of a discount. There was enough from the kids plates for Cindy to share and have room for gelato later.

After dinner the intention was to find a gondola and take an evening ride. We walked around along the canals and never found one. The restaurant was not close to the Rialto or St. Mark's square, but I thought for sure we could find one. There were two of them in front of the restaurant before we ate! It was fine, we still got to experience some of Venice in the evening and got some great shots at dusk.

Day 4: VIP Venice Tour

After a somewhat relaxing day prior, this was going to be busy. We had an early morning tour meeting spot pretty far from the apartment. We made the trek back across the Rialto Bridge back to St. Mark's Square in front of the Doge's Palace. The Doge was the elected figurehead symbolic leader, that really had no power. This tour got us into the palace but also gave us access to what they called the secret passages. Our small group got to see the very modest offices and old storage areas for the massive archives described as second only to the Vatican.

This picture shows a little bit of the various facades of the building. Several fires over the centuries have resulted in rebuilds by different architects.

I have said it before, we have really enjoyed the tours, getting the additional information about the things that we are seeing. This one did not have a lot of amazing visual stuff once you got into the offices and prison area, but it was still very interesting. The palace did have a large prison built inside of it. The prison started on the ground level, but this was a problem since ground level in Venice is often flooded. They had a picture of this courtyard with a boat floating around inside of it due to water levels rising. The prison cells also flooded. Eventually they built additional cells on upper floors. We learned a lot about the political history of Venice and a famous inmate. Casanova was imprisoned here and actually escaped from here. We got to see his actual cell and hear a couple of versions of how he escaped.

This is the courtyard center of the palace. The staircase pictured was used by the Doge. The lion is the symbol of Venice. 

More shots from around the courtyard.

This bridge linking the old and new prison is called the Bridge of Sighs. The sighs refers to the prisoners sighs leaving the court room after being sentenced, walking across this bridge to get to their new home in jail. 

After the tour we got to explore the other rooms of the palace. The following pictures were taken from a cell phone without being obvious that I was taking pictures. I mean Cindy, she was taking the pictures, I was not, it was not allowed. Anyway, they do not do justice to this room. It was huge! On our tour we got to go above this ceiling to see the construction and support system of this massive column free room.

There was one Doge that planned to take over the government. He was tried and put to death. This room in the palace shows a history of all of the former Doges. Above in the upper left hand part of the room you can see they covered up this guy with a black banner to be forever shamed.

After the palace we had a nice long break to have lunch and free time before our afternoon tour.

This was a market area close to the square where we grabbed some street food and sat down for a minute. 

Then some gelato. 

After failing the night before to get a gondola ride we decided this would be a good time to do it. There was no wait and we had time before we resumed our tour.

Yeah, yeah, I realize it was the middle of the day, with the kids, in the busiest part of the city. Not the ideal situation for the romantic gondola ride. I think Cindy and I agree that this part of Venice is so commercial now that it would be difficult to make it romantic even without the kids. There are probably some other good places around the city that are less busy and it would be less crowded.

We took a lot of pictures on the gondola. 

Bridge of Sighs

David took this picture for us. He did great. 

We ended up with the fastest gondola driver ever. During the ride he passed several other gondolas. We were even caught on the wrong side of the canal with a bigger boat coming at us. They have it all figured out. Our gondolier never shut up, not that he was singing, they don't really do that. I think you can get some of them to if you pay more, we did not hear one of them singing during our stay.

This about sums up the area. Too many gondolas. We still had fun and enjoyed the break.

After the ride we returned to the square. I sat down with the kids and people watched for a while. They played for a while on their devices and chased pigeons. Cindy walked around shopping for a while. 

Finally it was time for our afternoon tour. We started by getting into a taxi and riding around the canals and waterways for an hour while the guide added the detail.

It was fun to learn about the use of the waterways. Above a police boat drove by and below is the hospital with the ambulance boats out front.

We also saw a lot of these supply boats during our trip. These guys go place to place delivering goods to stores.

We did pretty good with seats on the taxi. I stayed in the front, not under the cover where I could stay cooled off and take pictures. Cindy was in the back and could stand up anytime to get a better view. We took a lot of pictures again and saw a lot.

The guide explained some of the architecture and the ways you could tell how old the buildings are based on decorative features

This building was impressive. It is mosaic out of colored glass. The colors were so vivid for a building that was several hundred years old.

After the boat ride we were back at the square. Next on the agenda was a tour of the basilica.

We made our way up a steep stairway and out to the balcony. 

These little guys actually swing the hammers to ring the bell every hour. 

I tried a few times to get a realistic picture of the pigeon problem. This does not tell the story but gives an idea of how many pigeons are around. There are as many signs telling people not to feed them, but everyone seems to anyway.

Some good views.

These are the original horses that used to be outside of the basilica on the balcony. They have been replaced and these were moved inside.

Once again these pictures do not represent what we saw. This time it is different though. These are much brighter and leave a much better impression that what was seen in person. It was much darker. The walls were also decorated with glass mosaic pieces. It was still a massive building with impressive decor.

After the basilica we went on a walking tour with the guide. It ended close to the Rialto Bridge and it was close to dinner time.

I did not capture this moment very well but it was another interesting experience related to a city on the water. Right before the above photo an ambulance boat sped by leaving all other to deal with the wake. These gondoliers are very skilled navigating these waterways in those long boats, but this was really impressive. As the wake hit these poor people trying to enjoy their ride the gondolier was doing everything he could to keep the boat from turning over and/or getting the passengers soaked. The picture was after the worst waves had passed, he worked hard to get control of that boat.

For dinner we found a table next to the most famous bridge in Venice. Our seagull friends kept us entertained during dinner. We did not have really good luck with food for the most part. This place was overpriced as expected because of the location. The food was not bad. Cindy and I had a nice seafood risotto.

View from the table.

Can you make out the gull feet and his dinner that he caught? He was on the canopy above us for a while.

Walking to the apartment after a long day.

Travel Day Home

Still with me? I know this is a long post. We had to check out of our apartment the next morning by 10 am but our train did not leave until after 1 pm. We all had our fill of Venice at this point. We left the apartment right at 10 and walked slowly to the train station with luggage in tow. By the time we made it to the train station we were really glad that we were leaving. It was a Friday morning and the volume of people streaming into the city was crazy! It was just a sea of people going in the opposite direction of us. This made it difficult to navigate with luggage and children, but we managed. 

Once we made it to the station we realized there was no place to sit. There were only a couple of shops and literally no place to sit. People were on the ground with luggage. After some reconnaissance we realized there were a few benches if you walked down the train entrance ramps down the tracks. We stored our luggage here and took turns walking around passing the time. Cindy found some more cloths for Katherine and David and I brought back some lunch. It was cheap pizza from the train station and it was really good. One of our best meals in Venice. David was on a mission to find Haribo Cola flavored gummies. He and I left the train station and walked along the grand canal until we found some. On the way back one more stop for gelato for mommy, Katherine, and myself.

This place was fancy. I barely made it back to Cindy before the gelato was melting all over the place. Not too long after that the train was here. We got lucky again with our no seat reservations. The six person first class cabin was all ours again. 

Bye Venice

Not much more to add about the trip. I could not help but take more photos on the way home. We were looking out of the opposite side of the train this time. The scenery was amazing for most of the trip.

Just look at the scenery from this train stop in this little town!

After making it home we unpacked some of our purchases. David has been collecting snow globes from each place that we visit. Katherine chose a carnival mask to remember Venice.

We bought several Murano glass items, some to be picture later. Here are a couple of our wine corkers that are our favorite.

After back to back trips we were glad to be back. I am glad we have some time before our next journey. Barcelona and Venice were two must go places from our list. They did not disappoint. Now it is back to work and school and whatever the heck I do during our normal routine. A few more weeks of school before summer. Up next is Berlin in late June.