Venice 🇮🇹

 

Disembarkation day is always a sad day because it means going back to a world where you have to pay for stuff and put your own napkin on your lap. For us, it became even a bit sadder when we managed to lock ourselves out of our room safe just before getting booted out of our cabin, with our wallets and travel documents still inside.  We learned that there is no worse time to try to reach Guest Services than when everyone is squaring up their accounts and trying to reconcile their bar bills.  Eventually, we got through, and a saviour maintenance guy was dispatched to do his hocus pocus on the lock, and we were able to retrieve our belongings. 

   All this occurred in the port of Trieste, which is one of the Northern Italy cities now visited by cruise ships that used to stop in Venice.  Venice is to be our base for the next three days, so we made our way down the gangway and hiked 20 minutes to the train station. There, we hopped a high speed train that dropped us off at the front door of our hotel an hour and a half later.  Amazingly, our room was ready and we could check in, even though it was still morning.  Even more amazing, we got a free room upgrade, despite having booked it using AirMiles.

   We’ve had a great first day just wandering and taking in the sights.  Venice is truly a city like no other. We’re still getting used to the fact that our bus is a boat.  It was weirder still that when we heard sirens, the ambulance that went by was also a boat.  We are certainly awestruck to be taking this all in.

The Grand Canal

Chaos! 

Bridge of Sighs

Rialto bridge

People everywhere

Bought a map…still got lost

St. Mark’s Bacillica tomorrow (if we can find it!)