Day Two European Trip

Friday, October 21

Woke at 4 am. Can't do much at that time of morning, so I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. Didn't work. We finally got up around six and took our showers. I walked into the huge bathroom with it's old claw-footed tub, no shower curtain. I tried to be careful and keep the water from going all over that room, but it was a total loss. It took me about fifteen minutes to soak up the two inches of water off the floor. How expensive could it be to buy shower curtains? Come on! As I was finishing up I realized there was a drain in the far corner of the room and I could have "swept" it toward it and maybe not ended up with a backache. Of course my wonderful hubby managed to take his shower without getting a drop on the floor.

We went down to the resturarnt. Lots of cold cuts, hard bread, cereals and pasteries. We had decided to go out and find a hot breakfast when one of the waiters told us to go into the next room is that is what we were looking for. Since it was free we decided to check it out. Okay, more like it. They even had American style toast. Stomach full, we left for a day walking Venice.

I know you don't want to sit here for an hour reading our every step, so, I'll condense the day.

A gondola ride was out of the question since a cold front had come in during the night. It was windy and a bit cold on the waterfront. We took a water taxi to the stop closest to St. Mark's Basilica. Nice walk, the architrcture is really beautiful in Venice. Some buildings older than America. The Basilica was packed, people standing shoulder to shoulder. We left thinking we'd come back later, but never made it. Venice has too much to see and do in only a day. We walked to the Bridge of Signs and crossed over to see the infamous prison. Depressing place, to say the least. Next was Marco Polo's house. As affluent as it was for the time, I'd have to say it didn't look all that comfy. Toilet sitting by the bed waiting for late night urges looked something short of a throne, the bed draped in what looks a lot like modern day curtains. Okay, except for all the gold spun into the material.

We stopped for dinner (yeah we skipped lunch) at a place on the main strip. The food was to die for, the price wasn't. It ended up costing us 134 Euros. A Euro breaks down to about $1.45. You do the math. But again, the food was sooo good. I almost didn't mind the cost. (Almost.)

We shopped some of the street vendors. Masks, jewelry, some fake, some real. As the sun set we went back to the hotel and watched a little TV that we couldn't understand a word spoken. Just before we turned in for the night we found an English speaking channel but it was all news.

Time for bed. Tomorrow we have to drag those suitcases to the water taxi then to some business square where we'll catch a bus to the ship.