Our
boat arrived at 1:30 in the afternoon and we were one of six boats in port…
That part I hate… so many people inundate a city, like a few thousand! And that doesn’t include the other tourists
that arrive by car or plane! Despite
that, we decided to just walk and get a feel for the city. Six miles later, we had a feel for the city,
and managed to get back to the boat for a last dinner and happy hour on
board. Next day we would disembark and
head to our Venice hotel for the next four nights.
Getting off the ship is always fun, but it didn’t go so bad. Sad thing, though, we really had to schlep
your luggage to get to our private water taxi.
We had someone meet us at the Oosterdam, but not with a car. The vehicles there are very limited cuz it is
a port. Anyway, got to the Water Taxi
and cringed as they loaded all our luggage on board and off we went. Got to where we had to offload our luggage
and cross a bridge to the hotel, which also had a little bridge to the front
door… ah, the joys of canal living!
Couldn’t
check in our rooms for a couple hours, so each of us took off for our own
explores. Had to be back at hotel by 4, as that’s when we were going on a Cicchetti
Tour, food tour with small plates and
wine.
We rendezvoused back and off we
went and had a great time! So fun
figuring out how to get places… Really appreciate the GPS on our phones…
Although the skinny lanes/alleys play havoc with the satellites sometimes. The tour started with a bit of a walk, of course, through some neighborhoods and then a Gondola Ride across the Grand Canal to the Rialto Section of Venice. And the food adventure began!
Crossing the grand Canal in the gondola that help 12 of us... bigger than the average gondola!
This place is the oldest tavern in Venice, see one of the documents below from the 1600's
Copper kettles that used to be used for getting water from the wells!
