The day in Venice

Venice. It is an amazing city. This is the second time I have been to Venice, the first time was in 2001. That was the first time Cathy had been to Italy and we were there for September 11th. We spent an extra few days there, and the memories are not the best. This time was different and we had a good time. But first lets start with the last day of the trip.

Since we were disembarking from the ship in Venice, we had to have all our luggage and ourselves out of our cabins by 8AM. We had breakfast then waited in the theater to disembark. Upon disembarking, we had to find our luggage then walk to our bus. There we stored our luggage and took a short drive to board a boat with our tour guide. It was very hot in Venice and we really wanted a short walk, some lunch and sight seeing on our own. And we did just that. Dominic and Carol went with us and we had a wonderful lunch in Venice. It only cost $200.00, yes, only 50€ each. We thought we had been robbed, until we found out that some paid $125 for a not so great "frozen" pizza, ice cream and soda in San Marco Square, PER PERSON! At least we had a full meal and it was good.

So now for some pictures. The main church in Venice (though NOT the only one) is found in St. Mark's Square (Piazza di San Marco). The syymbol of the city, the lion with the book is the Christian symbol for St. Mark.


The city's symbol.


Of course the main symbol that everyone thinks of when they think of Venice, is the gondola. The rides are 80€ or $150 a ride. So here are pictures of OTHERS taking gondola rides.


This is what I called Gondola Central.


This is the tower that Galileo used to look at the skies with his telescope from. Why this tower? Well this is where the merchants would go to look for the incoming ships from the Middle East. When they saw which ship was coming in, they would then start bidding for the merchandise that was on that ship. Thus the need for a telescope, to see the ships before the others could and get the early bids in on the goods!


Street scenes.






And of course, illegal vendors. It is not only illegal to sell these goods (better known as knock offs) it is also illegal to buy and to be in possession of them. The reason from the white sheets on the ground is that the edges can be quickly picked up and bundled up into a sack as the police come walking past. After all, out of sight is out of mind, is the first stage of critical thinking!


From here, Venice, we boarded our bus for a short ride to the airport where we boarded our flight to Dublin. We arrived in Dublin at 2AM our time (1AM Dublin Time) cleared customs, got our luggage again, boarded a bus to the hotel, got our room and went quickly to bed as we needed to be at the airport no later than 8AM the next morning. Cathy and I took an early bus (the 7AM) to the airport, cleared all the hoops early and sat and waited for our flight patiently. Like we had a choice about waiting. We did clear US Immigration in Dublin. YES, we went through US Immigration in Dublin, so when we arrived in LAX, we did not have to do that, but we did have to wait for our luggage and then go through Customs (what a joke) and then onto a bus for a 5 hour drive home from LAX to Fresno. Bed never felt so good as it did that night! If you count, we handled our luggage 7 times in less than 24 hours, cleared 3 sets of customs officials, and two sets of Immigration officials. What a day!

So, what to expect next? Random shots that I liked from the trip and then on for some more boring writing of mine. It will take some time to pay this trip off and before we go again! Thanks for following along and I will answer any questions you may have....maybe not correctly, but I will answer them.