July 19, 2018

 Two days of ups and downs.

On Thursday we left the hostel at about 9:00 and took the 15 minute train from Mestre to Venice (Island). Our prime goal today was to wander, no direction, no pressure just wander the streets and canals of Venice.

Of course we wanted to see the Palace of the Doges, the Rialto Bridge and St. Marks Square, apart from that we wanted to wander the streets.

There is a street that is full of designer stores, GUCCI etc.

Alternatively, you could buy your GUCCI bag from the guy on the bridge selling \”genuine\” GUCCI bags.

It was hot, sweaty hot, and there were lots of hot, sweaty tourists. Then there were the Italians who looked cool and chic. The men in their light-weight suits and the women who looked as if they were ready for a photo shoot for Vogue. Even some of the older women looked as though they had an air conditioner somehow magically attached to their backs keeping them cool and sophisticated.

I was a hot sticky blob! We did have a good day. We didn’t get lost, how can you on an Island? You keep walking until you find a bridge, cross it and keep walking you are either going to find the sea or find the train station. The Grand Canal surrounds Venice, sooner or later you will find a canal that is wider than the rest of the canals (the Grand Canal) and you either go right or left.

It was a really good day. We found St. Marks Square at about 11:00, surprisingly it was not wall-to-wall tourists, although it was busy. A Dutch family approached Ralf, they asked him to take their photo and Ralf agreed so long as they would take ours. We have found people approach us (Ralf has his camera) and maybe we look honest. I tried to stop people walking in front of Ralf as he was taking a few photos of this lovely family. Well, when it came to the Dutch girl taking our photo, the Mom started directing traffic. She would stand in front of people who were going to walk in front of us, at one point she had her hand up like a crazy crossing guard! I could not stop laughing.

Venice is a very tired old lady, you know she was a beauty in her time, but she has aged and in places not very well. The City is faded, in my opinion, a little past her time. The older classical buildings need some major work – but what is the point when you are sinking into the sea. The ground level of all of these buildings are wet, moldy buildings. People live on the second floors and above in an attempt to stay dry. The humidity on the Island was unbelievable. Occasionally we would get a sea breeze, which had a wonderful odor of dead fish, however, there was a breeze.

There is a lot of building work happening. However, the trades people have a nightmare of a job getting the materials to the job site. First they have to navigate the canals, then set up with a “crane boat”. If they cannot do that they hand-bomb the bags of cement or lift them up and down all the steps and over the bridges.

Of course, a trip to Venice wouldn\’t be Venice without a few photos of the Gondoliers.  A 30 minute ride costs E80, if you can rally 4 other people to share the gondolier it isn\’t too expensive.

Towards the end of the afternoon, when my hands looked like little fat sausages, we sat down to watch the world go by for an hour. A group of classical musicians set up and played a variety of music, the first tune was Leonard Cohen “Halleujah”, then a classical piece, followed by “It’s A wonderful World”. A lovely end to a great day.

A selection of photos from the 265 photos that Ralf took.

We got back to the hostel and everything went pear-shaped.

We had hoped to get a warmshowers host in La Spezia, but he came back with a negative. We went back on-line to find a hotel. Ralf found a great deal and we booked it, when the confirmation email came though it was double the price. We canceled immediately – we got the confirmation email to say we had cancelled the booking but the hotel was still going to charge us for the room! Two nights before the reservation and we were going to be charged for the room, that we had cancelled.

What a nightmare.

Friday July 20, 2018

We were woken up at 7:00 by our room-mates leaving for an early start visiting Venice. I checked the credit card, yes we had a charge against our card and our booking had been cancelled. Ralf found an affiliate NH hotel in Mestre, we decided to walk to that hotel and ask them to contact the other hotel and hopefully get all of this nonsense sorted out. Marta at the Hotel NH Venezia Laguna Palace called the hotel in La Spezia. They advised us to contact the booking agent which is Agoda – or to book again and they will sort out the cancellation and rebooking. I am not holding out much hope. But, we have re-booked the very expensive hotel in La Spezia and hopefully tomorrow we can get it all sorted out. Or we dispute the credit card charge with Master Card.

The rest of the morning, we couldn’t decide what to do. Neither of us felt really optimistic nor could we decide how to spend the rest of the day.

Eventually, we went over the train station to investigate the logistics of getting our bikes onto the platforms. There is a lift down and a lift onto every platform – except 6/7. What is the betting that our platform tomorrow is 6 or 7. We did see a couple of touring cyclists on Platform 6. I asked them how easy was it to transport their bikes on the Italian trains. Apart from this platform they have found it very easy. They were two Germans from Dusseldorf, who were using a company called Euro Bike. From what I could understand, the company arranged to take your bags from destination to destination. They had three panniers and a handle bar bag – everything apart from the handle bar bag is transported for them. Oy Vey I planned this trip wrong.

We were going to Murano – the glass making island today, however the cost of the vaporetta (E20 each) and the fact that we wouldn’t buy any souvenirs (glass does not travel well on a bike), we opted to investigate Mestre.

Mestre main centre is under appreciated. O.k. it is not Venice, however it does have a lovely square and the best gelato we have tasted to date. The young lass behind the counter laughed at my attempt at Italian, however, I think I got a bigger scoop because of the attempt.

Mestre was a walled city and there is the remains of a tower and they have built a “reconstruction” of the draw-bridge.

Of course the “Tourist Police” were around and asked a girl who was sleeping on a bench to sit up. They also stopped a group of cyclists from cycling through the pedestrian zone.

Our mood picked up by the end of the day. We are back at the hostel watching the young folks parading. It is a little like watching “Discovery Channel” with a David Attenborough commentary.

“See how the female tosses her head and then ignores the male, she is looking through her tresses to see if he has noticed her. The male – slack-jawed approaches. Will she ignore him or encourage him. A brave male is accepted at the table, but will he be eaten for a main course or dessert”. “A lone female is left at the table. Will she find a mate tonight? Yes it appears she has, a smile, a flick of the tresses.”

“The mature, monogamous couple watch and smile at the youngsters mating game, secure in the knowledge of their everlasting love”.

After watching the youngsters for a while two young ladies from the States joined us (Texas and Oklahoma). They are doing a year exchange in France – in microbiology. They are taking advantage of their week-ends to see other parts of Europe. Two really nice young ladies.