Venice Italy

Day 1
Venice, the City of Canals.  Our first stop was San Marco square. We got there fairly early, before a lot of people got there and it was nice.  We got in line to go into St. Marks Basilica.  The couple behind us told us about the square flooding yesterday at 10:30, I was thinking at night but after we came out of the church you could see water backing up into the square.  High tide comes twice a day and it is about 11:00.  It really makes getting around difficult.

We went up to the top of the Campanile, next to San Marcos for panoramic views of the city.

The Palazzo Ducale was very impressive.  Everything about it was noteworthy, huge rooms with beautiful woodwork, doors within doors.  Massive staircases, reliefs carved in the ceilings, frescoes and wall size paintings.

 

Day 2

We took a water bus to Murano the place where all the Murano glass is made. We got a private tour of a glass factory.  I must say I was very impressed with all the magnificent glass work, I never knew that there were so many different glass creations.  During the tour, we had a short demonstration in how they blow and shape the glass.  The artist doing the demonstration was a ninth generation master glass blower.  He made a vase and a fish in a matter of minutes.  In the showroom they had rows and rows of glass sculptures, chandeliers, vases and anything else you could imagine made of glass.  The glass was very expensive.

After the tour, we walked around the town a little looking in all the shops that were selling Murano Glassware.



Then we the took the water bus to Burano famous for hand made lace and colorful houses.  We watched a lady making lace from sewing thread, it was amazing the skill she had.  She was working on a swan and said it would take about ten more days.  The swan was about 4" tall and 6" wide. The hand made lace was extremely expensive.  Nice handkerchiefs were $250.  There were bedspreads for $7000.  It was a colorful and picturesque island, a lot slower paced than Venice.












We eventually bought a butterfly she had made and we took a picture of her with it. The water bus back to Venice was not working on schedule, we ended up walking half way across the island to catch another. 

We ate dinner at the Venice Hard Rock Cafe, it was wonderful.  Being able to eat our style American food with American music is a great experience after being in KSA.  In Texas we ate BBQ ribs often but living in a Muslim country we don't have that option, whenever we get out of KSA we look for a HRC and enjoy a slab of BBQ Ribs.  Just outside of the HRC was a Gondola docking point.  There were about 20 gondolas docked, we thought it made an interesting picture.

After dinner we went to San Marco Square and watched the people.  The have these spinner toys with lights on them, they shoot them up in the air and they slowly spin down, they are neat looking.  We took some pictures and a few short movies and enjoyed the music being played.

Day 3

Today we ventured to the Rialto bridge, it was the most elaborate bridge we have seen in Venice.  There was a Gondola station there and we took a gondola ride.  It was a short ride, about 30 minutes but it was nice.  We went out on the Grand Canal and also through some smaller canals.  We went by Marco Polo's house and Casanova's house.  We did not get sung to, I guess that cost extra. 

We got lost, like usual but just kept going until we found something we could find on our map and started off again in the right direction.

We found a glass aquarium we liked today and got it, it was heavy to carry back to the hotel, especially when we get lost and wandered around.  We have gotten two small pieces of Murano glass.

Our Aquarium

Today was postcard day, the day we catch up on postcards and mail them.  We went to Italiaposte to get stamps and had to wait a long time.  We took some cards to a sidewalk cafe and completed writing and addressing them.  Then the difficult part, licking the stamps and sticking them on the cards.  Working together we made short work of it.





Day 4

We slept in a little and then packed for the trip too Istanbul later today.  The hotel stored our luggage and arranged for a water taxi and a land taxi to get us to the airport. 

We had about six hours to kill in Venice so we hit the streets to wander aimlessly and see more of Venice.  We walked by several small churches and went inside.  I lit some candles and thought of those dear to me.  Sometimes the churches have choirs or music playing and that is real nice.  Most of the churches in Venice are very elaborate with murals, carvings and paintings covering the walls.  I do enjoy going into the various churches.

It was good to get on the water taxi and be on our way to Istanbul which in reality is another step closer to going back home to KSA.  It's not that I am ready to be back in KSA but I am ready to sleep in my own bed and have the A/C set my way and have cold drinks when I want them....and so on.

When going through security at the airport, they asked to look in my bag.  They quickly went to the wrapped package in the bottom.  It was wrapped very well and it was taking them some time to get it unwrapped and finally they asked me to finish the unwrapping.  Once they saw it was Murano Glass, they showed it to other screeners and told us it was OK.  There was no way we could get it wrapped back up as well as it was but we got it covered well enough.

We got all checked in and sat in the departure area drinking water and looking at pictures on our iPads and also used the time to fill in our journals.  I don't like waiting at airports but having the iPad and using the time to complete my journal entries is nice.

TJ & EA not in KSA