A couple of photos from the window of the train
Barry reckons that stepping out of the Venice Railway Station is one of the best arrival scenes -the Grand Canal, the marble bridge. and all the people make it all fairly spectacular. So, there we were - in Venice, now to find the hotel. With the help of my Ipad map we found it no problems, really. Wandered along the canal and over a few bridges and there it was.
Looking out from the railway station, the marble bridge is to the left, just out of the picture.
A night time view from the marble bridge
Turns out we were staying in an ex convent! It still belongs to the catholic church and so there's lots of catholic religious paraphernalia about. Didn't bother us, it was very clean and tidy and the staff were lovely and we didn't pay much attention to the metal grill on the windows, we were on the ground floor after all.
our 'street'
looking out our windows
First thing was to go back to the station to book our train tickets to Prague. Turned out to be not such an easy thing because, even though we hadn't paid much attention to the fact that it would be Easter Weekend, everyone else was well aware and already booked to travel by train. It took the very patient booking lady quite a long time to sort our travel out so that we went as direct a route as possible. What we got was an overnight train, 6 berth sleeper, to Vienna and changed stations to get another train from Vienna to Prague arriving there at 5.30pm. We were happy and she certainly was.
so - now to explore Venice - first up - a 3pm gondolier ride then a 11/2hour walking tour.
There were so many people there, I was amazed because I never expected it to be so crowded. In the area around the railway station for quite a way is full of tourist junk/souvenir shops and stalls and street vendors, touters for restaurants.
looking from the marble bridge down from the railway station
We got fed up with it so got a river bus to the tour pickup point but then, when we got there, we discovered that the pick up point is in just another mad tourist area, so many people all milling about. CRAZINESS It was very close to the enormous Piazza San Marco where the Doige Palace and the enormous Church of San Marco is and the place was jam packed.
Finally the tour time arrived and into the gondolier we went. It was a bit of a let-down really because we got no information, just sat looking at what was passing by which was ok but I knew as much about what I was looking at when I got out of the gondolier as I did when I got into it. Can't go to Venice and not have a gondolier ride, though.
However, the walking tour was great and well worth doing. One interesting thing we were told is that no new buildings can be built in Venice and that to buy a place to live in is very, very expensive so many people are leaving Venice to live on the mainland.
The next day we decided to walk away from the main area and find 'ordinary Venice' but first I spent a good part of the morning sitting in a cafe with free wi-fi a doing the blog while Barry sorted out where to put our bags until it was time to get on the train, finding a post box to post some postcards and other such like stuff.
Finally, we set off to find 'ordinary Venice'. We walked over lots of little bridges; along little canals, some of which turned into dead ends which of course meant' one more step and we're literally - in the water'; stopped off at little street side cafes for coffee/beer and finally realised that there was hardly any one about - we had found what we went looking for. So, we continued walking about enjoying where we were and what we were seeing. Barry really liked the feel of it and said that he thought that he could live there, he really enjoyed being close to the water and there were no cars, only boats. It's illegal to swim in the canals because of the danger from the boats. The canals are incredibly busy and even though it was out of the high tourist season the Grand Canal was very busy - gondoliers, water taxis, water buses, little boats and big boats, tourist boats and work boats - I can't imagine how they all fit and get along when it's peak tourist time. The water buses were always full of people similar, to the London underground at Xmas time, and people pushed to get on.
A water bus full of people.
We finally found ourselves at the edge of the island and then it was time to head back , have some dinner and then onto the train so we had our last water bus ride, this time around the top of the island and into the Grand Canal from its beginning. We went over the marble bridge to have dinner and have a quick look. It was quieter over the side, opposite the railway station. There was still a lot of people but no the tourist junk shops, street vendors or touters.
As busy as it was, we really enjoyed Venice. It is a very interesting place.
and now - photos
the down side of living in a city of boat travel and transport is carting stuff around on dry land. Damned hard work, that's for sue. Thousands of little bridges, all go up and down because boats need to be able to go underneath them, all of them have steps, no ramps! We watched this guy pull histrolley all the way up and then down.
taken from our gondolier, some of the canals are very, very narrow
some of the streets are very narrow
at the end of the island, these ladies are training for the gondolier races
This trip will be my first experience of traveling in a sleeper compartment on a train.
And this day, the day I've written this, is our last day in Prague and it is now 8.30am and it's time to be up and doing. Supposedly, first up is a one hour segway tour!
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