Venice
We left Bled via the Lake road to get one last look, then headed into the hills and towards Italy. The road was quite twisty and very skinny again in places but after climbing to almost 2000 metres and back down to about 100 we made it to Italy. As usual we had the GPS set to avoid tolls and after cruising on a freeway in Italy for about 15kms, the GPS advised us to get off. It then suffered a nervous breakdown and had absolutely no idea where we were and kept telling us to turn right every 10 metres. We eventually worked our way back to the Toll road which at least had signs to Venice and about half an hour later the GPS started working again. We tossed up whether to trust it and decided we would, knowing the Tollway was available nearby for backup. It continued to function all the way to our hotel, so hopefully it just couldn't 'see' enough satellites to get a fix and will be OK for the rest of our trip.
After checking in we caught a bus the 20 minutes to Venice, arriving around 3:30pm. It was nice being able to just walk and not be too concerned about our direction. Venice is a real maze and we constantly saw people with luggage looking very worried about where they were and where their hotel was. We could just wander down one alley way and then work our way back to one of the 'main' streets. There are a couple of major walkways that take you the Rialto bridge or San Marco square, back to the bus/train terminals etc. and once you work out those it makes life a lot easier. Late afternoon a thunder storm came through and threatened to ruin the day as we weren't prepared for it. Despite lots of thunder the rain never really took hold, although we did stop for dinner at one point partly to avoid it. Dinner was a nice pasta for me and a Calzone for Trace with beautiful fresh dough. They asked if we wanted anything else and I ordered grappa, expecting there to be only one choice. In fact there were about 6-7 to choose from so I let them select it for me. Well it was very strong (50%) but not bad and the waiters seemed pleased and amused. Later the head waiter poured me something else to try (free) and it was much smoother, kind of like Frangelico. After dinner the sky was actually brighter than it had been for hours and we ended up staying until about 9:30. Other than the Rialto Bridge we hadn't been to anything major, but certainly did a lot of walking and saw lots of canals, people and shops.
Friday and there was a public transport strike, though buses were running until 9:00am and again from 4:30 to 7:30pm. We woke early to ensure we would be able to get a bus and managed to get to Venice by 8:30am. It was reasonably quiet at this time as most of the people staying on the island weren't out and about yet. It was a very warm and sunny day, even though another storm was forecast, it didn't hit until we were back in the hotel. We were a bit more organised and went to San Marco Square, climbed the tower, found the 'Bridge of Sighs' (where prisoners saw their last bit of daylight before execution) and several vantage points for photos. We again spent a full day (7 hours!) walking around Venice, leaving around 5:00 when the buses were available. Spent a quiet night in our hotel room to rest up, venturing out only to get a little something for tea.
After checking in we caught a bus the 20 minutes to Venice, arriving around 3:30pm. It was nice being able to just walk and not be too concerned about our direction. Venice is a real maze and we constantly saw people with luggage looking very worried about where they were and where their hotel was. We could just wander down one alley way and then work our way back to one of the 'main' streets. There are a couple of major walkways that take you the Rialto bridge or San Marco square, back to the bus/train terminals etc. and once you work out those it makes life a lot easier. Late afternoon a thunder storm came through and threatened to ruin the day as we weren't prepared for it. Despite lots of thunder the rain never really took hold, although we did stop for dinner at one point partly to avoid it. Dinner was a nice pasta for me and a Calzone for Trace with beautiful fresh dough. They asked if we wanted anything else and I ordered grappa, expecting there to be only one choice. In fact there were about 6-7 to choose from so I let them select it for me. Well it was very strong (50%) but not bad and the waiters seemed pleased and amused. Later the head waiter poured me something else to try (free) and it was much smoother, kind of like Frangelico. After dinner the sky was actually brighter than it had been for hours and we ended up staying until about 9:30. Other than the Rialto Bridge we hadn't been to anything major, but certainly did a lot of walking and saw lots of canals, people and shops.
Friday and there was a public transport strike, though buses were running until 9:00am and again from 4:30 to 7:30pm. We woke early to ensure we would be able to get a bus and managed to get to Venice by 8:30am. It was reasonably quiet at this time as most of the people staying on the island weren't out and about yet. It was a very warm and sunny day, even though another storm was forecast, it didn't hit until we were back in the hotel. We were a bit more organised and went to San Marco Square, climbed the tower, found the 'Bridge of Sighs' (where prisoners saw their last bit of daylight before execution) and several vantage points for photos. We again spent a full day (7 hours!) walking around Venice, leaving around 5:00 when the buses were available. Spent a quiet night in our hotel room to rest up, venturing out only to get a little something for tea.
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