It was Linda's birthday weekend treat, a few days in Venice with friends. We flew at Friday lunch time to Marco Polo airport with Easyjet. We had some good seats, at the front and so with speedy boarding we were settled quickly. The flight was about 90 minutes. The luggage as not too long, and we had decided to get a boat to the island. This meant queuing, not my favourite hobby, and when I got to the front of the queue the man told me it did not go to that location and go to another pier, we did this but he gave us the wrong information, so we had to go back to where we started. Finally we got on a boat and it took about an hour to get to the jetty where we needed to get off. It was dark, wet and cold so we needed to find the hotel quickly. This took a few turns, dead ends and checking Google maps. However, due to the small alleys GPS is not too good here, and we walked past the hotel twice, as it was not sign posted very well. Having checked in we unpacked, I checked that my running gear had survived the flight and relaxed.
We went out for dinner around 7pm and wandered around the back streets and finally found a reasonably priced restaurant. It was ok, we had pizza and it was nice. After this we went for a walk, it was slightly cold and drizzly, but not too bad, we found Rialto Bridge, St Marks Square and then back to the hotel via a few deviations. The Hotel is called the Ca Pagan.
We had agreed to meet for breakfast about 9am, which meant there was plenty of time for a run beforehand. Disappointedly Linda had managed to forget her trainers, so I went alone. Running in Venice is not easy, tight streets, bridges, and dead ends. I managed 4 miles and had a good view of St Marks, but it was difficult to do any distance as you run out of land. I did not get lost and gained a few ideas for my walking tours.
Breakfast was cereal, croissants and toast, with plenty of coffee. There was no fruit. We then left about 10.15 for a walking tour of Venice, and I did walk them miles and miles, with a few stops for coffee. Although the first hurdle was the water, the streets were flooded, a consistent problem mid morning, so I had to give the girls a piggy back through the stream. I ended up with very wet feet. The weather was fine, but chilly. We walked up to Rialto bridge, then to the Roma Square and back to St Mark's square. We found a supermarket to buy some fruit and nuts. After 6 hours we ended back at the hotel, our friends wanted a short break, but me and Linda went for another walk and stopped for coffee.
In the evening we found another restaurant, which suddenly became very busy, we had pasta to start with, which is normal in Italy, and then I had a nice salad, but Linda had pizza again. It was now raining quite hard so we had to forgo our evening walk and went back to the hotel to read.
On Sunday we had breakfast at the same time, before we went out. We had a ticket for the boat today, so we caught the number 1 and it meandered up the Grand Canal. We got off at the railway station and then walked to another stop. The next ferry took us to Murano where we looked around, Linda went to see the glass blowing at a factory, I sat and watched the boats go by. After this we caught another boat, which took us around Venice another way, and we ended up at the Arsenale. It was not raining, so we sat outside for a coffee and enjoyed the view. It was then a walk back to the hotel.
It was now around 4pm so I decided to go for a run, whilst the others went off for a coffee. I ran about 5 miles, I was going to run to the mainland and back, but when I got to the road the pavement was all blocked off, so I then had to run through the main streets, which was difficult as they were full off people! It took ages to get anywhere, although I found the Christmas market, Christmas lights, I texted Linda to tell her the good news, I then agreed to meet her near our hotel. I then walked back the way I had run and showed her the sights, she was pleased, I even treated her to a cup of tea under the Rialto Bridge. We then wandered back to the hotel as I needed to get showered before we went out.
We had enjoyed the previous night restaurant so much, we went back there again. I had a lovely seafood risotto followed by salad, Linda had ravioli followed by mozzarella and tomato salad, although there was no salad, just the cheese and tomato's. After this we decided to go to for a walk and see the Christmas lights, Linda saw an ice cream shop and had chocolate and liquorice ice cream with chocolate on top. Once we had walked to the railway station we caught the boat back to near the hotel.
On Monday I was up early and went for a run along the front as the sun was rising. It was beautiful, quiet, no crowds and fantastic scenery. There are a lot of bridges over the canals which means a different workout as it uses different muscles. I stopped on the way back for an expresso and just sat there watching the sunning, I did text Linda a photo so she could see the same view from her bed, although perhaps not the same ambience...if only she had bought her trainers...
As it was her birthday I did buy her a cake on the way back. After breakfast we packed and then went for a final walk. It was a lovely sunny day, not too cold. Around midday, we had a final cappuccino in the square, before collecting our bags and walking to the boat stop to catch our boat back to the airport. It was a bit bumpy, so Linda was not too good, especially as she couldn't sit outside, but I was fine. At the airport we sorted our bags out, checked in, arrivedirci Italy - Southend here we come.