Thursday 22 September: Venice

After a restless night on the train, enlivened by the experience of learning to use a chamber pot, we awoke to a grey dawn. The conductor revived our spirits somewhat with some nice cappucinos and pastry for breakfast. He even helped us get the cases down from the train!

A quick visit to the information booth, and we were directed to the vaporetto station to catch a boat/bus to our hotel. 3.50 euros each - ouch! "Sorry - you need a ticket for those cases". 3.50 euros for each case! Blippin heck!! Our first taste of the cost of living in Venice.

After a short ride in a very crowded ferry we found our hotel with no difficulty and checked in. Like most hotels in Venice, the Antigo Trovatore is converted from an old house (or "palace" as most of them describe themselves). This means that the stairs are steep and the lift doesn't necessarily service every level. However, the welcome was warm and friendly, even though we were several hours ahead of the official check-in time. The lady in reception stored our luggage, and promised to have our room ready as soon as possible.

We headed off to explore as much as we could on foot. From the end of our street, we turned right and walked up onto a bridge over a small canal. Look right - "Oh, that's the Bridge of Sighs". A few more steps - "Wow - St Mark's Square". Every hotel we researched for Venice claims to be a short distance from St Marks - ours wasn't lying.

Without any particular course of action in mind, we just followed the crowds - throngs of tourists, many in groups that looked like a hundred or so people each. We dropped into a likely looking coffee shop, ordered a cappucino and pastry each and took a seat - big mistake! Eleven euros per favore! It seems the price is about half if you stand at the bar.

We wandered all the way to Piazzale Roma - the main bus station, then back to the other end of the island, a quiet backwater called San Marta. There we bought a gelato each (one euro for the lot - best value ever) and went back to the hotel. By now our room was ready, and it proved to be basic but adequate and comfortable. No TV, but that was not a problem. Also no tea or coffee making facility - these seem to be the exception in the 2/3 star hotels we have been staying at.

A short rest for our aching feet, then we went back to the Academia bridge to see if the light was any good for photography. It wasn't too bad, and we got a couple of nice pictures. After a bit more sight-seeing we had a quick dinner in a cafe near the hotel, and so to bed.

Renovation. Just about everywhere we have been on ths holiday one or more of the attractions have been under renovation, covered in scaffolding and white shadecloth. Venice is no exception, and the famous clock tower is completely shrouded - with a huge picture of Big Ben(!?) There are also a lot of cranes dotted about (five on the new Hilton site alone) which makes it really hard to get decent pictures of some otherwise beautiful scenes.