So… What did you do today? If you’re answer wasn’t walking on a city that sits on top of the ocean, I think we win.
Our day started off as most travel days do, sleep deprived, in a rush and an annoyance to airport security. At least I am. I have toiletries and all the electronics so when the items go through the x-ray machine, let’s just say it looks nefarious. But I eventually get through with an “Okay, enjoy your day” hidden sub-text “stupid tourist.” Sidenote: Germanwings is a great airline. Though you have to pay extra to get food, if you’re doing short flights they’re the best. They board, take-off and land with great efficiency. None of this sitting on the tarmac for 45 minutes crap that happens on American flights. Good on you Germanwings, you do Deutchland proud!
After two flights and a long layover we arrived in Venice!
(1) Get pictures at Piazza San Marco (Saint Mark’s Square).
One of the largest tourist sites in Venice, Piazza San Marco is a large flat courtyard on the South Central section of Venice. It is full of tourists, cafe’s and pigeons. When all three of these are combined you get a tourist in a cafe putting birdseed in his hands only to be swarmed by pigeons (this consistently happened and created wonderful travel video opportunities). Don’t worry- we were not THOSE tourists.
(2) Eat at a real, off the beaten path, Italian restaurant.
This combined two things we wanted to do, the above mentioned, and walk through narrow Venetian streets. Granted, most places in Venice have some form of “curb appeal” to entice tourists but we hoped to find a nice quiet place where we could relax. You know, so we could stare into each others eyes and say “Oh my gosh we’re on a floating city!” Romantic stuff, like that. We found such a restaurant in Ristorante “da Stefano.” Near a gondala station (our number three goal). It was a nice place with a small staff and great food. Though at times the music didn’t give you a Venice vibe, thanks Pharrel Williams, the classics like Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra added just the right amount of class. To top it all off our wine had a bowtie so… that was awesome.
(4) Take a gondola through the small Canals of Venice.
Many of the Gondolas start in the Grand Canal, we wanted our sunset ride to be a little quieter. We found a station just beyond the Piazza San Marco, opposite the large tower, and jumped in. Well, walked in with the help of the kind gondaleer so as not to tip our boat over. Our gondaleer’s family had been in Venice for three generations. He took things slow, gave us the history of the buildings we passed and even offered to take our photo. It wasn’t the greatest quality because it was dark by this time, but it was nice all the same!
(5) Eat Gelato
I didn’t really know much about gelato, other than I’ve heard of it. Basically, it’s Italian ice cream? Right? I mean I’m sure there is more to it than that… but basically that’s what it is. We stopped to grab a cup before we had to head off the island. We got a variety: mint chocolate, caramel, and cookies and creme. If only the Italian language had a word for delicious. Ah Well…
We finished up on Venice proper and headed towers the “suburb” of Guidecca. Guidecca is an island just south of Venice separated by a large channel that is frequented by Water Buses, Gondolas, Ferry’s and cruise ships. After searching for awhile we found the right water bus to take us to our final destination: The Palanca station. We got off at our stop just as the display on my phone, controlling the GPS, decided it didn’t want to work anymore. Luckily, Bethany had a little juice left in her phone, we found WIFI and were able to call our AirBNB host, Julia.
Julia lived in a flat overlooking Venice. Not a bad view… I believe it even wins over our view we had in London. Upon meeting Julia we quickly realized that she was from the U.S. Julia had lived in Berkely, not too far from our home. She was a lobbyist in the capital for many years. But sometimes you need a fresh start and Venice is just as good a place as any to start afresh. After some nice conversation she realized that we were tired and showed us through the ins and outs of her flat. We WERE tired and it was time to say goodnight.
Or was it…………….?
Added June 10, 2015
I don’t think I mentioned that when we arrived in Venice it was hot. Not super hot, but considering that we had mainly experienced sub 75 degree temperature and a lot of rain on our trip thus far, jumping into 85 degrees with humidity was quite the change. If you know me, you know I run hot. By that I mean I get hot quick and stay hot for a long time. This compounded by the fact that air conditioning isn’t a norm in Europe, it has been rough for me. We got in bed but I couldn’t cool down. I noticed the floor was cold so I laid a pillow on the ground and laid against the cool stone floor.
I must have dozed off because I awoke to a huge gust of wind blowing some of the beautiful wood window panes shut. I thought to myself “Self, it would be a good time to use the restroom #oldmanproblems.” Yes, I think in hashtags sometimes. I reached for the door and turned the handle and it spun, and spun, and spun. Something was wrong with the door handle and we were locked in our room. Bethany woke up and asked what I was doing “We’re locked in” I replied, she said “Oh” and rolled back over and fell asleep. Lucky girl. It’s amazing how quickly you can loose your cool when you’re tired, not thinking straight and you rip the door handle right off the door. Yup… that happened. What do I do? Do I wake Bethany? Do I text or call our host? Yeah, I’ll try that. So at 1:42 a.m. I called my host.
“The Vodaphone subscriber you have called is unavailable or has turned off their phone.” – automated message. Great…
How could this have happened? Did someone break in and tamper with the lock to trap us? Did our host decide she missed California and if she couldn’t have it then we couldn’t either? I thought of every conceivable scenario. Eventually though, I was resigned to my fate, I took some allergy medicine to stop my cough and went to bed.
That is until about 4:30 a.m. when the light hit my face and I woke up and the thought spiral began again. Unfortuatley, that was the least of my problems. Remember how I said around 1:30 a.m. I needed to go to the bathroom? How do you think that felt three hours later? Not great. Do I pee out the window? No that’s gross… I looked out each window and notice shrubs below. On the floor in front of the window laid my empty water bottle from the day before. “Well… I guess this is what my life has become #lifeontheroad.” I did what needed to be done and walked to the window and carefully poured the contents into the shrubbery below. Yeah, it’s gross, but all other alternatives were far worse. Julia, if you read this… I’m sorry.
Sometime around 5:30 I heard a door shut and water run. Julia was awake. In her old venetian home, circa 1916, the keyholes were very large, like in the movies, so I could see outside the room. As luck would have it one of the light switches in our room controlled the lights in the front room that I could see through the hole. I began to flip the switch on and off, on and off, it was like some form SOS hoping to get her attention. Nothing. So, I began to lightly knock on our door saying “Julia? … Julia…” Finally, I got a response “Yes?” Probably wondering why I was speaking through the door. “I can’t open the door, it just keeps spinning, I think we’re locked in.” To make a long story short a previous tenant of Julia had broken the door handle and did not inform her. Hence our current predicament. She quickly figured out how to open the door and said “Maybe we should just keep it open now.” I’m right there with you Julia… One hundred percent. Around 5:45 a.m. I was able to go back to sleep knowing that if I wanted to… I could go to the bathroom. I nestled up close to my still sleeping bride and went to bed.
What a day…
Cheers,
B&B
