April 14, 2007
Mike Fenton is coming @ 5 to come pick us up. We fly out @ 9ish. Fly MSP to AMS (Amsterdam) and then AMS to VCE Marco Polo airport arrive local time 5pm ish. Our apt. is close to Christine’s apt., I think that’s pretty cool. We hope to catch the water taxi and before the evening. Then we’ll go visit San Marco square. –ljf
Sunday April 15, 2007 Afternoon
Still on the plane. Our trip so far has been just okay. The seats that we are in are almost on the verge of uncomfortable, but at least we don’t have to sit next to anyone. The person ahead of me was kind enough not to recline his seat too far back. In fact, I don’t think he reclined his seat at all. Before we boarded the plane, the wait was awesome. We weren’t bored, and quite content, and then they started boarding the plane, so there was not that much of down time. Lisa and I did notice in the airport a vending machine that sold Ipods and stuff for ipods (fm transmitters and headphones. I could not believe it. I thought there were fewer places to eat in the airport, but I think there was at least 10-15 places. I guess we used different gates last time. Back to the plane ride. Before we took off, a persons seatback wouldn’t recline forward, so they had to get a mechanic in to fix it. So that took about 15-20 minutes for him to get his stuff squared away. It was in the back of the plane, so we didn’t see how bad it was. Once in the air (the pilot said he could still get us into Amsterdam on time, even though of the mechanical failure) they were quick to get the carts going. But before then, I had to try the laptop to see if it would work on the plane. It took me about 10 minutes to find the plug in, and then you basically have to plug your stuff in “blind” meaning all I could do was feel the outlet and try to jam the prongs into it
. Of course my scheme while flying was to get as much wine as I could, and then take it all to Italy with us. So on the drink course, I ordered a red wine and water, and Lisa ordered a bloody mary. Holy cow was her bloody mary good. Plus they gave her Skyy vodka, which I thought was nice. It was Mr. and Mrs. T’s bloody Mary mix. Lisa said it tasted meaty. She offered some to me, and of course, I wasn’t going to turn it down. So immediately following the drink course, the food course came. You had two choices, chix or curry vegetarian. Both Lisa and I go the chicken, even though I thought maybe one of us could have gotten the curry dish. The chicken was good (thigh pieces I believe) in like a teriyaki sauce with baby carrots, mushrooms and rice, but the mushrooms had to go. Also on the plate was of course, the customary hunk of cheddar cheese, club crackers, butter for the roll, ranch dressing for a nice lettuce salad and lemon cookies using the infamous green bottle lemon juice. All the stuff was good. Lisa got a white wine, and I got another red wine. I plan on using them for cooking. After throwing the trash, I asked lisa if she wanted some benedryl so we could sleep on the plane. Of course I did, and we slept kind of wildly. Then before you know it they served a crappy breakfast sandwich and good yogurt and tropical fruit cup. When we got off the plane in Amsterdam we had to go through a security checkpoint. They made us throw away our 4 bottles of wine that we had collected. We were so disappointed. But in the interest of national security- we folded. So we had plenty of time to catch our next flight to VCE or Marco Polo Venezia airport. We made it to the baggage carousel and our bags were among the first out. We were so excited. Thrilled and excited. We hoofed it to the Ali Laguna stop about 4 blocks from the airport. Then we took the LONG boat shuttle (12€) eventually – the long way round to the San Marco. I did get some nice pictures and we did get to see some different areas that we wouldn’t have gotten to see otherwise. As we exit the throng of people trying to get off the bus Luke takes the reigns and promptly takes us to the apartment. He didn’t even have to refer to a map. He knew the street directions like 2 or 3 turns ahead of us. He did a wonderful job. We made it with our backpack and luggage with no problem. We were tourists but so was everyone else. We checked into our apartment with minor hassle. We had to pay less security deposit than we had hoped that was good. We got the keys and as we were going to quick go out to explore before it got dark, I told to Luke to check the lock to be sure it worked. We shut the door and couldn’t get it open again. We tried and tried and thankfully a guy showed us the trick you had to pull the door shut a bit to help the lock catch.
We walked along the shore the Rivia Schiavoni by the San Zaccharia stop and saw all the hotels with outdoor dining. We saw lots of people with cute dogs not on leashes. They were so well behaved. No barks or poops/pees. We saw a Buzzy dog. He wasn’t as long or as fat as Buzz. We saw lots of people in love. I got a pic of a couple kissing. We then turned around to go to San Marco Square. It was big and lit nicely. The covered porticos were nice and pretty. Some fancy shops were tucked in behind like a little strip mall. Chanel and Louis Vitton. I didn’t give them a second look. There were vendors in the center selling t-shirts and prints. I bet a lot of people buy the prints. What else. The dueling orchestras were nice. I wouldn’t mind listening to them again. The streets (all over) were dirty and littered. Just yucky. Didn’t appreciate it. It could just use some spit and polish or maybe just elbow grease. We stopped for some food- a sandwich at a trattoria. A Pomodoro- - which was just cheese and salami. (Lisa is a putz, because a pomodoro is a tomato) Mine was a tour something like a tornado € 3.50, Had a thin sliced rustic foccacia had tomatoes, cheese and like tuna- it was pretty dang good. I enjoyed it. One of the best tuna sandwiches I’ve had in a while. We walked around a bit more. Luke got a calzone- a big one. For €4.50. He liked it until he found a big pocket of marinated mushrooms. Then we slid them off. We were walking on the way to our appt. and Luke saw Rick Steves sitting at a sidewalk table. We shook his hand and thanked him for his advice. How cool. Luke said we should rush back and get the guidebook and have him sign it. Luke said he appeared bigger in real life. He was gracious. We came back to the apt. I was going to put on (Luke now typing) a bathrobe, and right when Lisa grabbed it, the lights went out. I thought that the lights were on a timer, like a few of the lights in the building. So I tried to find the switches blindly in the apartment, and with luck, I found them. But after switching them on and off for a while, no dice. So I grabbed the only “flashlight” I could think of and it happened to be the cellphone. So I checked the breakers in our apartment and they were all good. So I decided to take a stroll down the steps of our apartment to see if I could find a main breaker. I was able to find the gas, the water, and finally the electrical. I ended up opening up a huge double door, and there were about five large breakers that weren’t tripped, and I started to doubt myself. Luckily, a person that lives in the apartments had a flashlight, and we were able to figure out which one it was. Not too bad for somebody like me. So after all the lights were turned back on, I finally was able to take a shower.
So tomorrow night with Christine. So we shall find a nice place to eat some great pasta and cheap wine. I wish I had the internet, because this search would be over.
Monday, April 16, 2007 1645
It is afternoon and we are tired, so I will quick enter this and then Luke can go publish this. This am we woke before the alarm went off. I had only 1 earplug in, it was VERY noisy. So glad we had those. We also heard (the night before) a very loud, heated Italian argument. They must have had a love fight. They were using “Basta!” a lot which means “that’s enough.” So we obviously needed the earplugs with the window open.
So we got ready this am and first went to the grocery store that’s located so close to our appt. We were not familiar with the stuff in the grocery store. It took us a bit to figure out what we needed /wanted. Christine called last night and asked if we could do something tonight. So Luke and I kinda thought we’d cook. It is cheaper that way. We got bread, butter, wine, pasta, gnocchi, pesto, tomato paste, yogurt, frozen veggies, onion, garlic, olive oil, pasta sauce, apples and the best of all, we got pecorina romano for like 3€. Awesome! After we left the store, we went back home, and put it all away. For some reason, both of us were cranky, and didn’t listen to either of each other. We finally decided on a course of action after Luke took a shower. Lisa made a small lunch of yogurt, juice, apples, and sandwiches made with butter and the parmesan cheese we got earlier. Boy those sandwiches hit the spot. I had mine with dried cherries. After a look at our itinerary, we decided to get to
St. Marks square and get the Doge Palace, Correr Museum and St. Marks Basilica done for the day. We decided that doing St. Marks wasn’t the first thing we wanted to do because there was a line about a block long. We decided to do the Correr Museum instead, which should have smaller lines and we can get the ticket for Doge’s Palace with it. We also got a pass for Murano Glass. The museum card was 18€, for all three things. So we looked around Correr Museum was a little slow, and they have tons of security. No wonder it costs so much to get in, because there were at least 30-40 security guards (1 in each room). I guess they don’t want any pictures taken. But there were some nice things in there, and it was 4 stories. We got to see some early globes that were made by local cartographers. These globes were four feet in diameter. We also saw a lot of artwork, a lot dealing with Venice and its creation. They also had works of art for some famous Venetian painters, none of which I can remember. We also got to see some architecture things from Venice. After a walk through of about an hour and half, we left to go to Doge’s Palace. But before we left for there, we decided to take a break and look at the Rick Steves Book. In it, it said that we could drop off our bag at this small place next to St. Marks Basilica and then we could shuffle past the whole line and get in faster. This was the correct course of action for us. So I dropped off the bag, the man told me where to go, and Lisa and I were off. And in fact, like the gentleman said, we bypassed the line, showed the card, and got in really quick as some putz was asking why he had to check his bag. Fools. So first off we went up some stairs so we could look out over St. Marks Square. This cost us 3€, which was a great price considering what you got. In the “upper” part of the church you could see some close up mosaics. Mosaics are made with little pieces of tile “glued” to the wall, eventually making a picture. On an informational stand, it said that ladies would go up there because they weren’t allowed on the lower floor. So we went out into the open air and looked down on St. Marks. It sure is a great place to just look down on all the people and see everybody enjoying themselves. There was a lot of history dealing with these bronze horses. I guess they were stolen, brought back, retrieved from Napoleon to take back to Paris, and then back to Venice. But being outside was destroying them, so they brought them inside and made replicas for outside.
In between these horses the Doge would speak to Venice. After seeing all this we took the tour of St. Marks, and it was okay, but not anything great. Kind of like this church we saw in Prague. It was great and grand to see, but I don’t remember much of it. Just remembering we were in it, and saw it.
After St. Marks, we decided to eat our fabulous lunch. We sat near a column by Doge’s Palace, which was close to St. Mark’s Basilica. Lisa and I both enjoyed watching the pigeons strut around and look for food. There are dominant pigeons that fluff themselves up and peck at the pigeons that want in on their territory. It is quite entertaining. So we sat around for a bit before going off to see the Palace. The palace is a huge building with a courtyard in it and it housed the Doge (elected king of Venice). This place was a little more remembered, because there was more interesting things to behold. We saw the world’s largest oil painting. Rick Steves called it a “monsterpiece”. We also were able to see the Bridge of Sighs. Well, actually not see it, but walk through it. Most people just look at it from a bridge by the sea, but we paid the price for admission, so we checked it out. It is reported that when prisoners would be taken to the jail, they would cross the bridge, take one look back at Venice and sigh, wondering at its marvel.
After the Doge Palace we were wondering what we were going to do. So we decided on riding the Vaporetto to the Rialto Bridge and back. When I paid for the tickets (6€ for one hour ticket) I gave the guy a 20€ note, and he shot three coins back at me, and in the quickness, I thought it would be three 2€ coins. I pocketed the money and grabbed the tickets. After about an hour I realized that the guy in the ticket stall screwed me by taking my money, he only gave me 3 – 1€ coins. I wanted to go back and deck him. What a learning experience. I won’t get fooled again while in Italy. Well in all the books that we have read, there are two main lines that service the Grand Canal: the #1 and the #82. So I was sitting at the dock waiting for the 82 bus, and I sat around for about ten minutes before I finally realized the times for the 82 bus were early in the morning, and late at night, not during the afternoon. I was super pissed. So Lisa and I had to move to another vaporetto stop and wait for the 1 bus, which didn’t take too long. We were planning on doing the Rick Steves Grand Canal tour, but we were doing it backwards, and we only had an hour to get to the top of the canal, and then back down, which was going to be impossible. So we had to cut our first vaporetto trip short because of a few mistakes. It’s all part of the learning curve in my opinion. The learning curve continues, because Lisa and I should have just bought a 72 hour pass for each of us. Since I already threw away 17€, it wouldn’t be much of a big deal. We shall see if we need something like that. On our way back to our apartment, we saw a bunch of shops open that we hadn’t noticed the day before so we decided to take a quick stroll around. Lisa and I found a dessert shop and found a wonderfully enticing bit of chocolate and nuts and hardened “nougat”.
It looked awesome, but we coughed up 8€ for it. Lisa took a picture of it, so we can show people what it actually is. This guy that worked for Harvard (I looked into his wallet when he paid) was trying to buy milk chocolate for his 13 year old daughter. The Lindt Chocolate bars weren’t good enough for her, because she wanted these “loose” chocolate shapes, like you get in a Hershey’s Pot ‘o Gold, and didn’t want anything inside of it. Lisa told me she would have told that girl to get a job. I told Lisa the girl should have had a chocolate bar, because it would be more satisfying. We made it back to our apartment and had some of the chocolate (I was hoping for more soft) which was okay, despite the hardened nougat part. Well, Christine just called, and we are deciding on supper. I hope all the stuff that I “blindingly” bought lives up to what the picture shows. I didn’t have a translation thing, so I just went by the picture. Sounds like it will be pasta with some sort of sauce I will concoct and some frozen vegetables that looked good with lots of parmesan cheese and bread. I can’t wait, my mouth is watering. Until next time – ljf.
Back at our apartment Luke starts to microwave last nights hodge-podge and I suggest a cheese plate. He liked my idea and made one- a good cheese plate. Better than we have ever had in a restaurant. We put mozzarella (which we got at the Punta store before we stopped back at the apartment) and the Fontina, Parmesano Reggiano, Pecorino Romano, Asiago, dried cherries, and the traili crackers on the cheese plate.. We took a picture of our dinner and the cheese plate. We ate bread along with and I had a glass of last nights left over open bottle of vino. Now we are up to the current time as I am writing, Luke I fear is asleep on the couch as I am writing outside on the huge patio. I still have 1/3 glass wine here. We have to pack tonight and get the apartment. All ship shape for inspection so we get our €300 cash deposit back. We get on the train to Florence in the AM for another fun filled week of museums. We may even go out to dinner there. There should be more dining options there as the whole place can’t be as touristy as Venezia. Good night! 
Back at our apartment Luke starts to microwave last nights hodge-podge and I suggest a cheese plate. He liked my idea and made one- a good cheese plate. Better than we have ever had in a restaurant. We put mozzarella (which we got at the Punta store before we stopped back at the apartment) and the Fontina, Parmesano Reggiano, Pecorino Romano, Asiago, dried cherries, and the traili crackers on the cheese plate.. We took a picture of our dinner and the cheese plate. We ate bread along with and I had a glass of last nights left over open bottle of vino. Now we are up to the current time as I am writing, Luke I fear is asleep on the couch as I am writing outside on the huge patio. I still have 1/3 glass wine here. We have to pack tonight and get the apartment. All ship shape for inspection so we get our €300 cash deposit back. We get on the train to Florence in the AM for another fun filled week of museums. We may even go out to dinner there. There should be more dining options there as the whole place can’t be as touristy as Venezia. Good night! 
