Melsea's Adventures of First Part 7

[melsea]

Sorry for the delay, it has been somewhat manic. I continued to write up the final days of our special trip and it turned out to be a long piece so I have broken it down so that your guys don't fall asleep reading it.

29th October Venice Day 2

We woke up nice and leisurely. We went for breakfast which was a nice affair. Continental with a couple of hot food choices.
We left the hotel a little later than we intended , we got the hotel free shuttle boat taxi to the other side. Made our way towards Marco Square where we went to see it in the day light as we had seen it last night with all the lights on in the square. As we were nearing the square we felt a few drops of rain, we were very close to it and we stood under the arches of the square looking at the rain that decided to fall quite heavy and the people that were in the square scuttled towards the arches and it was a sight to see, it was light a ripple of people running to the edge like ants..
We walked around near the square looked in the windows of very expensive shops. One thing about Venice it's so easy to just walk on & on and just immerse yourself in the surroundings. One place we were heading was towards the Rialto Bridge. It has significance to me as it was the one place I was last with my mum who dies a long time ago. Having navigated the strange signage to direct us to the bridge we finally found it. As it is a place that is sought out by everyone else it can get a little busy, today was no exception but everyone was being nice and allowing you to pose for photos and also look over the bridge down on the Grand Canal to see the famous scene in front of you where the water taxis, the water buses and of Gondoliers jostling for space. You can see why artist in the past and continue to do so paint this scene, it screams out at you to do so. We walked over to the other side of the bridge to find a market and shops. We wandered through here and nearly all the market stalls were selling leather bags and luggage. We bought three handbags, one for me and the other two were for my sisters as Christmas presents. At the same time Bill found a really nice piece of luggage which we ended up buying which we would use for our journey on the Orient Express as the bag we had really wasn't exactly right for this journey, as we were told very late what we were able to take on board the train as you are limited as to what you can take. So planning was careful. Unfortunately we only found out a few days before we departed on the this whole trip. We had virtually packed everything when we got the info and so we had to have a rethink on our packing and what we were going to take as we were limited as it was for the flight out to Rome and then we reworked our luggage to take into account the small bag we could take on the train. Anyway suffice to say in our panic we took a bag that wasn't really going to do the job, so finding a suitable case was really good at this point. On buying the handbags and the case Bill got to work on getting the price down which he did. In the doing this another couple came in and saw what we had done and had the courage to do the same. At this point Bill was getting a little fatigued and decided to make his way back to the hotel. I stayed around and I bought a couple of handbag hooks which were a little different and made of Murano glass. I also stopped at a jewellery shop that handmade and designed their own modern pieces. Needless to say I bought a pendant made of glass and silver. Having done a little damage in the shopping area I started to make my way back which I thought would not be too difficult, thinking I could walk along the front and make my way towards St Marks Square but I didn't make it very far as it was apparent that many many of the properties stop at the canal and do not necessarily have platforms at the foot of their homes. So I had to back track a little and found people going down a different alley way which ended up getting me lost and the twist and turns of the various alleyways were now not parallel with the canal. Funnily enough I found a small supermarket in the middle of this grand city, it was not something I was expecting but I did see a couple sitting by the canal earlier eating from a packet Parma ham and a drink, I now knew where from as it was not far from where they were that I found the supermarket. It was well stocked. I bought soft drinks and chocolate and unbelievably it was very cheap. As I continued on my way I came across a church that had an exhibition of music instruments, not just any instruments but the history of Violins, Cellos and flutes. They had a couple of very old Stradivarius. Also some beautiful flutes as well. A little gem in this varied old city, you never know what is round the corner. In fact I came across another church that was decked out for a classical concert, it was just beautiful inside. Think it would have been lovely to attend but I doubt I could find it again. And anyway we had to be up fairly early for the next leg of our trip. Eventually I made it back to where I catch the hotel taxi boat back. Had a nap before we went out to find something to eat. Again we managed to find a place that was not expensive. Later when we got back to our island we went for a walk along the front and we found there was the Hilton Hotel along the way. We went inside for a drink, ouch at the price.. On our return to the hotel a sight you don't see often but a ship was sailing past us and it really is quite a sight at night time, the ships seem to be so much bigger.
Earlier when we got back to the hotel we were handed an envelope and inside were our labels for our final part of this trip. The labels we were given were two types. One is for luggage that is going into the hold on the train and you won't see until you arrived back at London Victoria and the other label was for the luggage you would have with you in your carriage cabin. It was getting very exciting I can tell you. All your baggage had to be outside your hotel room at 6am and all you could take with you was hand luggage but even this was very limited as to what you could take with you on the transfer to the train station. Having got back quite late, we managed to repack and rearrange our luggage before we went out, we only had a couple of things to put into our bags. I have got to say it was a little stressful as you had to really think about how to pack and what to pack, although we knew what we wanted to pack but it was still tight considering you had to have day wear for arriving and leaving the train and then the evening wear when we were to have our evening meal on the train. And to bed,could we even sleep with all this excitement, evidently we did.
Next report the special Orient Express train journey experience...