Day 1 - Departing Venice

After a good night's sleep we had a very relaxing morning with a nice hotel-provided hot breakfast followed by a private gondola ride through the canals of Venice, including a short stint on the Grand Canal.  At one point we passed near a square we walked on yesterday which was neat to see. 

After checking out of our hotel we picked up CNN on the lobby TV, and watched coverage of  Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election. At noon our water taxi arrived to take us to our ship. The picture is view out the back of our boat of a canal we passed through after leaving out hotel.

This is our first time in a mini suite and we are both amazed at how roomy it is!  (I fear someone may get a bit spoiled..) Our suitcases were delivered when we came back from lunch and we are able to unpack and still have empty drawers and shelves.

This evening we watched as the ship sailed out of Venice at dusk, passing St. Mark's Square.  Then we had dinner and went to the Welcome Aboard show in the theater.   On to our first stop in Croatia tomorrow!

Heading to the Adriatic Sea

Yesterday our "too good to pass up" vacation started with flights from Detroit to JFK and then overnight to Venice. As flights go, it was a long travel day but it got us here OK and on time. We were able to sleep a little on the plane but not as much as we'd hoped (or liked) to. We did get to see the Alps from the air as we approached Italy.

After arriving in the city via water taxi, we settled into our hotel room,  enjoying many gondolas passing by our window.  Then we headed for the Rialto Bridge which spans the Grand Canal, and had a pizza lunch.  Walking around Venice is a challenge as no street apparently goes straight for more than a few hundred yards, and many a lot less that that. But thanks to walking directions on Google Maps, we arrived at the Rialto Bridge (but not without a few missteps) and got back to our hotel afterwards.

Our next stop was St Mark's Square and the famous St Mark's Basilica which we toured.  Admission was freewill, and the place was beautiful, but no photography was allowed inside.
After that we headed back to our hotel and the lack of sleep caught up with us so we napped for a couple of hours then had a wonderful Italian dinner on St Mark's Square.

Tomorrow we're planning to take a gondola ride then wait for a boat to pick us up and take us to the Pacific Princess!  

Heading to the Ship

After my walking tour around Venice to see various signs (I only got semi-lost on this very confusing network of streets twice...) and snapping this picture of the famous Venetian bridge, followed by our gondola ride, we packed up and headed to our ship.

In true Venice style, we had a water taxi take us to the ship. It was pretty cool to enjoy this service and makes me wish we had used this to go to the hotel yesterday. We traveled several canals before heading out and passing the Pacific Princess on our way to the dock.

After getting on board and finding our cabin we headed to the buffet for lunch and enjoyed this view from our table while we relaxed and enjoyed being on board a ship once again.

Venice Gondola Ride

Today we took a gondola ride on a beautiful, sunny Venice morning. It was so relaxing to be paddled through the narrow canals.

We started out touring the narrow side canals. Our gondolier said how there were no bridges over canals until the 1700's so everyone moved about by boat. Now there are about 400 bridges. It's a Venice tradition to kiss as you pass under any bridge and we did... 8-)

The third picture shows how big the Grand Canal is at places. We were only on it for a short time as there was a lot of boat traffic, busses, trucks, motorboats and, of course, other gondolas. Yes, all were watercraft. LOL

Time to say "good bye" to Venice. Now to check out and get our water taxi to the ship! The next post will be from the Pacific Princess.

Arriving in Venice

It's been a long day. The flights went well, no issues with changing planes in Paris except for the very long walk. We got to the gate with at least 30 minutes to spare before they started boarding. I slept on the flight to France a bit and for most of the flight to Venice, but Mary could not sleep very much. so she's taking a nap now.

One lesson learned: when arriving in Venice, pay for the private boat! It took us about 90 minutes on the shared shuttle and then we had quite a ways to go to out hotel. Thankfully there was a porter at the dock who put our bags on his cart and took them up and over 3 bridges as we wound thru the streets of Venice.

Shortly after we arrived at the hotel, it started raining. Just a light rain now - sure hope it stops before our gondola ride tonight!

PS - we went out for our gondola ride, but they were shutting down due to the rain so we get to use our voucher in the morning when it is supposed to be sunny! Instead we had some gelatto for dessert.