Some More
Stuff I’d Forgotten
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- Thomas – is the name of Marie and Matthew’s
son, my forgetfulness no doubt the result of more late night typing.
Sun
Tan Studios – big business in the Scandinavian
countries. So many people with odd
coloured skin walking around. Quite a
few of these places in the lower countries of our visits too.
On
our last Friday morning in Grindelwald, before 6:00 am, we heard what we thought
were three loud explosions down toward the village and were further surprised
that no sirens followed. HP later
explained that it would have been hunters in Grindelwald, further reducing the
chances of seeing deer in the woods.
The
mountains in lower Austria are limestone.
Driving
through the Dolomites into Italy was
interesting but as we had no reason to stop, we didn’t take photos until we
were nearly through, and those that we did take are through the car
window. The high jagged peaks rolled
past as the road wound mostly through narrow valleys. Toll booths in Italy are damned stupid
affairs and it appears at this point in time that no two will operate quite the
same way. The first one, it seemed you
had to stick your credit card in a slot, punch a button and your card plus a
ticked were spat out – maybe the credit card needn’t have been put in? I was following the antics of the guy
(Italian number plate) in front. At the
end of the toll road, if lucky we’d find a pay booth with a human to hand money
to, or, once again shove a credit card into a slot and the boom gate springs
open. Highway speed limits change so
rapidly it’s almost impossible to do the right thing and I think we were the
only ones trying but since we are used to being overtaken by locals, we just
continued at our own pace.
We made it to our first two nights’ stop with no
trouble and checked in at the Country Club Country House. More of a B&B type place than a full
blown hotel, with is slightly eccentric characters running the place. We were welcomed with a glass of whatever and
we chose a Pinot Grigio, the right choice,as this has become our favourite
white wine in Oz. This one was lovely,
went down so easily that Howard then ordered another while I went and had a swim
in the 25m pool which was empty because it was “too cold for Italians to
swim”. There was one Mexican lady sunning
herself on one of the deck chairs. The
weather to me was just perfect and the water as well.
They eat late in Italy and we were the first into
the restaurant at 7.30pm. Lisa, the
welcome drinks and just about everything else lady, rattled off the menu and we
managed to sort out some pasta then early to bed as we had a big day in Venice
coming up tomorrow.
They do breakfasts differently here and more
differently at the Country House I guess.
The excitable breakfast lady ordered us onto the terrace where it was
cold so we got our fleeces and breakfast was a basket of bread with two near
burnt croissants on top (we ate them anyway), yoghurt and coffee, which I
declined. Just as well we’d had a plate
of fruit before going down stairs.
We then readied ourselves for the Venice
onslaught. Came down to reception and no
person in sight! Waited a few minutes,
clearly not long enough in “no hurry” Italy, then walked up to the highway
where we’d been told the bus stops were.
No bus stops!! Across the two
lane (one in each direction) highway and down the road was a bus stop. We waited and then I re-read the timetable
and decided the next one wasn’t coming for two hours so, back to the Country
House where Howard started with “we are wasting our day”, the excitable hostess
became more so and babbled on, barking at poor Lisa for not being there for
us. Anyway, we were given bus
instructions, Lisa was ordered to drive us up again and she swore when she saw
the road totally blocked by a grass cutter, but indicated that our stop was
across the road and down about 50m. We
managed to cross the highway and stood precariously at the edge for 10 minutes
or so, the bus being late and, flagged down the airport/Venice express, the driver
of which took pity on us and scratched around for a ticket book – as we were
supposed to have electronic tickets.
Plus the fare was €4.5 each, not the €1.50 our hostess told us. Never mind, we were on and even found seats.
The drive through outer Venice was boring and we
could have been in any Indian city!! The
long bridge over to the islands exposed the industrial wasteland that hugs the
mainland coast. The first sight was the
cruise ship port which was filled up with two gigantic towers of ships.
Off at the bus terminal, which once again could have
been any Indian city – but with less garbage and we took our bearings, headed
for the railway station (currently a building site) and information office – a
temporary (I think) cubicle outside with a queue not quite a mile long, but we
got on anyway and finally asked our questions and bought tickets on a ferry to
the Rialto Bridge. It was an eyeopener
for sure. At every wharf the boat would simply
crash into the landing. No-one seemed to
care. Lucky us on this first trip, we
had seats and didn’t get knocked off our feet.
Graffiti on the bridge’s shop walls greeted us and about a million
people draped over the walls taking pictures of themselves or each other. We walked up the middle where the shops are
and had a lot of fun looking in the windows.
Everyone seemed to sell pretty much the same things, with little
variations, be it shoes, jewellery glass etc.
A bag shop caught my eye and suddenly I heard myself say “a girl can’t
have too many handbags can she?” Where
did that come from? Anyway, it didn’t
cost too much. Somehow we’d stopped at
too many shops and bought too many souvenirs and gifts.
We walked and walked, looked and looked and got lost
and decided to ask a local for directions to San Marco Piazza. This well put together elderly gent, with not
a word of English, personally (I remember that word) took us back to the Rialto
and made directional signs for us to follow, which we did and with
success. St Mark’s was crowded over but
now I can say I’ve seen it. We’d have
had no hope of a tour, there were so many people lined up, besides, we’ve now
seen so many churches. We found a park
around the corner with a couple of empty benches where we stopped and ate our
bread rolls before heading back toward the cruise ship terminal to meet up with
Kim and Joe (my brother and his wife) who are now on a Princes Cruise in the
Med. We were in the railway station at
an ATM when my phone rang. There was
some fun first with communications and a world of people and noises, me not
hearing my phone and then not hearing a word Kim was saying when I did answer,
but somehow I managed to let her know that we’d come over toward them via the “people
mover”, a short sky train ride over the rubble of dockland Venice. When we got off the train they were there to
meet us. Their cruise ship purser had
told them we would come over that way!!
If we hadn’t had enough fun yet Kim and Joe set
about tuning Venice on its ears. We
spent an enjoyable hour at a canal side trattoria recounting our various trips
so far. J & K having been on the
road only about 10 days with a small group bus tour (first class) through
Switzerland before joining their ship.
Joe wanted to see the Rialto so we went off on another walk and hardly
got lost, except into some more shops because Kim was in the mood for shopping
and I’d mentioned that I hadn’t seen any Murano glass sweets yet (I have a
small collection at home) so when we did she insisted on enlarging my supply as
an early Christmas present. We returned
to the bus station, with jokes flying around – Joe can’t help himself, nearly
got lost again – maps just don’t manage to get it all correct – and Kim led us
out of the alleyways by way of spotting a rooftop balcony she’d seen from the
trattoria. It was about 6;00pm when they
saw us onto the bus. They had the next
day for more adventures.
Quite seriously, I only needed the one day here. Historic Venice may be, but romantic, no, not
in my book. The crowds probably didn’t
help. Venice is mouldy and so many
buildings appear empty and unloved. Pity,
I suppose.
We returned to the Country House in time for a
clean-up and another simple pasta dinner with Lisa sliding around on her
non-stop efforts to do everything from cooking to washing up. We skipped breakfast next morning and made
for an earlyish start heading to an ancient town, Arquà Petrarca in Padua, in
the Euganean Hills which include 81 volcanic (extinct of course) hills. Our destination was the modern hotel Villa
del Poeta.
More soon.................
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