Venice

Our arrvial to Venice was not as smooth as we would have liked. We arrived at Verona train station to find that there were no bike friendly trains to Venice - so we found a quiet platform and packed up our bikes.

The train was a whole 'nother problem. We had first class tickets and we still had to sit on the floor as the train was completely full.

On arriving in Venice - 30 minutes late - not too bad for Italy - we made the mistake of catching a water taxi to what was supposed to be our hotel. €60 later we were dropped off somewhere in Venice but not really anywhere close to our hotel. The taxi driver just pointed in the wrong direction and only then told us that he didn't know where our hotel was.......

We begrudgingly paid the fare and headed in the direction he pointed. After navigating some small lanes we came across a gondolier (gondola driver) who pointed us in the right direction. We arrived at our hotel and found that the reception was on the 3rd floor......

Jay went to check in and they offered us an upgrade to a nicer hotel in a better location with a private bathroom and breakfast daily. Hmmmm let me see...... do we carry our bikes and bags another 10 mins or do we stay where we were.... I had to consult Cam on this one. To the better hotel we went.

We arrived and checked in. We were of course on the 3rd and highest floor. We dumped our stuff and freshened up after our marathon bike carrying effort through the crowds and heat of Venice.

When the books tell you about the amount of tourists in Venice they are not kidding, the crowds were unbelievable.

We had read in the guide book that one of Jay's favorites drinks, the Bellini, was originally created in Venice at the famous 'Harry's Bar'. We decided that if we were going to taste a venician bellini we should try the original and the best, so we headed to Harry's. We had been warned that the prices were a little on the expensive side...

Expensive is not the correct word - we paid €32 for 2 Bellinis (they were tiny! Check out the pic) but..... they were devine!! Guess you get what you pay for.

The funny thing about Harry's is that they are very particular about who they let in. While we were savouring our drinks they turned more people away than they welcomed. How did we get in? : ) We decided not to have a second round but to check our the town a little.

We got talking to an art vendor who informed us about the fire in the sky that was happening tonight and that there was going to be crazy amounts of people. We later found out that the fireworks, which lasted a full hour, were to commemorate end of the black plague. To celebrate, the Venicians build a bridge of boats from one to church to another - this spans just over 300m. They also have a huge fireworks display at 11.30pm. Once we learned about the fireworks we decided to have a quick dinner and find a place to watch the fireworks.

We stocked up on Bellini's - which conviently come in a bottle - and sat in front of the the Ducale Palace at the entrance to St Mark's square. We watched the sun go down and the fireworks go up. The Italians have a very bad habit of being the last to arrive and then wanting the best spot. They litterly sit on top of you. Once the fireworks started they were spectacular, have a look at some of the pics below.

Once again we just happened to be in the right spot at the right time. We cant believe our luck.

We spent the next few days getting up early and wondering the streets of Venice for around 12 hours a day visiting some of the most beautiful bridges, buildings and sites we have seen yet. These included the St Mark's Basicillica and square, the Ducale Palace, the Bridges of Sighs, the Rialto, Academia and Carneggio bridges, the gardens and the lovely picturesque islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello. We also walked across the bridge of boats (supposed to bring good luck). We later found out that the bridge is only up for 2 days - the fact that we crossed it at all is good luck.

The weirdest thing was when we were chilling out in the public gardens looking towards the sea. All of a sudden the bow of a HUGE cruise liner appeared to be heading straight towards the island. We made a bee line straight to the waters edge to see what was going on, however, they seemed to have it under control and the ship passed through the islands of Venice to the port. This was a very surreal moment - totally something you would see in hollywood right before the ship hit land.

It is needless to say that Cam and I both loved Venice. We will definately be coming back at some time in the future.