Friday, April 27 - Venice, Italy

Lufthansa agents met us at the gate and whisked us through underground passages by bus, getting us to the correct gate in time to catch the onward flight to Venice.  Once there, we easily located the water taxis and vaporettos.  A price comparison led us to choose the latter and we had an interesting trip across the lagoon to the Giglia stop.  Luckily, we had a good enough map to find our way to the Boscolo Bellini Hotel.  We walked through a produce and fish market, over one of the lovely arched bridges and then along a narrow pedestrian street lined with shops and restaurants.  We left our luggage at the hotel and went walking.  The hotel is near the Grand Canal so we enjoyed watching the boat traffic and stood on one of the bridges enjoying the sound of all the church bells ringing at noon [ Says Larry: at that would be 6am in Burlington - no wonder I can't keep my eyes open ] .  We realized we'd been lucky - when we were dragging luggage the only bridge we crossed had ramps.  Most of them only had steps!
We ate a pizza for lunch at an outdoor restaurant at the side of the Grand Canal, then explored the Bus Terminal, the location of the People Mover that will be taking us to the port for embarkation on Monday, and then the train station.
By that time, we were ready to go to our room and nap for a few hours.
When we awoke we decided to go wandering in a different direction.  We fond a store to get bottled water (e1.10 for 1.5 l vs e6 for 1.0 l at the hotel) and beer, then wandered into an obviously popular restaurant for a remarkable meal.  I had very simple spaghetti and Larry risotto with seafood.  Then we stopped at a gelato place for a treat before picking up vaporetto passes and heading for the hotel.
Nice, nice evening.  The views along the canals from the bridges are particularly great at night!

Photos 27 April