Day Thirteen: 5/5
We got up pretty early today. We had to pack
all of our stuff, as this was our last day in Rome. All our shirts are dry! You
really must get this material if you need to air dry on vacation.
We walked down the street to have breakfast at
Suggestum Cafe. While we were eating outside, there was a beggar that kept
trying to get people to give her money.
The waitress would keep chasing her away. When I went to pay for breakfast, the waitress didn’t give me my
credit card back! Luckily, I remembered
just as I exited the door. That could have been a bad thing if I had gotten on
the train and forgot my credit card.
We went back to the Hotel via a short walk
around the area. We saw mostly the closed business section of our area. We got
back to the hotel and checked out. We also cashed some traveler's checks. The
hotel had no service fee!! This was great, and I wish we would have known this
earlier in the week.
We headed off to the train terminal to catch
our train for Venice. We went via the metro. There is a lot of
graffiti on the subway. The people at Rail
Europe screwed up the reservations, we did not have two seats together.
There were very few people on the train. So we got to sit together after all. I
strongly recommend that you just book your train reservations through Euro
Rail. That way if there is a problem,
you can talk to someone there about it.
We bought some food for lunch from the food
car. The train made several stops before we got to our next
destination. We finally arrived in
Venice around 17:30.
We took a water taxi to the hotel. This city is really beautiful. Everywhere you look houses and buildings are
built right up to the water. There are
very narrow pathways between the buildings.
This city sure does use all of its available space.
We checked into the Hotel
Concordia. This was a very nice
hotel. The people here are very
friendly and willing to help you with anything you need. The hotel is just off Saint Marks Square. It
is pretty funny that there is a McDonald’s directly across from our hotel
entrance!!
We went out and took a stroll. We walked a lot down little side streets
then amazingly found the Rialto Bridge that Steve was looking for. Which I knew
exactly where I was!!
Once we got to the Rialto Bridge, we were
hungry. We decided to go have dinner
someplace along the Grand Canal. We
found Cafe Orientale.
Our table was next to the water. All during dinner the water was slowly
rising and lapping near our feet. The people next to us came from NYC &
London; they were in water. We chatted with them for a little while. They were just starting their Italian vacation.
We overheard some interesting opinions about baseball fans.
We saw some crabs in the water. They were trying to climb the table
legs. But alas, the water swept them back out.
They were about the size of a quarter.
It reminded me of being in San Pedro, California.
If you look real close at the picture to the left you can see the crab
in the water. You may have to zoom in
on the photo though. *Hint* It’s near
the end of the table leg.
The water finally won the battle and forced us to hurry and finish
dessert. While we waited for our check
we had to abandon the table and wait over by the wall. We were in fear of getting soaked if we
stayed any longer.
The waiter came back wearing hip boots!
After dinner we walked back to the hotel. We
got back even though Angie thought we were lost again. She should trust me by
now to know where I am going. Angie forgets that I have been here before and I
have a GREAT memory.
The hotel room has a
Jacuzzi tub so Steve decided to take a bath. It was time for sleep so we headed
off to bed.