Day Fifteen: 5/7
We got up early enough to have
"free" breakfast at our hotel!!!
We wish we had realized we had free food yesterday. We could have saved
that $40 for breakfast! The hotel forgot to tell us about the food.
After breakfast we decided to take the tour of the glass factory. We
boarded a free taxi and rode through the canals and out to the ocean. We had to
stop because a rope was caught on the boat propeller. It was pretty funny to
see the captain have to hang over the back of the boat while he untangled the
propeller.
This is a picture of the
outside of the glass factory.
After the brief stop we arrived safely on the
island of Murano. We sat and watched them make leaves for a flower chandelier.
It was amazing how they turn a glob of melted ore into a really pretty leaf.
After the short demo, we had a personal guide. We toured the galleries intent
on purchasing aperitif glasses. We saw a neat table with 3 porpoising Dolphins.
It was $10k though. Oh well! Next time when I have nothing better to waste my
money on!
We spent a lot of time deciding on the correct purchase. We picked out
an awesome light cobalt blue set. I also found a really cool blue dolphin on a
wave. Don't know where we will put that yet. I will try a few spots when it
arrives at the house. Wow! Did we really spend over two hours here? There sure is some incredible glass and
crystal pieces here.
We headed back to the main island for lunch.
We ate lunch at the hotel. We were the
only ones in the place for about ten minutes. Angie says it was the best meal
in Venice so far. The food was good. If you are at the hotel, make a point to
have lunch there.
After lunch we walked to the Palazzo
Contarini del Bovolo. This is one of the most unique staircases in all of
Venice. It is very pretty. Then we
walked to the Rialto Bridge for some souvenir shopping. I found a cool mask and
we got our traditional ornament for our Christmas tree. It’s a lot like a big
flea market. Steve doesn’t remember it
being this crowded the last time he came here.
Although the only thing he bought the last time was a music box for
Angie. Also, Steve was fresh out of college back then and didn’t mind.
We walked back to the hotel for
a rest before our gondola ride. We got up and headed out to take our ride. The
hotel took us directly to the gondolas. We took a ride with another
couple. The gondolas barely fit four
people, let alone the maximum of five. If you take a gondola ride, spend the
extra money and go it alone with just the two of you. It is quite cramped to go
with any more than that.
We saw a line of gondolas that looked really
cool, so we took a picture.
The ride lasted about forty minutes. We saw some neat sites during the
ride. We saw where Mozart lived as well as (that other famous author). On the
left is some of the artwork on our gondolas. On the right is an example of some
of the building artwork
.
After the gondola ride we decided to go up to the top of St. Mark’s
Bell Tower. It was a good thing we
decided right then. We were the last
group to go up. They had an elevator in this tower, so we did not have to climb
all the way up, YEAH!. The view was
awesome. We could see the entire city
of Venice. The funny thing is that from
the angles and the heights of the buildings, you could not see any of the
canals. The only way to really see the
canals is when you fly directly over them. See if you can see any of the canals
in the picture on the right.
We descended back down the bell tower and went walking to try and find
a place for dinner. We walked along the
ocean piers and found a place to sit and watch the sunset and eat dinner. The
sunset was very pretty as you can see from the pictures on either side.
We found a place to eat dinner.
We sat down and looked over the menu.
A group of people came by and sat down, they then got up and re-arranged
a ton of tables, and they then got up and left. Our guess is they were just indecisive customers and had no idea
what they all wanted to eat.
We ordered our food and then noticed
something you will NEVER see in California!
The waiter went over and sat down with the busboy and started smoking.
So much for public health in Europe!
After dinner, we strolled back to the hotel. We passed the Victor
Emmanuel II statue. You will remember this person from the HUGE building in
Rome. To the left is the Venetian
statue to him. Along the way we encountered the same group of vendors that we
saw all over Italy. They sell these
really cheap and cheesy souvenirs. Also, it seems that purses are big items for
them to try and sell. We hurried by
them. The funny thing is that they were
not Italians trying to sell them. They were South African college students.
Later that evening we saw an article on CNN-World News, about the influx of
South Africans. I guess they come to
Europe, trying to find work and end up pedaling souvenirs on the streets.