Venice

We had an interesting morning with the shower today. Trisha was first and there was so much crashing and banging that I wondered if I needed to go in and rescue her. She was wondering the same thing when having difficulty opening the shower door for her to get out. After being forewarned I tried lifting it while opening which worked ok. It is a tiny shower with a shower head that sort of goes sideways. We will be looking forward to something better at our next place.

We walked for a bit and then got on a water taxi that took us directly to Murano. I think Trish thought she had died and gone to heaven. We did a glass blowing demonstration to start with which was great. Then a visit to that shop, and then to another glass shop, and then to another glass shop, and then to another glass shop, you get the picture? At some stage we stopped for some food at a lovely place beside the water. Trisha bought a wrap which was 7 euros, but because we ate that sitting down there was a cover charge of 2 euros each. The toilet was good though lol. Then we visited around 20 to 30 more glass shops, and each of us bought a few pieces. As I have metal walls in my house I was targeting cute magnetic pieces, while Trish got some jewelry.

Then we joined a rather long line for the water taxi to Burano. Trish held the place in line while talking to an extremely talkative Belgian guy who was practising his English while I had various seating places while the line moved. It was a pretty long taxi ride there and we were pleased we had seats as a lot of people had to stand.

Burano is such a pretty little town with the lovely painted houses. We also really enjoyed the shops there. Still more glass, but also lace shops and lots of lovely linen clothing. We were probably there for around 2.5 hours just meandering around and taking pics. We then stopped for a snack and Trish had an Aperol spritz which has become her drink of choice.

The queue to get back was even more crazy. We were all in an orderly lane before going through a turnstile. And then the corridor widened a bit, and lots of people jumped the queue. So there were about 8 people wide in this enclosed area, and then they opened the gate for people to advance towards the boat coming in. Everyone just pushed at the same time to get through the 2 people wide gate. Trisha was squashed up against the barrier and it was pretty unpleasant. But, we did manage to get a seat in the taxi so we were happy then.

Earlier in the day there was a squish of people coming through a narrow street which was shaded. There was a shortish woman walking down in with her umbrella up saying come on everyone, just push through. I had to say “ it would be a lot easier if you put your bloody umbrella down!” There were some lovely quiet areas to go on Burano though with grass even.

So supermarket on the way back after we were on the mainland, and we had a nice salad with cheese for dinner. It was dark by the time we reached our hotel so it was quite a big day.

And the thing that is annoying me most is the bug bites. I did bring my special creme from Bali that soothes the itching, but I need more. Will be off to the pharmacy in the morning for some antihistamine. The first bites were on my legs and were like midge bites. But yesterday a definite mosquito bite appeared on my tummy and now I have 2 more on my lower back. I react to mozzie bites so they are bit obvious. I had heard of lots of people being bitten here so brought bug spray but obviously need to apply it to more places.

14,872 steps and 25 degrees. Even had my light scarf over my shoulders briefly tonight!Read more