5C's Que Pasa

…….because we would have blown it.  As my regular readers know the trip to Venice was a means to help us change our thinking after losing our two special girls.  We just went for it with not much real planning.  Of course being evacuated due to flooding just before we left didn’t help either.  We had a wonderful time and didn’t worry about the money once we got there ( well once I stopped trying to convert Euros to Canadian dollars ).  Some of you are interested in how much it all cost.  Because we were only away for a week it was expensive mostly due to the airfare.  Had we stayed away longer it would have averaged out.  We don’t regret what we spent as it was our first trip without dogs in over twenty years and it reignited that spark to travel abroad.  We only started RVing because of the dogs.  We were used to traveling several times per year  all over the world and having dogs curtailed that.  The RV opened up an entire new world to us.  We love our RV and will continue traveling to the Isla every year as well as other destinations but we will add some trips within Mexico by car ( the new Jeep ) and at least one, perhaps two or three trips by air the rest of the year.  I retire next May when I turn 65 and Colin is willing to semi retire, only time will tell how that works out 😐   However his love of traveling may help dictate that path.

A selfie in St. Mark’s Square.

The airfare from Kelowna to Toronto and then onto Venice and return on Air Rouge was $2513.42 CAD.  As it was a long flight we splurged and paid for seat selection on each leg for an additional $520.00CAD.  We thought that it was worth the money and will do it again.  I had originally booked us into a hotel but shortly before we left I booked into Airbnb ( $1307.00 CAD for six nights ) the switch to that saved us $533.00CAD.  It was wonderful having a huge entire apartment to ourselves.  The first few nights I was very restless due to jet lag and Colin just moved to the living room and slept on the sofa.  Health insurance for the week was only $59.00.

On our last day walking thru the Accademia district we came upon this car which had been converted to a floating vessel of sorts.  The fellow had certainly traveled a long distance , about 400 KM.  it looked like it was held together with duck tape.

All of our transportation including from the airport to Venice return, the seven day transportation pass, the museum pass, the skip the line St. Mark’s Bell Tower ticket and the skip the line added to our Doges Palace museum pass,  as well as the expensive opera tickets ( 170 euro ) cost us about 471 euros or $745.00 CAD.  But having saved that $533.00 CAD by using an Airbnb we were only out $212.00 CAD.

The following video was also taken while walking through the Accademia district.  He is phenomenal.  Well worth a few moments of your time.

Food both for breakfasts at the apartment and for lunches and dinners out and the occasional gelato and spritz and wine as desired as well as bottled water came to $1017.80CAD for both of us.  That works out to $145.00CAD per day for the two of us.  I think that is a reasonable cost.  Included in this cost are the ridiculously expensive prices for water  ( 2 small bottles and 1 medium bottle, 2 tiny as in 3 inches wide sandwiches which served as breakfast and then two normal size tuna sandwiches for later on the plane )  which we were forced to pay expensive Venice airport  prices which came to 27.55 Euro/$43.75CAD 😯

We allowed three hours to check in and it took every second of that to get through several sets of security before lining up for yet another final security and passport check.  The airport was on heightened alert because of the London situation but it truly was chaos.  I had read how the Venice airport was a madhouse and so it was.  There is no control, no guidance, just a free for all of hundreds of people trying to get through a narrow security area not once but three times.  Next time we will arrive by train having flown in from another airport within Italy.  I really can’t see myself doing the Venice airport again.

The following are the sounds of bells ringing at noon as we stood at the top of the bell tower on the Friday morning, mentioned in my last Venice post.

We had no intention of buying anything as we have no space for things in our home nor the RV.  However we did end up purchasing my small purse and tiny wallet, the two bracelets, a lace fan in Burano and the three glass balls and the  drinking glass in Murano.   All small things that we could fit into our luggage and at a reasonable price of $216.00CAD.  The grand total comes to $6420.00CAD, not a lot for some, a reasonable amount for others and yet too much for a few.  Europe is expensive and Venice is extremely expensive.  We truly had no idea how much it was going to cost but figured that we could live with whatever it cost.  Life is short and we had a grand time.  So we may go out less this summer but it was worth every penny.  If you really want to know about the details of the flights and our missing our connection in Vancouver let me know.  Looking back I think that the extra night in Vancouver at Air Canada’s expense helped us with our jet lag.  We got home about 1PM the next day, were able to unpack and have a normal day.  We were in bed early, about 8 or 9 PM but we were back to our normal routine the next day, albeit a bit sleepy.  My ankles were swollen for a few days.  Next time I will make more of an effort to walk around during the flight.

Yes there will be a next flight.  We are already working on it.  Where do you think we might go?  Back to Italy, to France or to Spain or perhaps to Iceland?????  Any other suggestions?  Actually we just booked our flight out for next May 😆

We don’t normally do videos but today’s post has a few of them, all special but short 😉   Colin wanted me to end our Venice posts with this last magical video of the ringing bells in St. Mark’s Square after our Viennese Waltz.

We will be back.

Not much to say other than this one has the tears flowing.  Carmeh ( on my lap ) and Caeli were well loved and still are.

Sadly for us but wonderful for them, long time neighbors and friends Michele and Robert left on June 30th.  After 20 years here in Holiday Park it was time for them to return to Quebec.  They will be missed.

For the first time that we know of and perhaps the first time ever there was still snow up there on July 1st.

Our home insurance renewal is coming up on August 7th and because of the extensive flooding no new policies are being written.  Of course we wanted to add overland water insurance to our policy and there is no way that will be happening for a long time.  Hopefully this next winter and the one after will revert to the normal mild temperatures with little snowfall that this area is known for.

Due the ground water covering some streets the annual Canada Parade was rerouted and it came down our street.

Mostly the parade consists of decorated golf carts. However in the past we have had horses and once a Mountie in full red serge.  This was a great idea, it says “we are surviving the flood of 2017”.  I wasn’t fast enough to get a better shot.

Someone with lots of time on their hands rebuilt this cart here at the park’s wood shop.  It sure is neat.

Lots of fun and it is great to see all the creativity. We always say we are going to enter but never do.

I have been much more creative in the kitchen lately and we have had some wonderful meals.  Nice to have the time to try new recipes.  Even nicer that I can fly through the kitchen making a mess and know that I have a sous chef to clean up after me.  He even cuts, slices and dices for me and is a great pot stirrer.  However I was floored the other day, actually I was shocked.  I needed two carrots for a new recipe and popped into the local supermarket and picked up two medium large carrots.  The cost was exactly $1.00.  One dollar for two carrots, ridiculous.  So today a neighbor comes back from shopping at Costco and asked how many carrots I would like as well as celery and lettuce.  She doesn’t use all she buys and doesn’t want it to go to waste.

We have had wonderful weather all of this long weekend.  Yesterday was 35C and we did have to put the A/C on.  Today there is a breeze so we are managing by just closing and opening windows and blinds as the sun moves around the house.  It’s not the cost of the A/C but just the fact that we don’t like it.  Natural is better.

About a year ago while I was waiting to see if I had cancer or not I began to enter a variety of contests online.  It was a mindless thing to do at the time.  I do get a lot of emails related to what I have entered but I also enjoy reading about new things and at the moment I am mostly getting info about travel and all the discounts that are out there.  Trust me, there are a lot of great deals and we do plan to take advantage of them.  I mean who wouldn’t want to fly to Dubai for 7 days, air and hotel, some meals and some tours included for $800.00 USD, taxes included.   Likely we will do it one November while enroute to Mexico.  We could just park the RV for a week and fly out of Los Angeles.  Or we could fly out of New York.  So much to look forward to.  I just found out that I have actually won a contest.

I won two nights accommodation at Sunland RV Resort in the San Diego area, value of $300.00.  I couldn’t imagine paying $150.00 per night to park my RV.  The prize also includes two tickets to the San Diego Safari Park or to Legoland, a $200.0 value.  So my prize is worth $500.00USD.  Unfortunately it has an October 31, 2017 deadline.  Had it been good for a year I would have used it for certain.  At the moment we don’t have any plans for the fall but it seems ridiculous to travel out of our way just to use the prize.

Having just finished posting about Venice I am not ready to start thinking about the fall.  I feel that we have been on a merry go round ever since we got back from Mexico in April.  Non stop action.

Colin has spent much of our long weekend getting our yard back to normal.  The flood displaced many things in our yard from our lighting to the rocks that form the edging of our patio and slope down to the beach.  Meanwhile I have been catching on blogging, so glad that Venice is done other than a financial recap.  My desk work is close to being caught up.  I look forward to some free time to relax with a book and for us to get out on the lake in the canoe or our kayaks.

I also just discovered today, thanks to a blog comment by Shelagh, that I can get Limoncello locally.  Life is good and will be even better once I purchase a bottle.

Meanwhile the ground water continues to rise in the park with new areas being added.  The walking paths along the gardens are under water and now some of the gardens are beginning to be flooded.  When will it end?  Or will it?  All of this is a reminder at how powerful Nature can be.

We started the day with a visit to the Church and Bell Tower of San Giorgio Maggiore which happens to be on an island with the same name.  It was a quick water bus across the channel from Saint Mark’s Square.  I took this photo just the day prior from San Marco’s campanile.

You can read about San Giorgio Maggiore by clicking here.

The Chiesa di San Giorgio Maggiore itself was interesting but our primary reason for the visit was to visit the 60m – high bell tower.  I didn’t write down the cost but we think it was 5 euros each to take the elevator to the top.  Yes that is Colin on the left.

The views are spectacular. Sadly we had no time to visit the Benedictine monastery complex and the many art exhibits scattered around the island.  I would have enjoyed that garden maze.

Great photo of the Piazza San Marco and the Doges Palace and the bell tower that we had been at only the day prior.

Colin’s photo of the many people in the square. They are not clear in the photos but you can see the two granite columns on the piazetta leading to Piazza San Marco, the one is the Column of San Teodoro and the other is surmounted by the winged lion of San Marco.

My photo, great zoom on both cameras.  In the foreground I am showing a floating barrier to keep the waves from disrupting a main boarding area for gondolas.

Again we had several hundred photos to chose from, this is one of Colin’s, mine was similar.  I think in the future I may leave the photography to Colin while I concentrate on the details and the writing.

No matter where you are, Venice is beautiful.  Colin took this one.

I think Colin took a great shot, rather artsy.  Amazing zoom.

One of the bells. We just happened to be up there at noon so we got an earful.  I did a small video which I will post another time, this post is going to be long enough as it is.

The main alter with the Last Supper by Tintoretto.  No way to control the light.

The inside the nave seems to go on and on.  This is the first church that I felt a desire to just sit and take it all in.  Well of course there was the Basilica but one was not encourged to stop and sit as you could here.

From this island we had to go back to the water stop near Saint Mark’s where we took yet another water bus to our next stop.  I took this on the second boat to our next stop.

It is never ever boring, there is always something to see.

I just love this shot that Colin took from the top of the today’s bell tower.

We were at the Ca’ Rezzonico, what used to be a home but was now a museum, which was included in our museum pass.  Fortunately they have an elevator!   Hopefully you can read the above, if not please Google this place, it has a most interesting history including being the home to Robert Browning and Cole Porter.

There were hundreds, likely thousands of paintings, room after room.  This one of the Sacra Famiglia was done by Jacopo Palma il Vecchio (1480 – 1528).  After almost two hours we sped things up and finally left.  Our eyes were crossing.

In addition to room after room of art we were able to walk through the family rooms.

This was the grand ballroom.

From the museum which was in the Dorsoduro district we simply wandered about going to what we thought was the Accademia district.  Somehow we took a left instead of a right and ended up on the wrong side of the island.

We eventually found a lovely place to stop for a late lunch.  Another bar type restaurant catering to the locals.  Other than the couple on the right we were the only tourists.  Note the businessman in the dark suit at the stand up bar having an espresso.  His briefcase is at his feet.

They only had wine by the glass so the bottle was the best way to go.  The pizza was excellent but nowhere as perfect as the one we had the day prior in Burano.

After lunch we just kept walking until we came to the Accademia Bridge which once we crossed was only 15 – 20 minutes to our apartment.  Colin had taken this previously while on one of our many water bus trips.  It was now time to pack our bags.

We had made reservations for dinner at the’ l’ombra del leone’ which had a long list of recommendations from previous tourists who had stayed at our Airbnb.  We sat under the second from the left white umbrella and watched the world go by.

We just went with the moment and started with a spritz followed by an expensive for us ( but at the lowest end of the scale on the menu ) 35 euro bottle of absolutely perfect Pinot Grigio.  Our primo was pasta and our secondo was a fish dish.

Later as we watched the full moon,  we asked what the next table was drinking. It was limoncello, an Italian lemon liqueur.  So we ordered one. It came in a small ice cold carafe with two small glasses and was simply wonderful.  I have to say that I was a bit surprised at the 20 euro price tag on the final bill.  But when in Italy….who cares…..the total for those who are asking was 139 Euro/ 205.00 CAD before tip.  A totally magically evening, it was the perfect end to our stay in Venice.

We then walked over to our favorite place, the Piazza San Marco, where each of the three bands were playing all of our favorite music. Then the Florian began to play a Viennese Waltz, one of my favorite dances.  I actually just found out today that Colin had taken this video.  So here is the final piece of magic…..yes we in fact did do a full out Viennese Waltz.  I only wish that we could have captured that magic on video but it will always remain a memory in my mind.

Thursday June 8th started with an a pre purchased voucher to go to the head of the line to ascend to the top of the Campanile di San Marco/St. Mark’s bell tower.  The normal cost is 8 euros each and we paid 11 euros in order to go to the head of the line. We did not book until just before we left home as we wanted to be guaranteed of having clear skies so we picked 10:15 AM ( a good time to go up according to Colin re photography ) on the 8th.  Frankly I don’t think spending the extra 3 euros each was necessary, the line wasn’t more that 15 minutes long but it could have been longer and we were short on time so we splurged. Click here for the unusual history of the bell tower, this is another interesting link.

The bell tower from the plaza.  I am at the bottom of the red arrow.

On a clear day you really can see forever. The Grand Canal begins on the lower left water channel.

The requisite tourist photo.

Overlooking the Basilica.

From the bell tower we caught a water bus and then transferred to another one.  We were off the island of Murano about 30 minutes away, which is all about glass making and the history of the place can be found here. We wandered around for several miles looking at window display after window display of a variety of styles of glass creations.  We were surprised at how many tourists only traveled to Murano when colorful Burano was not too far away.

I bought this lovely bracelet here.

I purchased the bracelet at a shop on the other side of the canal.  We really did a lot of walking here.

A quick shot in the Murano glass museum. We were not impressed with museum, to us it was rather boring.

Don’t forget to link back to my quickie post about our visit to the islands.  There you will see the restaurant that we had lunch at in Murano.

I have had several requests for food photos which we usually don’t do.  For lunch in Morano I had gnocchi with crab and a delicious sauce.

Colin had the ravioli with the same crab and sauce.  Lunch with 1/2 liter of wine was 37 euros.

Colin bought this glass as a memento of the trip.  Such an amazing lot of work goes into a piece like this with so much detail.

An addition to our glass collection.

Burano is an island a further 30 minutes away reached by yet another water ferry.  As you can see it is totally different and extremely colorful.  Burano is well known for its lace making.  I bought a small black lace fan here.

Many of the homes had a cloth hanging in front of their door, but I don’t know why.

It is said that the homes were painted bright colors so that the fisherman could find their home in a thick fog.

We stopped here for an early dinner.  After splitting a pizza and enjoying some excellent wine Colin went and took more photos.  My feet were tired and swollen so I elevated them on the chair opposite me ( under the table ) sat and drank more wine and people watched.

The colors were constantly changing with the light.

Soon the tourists left and there were just a handful of us left.  Colin and I discussed how these people must feel to have their tiny island invaded day after day.  The homes are right on the edge of the smallish sidewalks and there is very little privacy.  Many have their windows open so you can look inside.   Tourism of course is necessary for the  local economy.

Soon the square became quieter, calmer, slower and more delightful with the sounds of the pealing church bells.  We began to notice the locals coming out one by one, greeting a friend or a neighbor, heading to or from the church and stopping for a drink.  Several of the tables at our restaurant began to fill with friends coming out to chat and to enjoy the beauty and peace of their island.  We noticed a few elderly people being pushed around likely by an adult child.  One kept stopping to wipe the tears off his fathers face.  So touching.  Most everyone as they walked past stopped and greeted the elderly in the wheelchairs.  They were still an important part of this community. Every single person in the photo above are locals who live on Burano.

The pizza we had earlier was so very very good that when Colin came back from his hour long stroll we ordered another and more wine.  Why not?  It was the best ever.  As we ate we watched the tourists leave and the locals reappear.  It was like a twilight zone type of movie. Two pizzas and two litres of wine came to 42.50 euros.  Great value for our money and the pleasure of spending a few hours on the square.

The pizza alone is worth going back to Burano so we took a photo of the name.  We will go back some day and hope to be able to stay on the Island.

No tourists in the photo.  We enjoyed our stroll back to the boat.

It was a short wait and we were fortunate to catch the sunset as we got closer to Venice.  Perfect timing.

We decided to take another vaporetto and cruise from one end of the Grand Canal to the other.  The lighting was perfect.  So glad we got a 7 day transportation pass, it was worth every penny of the 120 euros we paid for both of them.

We got off at the Piazza San Marco and strolled through the area.  We stopped for a spritz at our favorite bar and meandered some more before stopping for a final gelato.  Next time we are in Italy we will be sure to have one per day 😎  I put 17, 490 steps on my fitbit that day and even more the next day 😆