5C's Que Pasa

We were up at 4:30AM on Sat. June 3rd and ready to start our adventure. We traveled Air Canada all the way to Venice.

Great day to see the Rockies in all their glory.  We flew in a Dash 8 – 830 Turbo Prop from Kelowna to Calgary.

Calgary is on the midst of updating all their terminals and have gone futuristic with shuttle service.  We landed at Terminal B and had to go to Terminal A for breakfast and took the shuttle to our departure Terminal C.   We had mere moments to spare.

I have no idea how I thought I would have time to post from either Calgary or Toronto where we boarded our last flight to Venice. Toronto was a maze of walkways going back and forth to get to the international terminal.  We had planned on eating at the airport but I just barely had a moment to log on and check emails.  Within 15 minutes of arriving at the gate for the Venice flight the flight was boarding.  We had almost two hours in Toronto yet it took so long to deplane and then the walk to the next gate with various security checks that I never even had a chance to use the washroom.  Fortunately I checked emails as there was a problem in Venice.  All but a very few boats were traveling to Venice from the airport due to a boat race which had the Grand Canal shut down from 7:45 AM to 4:00PM and we were arriving at 9:10AM.

We were fortunate to have a couple from who live near Venice sitting across from us in the waiting area and with the info from our Airbnb host and from them I was able to have them text him for us in Italy.  We had to quickly make new arrival plans.

Departing Toronto and all its haze.

Unusual to be looking down at a sunrise. It was a very long flight and we landed a bit late around 9:15AM. I was exhausted and slept but 45 minutes on the almost 9 hour flight.  Sadly the overhead individual lights were not working on the entire plane so I could not even read, just sit and be tired and miserable.

We landed and it was more walking and security checks.  We later found out about the terror event in London.  They kept announcing that the Venice airport was in a high security alert.  Finally we cleared customs.  I found a pay phone and figured out how to use it and contacted Enrico our host.  We made plans to meet at the San Marco dock at a certain time.  Sadly the airport was a zoo and despite the fact that we hustled and got to the boat in time it was beyond full and there was a wait.  I asked two different people to text Enrico ( no phones in that part of the airport ) that we would be late by an hour.  He waited all that time for us and was frantic as we were as he never got the texts.  We had no idea how to get to his place from this particular area and it was twice the distance to walk with our luggage.  Thank goodness he waited.

We were finally checked into our lovely apartment by 2:30PM. My head was spinning, I was beyond tired but we were both starving. The piece of banana bread that we were served for breakfast on the flight was long gone and our energy was low.

So we wandered about and found some pasta, but of course, what else 😆   Back to our place where we unpacked and then we decided to head out and explore for a bit.  Best to stay awake at this point.

So we took a boat along the Grand Canal as it was now after 4PM, as far as we could and them come back again. So much to see.

Murano glass decor at the top of a building on the canal.

Photo by Colin. By now I was on overload and not taking photos.

We have a 7 day pass and so there was no worries about using the boats. This was a great way for us to get a first glimpse of Venice.

The hands in the photo that Colin took are a form of art recently installed.  It is all about climate change. Read about it here.

We got off the water bus at the Piazza San Marco where we wandered about.  Photo by Colin.

We ended up in a wine bar just off the square where we joined several others having a glass or two and some appetizers. We met a lovely couple from Alsace, France and a young couple from London on their honeymoon.

We finally got back to our place around 9:30PM.  After a quick shower I was asleep in an instant.  We had been awake a very long time, I refuse to work out the number of hours that I was awake but it was from 4:30AM PST on June 3rd to 10:00PM June 4th Venice time.  If you work it out let me know the number of hours.

So we have been on the go non stop since we awoke Monday morning.  So much to see and to do and to just sit and absorb.  I have not had a moment to try and post although it was my intention.  Simply not possible.  I had some time this morning but the internet went out.  This post is to let you know that all is well and we are having a marvelous time.  The food is plentiful but expensive.  The wine is plentiful and very reasonably priced.

Colin is napping but I have chosen to do this post instead although I am tired.  Yesterday I walked close to 19,000 steps and did more stairs that I care to recall.  We are off very shortly for a fabulous evening which I must get dressed up for.  I can’t say if I will post again before be leave, perhaps just a few photos here and there.  For certain I will be documenting the entire trip once we return.  First impressions…..Italians are loud, lots of noise echos  up to our 3rd floor due to the tall buildings with narrow corridors,  we love it here and know that we will back, humid, humid, humid which we were not expecting, not as crowed as we thought it would be and we know that we will not have time to do all that we would like to do.  More important to balance the various museums with living in the moment.

The X on the left in the middle is where our apartment is ( it has an elevator, yeah!!!! ). The arrow at the top points towards the Rialto area and the arrow to the right is the Piazza San Marco.  We are perfectly located.

No time to proof this as I am very late.  Ciao for now.

I wish that I could take you along but I have found a few links that will help you feel like you are in Italy with us.

Here is a link that shows one of the busy boat arrival areas near the Piazza San Marco.  It is a live webcam and eventually we will be walking this area a few times within the next week.  Click here for the live webcam.

The next link is to a webcam that is about halfway between the Rialto Bridge and Piazza San Marco along a narrow canal that ends up on the Grand Canal not too far from the Piazza San Marco.  What is amazing is that this webcam actually has sound so turn up the volume and listen.  You might get lucky and hear someone being serenaded as they travel this Rio via gondola.  For certain we will be on this webcam next week.  If we can figure it out I will email you before hand so you can see us cross under the bridge.  Click here for the link.

The last link I have for you is a very long video, about 42 minutes.  Why don’t you download it and watch a bit here and there throughout your day.  I guarantee you that you will feel like you have just had a visit to Venice once you have watched it.  We so enjoyed watching it last night.  This is the link.

It is now about 5:20AM.  We will be spending more than 19 actual hours ( not including the 9 hour time change ) in airports and planes for the next while.

A good friend just arrived to transport us to the beginning of our next adventure.  Ciao for now.

By the way I did a previous post less than 12 hours ago 😉

The flood we endured appears to have wiped out our parks golf course. We walked over there the other day and were shocked at what we saw.

These condos next to the golf course had the worst damage with the water coming right into the units. I heard that at one point in was about 8 inches high on the lower floors.  They are no longer habitable and the electricity remains turned off.  I feel so much for these owners as they are no longer evacuated but have no home to return to.  We really were so very lucky.

The creek that runs down the hillside to feed our lake is filled with silt and muck as is the culvert.

The rush of water filled the normal route of the creek, so it created a new route.

That route brought a lot of debris down and damaged the course.

The creek has created a new route right through the course.  The creek continues to run.  You can see sandbags to the left which are trying to divert the flow of the creek away from the condos.

The first tee has disappeared.

Sadly this RV site has lost more than half of its property.  The land used to go past the edge of the shed on the far left.

I am really trying to be good and ice as much as I can. I really prefer the heat part of it.  I am also sitting on ice, like I said, I prefer the heat.

Yesterday a tree company with some huge equipment came in to remove some of the large trees that had come down behind the rec center because of the high water. I have not made it back there to see how much they removed.

This morning we heard a helicopter and then saw it flying low along our beach, then over the golf course before it took off. We suspect that is was either some officials doing an inspection or the media checking things out for the news.

Many of you may not be interested in this post but I have many readers who used to live here as well as friends who have visited us here, not to mention neighbors who are only here in the summer and who care a great deal about what is happening here at Holiday Park.

As for us, the lake is behaving and the carp are jumping.  Other than no bedding plants ( I have given up on getting them back ) we are doing well.  Even better we are packed and ready to leave in the morning.  The only negative thing is that my favorite eyeglasses were not able to be repaired before we left but the good news is that I have another pair so all is good.  Time for a light dinner and an early bedtime.  The next post will be sooner than you think 😀

Yesterday I saw my chiropractor and she commented on how swollen my right knee was.  I told her that the problem knee was my left one.  I guess I fell on both of them but perhaps with more force on the left.  I have not been icing/heating the right but now I have to do both as well as my back area.  She also suggested a knee brace which I got late yesterday.  It is a Tommie Copper compression sleeve which had copper and zinc threads throughout.  Since putting it on I have had no pain.  I only bought one and will switch it from side to side.  I have use the Tommie Copper shorts several years ago while I was awaiting hip surgery and I really like the product.  I plan to stop my Ibuprofen sometime Sunday and likely will not be icing while in Venice.  I have been increasing my walking over the last few days and went from only 3615 steps on Monday to 9156 Tuesday with less yesterday at 8099.  So far today I am at 6116.  I have confidence that I should do alright walking on our vacation.  Wow I started 5 of the last 6 sentences with ‘I’.

Our morning today was full of errands and this and that.  The main thing was stopping in to see our vet to thank her and the entire staff for always being there for us, most especially when we were in Mexico.  They always found time to answer my many medical questions or returned my calls and emailed me suggestions.  Dr. Susan teared up with us and told us we had given our dogs so very much over the years, actually above & beyond and that it was best to have handled it the way we did rather than have them suffer more.

Well Colin is packed and ready to go, clothes and all.  I spent most of the afternoon charging camera batteries, making sure that our our liquids were the correct amount, sorting out what I needed in my personal item, etc.  We are taking rolling carry on luggage.  Well of course we are.  Who carries heavy luggage in Venice?  If I see anyone, I’ll take a photo for you.  However I have not begun to deal with my clothes yet but I am not too concerned as I plan to go with black pants, skirts, long and short, and a variety of tops and perhaps a dress or two.  The weather at the moment is iffy with rain showers for two days.

Does anyone know if Airbnbs usually provide bathing soap or dish soap?  I guess we will find out.  We are getting an entire apartment so it will be interesting to see what there will be.

Here is the photo on our June calendar for this year.  Tears, enough said.

Caeli on the top and Carmeh on the bottom.  Mexico on the left and our bed here in Kelowna ( where they liked to hang out over the last year ) on the right.

I forgot to post this photo of the only piece of Copper River salmon that we will have this year. Despite the high price it was so very good that we would have splurged and bought another fillet.  However when we get back from Europe they won’t be selling it any longer.  It is only available for about three weeks a year.

So last night while I was working on my post, Colin was hungry but patiently waited for me to finish.  However he was hungry so he snacked on the left over Copper River salmon.  The piece was size and he only left me this.  Sniff!   Good thing that it wasn’t our main course.  However your comments for the last post tell me that you enjoyed it so I guess it was worth missing out on the leftovers.

I love the view we have.

Hard to believe that the water was covering the patio and the lawn just a few weeks ago.

The past few days have mostly centered around preparing for Venice.  Reading  and doing some planning as to what to visit.  No time yet on clothing but then we are only taking carry on and who cares what we bring or wear over and over.

I switched us from a three star hotel to a complete private apartment thru Airbnb.  The $533.00CAD we saved totally paid for our 7 day transportation passes, our vaporetto between the airport and Venice return as well as two museum passes.  We still have money left over to pay for all the other places we want to visit including a number of churches.  It was a smart decision as I will still have money left over for a good lunch.

If any of you have some ideas on how to overcome a nine hour jet lag now is the time to comment and let me know, please.  First we have to travel from Kelowna, almost west coast to Toronto, almost east coast.  A three hour difference.  Toronto to Venice is another six hour time difference and the flight is about 8.5 hours.  We leave our home at 5:30AM and arrive in Venice the next morning at 9:00AM.

I suspect that these are the only babies that survived the flood.  The first gaggle of geese on the right seem to be the loners or possibly the patriarchs of the bunch.  The next group are parents with about eight goslings. The third group is a family with only four babies.  The last grouping is made up of the parents and one lone baby goose of which you can barely see tucked close to its mama.

Yesterday as I worked at my desk I kept hearing this very thin tinny chirp.  It was a fledgling and so weak that it could barely hop along the lawn.

Ahh, there is mamma. Our baby is a robin.  It appears that it must have fallen out of the nest and was too young to fly.  Mamma did come to feed it a few times and then flew off.  The fledgling eventually managed to move between the hedge and our shed.  Sadly I have not spotted it today.  We did have a very strong wind and rain storm through the night.  I can only hope that all remains well with the robin family.  I am having some technically difficulties so I bid you goodnight.  For some reason I can’t even start a new paragraph.  Meanwhile Colin is being very patient and it is 8:30PM.  Good thing that we eat late, that way we will fit right in in Venice.