Leaving Corfu and off to Venice
1st May.
As our alarm went at 4.50 we had a text from Rosie saying that she had arrived home - a long trip for her and the start of a long day for us. We were very sad to be leaving Corfu and Greece as we have loved every minute of our 6 weeks here and have only scratched the surface of a very small part of it all.
After hanging around on the quay for about 1 hour whilst the sun rose over Corfu town, the Sophocles V arrived and aboard we went. We were very glad to have spent the extra on a cabin, as there was hardly an inch of floor space left. The ferry had left Patras the night before and several hundred young were camping with sleeping bags on every bit of available carpet, seats and doorways. We crawled into our beds and slept for a couple of hours to catch up before braving the decks which were very busy. The swimming pool deck was amazingly noisy but the sunniest part of the boat so we spent the afternoon there ‘people watching which is
Annoyingly the video of the pool area on the boat is refusing to upload!
always fun and we were almost relieved that the young from other parts of Europe drink just as much as the British. It was unnecessary to get into the pool as some of the boys were practising belly flops to impress the crowd so it was very cooling all around.
The sea was like glass so the trip was a pleasure and all too soon it was 8.30 am (still on Greek time – 7.30 Italian) and we were onto the bikes and dodging the lorries
Welcome to Venice - St George!
offloading and heading into Venice. We had set our alarm especially early in order to be ‘on deck’ as the boat came around the Lido and up the canal di Giudecca as we had been told this is a ‘must see experience’ – it lacked the wow factor I was expecting but wasn’t bad.
From the ferry which was much higher than most of the buildings.
Cruise ships ahead of us full of Northern Europeans, Americans and Japanese.
Having checked the internet and found various B and B’s in downtown Venice which were reasonably priced we then discovered that bicycles aren’t allowed into Venice so in short we had to forgo the B and B plans and booked into a hotel on the Grand Canal which in fact is very comfortable and no smell of drains which we’d expected.
As it was still only 9.30am so we couldn’t get into our room and we couldn’t get breakfast either so set off in search of some fresh orange and a coffee. Several ‘wow there’s a gondolier’ moments later
So exciting, water and boats everywhere!
We had a sumptuous breakfast watching the Pope on TV in St Peter’s square blessing the masses. We are back in Italy!!
As we walked past St Nicholas of Tolentino’s church we heard some lovely organ music, so we went in and sat for a few minutes listening to the organist practising. He gave us a good concert of the Wedding March, and the Gloria amongst other pieces. We haven’t heard any live organ music for months, usually it is just a recording being played in the many churches we have visited so it was a real treat. We also pushed our way into the Jesuit’s church which is reputed to have some of the best paintings, but beat a hasty retreat as there was a service going on. We were amazed to see how full the church was.
The sky darkened and suddenly the ferry we had come in on was off on it's way back to Patras.
The rest of the day we spent just wandering about along narrow alleys full of artisan workshops repairing and making furniture, masks, costumes and shoes.
Artisan's workshop, downtown Venice.
Bear made from spark-plugs!
We called into the Venice Rowing Club where they had a good exhibition of paintings and history of the club. They seem to row standing up here, rather like all the gondoliers. We had primarily went in as it was only 1euro to see the exhibition and 1.50 per person to go the public loos in Venice, a fact of which we are not proud of, but surprised ourselves by enjoying reading the history of the club which even had a picture of our Queen!
Walking along the Canal Grande our attention was drawn to a gondola steered by two men where there appeared to be a bit of a fracas. It turned out a girl had lost it with one of the gondoliers and had scratched him across his cheek. A fight had ensued with the gondolier trying to restrain her, much punching, kicking and screaming – so I took a photo!
After that we came across a man playing Ave Maria on a load of empty wine glasses – amazing achievement and he hadn’t spilt a drop! Click to activate the video.
We went into St Rocco’s church which was full of quite good paintings by Tintoretto amongst others and there are more areas of it for us to explore tomorrow, but by 4.30 we were feeling a little pavement weary and, dare one say it, cultured out so returned to the hotel where we found the bed about as comfy as can be so we fell asleep!
By 5.30 (when we awoke) the weather had changed and it was pouring with rain so we abandoned the – ‘History of Venice’ movie for some supper closer to home.
1st May.
As our alarm went at 4.50 we had a text from Rosie saying that she had arrived home - a long trip for her and the start of a long day for us. We were very sad to be leaving Corfu and Greece as we have loved every minute of our 6 weeks here and have only scratched the surface of a very small part of it all.
After hanging around on the quay for about 1 hour whilst the sun rose over Corfu town, the Sophocles V arrived and aboard we went. We were very glad to have spent the extra on a cabin, as there was hardly an inch of floor space left. The ferry had left Patras the night before and several hundred young were camping with sleeping bags on every bit of available carpet, seats and doorways. We crawled into our beds and slept for a couple of hours to catch up before braving the decks which were very busy. The swimming pool deck was amazingly noisy but the sunniest part of the boat so we spent the afternoon there ‘people watching which is
Annoyingly the video of the pool area on the boat is refusing to upload!
always fun and we were almost relieved that the young from other parts of Europe drink just as much as the British. It was unnecessary to get into the pool as some of the boys were practising belly flops to impress the crowd so it was very cooling all around.
The sea was like glass so the trip was a pleasure and all too soon it was 8.30 am (still on Greek time – 7.30 Italian) and we were onto the bikes and dodging the lorries
Welcome to Venice - St George!
offloading and heading into Venice. We had set our alarm especially early in order to be ‘on deck’ as the boat came around the Lido and up the canal di Giudecca as we had been told this is a ‘must see experience’ – it lacked the wow factor I was expecting but wasn’t bad.
From the ferry which was much higher than most of the buildings.
Cruise ships ahead of us full of Northern Europeans, Americans and Japanese.
Having checked the internet and found various B and B’s in downtown Venice which were reasonably priced we then discovered that bicycles aren’t allowed into Venice so in short we had to forgo the B and B plans and booked into a hotel on the Grand Canal which in fact is very comfortable and no smell of drains which we’d expected.
As it was still only 9.30am so we couldn’t get into our room and we couldn’t get breakfast either so set off in search of some fresh orange and a coffee. Several ‘wow there’s a gondolier’ moments later
So exciting, water and boats everywhere!
We had a sumptuous breakfast watching the Pope on TV in St Peter’s square blessing the masses. We are back in Italy!!
As we walked past St Nicholas of Tolentino’s church we heard some lovely organ music, so we went in and sat for a few minutes listening to the organist practising. He gave us a good concert of the Wedding March, and the Gloria amongst other pieces. We haven’t heard any live organ music for months, usually it is just a recording being played in the many churches we have visited so it was a real treat. We also pushed our way into the Jesuit’s church which is reputed to have some of the best paintings, but beat a hasty retreat as there was a service going on. We were amazed to see how full the church was.
The sky darkened and suddenly the ferry we had come in on was off on it's way back to Patras.
The rest of the day we spent just wandering about along narrow alleys full of artisan workshops repairing and making furniture, masks, costumes and shoes.
Artisan's workshop, downtown Venice.
Bear made from spark-plugs!
We called into the Venice Rowing Club where they had a good exhibition of paintings and history of the club. They seem to row standing up here, rather like all the gondoliers. We had primarily went in as it was only 1euro to see the exhibition and 1.50 per person to go the public loos in Venice, a fact of which we are not proud of, but surprised ourselves by enjoying reading the history of the club which even had a picture of our Queen!
Walking along the Canal Grande our attention was drawn to a gondola steered by two men where there appeared to be a bit of a fracas. It turned out a girl had lost it with one of the gondoliers and had scratched him across his cheek. A fight had ensued with the gondolier trying to restrain her, much punching, kicking and screaming – so I took a photo!
After that we came across a man playing Ave Maria on a load of empty wine glasses – amazing achievement and he hadn’t spilt a drop! Click to activate the video.
We went into St Rocco’s church which was full of quite good paintings by Tintoretto amongst others and there are more areas of it for us to explore tomorrow, but by 4.30 we were feeling a little pavement weary and, dare one say it, cultured out so returned to the hotel where we found the bed about as comfy as can be so we fell asleep!
By 5.30 (when we awoke) the weather had changed and it was pouring with rain so we abandoned the – ‘History of Venice’ movie for some supper closer to home.
No comments:
Post a Comment