A Full Day in Venice

Wednesday, 07 Dec 2011 – We awoke in our Venice hotel room by 3:30 A.M. this morning!  Is that jet-lag or not?  After a couple of hours, we decided to get up and when it was starting to get light, we noticed that we could now see our cruise ship in the distance from our hotel window.

Later, we went downstairs for breakfast.  It was probably the earliest we have ever eaten breakfast at a hotel.  Breakfast was very good and we stuffed ourselves generously; they might have had to significantly replenish the buffet after we left!  Noticing that there were some guests besides us speaking together in English, we spoke with them before leaving the breakfast area.  It turned out that they will also be taking this cruise, as we suspected.  Luckily, they were also interested in sharing a gondola ride with us.  The standard cost for a 20-minute gondola ride is 80 Euros for a maximum of 8 passengers.  Therefore, we would have paid 80 Euros for just the two of us.  But the 6 of us decided to take the 50-minute ride for 120 Euros, which still cost us only 40 Euros (our share).  Jesse’s coworkers had given him a cash retirement gift to be used specifically for his gondola ride, so he was able to maximize the gift.  It was more fun, too, with six of us in the gondola, and the gondolier had a good English vocabulary.  At the end of the ride, we were pretty cold, so we returned to the room to warm up and relax. 

Later, we went out again and found our way (never an easy task for us!) to Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square).  Even though we had been there just 2 years ago, we felt that we should see it again this time.  After taking a few pictures, we headed back to our hotel.  It was about 5:00 P.M. when we got back, and by then we were very cold and Sally’s nose and cheeks were bright red.  After warming up again, we went to a restaurant around the corner for dinner.  Jesse ordered seafood soup, fettuccini alfredo, and iced tea; Sally ordered noodles with salmon & sauce, and cappuccino; and we shared tiramisu for dessert.  It was only 6:00 P.M. when we returned to our room.  It still amazes us that at 6:00 P.M., it is only 11:00 A.M. in Bettendorf – but it seems like midnight to us!