Saturday, 15 Apr 2017 – Disembarkation
would be at this port tomorrow, but this was a sightseeing day for
passengers. Since we had hoped to take some
of our luggage to our room at the Olimpia Hotel, we had attempted to request to
do so through official channels. This
involved an e-mail request from the ship to Venice security. However, no doubt Venice security wouldn’t
agree to that but they never even responded; after two e-mail attempts, we gave
up. Following the crowd of exiting
passengers, we walked across a big parking lot to the People Mover (elevated
train). Within the next two hours we spoke
with one woman and then, later, another woman from the ship (both of whom we
had met previously) who had taken one suitcase off each, by just barging their way
through; however, the two of us probably would have created more attention than
the two single, separate women who managed to pass “under the wire.”
At the People
Mover exit near the edge of the canals, we walked a distance of less than three
city blocks to Hotel Olimpia, where we have stayed twice previously in Venice,
mainly because of its convenient location.
After checking in at the hotel, we took the tiny elevator up to the fourth
floor to our small, very ornate room, decorated in French baroque style. This room looked newly decorated; no signs of
previous usage were visible. (Of course,
it included a bidet, too!)
Today’s
goal was to find out how long it would take us to walk from our hotel to the St.
Mark’s Basilica in Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square) for Easter Mass. The hotel desk clerk told us that signs
marked the way, and that it should take about 20 minutes. Well, the streets and narrow alleyways were
mobbed with crowds of people, often looking in shop windows or whatever. If the streets would have been empty and we
had known exactly where to turn (sometimes, in the absence of arrows pointing
the way, we had to guess which direction to walk) – and also, if we could walk
at a very fast pace, maybe 20 minutes would have been enough. As it was, it took us about 1 hour 20
minutes! Instead of usual large number
of pigeons in the Piazza San Marco, the area was filled with people. Obviously, many families had come to Venice
for their Easter break. By then, exhausted
(especially Sally), we decided to return to the pier by “vaporetto” (water bus)
instead of walking back. Since one water
bus had just left, we sat down by another couple (also passengers on our ship,
from Alberta, Canada) and talked for about 20 minutes until the next one
arrived. After sitting at the dock and
then the boat ride, we felt somewhat rested up before walking across a big
parking lot, through the terminal, and back to our cabin.
Although
we have walked that path (more or less) on previous visits to Venice, this vaporetto
ride was a new experience. As we stepped
into the boat from the dock, we looked at the canal at our feet. At that moment, we both remembered learning that
all Venice sewage is dumped directly in the canals – but, no worry – tides come
in and out every day and wash out the canals!
Just don’t swim there! From the
vaporetto, we viewed Venice from new perspectives.
Since
tonight was packing night, we decided to save time by eating dinner at the
buffet instead of the dining room. By
10:00 PM (the designated time), our bags were in front of our cabin door for
pick up; an hour later, we were in bed.
Sunday,
16 Apr 2017 – Easter Sunday! Our alarm
was set for 6:00 AM. At breakfast, we
said goodbye to two couples who happened to be at the ship’s buffet when we
were there. We managed to be out of our
cabin by 8:00 AM (we have become better at meeting this deadline) and found out
that we could leave the ship immediately.
After
picking up our luggage, we discovered that they were more difficult to pull
than previously. Although the two large
suitcases had been new at the start of this trip, a wheel on one was partly
broken off; also, the straps used to tie one suitcase to another were not as
good as those had been on our old suitcases.
Finally, Jesse managed to connect the two suitcases by tying their straps
together in a knot. As he pulled three-quarters
of the luggage and Sally, the rest, we fumbled our way forward through through
the terminal, onto the People mover, and over the canal bridge (which has a lot
of steps), one-quarter of it at a time. In our hotel room, we rested for about 5
minutes, and then walked to the nearest vaporetto stop. No walking for us to Piazza San Marco this
time! After buying our round-trip
tickets (15 Euros each, with the Euro being close in value right now to the
$US), we boarded. We were lucky this
time because the boat was already there and loading. About 45 minutes later, the vaporetto arrived
at a point not too far from St. Mark’s Basilica.
After exiting the boat, we hurried through the
crowd as quickly as possible and at about 10:20 AM, we joined the long line to
enter St. Mark’s Basilica for Mass. (Sally
went some distance ahead to talk with people, making sure we were in the
correct line.) Mass was scheduled to
start at 10:30 AM and, before the door, two security officials gave a quick
look at whatever people were carrying. We
entered the Basilica at about 10:35 AM, to find standing room only. When we had pushed our way forward as much as
possible, Sally noticed wooden benches between the large columns and spotted an
open space on a bench where she could sit (between two families with children),
with her back leaning against the pillar.
Jesse stood nearby. At first, he couldn’t
see the altar, but he could watch proceedings on a TV monitor overhead. Sally wasn’t even facing the front.
The Patriarch of Venice, Patriarch Francesco Moraglia, presided over the Mass. (As Patriarch of Venice, he is not yet a Cardinal, but is allowed to wear non-liturgical vestments in red.) The homily (sermon) lasted for at least 45
minutes, then the collection basket and communion. About 99 percent of the proceedings were in
Italian, though a few English comments could be heard. Upon entering the Basilica, we had picked up
a copy of the homily, translated into English.
The choir added beautiful music to Mass, even more enjoyable when most
of the spoken words were unintelligible to us.
 |
| St. Mark's Basilica |
After
our trip back to the hotel on the vaporetto, Sally took a long nap in our room. (She hadn’t slept a lot Saturday night, just
thinking about packing, getting our luggage off the ship, etc.) In the late afternoon, we went downstairs, at
first to drink our free glasses of wine promised when we checked in. Afterward, when we walked outdoors for a few
minutes, we saw that the weather had changed from being sunny to light rain. We walked for a brief time, and heard the 6:00
PM ringing of church bells, typical in European cities. It had sprinkled now and then yesterday, too. Therefore, after buying gelato (one of our
favorite things to do in Italy), we decided to eat dinner (pasta dishes) in the
hotel. While eating, we could see through
the window that it was raining harder and also thundering now and then. A good night to stay inside! We were in bed by 10:00 PM.
Monday, 17 Apr 2017 – In our Venice hotel, we enjoyed a
bountiful buffet breakfast of salmon, eggs (scrambled or boiled), bacon,
sausage, assorted fruits, cheeses, yogurt, granola cereal, milk, juices, and a drink
machine for cappuccino, etc. We stuffed
ourselves, knowing it would be our last good meal for some time. When we checked out at 11:10 AM, it was a
sunshiny day in Venice.
Although we could have spent a few more hours in Venice
before going to the airport, we decided to go directly to the airport. We had been unable to check in online because
we had made our reservations through a third party (Expedia.com). Also, we had reserved our seats on the last
leg of our trip (Chicago to Peoria) on United Airlines, but had been unable to
request seat assignments on Turkish Airlines for the first and second legs of
our trip home because the website kept “freezing up.” Sally was really worried that we would not be
able to sit together and did not want to make the long trip home separated.
Again,
we struggled with our suitcases, pulling them up the canal bridge and back down
again in four installments, and made our way to the nearby bus depot, where
Jesse bought tickets to go to the Marco Polo Airport. Since one full bus was about ready to start,
we had to stand and wait at the bus stop for the next one, about 20 minutes
later. Even though we were among the
first arrivals, by the time we entered the bus door, the seats were mostly
taken! Eventually, Sally was able to
squeeze into a tight spot to sit; Jesse stood.
At about 1:45 PM, we started a line at the Turkish Air check-in counter. At first, the clerks just ignored us;
finally, we were called to the counter, but were told that they were only
checking in passengers for the flight to Barcelona – and to come back in 2-1/2
hours! We explained our situation to the
clerk, but he said that he couldn’t help us.
However,
just across the way was a Turkish Air “Reservations Desk.” We then asked there about our seat
assignments. Although it was obviously
not her job, the clerk checked our reservations and told us that we had actually
managed to confirm our seat assignments on the first leg of the trip (Venice to
Istanbul); then she went on to assign us seats on the second leg (Istanbul to
Chicago). The clerk also “checked us in.” We are
very thankful for the helpful clerk!
Also, Sally relaxed at hearing that we had seats together.
Luckily we found places to sit there at the Marco Polo
Airport in Venice (not many seats could be seen). After sitting there for about 3 hours (2:30
to 5:30), we went back to Turkish Air to check our luggage. The clerk informed us that the plane to
Istanbul was overbooked, and asked us if we would mind taking a later flight;
our payment for doing so would be 1,000 Euros.
As we stood there, beginning to get very excited, the clerk returned and
said that, since they were unable to make any arrangements with United for our flight
from Chicago to Peoria, the offer would have to be withdrawn. By then, we were a little disappointed to “lose”
that 1,000 Euro reward. Anyway, our
luggage was finally checked, we went through security, and then waited at the
gate.
Although our flight from Venice to Istanbul was only 2.5
hours, we were served a light meal: a choice of beef or pasta, tiny salad,
orange pudding, roll & butter, plus 3/4 cup water – besides drinks: Jesse
got wine, Sally got tomato juice, plus more water. A man had the aisle seat; we had the window
and middle seats.
At Istanbul, it was sprinkling rain, and we had to walk
down outside steps from the plane and board a bus, and then hang onto the sides
or an overhead strap. It was about a
5-minute bus ride to the Istanbul terminal.
By then, it was midnight. Now, we
had to decide what to do next. Although
we had seen online that if one has a long layover in Istanbul (over 10 hours), a
hotel room could be requested at no charge.
However, we had never read the small print – which said that we would
have to clear customs and immigration, pay $20 each for Turkish visas, and then
walk to the Turkish Airlines Hotel Desk to request complimentary overnight accommodations,
which would include breakfast and transportation. After all of that, there was no guarantee that
we our request would be approved. Well,
it was midnight, we were tired, and there were risks with leaving the terminal,
with the Turkish elections and all; we soon decided that we would just “stick
it out” at the airport until our next flight (to Chicago) scheduled to leave at
2:10 PM. (This was a 14-hour, 45-minute
layover!)
We walked through the area, past a lot of people sleeping
on benches, to an area near the other side that was mostly empty. Although Sally stretched out on the bench, it
was cold, hard metal and far from comfortable.
Eventually, we both fell asleep sitting up, leaning against each other –
until a man from security came along and told us to move. Apparently, they wanted to clear out space at
that gate to establish a secure area for a specific flight. We moved, and later started walking around
looking for a place for breakfast.
Eventually, we realized that we had been in the “basement” of the
terminal and rode up an escalator to the “first” floor. There we found more comfortable seats and a
food court. However, it appeared that
Turks don’t eat breakfast as we know it; there is a Burger King (among other
restaurants) in the food court, but none seemed to have breakfast items.
At
least, none had breakfast until we saw “The Kitchenette.” We each ordered cheese & mushroom omelets,
orange juice, cappuccino (Sally), American coffee (Jesse), plus a waffle to share. Although that didn’t sound like too much, it
turned out to be a LOT of delicious food! The omelet filled much of a plate, but also
there were some potato cubes, parsley, and grilled tomatoes – all with
delicious spices. Also, oven-fresh bread
was brought in a basket. Although Sally
doesn’t normally care for waffles because they’re too dry for her to swallow
without a half cup of syrup, the waffle was “out of this world.” It was cut into four sections, with sliced
strawberries, whipped cream, and drizzled chocolate on top! After the horrible night on the hard airport
bench, this was our just reward!
When we finished breakfast, it was 9:30 AM. Since we still had to wait until 2:10 PM, we
looked at some gates to find a place to sit where there weren’t many people. All of the seats on this level were much more
comfortable than where we had spent the night in the basement. Although we found a good place, it wasn’t
very long before everyone was chased out of that gate. Then we sat in a less comfortable place in
the hall, waiting for the gate number for our flight to be posted. Outgoing flights were posted in Turkish for
about 10 seconds or a little more, then in English – back and forth. The gate number for the “Sikago” (Chicago)
flight was finally posted. By the time
we arrived at the gate, it was almost boarding time, with barely enough time
for the three passport checks! Again, we
had to ride in a bus from the gate to the plane, which was quite some distance.
Sally
was happy to see the seating arrangement.
This time we had the aisle and middle seats; another person had the
window seat. Although the flight would
be 11 hours 40 minutes long, it would be easy to get up occasionally. At this point, we were both ready to fall
asleep, unusual for Sally, but after the previous nightmarish experience, her
eyes kept glazing over. Jesse kept rousing
her, as the server brought wash cloths, then drinks, and finally food. We finished eating the first dinner about 5:45
PM (Istanbul time); then, about 2-1/2 hours out of Chicago, the second dinner
was brought. For the first meal, we were
given a choice of chicken or pasta; we both chose chicken. The second time we were only asked if we
wanted pasta, but it was probably all they had left. (Both were good.)
The
plane landed in Chicago about 7:00 PM (CDT).
There, we had to go through immigration, pick up and recheck our bags, get
boarding passes, go through security, and find our next gate, leaving a
relatively short wait at the gate for our flight to Peoria. That last flight was supposed to be 49
minutes long, but was more like 30 minutes – the time it took for the baggage
to be put on the ramp inside the Peoria airport seemed as long as the
flight. However, the 2-hour drive home
was terribly long; we were both very sleepy, and Sally drove partway, which
doesn’t happen too often anymore.
At
about 12:05 AM we arrived home, utterly exhausted. After one night spent in an airport and the
next night on an airplane, we needed a few days to recuperate – and now we would
get them!
Signing off from another GREAT cruise!
