Honeymoon Part VI

Today was our last day in Venice, and we decided we were going to take our walking tour of Venice. We got up early and took the bus straight to Venice, skipping breakfast of course, due to the fact that it sucked. We got to Piazza San Marco by 8:30. We had to walk a bit from the Rialto water bus stop and it was really interesting to see everything, as people were getting ready to open and very few tourists were out and about. It was even too early for the tourist office that was not yet open, so we wasted a bit more time exploring.

Happily, we found a coffee bar that had doughnuts, so we shared one and a cappuccino. After that, we saw the Hard Rock Cafe Venice, and the door was open, so we went inside. We looked right at the bartender, who said nothing, and started looking around the rock shop. After a couple of minutes, another worker walked in and said they didn't open until 10:00, so we left.

Shortly after leaving the Hard Rock, we saw a gondolier trying to lasso a gondola. It was quite entertaining because he kept missing. The rope really wasn't stiff enough to be a good lasso. He finally got it though and we headed back towards the tourist office for our tour.

At our tour they gave us one ear bud and a walkie-talkie for listening to our tour guide. The tour was educational, but Jason didn't get a lot out of it because he couldn't understand the tour guide. On our tour, they explained how to tell which buildings were older based on architecture. Pointy windows are the oldest buildings, rounded arches are a little less old, and square windows are the newest structures. They were also in the process of reinforcing the Campagnola with titanium to reduce its sinking. Also, Piazza San Marco is the lowest point in Venice and on many postcards you will see pictures on Piazza San Marco with some pretty severe flooding; sometimes the picture even has someone in a boat in the Piazza.

When we finished our tour, we started looking for a place to grab a bite since we never had a proper breakfast. Jason found something that looked good to him, some sort of Foccacia sandwich that was mostly full of cheese. We ate that and continued looking for food while we window shopped. We found a glass shop where Jason wanted to see if they had a bike figure of blown glass, but we found a crucifix instead and got that.

Shortly after that we found a pizza place and got two slices to share, as well as a water and a Nestea. Everything was good, but the funny mushrooms on the one slice freaked me out. I mostly ate the olive pizza. We were pretty full from that, and after resting a bit, grabbed a boat to the Ghetto. On our way to the Jewish Museum, a gondolier asked if we wanted a gondola ride, and after talking a bit we started our 50 minute tour in the smaller canals of the Jewish Ghetto, which are much less crowded and more interesting. Our gondolier was very nice and interesting. We had a nice chat with him and he taught us a lot about Venice. We learned some of the same building facts as on our tour, but Jason could understand our gondolier much better than he understood our tour guide. We also to to ride under the oldest bridge in Venice. He sang us a song too, for no extra charge. The gondola ride was better than we could have hoped and cost 80 Euros.

Then, we went to the Jewish Museum, which wasn't as cool as I had hoped it would be, but we had a clean bathroom so you can't complain about that. We were going to be cutting it close to get from the Ghetto to Piazza San Marco by 14:00 for a free guided tour of the Murano Glass Museum. We only had 17 minutes! In our rushed commute to San Marco, a bird hit me in the face with its wing as it flew past. It was disgusting and scary, but I suppose it is better than it pooping on me. It was a pigeon, and let me tell you, those things are everywhere. So much so that Rick Steves tells you what to do in case a pigeon does poop on you (wait until it dries before you wipe it off.)

We made it to San Marco by 14:05, and they may not have left yet, but we couldn't quite figure out where the meeting point was, so we didn't make it. Our museum pass still worked for the Murano Glass Museum though, so we decided to go after all. We figured out the boats that would take us there and caught the next one. It took 30 minutes to get to Murano and when we did, we almost got off on the wrong stop until we realized one stop is right by the museum. We got off there and checked out a couple of shops on the way to the museum. Like many other places, the museum had a sign that said no photos, so I asked the lady who took our tickets if it meant no photos at all, or just no flash, but she said, "today is OK," so I took pictures. The museum had a lot of cool stuff, like glass from the 1st Century. They also had a piece on loan that looked like a preserved dinner table found somewhere under dirt in a buried city or something.

When we finished looking at the inside of the museum, we rested in the museum garden a bit. Then, because our water was hot and gross, we went back into the bookshop to buy a water and use the toilet. We got a water and Jason thought he got a sparkling water because it was by a brand that makes sparkling water, but it was awful. I can't even describe how bad it was. Jason made me try it because it was so terrible.

After that, we tried to find a place to grab a snack, but didn't see much, so we just got gelato. Jason got peach and chocolate, I got a Magnum ice cream sandwich. Both were quite good and we ate them on the way back to the water bus stop.

The right boat was there and we took it right back, then went to our favorite restaurant where we planned on having dinner. They weren't open, but the sign said they would open again at 18:00, so we waited, and we waited. Jason was not very patient however, so we went to a place run by Asians where we had gotten an iced tea while we were waiting. There we ordered lasagna and ravioli with ham. It was edible, but tasted like it was microwave food. Our place still wasn't open and we were both full, so we got more ice cream of course, and went to the bus stop.

When we got back to our hotel we tried to figure out when we needed to take the train in the morning. It was confusing so we asked our concierge and decided we had better go the the train station to make a reservation. The bus we got on to take us to the station didn't stop there as it said it would, so we asked a nice lady walking her dog how to get there. She didn't understand one word of English, but recognized stazione. She asked if we were walking by walking with her fingers, I said yes. Then, she pointed us to the street we came from and told us to go left there and , "siempre, siempre, siempre!" Basically the whole time she was jabbering in Italian and I just kept nodding my head.

Her directions got us there, but all the tellers were closed. So we had no way of figuring it out. We saw a railroad worker though and asked him. He was nice and pretty much his best advice was that we would have to come back in the morning to take to a ticket clerk. So we thanked him and rode the bus back to the hotel.