Day 22 - Venice Sightseeing

I had a plan, and today it pretty much came together perfectly.

Yesterday, we went to the station and bought our Daily Travel Passes for today. This morning we walked about 75 metres to a bus stop and boarded a 6L, a very crowded 6L. We only just squeezed on. You are supposed to validate the pass first use. No chance!

We alighted (Catherine 😉) at the bus station and caught Water Bus 2 to the Rialto Bridge stop, all as per my plan. I had to pinch myself, here I was, on the Grand Canal in Venice, in 29 degrees! It was a hot day.

The Rialto Bridge

We took some photos of the Rialto Bridge, which actually has three separate sets of steps and 2 rows of shops, either side of the central set. We then jumped back on a No.2, to take us to St Mark's. We had a look around the square and down some of the side streets, which all seem to lead to a tiny humped bridge over water, and got a picture of Dudley, with the tower in the background.

St Mark's Square

I had pre-booked tickets to go up St Mark's Bell Tower, but we still had a bit of time to kill, so we made our way round, to get some pictures of the Bridge of Sighs.

The Bridge of Sighs

Photos sorted, we made our way to the tower, jumping the rather large queue, straight to the lift. It was definitely worth pre-booking. The views from up top are fantastic, as you'd imagine and like everyone, we took a few photos. When it came time to descend, we were just at the head of the queue, when the big bloody bell, right above our heads struck! 12 noon. 12 bloody bongs would have been bad enough but for some strange reason, this bell kept going and going. Talk about ringing in your ears!

St Mark's Square from the top of the Bell Tower

When we got back to ground level, we jumped on another No.2 water bus across to the Abazzia di San Giorgio Maggiore, directly opposite the St Mark's Square but on a seperate island.. There a coffee break was taken, where Grizzly had what they described as a sandwich but was in fact a tiny roll. Having had a look in the church, we were back on the No.2. 5 stops later, we got off and made our way on foot, and over the Grand Canal, to the famous Fenice Teatro.

We paid for an audio guided tour of the theatre, as I'd heard it was something of an architectural marvel. It is every bit as beautiful as people make out, however, I think it may have looked even better if there hadn't been some guy (Irish apparently) doing a sound and lighting check for his show tonight, so the lighting in the theatre wasn't that great for photos. Shame. It was an interesting tour nonetheless and was the perfect conclusion to our day of sightseeing.

The Fenice Teatro

Fenice Teatro, Royal Box

We got a No.1 water bus back to the bus terminal and jumped on a 6L again, back to our hotel.

We ate at the same restaurant as last night. Why not, it was nice enough? And that concludes our time in Venice.

Tomorrow we shall pay a fleeting visit to Verona on our way to our overnight stop in Sirmione, on the edge of Lake Garda. In the evening , we are expecting a visit from our Italian chum Lorenzo, who lives not too far away. Unlike last year, he shouldn't have a 300km round trip to see us!

Weather still looks fine, though Grizzly thinks we may have rain by  4pm. I don't think it'll take us that long to get to Sirmione and check-in is from 2pm, so we should be out of our riding gear before any precipitation hits.

I'll leave you with a picture of what many people first associate with Venice

A Gondola

Ciao for now

Day 21 - Lesce to Marghera, Venice

 I've not mentioned the weather for a while, simply because there's no change. Each morning we wake up, it's sunny and by the time we throw a leg over the bikes, it's in the low 20s. We have been very lucky. Today was no exception.

Our route from Lesce took us northwards and into The Julian Mountains. I have really enjoyed every minute of riding through the country. Obviously, the weather helps but some of the scenery is just spectacular.

The Julian Mountains

I hadn't really thought when I took that photo, that we would be going up and over those mountains but that's what we did, via the Vršič Pass. The pass is the highest pass in Slovenia, at 1,611 metres, as well as being the highest in the Eastern Julian Mountains. A feature, if you like, is that it contains exactly 50 hairpin bends, 24 one side, 26 the other. We started on the 24 side, the worst side. Worst because, many of the hairpins, for some unfathomable reason, are cobbled! That makes an already hard task, even harder on 2 wheels. It wasn't just the fact they were cobbled, it was that with all the traffic, including the Arriva bus by the way, the cobbles were in a right state, bumpy, rutted, etc. Regardless, we both made it to the summit, safe and sound.

On the UP side, Vršič Pass

The down side, always easier anyway, was pretty much as smooth as a baby's bum, not a cobble in sight.

Once we were down, it was time for our fuel stop. It was absolutely roasting by now, so I cooled down with an ice pop. Not long after we'd started the next part of our ride, we came to the only POI for the day, the Italian border.

Our 12 th Country

Whilst grabbing the above photo, I also noticed this interesting roadside marker.

Original? Not sure.

The last stint to Venice was over 3 hours, so around halfway we stopped for a wee and refreshment. It was quite a posh looking restaurant but they were happy to fullfil Grizzly's need for coffee and carbs.

Continuing on, the roads were pretty good and the going too but the temperature hit 35 degrees! It reminded me of last year in Italy, where we got 41 or 42. Global warming has a lot to answer for. 24 would be just perfect, thanks.

With one small error of judgement a couple of kilometres from the hotel, I took an earlier exit off the main road, we arrived at our home for the next two nights. We have secure parking, paid for obviously but we don't mind that. It's quite a posh hotel, 4* or something and we have no complaints, except maybe about the view from the room.

We popped out, under the railway lines, to the station, to get our daily travel ticket for tomorrow and then saught out a restaurant I'd found online, It was OK, food and beer were good but it wasn't run by Italians, more like Croatians, judging by the language. No problem, we had a nice dinner before heading back to the hotel. Grizzly decided to have another beer or two in the hotel. Would you believe it, some other sad bastard (a Grizzly expression), asked him about the Shadslow and even admitted to having one himself, plus, he's in the Italian Shadslow Owners Club FFS! Da Fuck! (another Grizzly expression!)

We have 2 nights here. Tomorrow we are having a sightseeing day in Venice. I'm looking forward to it. Like everything on this tour, having been planned 3 to 4 years ago, to see it actually come to fruition is quite exciting/rewarding for me.

OK, That's all for now.

Ciao!