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Thursday, April 14, 2011

Ahhh, Venice.

Or, should I title this post "The Continuing Adventures of Lucy and Dufus".


(Click here for theme music.)

No, wait. 
I'm thinking this theme music is better.
With this picture.


That's it. See us coming out of the mist?
Huh. No, really. We were all that in Venice.
Yeah. That's it. That's how I remember it, now.
What down comforter?

We were up all night!!



Starting with the "blue hour"...







O.k., not really.
In fact, here is Lauren's photo for the night:


Carol was trying all the manual settings on her camera and by this point, Lauren took my camera, set it on the bride over the canal, (to steady it) hit the shutter and said, "BAM. Picture taken." Then she took it and whirled it around and said, "There. Night time motion." "Let's go."
What happened to youth?
Sigh.

Anyway, let's look at gondolas:









And Saint Mark's Cathedral.
(For some fascinating information on this Cathedral, click here.)
This was the Mod Squad's last day in Venice. Lucy kept wanting to see some church made up of blue and white tile. Did I mention Lucy just turned sixty and kicked Dufus's butt walking all over Venice?


Lauren and Dufus said, "oohh-kay."
And away they began to tromp.
Then Lucy stopped in front of St. Mark's Cathedral and said, "But we really shouldn't miss this. Should we just see this church? Or march onward toward who knows where to find the blue and white church?"
"I don't care" says Dufus, always the trooper. (?)
"Well," said Lucy, "This IS pretty amazing, and I'm not sure where the blue and white church is....."
"I don't care" said Dufus, who's feet were throbbing, even though she had spent the day before under a down comforter. 


They stayed and visited St. Mark's.
Which was way cool.



These are the bronze replicas of the original horses.



The original horses in the Cathedral's museum:



Then they hot-footed it over to the bell tower for a 10 story view of Venice.
Yeah.
Way cool.


I have to say, I flipped a little bit. Take a look:



All of this is built on a framework that is submerged into a hundred submerged islands in the midst of a lagoon.





Thus the trip to Venice came to an end.
Oh, wait.
Getting back onto the train....
Well, you see, there are a number of water buses to take. Such as, 15. Or 51. Or....
It just so happens the water bus, otherwise known as Vaporeto (minus vaporeto police) they chose took for. ever.
Lucy anxiously asked, "Should we just get off and take a water taxi directly to the train station?"
Dufus asked the bus attendant how long she thought it would take them to get to the train station. "About 30 minutes." was the answer. Uhhhh....they only had about 35 minutes to get on board the train. "You could always hop off at the next stop and walk. That would be faster" said the nice bus attendant.
See this map?


On the lower right quadrant, you see S. MARCO. We started there. We had to follow the red line all the way up to the upper left quadrant in yellow marked TRAIN STATION. When the nice attendant suggested we could walk faster, we were about 5 stops away from the train station. With our luggage. Not one of us thought we could figure out the maze of streets and bridges to get us to the Train Station, so we stayed on the Vaporeto.
We made it to the station with 3 minutes to spare and realized we couldn't figure out which train was ours. Lauren bolted over to the information center and they directed us to the correct train, which we boarded and as soon as our bags came in after us, the train began to pull out.
WHEW. 
Oh, yeah! The Mod Squad can hustle, baby!!


Riiiiight.

The next post will be the last one in our Tour of Italy. 
I can't tell you how much fun it has been to share this with all of you and to somewhat "extend" my trip!
Stay tuned for the last post, there will be a surprise at the end!
xo
Dufus.










9 comments :

  1. I'm completely sincere when I say that you do the best job of anyone I know of travel logging. (Would that make it trlogging?) You show the cool sites (will be clicking the St. Mark's link) plus you draw me in to the color commentary of your story. I just love it.

    I'm trying to imagine what the surprise is going to be!

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  2. This is wonderful, Lynn. Your pictures our beautiful and sometimes, hysterical! Your commentary is so funny. I love reading your tales and I will be sad when it ends.

    I just realized I forgot your answer you question about Jud. I will get back to you, OK?

    XO,
    Suz

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  3. Wow, it's beautiful there...you've all had quite the adventure!

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  4. I love all the photos, but the last one is, by far, my favorite of all!!!

    I've been enjoying your trip.

    Hate to see it end.

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  5. Oh, my! What a wonderful trip! Some many places I've never seen but want to so badly. Maybe one of these days. In the meantime I'm enjoying your photos and comments!

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  6. i had no idea venice was so vast. that map! faster walking?? it would be like venturing into a foreign labyrinth! stay on the vaporeto!
    what an awesome trip!

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  7. WOW.. Thanks so much for sharing your trip with us.. It has been a blast look at all your photos and reading all about your wonderful adventures..
    Can't wait to see more..

    Hugs, Linda

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  8. Ah Venice! Looks like you guys did lots of walking and hit lots of sites. We were in Venice for less then 24 hours. It was crazy. Not what we had planned.
    We had hired a small bus to take us to Venice from Lucca. We were 21 traveling. When we got there there was some strange law that had just began that would have charge us some ungodly amount of money to have the bus in the city for longer then 24 hrs. What? When did this happen? We were already there, we had a hotel. It was nuts. So we had to high tail it back the next day before our 24 hrs was up or we'd be charged. And it is not easy to get around that city! I remember that part really well :) I totally understood your predicament!

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  9. such fantastic adventures you all are having...wonderful photos and memories that will last a lifetime

    you know how to have fun!!!
    oxo

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