Our flight out from England was very early on a Thursday morning from Stansted Airport, which is more than an hour from the city. That meant getting up and out of the flat by 3 AM to get a bus to Central London, to then get on a bus to the airport. That wasn't all that fun. There weren't any problems, though, and we got to the airport just fine. We flew RyanAir, of course, and the flight went smoothly. I got a few great glimpses of the Alps on the flight, but sorry, no pictures of that.
Our plane took us to Treviso Airport, which is a 40 minute bus ride from Venice proper. There is this long bridge that goes from the mainland to the island of Venice, and the parking lot at the end of the bridge is the only place cars can go on the island.
It was a very short walk to the hostel, which was right near the northern end of the Grand Canal. This was our first view of the canals:
This was what it looked like right outside of the hostel, in either direction:
Of course, being in Italy and traveling with Matt, one of the first things we did was get some food. This meal ended up being really expensive, as did most of our meals. Matt always insisted on getting meals in restaurants with some wine, so a bunch of our meals were expensive...
At this point, Sean wasn't feeling well, so he headed to the hostel for a lie-down. Matt and I got on the "bus" and took it down to St. Mark's Square, that most famous of Venice landmarks. What they call the bus is actually a boat of course:
A somewhat crooked picture of the tallest bridge over the Grand Canal:
Me, in shadows, on the boat while we traveled along the canal:
Here's some pictures from after we got off the boat bus, first in a little park, then a view across the water to one of the other islands, and then various views of the square.
The we walked around in this maze of tiny alleyways full of shops and interesting things, including what was possibly the world's dirtiest, smelliest McDonald's.
Eventually, we headed back to the hostel, took a nap, and then got some dinner along the canal. That meal was particularly good, and we sat around for probably two hours, just relaxing and talking.
The next day, we headed to the island of Lido, where there is a beach. This picture was taken right at the "bus" stop on the island, looking back toward the main island.
This is the little bar / cafe that was right on the beach.
I don't have too many pictures from that day, Friday, since we were at the beach and I was paranoid about my camera. We did have a great time though, swimming in the Mediterranean and hanging out on the beach. We rented a little paddle boat with pedals and rode that around, laying in the sun and jumping off into the sea. We would yell something funny every time we jumped in, just to entertain ourselves.
The rest of the day is a bit of a blur to me, but it mostly involved heading back to Venice and eating a big dinner.
The next day, we went right back to Lido, because Matt wanted to rent the boat again. I didn't really want to do that, so I just rented a bike and rode all around the island of Lido, taking pictures. I probably don't have much explanation for any of them, since I was just riding around taking pictures of things I saw, so here they are, starting with a picture of the bike.
After that, we met up at the beach cafe and had a beer. Then it was a long, hot boat ride back to the main island to catch our bus out to the airport. Here's a last couple pictures I took while waiting for the bus. We thought the Police boats were funny for some reason.
Anyway, that was my last trip away from England before I came home to America! I might make on more post with a couple assorted pictures, but not right now!
