Venice - October 17, 2012

Nice smooth transition from the Best Western Olympia to the Nieuw Amsterdam using the new people mover system from the Pizzale Roma to the Marina, one Euro each and you essentially shuttled from Venice to the ship, very nice... Today was another beautiful sunny warm day here (again, judging by the number of stacked walkways on almost every sidewalk they must have had some pretty severe flooding - we are very lucky to be here now) we whisked ourselves to the ship and were met with a huge line to get on board but now that we are at the Magic 4 Star Level we went to our separate line (no line) and pretty much straight on to unload some of our carry on stuff and then straight off. Onto the Vaparetto and to the Peggy Guggeheim Museum - wonderful, easy and smooth. Then did the walkabout through an area of Venice we have not seen before, keep the map in the pocket and just got lost - a real great way to see some non touristy areas. The beauty of Venice is that everywhere you look there is a picture and then just ask a local where Saint Mark’s Square is and after the rolling of the eyes and many lefts and rights and over several bridges you are there - no problem for us but they think if you have to walk more than ten minutes they think it is a long way. A nice dinner at a local out of the way place and then to the Vivaldi Concert - a great day. Back to the ship by 11:30 pm to unpack our bags. A bit of information on Venice: Venice is situated on 120 islands formed by 177 canals in the lagoon between the mouths of the Po and Piave river, at the northern extremity of the Adriatic Sea. Because of its historic role as a naval power and commercial center, the city is known as the “Queen of the Adriatic”. The islands on which the the city is built are connected by about 400 bridges. The Grand Canal is approximately 3 kms long and winds through Venice from Northwest to Southwest dividing the city into nearly equal portions. For centuries the most common method of transportation was by gondola, the flat-bottomed boat propeller by a single oar. Today mostly used by tourists. Here are a few pictures of our second wonderful day in this magical city.