Wow! Talk about a dream come true! Well, more on that later -grin.
We woke up this morning at the Hotel Garibaldi. It is a 3 star hotel in Venezia Mestra, a suburb of Venezia. There are no canals here but Venezia itself is a short 15 minute bus ride from the hotel for only 1,400 lire. Considering the hotels in Venezia itself wanted at least 50k lire more per night, we are way ahead in the savings game.
After we woke up the kids both took a shower. We got dressed and
went down to breakfast. Was this a disappointment. Mind you,
I'm used to a buffet style breakfast at a european hotel. This one
had no buffet and only croissants and bread rolls with various condiments
to put on them (jam, butter, nutella, etc.). Major disappointment
considering they charged us about 20k lire per day for this rubbish.
I only got two coffees out of them today. Tomorrow I'm going to get
cappuccino after cappuccino until I've made up 40k lire -grin. After
breakfast we brushed our teeth and Kristie had to change shirts because
she got nutella all over it.
We headed out to Venezia on bus #2 which stops right outside around
the corner from the hotel. The ride today in the light let us see
the water way we crossed as we made our way into Venezia. We didn't
see this last night. Then we made our way to the water-bus.
Since there are canals here the only way to get around is by water-bus
(or else the rather exorbitantly priced water taxis and gondolas).
We caught the bus going down the Grande Canale which is the main waterway
in Venezia. 
We
got off at the San Marco stop because I recognized it from the Lonely
Planet Guidebook and figured it was a good starting point. As soon
as we got off we found a gondola point and man, are these things expensive.
I haven't heard of paying so much money for a boat ride, but then again
you only live once. C'est la vie! Our gondola driver came up
to us at the gondola dock and took us out for our ride. I expected
more of the classical look of short hat and stripped shirt but those days
seem to be gone. Most of the gondola drivers were dressed in regular
clothing, some of them in t-shirts and slacks. So that was a bit
disappointing. Some of the gondolas, primarily those with japanese
tourists, had accordion players and, in some cases, a tenor or baritone
singing along. We would pass these other gondolas and it did kind
of give a nice touch 
of Italia to the ride. In some cases you could recognize the songs,
especially from those that were in the movie 'Lady and the Tramp.'
So the kids really got into trying to name that tune. Our rather
brief 50 minute ride was too short but all in all it was very enjoyable
and a memory I know I'll never forget. I'm sure the kids won't either.
It was also interesting to see much of the Venetian architecture. You can
see the heavy influence of arabian styles in the windows and archways.
We also apparently passed a couple of buildings in where one of them Mozart
used to live and in another Goethe.
We then started walking about town. Although at this point I had
blown half of my 'expected' expense on the gondola ride so we needed to
find a bank machine. Without an infusion of cash we would be hard
pressed to do much more especially since we had to eat. So we found
a bank machine after MUCH walking and settled down to eat lunch.
We found some pizza and sandwiches at a corner risto and sat down near
some gondolas to munch down. The kids fed the resident pigeons with
their pizza and tried to feed a crab that was in the water at our feet,
although he was uninterested in the food. From there we headed back
to Piazza San Marco and came across a fantastic church with beautiful paintings
on it. The kids also bought some souvenirs and you can see the cool
Terminator look that Stephen is sporting with his sunglasses.
From here we walked around with our backpack full of souvenirs and ended
up walking about a 5 km circle ending back at San Marco. Needless
to say, this was not my intent! But, in the meantime I had found
a shop selling Swiss Knives at a 
really
reasonable price and was able to replace my lost one. Stephen wanted
me to get one in khaki camouflage so that is what I got.
It's nice to have the knife again. These things are handy for whenever
you need to do something (as long as you have it on you!).
Not far away we came across a bunch of people that were feeding pigeons but from their hands. The pigeons were flying up to them to get the food out of their hands! And wouldn't you know it, there were a bunch of people around selling the pigeon food for 1,500 lire so we sprung for a bag of the stuff and the kids started feeding the pigeons. Was this ever fun! They were even landing on me as I was pouring the food into the kid's hands. Kristie wants to go back again tomorrow to feed the pigeons so expect to see more pictures on this -grin. Hopefully they can take some pix of me doing it!
At this point (already past 15h00) we were pretty tired from walking around. We inquired about taking a water taxi which would have been nice. They are sleek low boats that look like fun to ride. But the guy said he wanted 80k lire to take me and the kids and I told him we'd take the 13k lire water-bus instead -grin. This time we ended up being able to grab some seats on the back deck which was definitely the way to go. It's tough to get the back deck as everyone else is trying to too.
We made our way back into the ferrovia servizio area and started looking for a risto to repast dinner at. After much searching we gave up and hung out in a small park in a piazza. There we met a guy from Canada and chatted with him for a while. He is studying in Bologna and was on holidays too. Although he gave me the creeps (I'm originally Canadian so this should not be considered an insult) and me and the kids left. We finally ended up back at the risto we ate at last night because it was the only one open at 17h00! We had our regular fare of pizza and this time Kristie ate almost all the prosciutto (ham) from my pizza. So next time she is getting her own pizza with prosciutto.
After dinner, we grabbed the bus back to the hotel. We hung out there for a little bit and Kristie showed off her new mask to the hotel staff in the lobby. That is one thing about Italians that is simply unique amongst the peoples of the world. They really do genuinely love children. Stephen also showed off his new football (soccer) jersey. It's a little big but he will grow into it and it'll be something to remind him about Venezia as he grows up.
We ran across the street for some gelato and cappuccino. After that the kids were pretty tired and we retired to the hotel. Now they are in bed, and I'm ready for some shuteye myself.
Copyright @ 1997, Alexandre POLOZOFF. All Rights Reserved.
