August 10, 1997 - Sunday

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The sun came up some time around 06h00 or so and so did we.  For some reason we all woke up earlier than usual.  I guess with all of the previous day's walking we probably fell into a deep sleep rather quickly.   The kids showered, I showered but didn't shave.  I figured heck, I'm on vacation and I'm NOT going to shave even if I did need one badly. The kids dressed for breakfast.  That means that they wear their grungy clothing from the previous day since they'll probably get nutella all over it -grin.  I didn't want them looking bad in the photos anyhow and nothing like a nice splash of nutella to ruin what would've been a nice shot.  Breakfast was it's usual sparse fair at the Hotel Garimbaldi.  It's hard to believe they get away charging us 20k (US$12) lire per night for some bread and croissants.  I could do better in a soup kitchen!  We finished this sparse meal, taking some of the packaged toast and cookies for later today.  In addition to our previous days purchase of fruit we should be well taken care of for the train ride home this evening.  We made our way back to the room and finished packing our bags.  We took our backpacks downstairs and prepared to check out of the hotel and make our way back to Venezia.  Well, not so quick doughboy.  The Italians were about to throw us for a curve.

We get to the front desk and the girl behind the desk tells me that she can not accept credit cards.  Apparently, Friday evening when we checked in there were power problems in Mestre.  This was pretty evident as the lights up and down the block were going on and off in succession.  Well, unbeknownst to me, it had taken their credit card verification unit out of service and it never came back on with the power.  But did these idiots think of telling me yesterday that there might be a problem accepting a credit card and I should plan on paying cash for the room?  Nope.   Matter of fact, these bumbling idiots never even mentioned it.  And it's not like there is a language barrier here.  They speak fluent English and my Italian is good enough now to have understood the problem.  Instead, they wait until Sunday morning when we check out to tell me this.  Oh, fine.  Now that the American Express office is closed on Sundays and the only way to get cash is to go down there and use my card in the machine.  But they wanted their cash before I left, eventhough we'd be leaving our luggage there.  So off we trek to find some bancomats to see if I can get cash.  Well, the first one only would accept deposits, the 2nd one was on the fritz from the power loss and the third one refused to give me cash.  So we went back and I ended up having to give the fools all the money I had saved for the day in Venezia and now instead had to use to pay these fools.  It is the last time I ever stay at the Hotel Garimbaldi in Mestre.  That's for sure.

We paid the stupid idiots and left to catch the bus in Venezia.  I was hoping I could either find the Amex office on my own or my bank card would start working again.  On our water-bus boat ride this time I took all of these pictures of these magnificent buildings along the Grande Canale.  You can really see the Persian influence in the architecture.  I guess a byproduct of Marco Polo's escapades.  Luckily my bank card worked the first time in Venezia and we had cash again.  The kids wanted to feed the pigeons again.  No kidding, so did I!  We headed back to Piazzi San Marco, bought some more seed and started feeding the birds.  We spent about an hour buying seed and feeding pigeons until I think the pigeons were full because they were not bothering with us anymore!  This done we started walking around but we didn't have much time as we had to catch the 16h24 Valsugana train back to Trento.  In order to do this, we had to eat lunch!  Oh my, that was a detail I had overlooked in my planning for the day!  I'm sure the kids wouldn't appreciate missing lunch.  We headed back to our old standby restaurant and ate our fill of pizza.  Kristie had prosciutto on hers today.  Although she didn't eat all of the prosciutto it was good to see her eat something other than the standard margharetta (cheese pizza). We caught the water-bus back to Place Roma and headed back to the Hotel Garimbaldi to pick up our packs.

The girl behind the front desk was glad to hear we could get cash in Venezia.  But I think she was more worried about getting bad press about her establishment than anything else.  Well, sorry honey.  You need to plan better when you have non-Italian passport bearing guests staying at your place.

We headed back to the train station at Mestre and waited for our Valsugana line train.  It came and some absolutely gorgeous women got onto it this time.  Most of them making the entire trip back to Trento with us.  Made me wonder where they went when they got off. The trip back to Trento is absolutely gorgeous   I promised some pictures yesterday and here they are!   The mountains start almost as if by magic right outside of Padova.  There is no hint that you are slowly headed up in altitude.  All of the sudden, you're just surrounded by these majestic peaks.  The sun was favorable for taking pictures from our side of the train too so I think you can get a good idea of the scenic view we had.  Although there is nothing to be said for making the trip yourself.  There were so many sights that lasted for only a split second and didn't give me time for setting up the shot. Sometimes we were really close to the mountains themselves and other times we were further back in the valley for some really magnificent pictures. 

One thing you notice is the ruggedness of the mountainsides.  Very few sported any buildings on them.  In some cases you could see buildings that must have been built centuries ago and are now being overtaken by the undergrowth.  Every now and then you would see an old church or castle at the top of a peak of a small mountain or ridge.  I wondered quite often what life must be like for these people.  Not that it is a backward way of life at all but just thought of having a laid back sort of life where one tended his goats and backyard garden and working reasonable hours must be like. It is the sort of thing that very few of us think about in this technological age of having to have our email connection from wherever we are at.  I guess I fall into the latter crowd and while I can do without television, I feel helpless if I can't get to my email.  One of these days, I'm going to learn how to kick back and relax like these people.

 Click here to see the day's pictures - Warning this will download about 2M of data and all of the pictures are on this page. 

Copyright @ 1997, Alexandre POLOZOFF.  All Rights Reserved.