What a day!!!

Hello everyone,
    What a day today...I'm exhausted...got a short run in, some geocaching, our gondola ride, visit to the Venice Museum and palace and prison, lasagna dinner (for me) and more Italian beer and mint gelatto.  Can it get any better than this.  Our official tour starts tomorrow and I'm already exhausted.

Exploring a gondola for today's ride

Heading down the canal

Our gondola rider

Heading out

The basilica

The Doge Palace

Palace Courtyard

The ceiling of the stairwell

Large doors - I'm there for perspective.

And these double doors in case more height is needed.

Ceilings and more ceilings

More art on the ceilings than anywhere

Fireplace

Quite the rooms

So much art everywhere

 And Palace time ...

The Palace Courtyard

Taken from the Bridge of Sighs that connects the Palace and the Old Prison.

Who is this tourist girl that keeps cropping up?

Another cruise ship with its tug boats

And a good day ending with finding a geocache with Bruce's help

Tomorrow we meet up with our group and start our tour.  We have to go back to the airport.  Hopefully we will be able to find them.

More Sightings From Yesterday ...

Hello everyone,
      Thought we would have a good sleep last night but after our first 3 hours we were both wide awake and ready to go.  The time change was definitely affecting both of us... finally got back to sleep around 3am till we woke around 8.  Loving it here.  Here are some more photos from yesterday ...

Coming in from the airport.  Lots of private boats creating a lineup of boat taxis.

Our water taxi coming into our hotel

Scene of the canal

Lots of canals like this one.

My first taste of lemon gelatto...mmmm.

A band at one of the cafes by St. Mark's Square.

Me at St. Mark's Square

Part of a large statue

The next few pictures are all part of the same statue

My first taste of Italian made pizza ... yum!

While we were eating in the cafe a tugboat came in with the Eurodam.  I'm wondering how our Royal Princess will compare with the Eurodam.

Us at the cafe.

Our first taste of Italian beer.  I'm not normally a beer lover but this was nice.  I would definitely order it again.

Our view of the Eurodam from our spot having dinner.

One of the red girls :-)

Until later ...  I've seen a few runners this morning as we sat having breakfast.  I think I will go out and have a run and do a bit of geocaching later and have our gondola ride.  Sounds like a plan for today.

Victoria to Venice ...

After not much sleep ... little to none since we left Victoria we have arrived!!!  It is so different from any other place we've been.  I was a little concerned when we left about not knowing much (any) Italian but everyone speaks English here so we've been able to manage very well (even with no sleep)!!!  From the airport we had a private boat taxi to take us to our hotel ...

Taken from inside the boat taxi from the airport to our hotel.

A view of the street by our hotel

And the canal entrance

And a view from our hotel

and a view from the walkway near our hotel

Our hotel isn't very fancy but it is nice and the views certainly make up for anything the hotel may lack.  Looking forward to their complimentary breakfast tomorrow.

This afternoon we had to try their gelato, Italian beer, and pizza ... when in Italy ...

Tomorrow we've decided to take a gondola tour.  Why not?

But for now I think we will sleep very well ... with being so tired and that Italian beer lol!!!