Venice, Italy
October, 2011
Sunday, October 16 Venice
We were up at 7am, had waffles for breakfast in the Lido buffet, and we were off the ship to explore Venice. We jumped on a monorail, and were surprised that it was only 1 Euro each. When it stopped at the end of the line, 2 minutes later, we realised why it was only 1 Euro each! We then had to make our way to the Rialto Bridge and San Marco Square on foot. That was an adventure… the streets are narrow and windy, we crossed at least six bridges over canals, all without a map. We were following signs to San Marco, but occasionally thay would disappear. The whole time, we were looking behind us trying to figure out how we were going to get back! There were no signs back to the monorail.
Anyway, after half an hour of twisting, turning and crossing bridges, we found the grand canal which led us to the magnificent Rialto bridge. It was still very early, so not yet too crowded. We took many photos overlooking the gondolas on the grand canal. We then proceeded to follow more signs on the other side of the canal which once again took us around and around the winding streets until we found San Marco, home of the Doges Palace and San Marco’s Cathedral, where the Apostle Mark is buried.
We did a tour of the Doges Palace. It was breathtaking, especially the main gallery where council used to meet 500 years ago. The room was 53x25m, and fully adorned with classic Renaissance paintings. We ventured down into the dungeons and even crossed the infamous bridge of sighs, named because that was the last bridge that the prisoners would cross before they were executed.
We then somehow managed to get into a communion service at San Marco’s cathedral. The singing was amazing. After the service, we took a tour upstairs and saw the original four horses that were stolen from the turks 900 years ago. We were also able to go outside onto the balcony where we could take photos overlook san marco’s square, which was filling up quickly both with pigeons and tourists.
It took us an hour to find our way back to the cruise ship, but despite getting lost once or twice, our internal GPS was working pretty well. We had lunch on the boat, then Gwen had a nap while I took the kids for a kick of footy on the top deck. We explored the boat some more. We found some table-tennis tables and had a quick game until I smashed one ball over the side nets and off the 10th deck of the ship into the dock below.
We had dinner at six and were lucky enough to get a window seat in the dining room at the back of the ship, so we could watch the sights on both sides as we cruised out of Venice. It was amazing to see the san marco’s square and doge’s palace from the water. After dinner, we saw a theatre show based on New York. Apparently, Nieuw Amsterdam (the name of our ship) is what the dutch first called manhattan when they discovered it. After the show, we spent an hour in the piano bar singing along to the hits of Billy Joel.
We were up at 7am, had waffles for breakfast in the Lido buffet, and we were off the ship to explore Venice. We jumped on a monorail, and were surprised that it was only 1 Euro each. When it stopped at the end of the line, 2 minutes later, we realised why it was only 1 Euro each! We then had to make our way to the Rialto Bridge and San Marco Square on foot. That was an adventure… the streets are narrow and windy, we crossed at least six bridges over canals, all without a map. We were following signs to San Marco, but occasionally thay would disappear. The whole time, we were looking behind us trying to figure out how we were going to get back! There were no signs back to the monorail.
Anyway, after half an hour of twisting, turning and crossing bridges, we found the grand canal which led us to the magnificent Rialto bridge. It was still very early, so not yet too crowded. We took many photos overlooking the gondolas on the grand canal. We then proceeded to follow more signs on the other side of the canal which once again took us around and around the winding streets until we found San Marco, home of the Doges Palace and San Marco’s Cathedral, where the Apostle Mark is buried.
We did a tour of the Doges Palace. It was breathtaking, especially the main gallery where council used to meet 500 years ago. The room was 53x25m, and fully adorned with classic Renaissance paintings. We ventured down into the dungeons and even crossed the infamous bridge of sighs, named because that was the last bridge that the prisoners would cross before they were executed.
We then somehow managed to get into a communion service at San Marco’s cathedral. The singing was amazing. After the service, we took a tour upstairs and saw the original four horses that were stolen from the turks 900 years ago. We were also able to go outside onto the balcony where we could take photos overlook san marco’s square, which was filling up quickly both with pigeons and tourists.
It took us an hour to find our way back to the cruise ship, but despite getting lost once or twice, our internal GPS was working pretty well. We had lunch on the boat, then Gwen had a nap while I took the kids for a kick of footy on the top deck. We explored the boat some more. We found some table-tennis tables and had a quick game until I smashed one ball over the side nets and off the 10th deck of the ship into the dock below.
We had dinner at six and were lucky enough to get a window seat in the dining room at the back of the ship, so we could watch the sights on both sides as we cruised out of Venice. It was amazing to see the san marco’s square and doge’s palace from the water. After dinner, we saw a theatre show based on New York. Apparently, Nieuw Amsterdam (the name of our ship) is what the dutch first called manhattan when they discovered it. After the show, we spent an hour in the piano bar singing along to the hits of Billy Joel.