Photos from Venice

On the road

Lunch stop

On the gondola

The Gondolero Guy

Venetian traffic jam

Grand Canal

St Marks Basilica

President's fanfare

Buried alive

Our cabin

Long lost family in Vicenza

Long Weekend in Venice = Long Post About Venice

We were lucky enough to have a long weekend during mum’s stay so we took the opportunity to re-visit Venice, since it’s only 4 hours away.  I was there for a day on Contiki when I was young and free just over 10 years ago!  Maciek was also there for a day but unfortunately didn’t see any of it as he was too hungover and stayed in bed!  That was when his name was Barry most of the time.  Mum’s never been, so she was super excited. 

We decided on the scenic route, which is more km’s but same amount of time to get there, as we had been told many Germans and Austrians travel to Italy for holidays and we didn’t want to risk getting caught in traffic on the autobahns.  The scenery was absolutely stunning.  Unfortunately we could only get pics through the window but the road took us up 1500 metres to cross the border into Italy, and it’s amazing the contrast in the state of the roads and appearance of the housing from one side of a short tunnel where we were in Austria, to the other side entering Italy.  Even the sun disappeared!  That was weird!  Poor mum was stuck in the back in between the kids with the seatbelt buckle digging into her butt for five hours!  This includes the stopping time for lunch.  Our vision was to pullover at a beautiful lake and have our picnic, but instead it was a quick park rest stop with no benches or toilets but plenty of smelly bins and a stench of dog poo some of which Noah trod in and subsequently crawled along the car seats spreading it around!  The joys of travelling with children!  Luckily, or ordinarily as any mum would, I had wet wipes, which did the trick!  Gross I know.  The trouble with rest stops along motorways in Europe is that they are like a box of chocolates, as in you never know what you’re going to get!  A few hundred metres further on was a lovely one with a café and nice toilets and picnic benches scattered amongst the trees.  Oh well.

We had a good run, no traffic, and it wasn’t even difficult finding the campsite.  We booked through a British company so were greeted by our host on arrival and shown to our mobile home, which was lovely but unfortunately smelt like sick!  I had visions of a group of stags there the week before us, out on the drink only to arrive home in the early hours of the morning and not make it to the loo on time!  As it turned out it was the fridge.  It was on it’s way out and apparently that’s what they smell like?  So we received a brand new one and the problem was quickly rectified.  The campsite was lovely.  A short walk to the beach (nice but we are certainly lucky in Australia for our beaches, as they are definitely not the reason you visit Europe!), a lovely pool area and two playgrounds, a restaurant, supermarket, and a delicious ice-cream stand.

On Friday we drove the short distance to the port to catch the ferry over to the island of Venice.  (I always thought ‘Venice’ was just that island, but it includes all the other islands and the mainland aswell.)  It takes about 40 minutes.  We got the Marco Polo one.  After buying the tickets I stupidly asked ‘so where’s the ferry?’ and mum replied ‘It’s Marco Polo, you’ve got to find it first!’ (onya mum!)

We were greeted by hoardes of tourists and buildings that should have fallen down by now and it’s hard to describe but it has such a unique beauty that you need to see it for yourself to really appreciate what it is.  The first thing mum did straight off the boat was to buy a big floppy hat and in her white linen pants and apricot chiffon blouse and big sunnies she looked just like a rich American aristocrat!  I thought she looked lovely, but she reckons she’s never wearing that hat again.  We wandered, and came to St Marks square.  Unbeknownst to us the president was visiting that day so there was a huge area cordoned off in the square with security guards and men marching in traditional military uniforms and whatnot, which made it a slow process getting through (follow that tour guide holding the purple umbrella!) and not so pleasant for the Americans trying to squeeze through the crowds shouting ‘Excuse me, Excuse me’ as if everyone in Italy needed to know about it, with their huge suitcases going against traffic, aiming for the ferries back to the mainland.  Difficult to get a good view and pics of St Marks Basilica and the tower but we managed to get it later once the President had returned to his mansion!  Once we managed to shuffle through it we hit the tiny winding alleyways, canals, and connecting ornate bridges which is what Venice is made of. 

We were lucky with the weather; bit of rain; bit of sun; not too cold and not too hot.  Just right!  In one of the sunny spells we took a ride on a gondola (the boat kind not the ones that take you up the mountain!) starting at the Rialto Bridge.  Absolute rip off at 80Euro for 40 minutes but it was one of those things you have to do when you’re in Venice and that’s exactly why it is such a rip off.  But it was pleasant and gave us a break from walking.  Just before it finished the Gondolero Guy tempted us with a further 10 minute tour covering this and that for an extra 40euro!  Whhaaatt!!  But mum was sucked in and it was her treat anyway!  (you’re SUCH a tourist mum!) It was a lovely ride and we got to see the ACTUAL president speed past us with his entourage in his speed boat on the Grand Canal, causing great waves that nearly had us submerged!  And did you know, the gondola is meant to tip to the right?  When you get in the Gondolero Guy tells everyone where to sit to keep the balance.  But as we took off the boat was tipped so far to the right that Maciek and I went to get up and swap seats only to be told off!  It’s meant to be like that, apparently.

We walked all day.  The kids were brilliant.  Noah slept in the backpack for about two hours in the afternoon and Milly was happy as long as she got what she wanted!  A mask, three ice-creams, a broach, a handbag and God knows what else, I can’t remember, but anything to keep the peace!  We found a lovely place to eat lunch just off the Grand Canal (and thanks to Nana we discovered how to keep the peace at meal times when eating out, separate the little toe-rags!  Why didn’t we think of that?)  It was a nice change listening to the poetry of the Italian language after being surrounded by German for so long, and also nice to hear lots of English and Australian too! (Yeah-Nah!)
By the time we were ready for a coffee in the afternoon we were near the square again and although we’d been told to expect to pay 5euro for a coffee we still sat down on an outside table of a café smack in the middle of the square with a full view of St Marks Basilica, looked at the menu, noticed that a cappuccino was 8.20 and a piece of cake was 10.50, pulled a face, took a quick photo, and got up and walked away!  The waiter in his white tux didn’t appear too happy!

The island began with the first buildings in the 600’s and was declared a city in 1100 and something.  The population of the islands (there are a few apart from the main famous one that everyone knows about) is about 55,000 but no-one lives on the main island itself (or not many anyway according to the Gondolero Guy) they commute to it for work.  Not sure though as I saw lots of old toothless ladies leaning out of little windows taking in the sights and sounds of the day and many lines of clothing stretching from one window to another drying in the sun!  Can’t remember anymore facts and figures because I have a mummy-mush brain.  You’ll have to google it!  BTW - Gondolero-guy….I made that up.

We didn’t even cover an 8th of the island.  It’s a mass of tiny alleyways and canalways and so easy to get lost.  I would love to stay for a few days and really explore all of it.  We ended up staying until the 6pm ferry (the last one is 7pm) back to the mainland.  At first we couldn’t find it.  Turned out mum was right about the Marco Polo thing!  We eventually found a sailorish looking guy to ask and he told us which jetty it left from.  So back to the campsite for a big rest, kiddlies in bed, and a few glasses of wine! 

The next day we spent resting, swimming, eating ice-cream and Maciek got some kite flying practice in on the beach ready for kite surfing when we go back to Perth.  On our travel home we stopped in Vicenza where we caught up with Amber and her husband and little boy.  I haven’t seen Amber since I was five and she is a cousin of the once-twice-three times removed kind!  Not sure which!  It was such a lovely relaxing afternoon at a restaurant with a fantastic views over the city of Vicenza, and what was meant to be a one hour quick stop for coffee turned into 3 hours with wine and delicious steak (haven’t had that for a while, we’re starting to look like turkey schnitzels!).  It was lovely to finally meet up with Amber after so long, in Italy of all places!  We were almost tempted to ditch work the next day and stay overnight.  But no.  We took the normal route home and hit traffic at the Austrian border.  Not a bad place to be stuck in traffic though, amazing views!  But traffic is traffic and we were all tired and by this time mum had a permanent dent in her butt cheek!  Finally made it home for 10pm (we left the campsite at 10am).  Awesome weekend.  Very tired by the end.

Bit of dig at mum time.  We arrived at the campsite on the Thursday afternoon.  On Saturday afternoon we paid for internet access for two hours, so we’d had no internet for two days.  We logged on and found we had 6 new emails.  Mum logged on and – wait for it – one hundred and seventy five new emails!!  Whhaaatttt!!!  I’m telling you this mum because I love you and I care about you – YOU ARE ADDICTED TO FACEBOOK!  There is a new group called FBA (FaceBookers Anonymous).  I’ve signed you up.  You’ll probably get an email about it……

Nanna Lol

The pricey view of Salzburg

I feel the need for speed!

Maverick and Goose

Cathedral in Salzburg

Nanna Lol was due to arrive at Munich airport the day before Maciek’s birthday.  In preparation to collect my friend Peta alone in a few weeks time from the same place, I (or rather Maciek), decided I should have a practice at the 2 hour drive on the autobahn.  The right lane (slow) is for happily chugging along at 100kmh until there comes a time to overtake a truck or a caravan which is very often, and then you fling yourself into the middle lane flying along at about 130kmh until it’s safe to merge back into the ‘slow’ lane, but sometimes in the ‘medium fast’ lane there is a need to overtake again for example when one of the caravans or trucks originally in the slow lane decide they are feeling like a bit of an adrenalin rush and then it’s into the fast lane at above 150kmh until it is safe to merge back into the slow lane once more.  Needless to say my stress level was very close to a 10 and if I didn’t have Maciek sitting  next to me as my strategic advisor guiding me in and out of the traffic I definitely would have pulled over into a rest stop and thumbed my way to the airport.  So I didn’t drive on the way back.  And I will also be taking the train next week to meet my friend.  No more autobahn’s for me I’m afraid!  But we did eventually get there in one piece even though I was beginning to have black outs from panic attacks.  The first thing I did was to enquire at the train counter about train fares and timetables, and thinking I was being polite I asked the spotty sleepy looking attendant, in German, if he could speak English, rather than just assuming he could, which I’ve been told is very annoying.  (“Can you imagine,” said one of Maciek’s colleagues, “if I visited Australia and just walked up to a counter and started asking questions in German?”  Quite true. )  He responded by saying “of course I can, I must, I work in an airport, what a stupid question” which really threw me off and I forgot to ask half of what I intended after that.  Maciek was so angry when I told him that he went back to the counter and gave him what for!  Embarrassing.  Put a bit of a downer on the excitement of meeting mum.
But it was all forgotten when little old mum tottered out from the arrival gates with her designer suitcases complete with pretty pink ribbons so she could recognize them at baggage return (really mum?  But yours is the only red and gold tartan one amongst all the black ones?!) and Amelia ran up to her shouting ‘Nanna!’ followed by Noah who initially ran up but then decided he didn’t know who he was running up to!  Shame.  He gave mum the evils in the back of the car all the way home, sussing her out.  It has been a year, and he wasn’t even two when we left home, so that was understandable, but it didn’t take him long to turn on his cheeky!
Mum left the sunshine behind in England which she had brought with her from Australia especially for my cousins wedding (aww, it’s cute how old people think isn’t it?!) because she arrived here to temperatures of 10, and rain, and storms.  But that hasn’t stopped us dragging her out every afternoon after work for sightseeing after she’s spent the morning in doing my washing and ironing and surfing the net!  Her first Friday I left the kids at home with her, poor mum, but may aswell throw her in at the deep end!  It was Maciek’s birthday and we walked around town in the afternoon, the markets were on, and I overindulged with my cake purchases (for a special occasion so I can be excused) and after we went out for dinner, where we had a massive schnitzel and a couple of drinks and I crawled under the table looking for a Polly Pocket shoe that Milly had dropped, and then got trapped in by the waiter.  It all looked a bit suspicious!  Nevermind.  How come “Mr Bean’ scenarios always seem to happen when mum’s around?  Strange.
Saturday……..In the afternoon we walked around Schwarzsee, the lake with a fantastic view of the Wilder Kaiser (this is the mountain that Maciek has a love affair with with!), and participated in some of the ‘fitness’ activities, like throwing pine cones through the holes in the board, which actually we were all very good at!
Last year Maciek got a new Peugeot and a trip around Europe for his birthday.  This year he got to fly in a private plane with my friends’ father in law (he has a pilots’ licence) over the mountains.  Lucky bugger!  It was like Top Gun, only much slower, and not as cool! 
For the afternoon we were going to take a drive up the Alpine Road around the Grossglockner which is the highest mountain in Austria, but the clouds were coming in and we decided there wouldn’t be a view so no point.  Instead we decided to visit Salzburg.  It’s an hour drive from us and on the way the kids (including Nana Lol!) had a snooze in the back and we arrived in the city to blue skies and 28 degrees!  It was nice for us to see it in the sun without the crowds we experienced the last time for the Christmas Markets, and mum loved it until she decided to buy some souvineers for friends and family at home and was horrified at the checkout when it came to 90euro!!  So with her hands full of fridge magnets and keyrings we wandered around and enjoyed a horse and carriage ride, a visit into the cathedral that holds 10,000 people, some nice views of the fortress which began it’s life in the 600’s and took 500 years to build, and discovered a restaurant up on the hill where they must have been charging for the views and definitely not the food!  Next time we’ll go there just for a drink we think.  It was a long enjoyable day and after ice-creams and coffees in the afternoon we left for home at about 6.30pm.
(Apologies for all the cheeky digs mum, but we know you love it!)
Next post: Nanna Lol continued and the long weekend in Venice….

Socks n Sandals only in Europe

Amelia's Jean Claude Van Damme impression

One of these things is not like the others?

Good old See Saws!

Mel and mum in Salzburg



Views from the plane