Venice - Day 2: This is the Grand Canal

Ciao!!

Todays blog is sponsored by "The Grand Canal" from the musical Nine 

Today started out with a bang.  I had to repack my suitcase and gather my things because I was changing rooms.  I thought my original room was lovely, but then I was upgraded to this

which might be the biggest hotel room I've seen in Europe so far.  This place seems really nice and the people that run it are super nice.  I had left a coke in the mini bar in my original room and when I got to my new room this eve, there it was.   That's service!!  I had breakfast in the breakfast room and headed out.  Before I left, I asked how long of a walk it was to the train station.  I was told how to get there by following the signs and I was there in 10 minutes.  10 minutes!!!!!  Not over an hour as it took me to get to the hotel, but 10 minutes.  I figured I'd go to the train station and get my ticket for Vienna.  Here are some more canal pics from the bridge near the train station

Hmm, I wonder what they are showing on the big screen?

So, I get to the train station and headed to the ticket office and to get my ticket for Vienna.  Now, before I left on vacation, I used this handy dandy Eur Rail app on my phone to plan my tran trips.  I thought I had it all set.  Until I find out there isn't a train to Vienna during the day from Venice.  How could that be possible when the app says there is.  Well, Mattei, LEARN TO READ THE APP.  (more about that in a second).   So, the attendant booked me on a bus from Venice to Villach, Austria and then a train from Villach to Vienna.  How could that be possible?  No train?  The app said it was possible.  Well, I had a quick lesson in app reading as I was walking out of the ticket office.  Turns out, when you read the app correctly, you'll see there are several connections from one place to another.  So, technically, I need a ticket from one place to another.  It wouldn't be like a plane ticket where you pay once for each connection.  Ugh!!  So stupid.  I know now how to deal with my train from Vienna to Bochem.  Luckily, there's only one connection.  The best part of this train/bus thing is that I'll get into Vienna  hours earlier than if I took a train with 4 connections.  Kinda a score?  

So, now I had a bus station to deal with.  The attendant in the train ticket office told me how to get to the bus station, which was on the mainland it seemed like.  So, I decided I'd better figure out how to get there NOW and not wait until Thursday morning.  So I did a dry run, which included a walk over this bridge ...

Or if you couldn't navigate the stiars, there was always this way...

 Close-up on the... uh... what is this called?

So when I get to the other side of the bridge, I had to find the "People Mover" for the rest of my journey.  A People Mover??  Now you're talking my language!!!  I found the People Mover station a bought a ticket.  Where was this going?  Well, it goes out to the cruise ships and to the bus station.  So, now I know how to get there.  It's actually quite easy.  So I was happy about that.

Now it was time to get back to the train station and buy a water bus ticket to start my Rick Steve's Grand Canal Tour.  On the way back, I saw this and took a picture for Mom and Ken  Look familiar??

I got my ticket and then had to figure out what boat to get on.  When I finally did, I got in line and eventually boarded the boat.  The book says to sit on the left. so I did.  Well, I really didn't.  I didn't think to turn around and face the front of the boat and then take a left side seat.  Yeah, you guessed it, my seat ended up on the right.  Oh well.  It was too late to change as the left-hand window seats were all taken.  I figured I'd just suck it up and make it work.

The audio tour was fun, a little dry, but fun.  Here are some pictures from the tour. Most are palaces, etc.

Hey, how did you get in here???

I liked this bridge as it was steal underneath

There was one church toward the end.  A church named after Mary, I believe. 

Then we got to San Marco Square.  Long story short, it was a MADHOUSE.  Doge's palace, the Saint Mark's Basilica, the Campanile, and several other museums.  I decided to roam around and take some pictures.  There appeared to be a lot of water in the square, as well as the vestibule of the church.  Here are some pics of the square.

Two of`the Campanile

Some of the facade of the church

The square got a little crazy for me, so I wandered off into the streets nearby.  I came upon the church, went and and took some pictures of the pipes.  What else?

The sanctuary

The pipes!

And in my travels I saw this place, but didn't go in.  It deserved a picture though!!

Then I stopped for a refreshment.  A little Campari spritzer

I decided to get in line to get into St Mark's as I had another Rick Steve's audio guide to listen to.  Over all, the story of St Mark is quite interesting, and the audio guide, while I felt sometimes was very non-Catholic as in making jokes about Catholicism, etc, was helpful.  Here are some pictures from the inside of the church

Pipes, of course

Pentecost

Sanctuary

 Tomb of St Mark

Baptismal Font

Another of the Pentecost mosaic on the ceiling

St. Mark's story told in mosaic

I made the climb to the museum and walked around a bit and took some more pics as well as some from high above the Square.

A look down

  Jesse Tree

Some very old manuscript

A glass figure of Jesus

The original four horses that used to be on the facade of the church

Horses on the facade of the church now

I got in line and paid my 8 euro and went to the top of the Campanile.  It was very crowded in a small space, so I took a few pics and got out of there quickly.

I then went to find "Harry's Bar" which for me, is a reference in the musical Aspects of Love, but I'm finding out that many people use Harry's Bar as a reference in a lot of movies/musicals.  I found it and went in and had a Belini..  Prosecco and peach puree.  Made famous here at Harry's Bar.  The smallest and most expensive drink ever, but I took one for history at this point!!

Some random pics on my way back toward my hotel.  Where, of course, I got lost, maybe on purpose?  :)

Some music on the square

A shot for Lauren Bevilacqua who is covering for me at Big Fish rehearsals!!

Dollar store!!!

Beer Bar

An empty square, it looked kinda cool

Body painting on the side walk.

All done

At this point, I was quite done but still hadn't eaten dinner.  So chose this little place near my hotel and sat down for dinner.  

I know, I know, I've had these things before, but I was too tired to think about anything "new"

You know, Venice is like a continuing Stair Master, I'm usually up for a full day of walking, but throw in stairs around every corner and that's a whole different story.  Don't get me wrong, it's quite the love affair I'm having with Venice, not sure my legs are though. 

Wow, that was a lot.  Tomorrow, mostly likely back to San Marco's square and the Doge's palace.  It'll be a nice walk.  Maybe a concert tomorrow night, or an opera.  There is this performance of "The Barber of Seville" that I'd like to go to, but I'm not sure where it is and how I can get back to my hotel.  I may not have the energy to find out, though as I'll need to re-pack my luggage tomorrow night to be ready for my journey on Thursday morning, which I'm a little anxious about.

Oh, Gondola rides are 80 euro, I don't think I'll be going on one.

Ciao Tutti!

Maestro