78 Days in Switzerland!
Day 75
It has been a really long time since my last post! I've heard that some people actually read this so let me apologize to those who have been waiting. By the way, if you leave a comment or sign up to 'follow' this post I'll know how many people are spending time reading me!
Me in Venice, Italy. July 31st, 2010
I look tired because we were up since 3:30 A.M. to catch our flight!
Let's begin with last weekend... I went to Venice for the 3 day weekend with Laura.
Sidebar: Laura is the fantastic person living in the apartment below mine. She also works for my company and is from the States. She has two cats and a long distance boyfriend in Chicago. She's pretty cool.
This is Laura, it's unfortunate that the Gondolier's fanny is sticking in the wrong direction...
Laura booked a fantastic 5-star hotel called
. It's one of three hotels in Venice and we stayed at L'Hotel. Breakfast in the morning overlooks the Grand Canal. A really great place to stay! Brass everywhere and tons of Murano glass sculptures.
This is the view of the Il Palazzo which is the old part of the hotel.
L'Hotel is the new part attached but located to the left in the photo.
Day 1 - Walked in San Marco, trying to avoid tourists. I've been to Venice before so I was just enjoying the weather and the scenery rather than trying to get in at all the hot spots. I got the chance to try out my new iPhone 4 camera. Realized later that the forward facing camera is not nearly as good as the outward facing camera. Here are some of the things I saw on the first day.
Gondola's - everywhere!
This is just an everyday walkway but the light played very well here! Angelic!
Another wonderful play of light. I'm calling this one "Green".
Canal water.
This picture above of a canal was taken at the end of a very long, narrow walk way. I try to walk down places tourists don't normally even look down. I find little treasures like this one!
As you walk around Venice due to the nature of the city you can walk with a group of people for quite some ways since there is only one way. I was walking with an adult family that included mother, father, 3 grown men (boys) and a girl. So I walked down this ally, they saw me and looked down the ally too. They saw the same coolness and decided to follow me...I was a little nervous.
I assumed they were just coming to look but the parents and girl didn't come. So I put my iPhone away and just waited. The men just looked at the tiny fish, took a few pictures and walked away. Phew! I'm always aware of my surroundings and I was very aware at that point that there was no where for me to go except in the water!
I waited until they are completely gone from the ally before I resume taking pictures. Just as I'm leaving a little old woman with groceries comes down and unlocks her door. I only wonder if I scared her like those boys scared me...
The guys that followed me down the ally.
Later that afternoon I took a long, long nap! Eventually Laura crashed as well. We dressed and went to dinner around 8.
We're trying to figure out how to put a short person and a tall person in the same shot.
Conclusion: It's better to have the short person take the picture!
Me!
The hotel recommended a restaurant on Dorsoduro called
. The terrace is on the water, so the view was unobstructed and breathtaking. As you can see above we were there as the sun was setting then into the night. Dinner lasted until 2330.
See the dome in the picture above? At night the moon was sitting right next to it! Beautiful!
This doesn't do it justice. I really needed a tripod and a 'real' camera.
Here are some pictures of the restaurant.
Happy Megan! And this is before the food!
Raw tuna. A lot of it! Tasty!
Skip to the end! Lemoncello and espresso macchiato.
We had a wonderful evening! The food was okay but the servers and atmosphere where really awesome! Ah... Franco and Alberto! The look we received when Laura asked Franco for salt. Priceless.
The weather was perfect for a mid-night stroll back to the hotel. Fall into bed and sleep deeply in air-conditioning! We don't have that in Switzeraland. A wonderful, long first day of the weekend.
Since I want to post this tonight but have no more time to write I'll try to do another post tomorrow for days 2 and 3 in Venice!
