We started our Rick Steves' Italy trip in Venezia. Lovely city.
This young lady was advertising Venetian entertainment...musical, I assume.
Domo broke out of his suitcase to welcome us to the Venetian ship museum.
They had pretty ornate ships.
And lovely churches.
Alex had a Bellini. I had a Campari spritz, which has Campari, prosecco (the Italian version of Champagne) and sometimes soda, with a slice of orange. Alex found it bitter. I found it heavenly, especially in the heat.
The Cat who Laughs bistro. We didn't go, but found it amusing.
Churches.
Same church, but with a seagull. I hadn't realized that I missed seagulls. Those, and hummingbirds, don't exist in Hawaii. They can't fly long enough to make that long journey.
Domo enjoys pizza with egg.
And the Grand Canal.
Domo found the Campari spritz bitter too.
More boats.
Alex, my faithful naviguesser, poring over a map. I really would have been lost had he not been there to figure out where we were!
Musicians on the square, setting up for the lunchtime crowds. And boy, were there crowds.
We visited Burano (with lace shops), not Murano, with glass. But we did see many examples of the wonderful glass in the shops in Venice.
Hard Rock from a distance. We didn't go in. It seemed very odd to see a restaurant over a canal.
I was fascinated with some of the light fixtures, especially these with the lace covers.
And the glass ones.
This was a hyperbaric chamber, for when you have trouble with the bends in diving.
Very important signage. I stayed away from Diet Coke on this trip, so didn't have any bathroom emergencies.
I first started being interested in chimneys in France, so I noted these in Venice, too. Odd shapes.
I love the Kleenex in Europe...these were marine-oriented. And no, they didn't show octopuses.
A little wall hanging plaque I found of the last supper.
The Venetian type of love locks. We first saw this phenomenon in Paris, where you lock a padlock to a bridge and throw away the key. This is supposedly a way to keep your love alive. Unfortunately, at least in Paris, it made the bridges so heavy that they had to cut the locks off the bridges, so they wouldn't fall in the Seine!
Before we left for Italy, Alex had discovered that there were many narrow alleyways in Venice. Here's one.
We were told that some buildings in Venice, since the city is sinking, couldn't use their first floors anymore. Sad. The whole city looks rather in decay. But lovely nonetheless.
Masks are very big here.
Also started in Paris, I looked for pretty doors in Venice too.
Murano glass octopus.
Octopus picture on the menu. Alex was faithful in telling me places to avoid the real thing.
Octopus marzipan. And Marzipan fish. Some folks are so creative!
Naval Museum.
I laughed at this sign.
Can you believe these pizzas were for one person? Luckily, we got salad too.
Some of the European showers were really small. But we got clean clothes drying there, too.
The Grand Canal.
View from our hotel, Hotel de Fenice.
More canals.
There were several fountains where one could fill water bottles. The water is very good.
Gondola. It is a pretty amazing series of boats. I wouldn't have the balance to steer one! And I stubbed my toes getting off the gondola we were on: There was a big brick block and I didn't raise my legs enough. Ouch! We walked our tushes off on this trip, but learned a lot and enjoyed our visit.
Sometimes a photo just grabs you. This is my almost empty glass on a trip to London. You can see the wonderful James Avery silver ring...it's my prized possession. It's a solid ring, worn on my thumb, that has the Cross. It serves as a reminder of many things. But also to watch my p's and q's!
Sweetheart and I visited London and France in May of this year. SO enjoyed it! I had visited London in 1975 on my own, so it was different to visit on a Rick Steves' tour and also with my sweetheart. He makes traveling different. In a good way.
I have an interest in chimneys...and doors. Not sure why other than the fact that they are all different, but serve the same purpose.
We didn't get to visit inside the buildings to see where all these chimneys led, but I enjoyed the look of them. I can't imagine building them or what is involved in doing so. Some skills are simply beyond me. But in most cases, there are always lots of them. Which maybe tells me that they serve many different parts of the buildings underneath.
And on all of our trips, we bring Domo with us. Mostly because it's fun. Or maybe also because we can throw him into the photos and he just stands there, doing what we tell him to do.
In this case, he had wandered into a toy and game shop in London, and decided to await our pleasure underneath this old rocking horse.
The same store had Easter eggs:
I thought the one shaped like a lady was odd enough to include. They also had neat wooden, carved ones.
And there was something else that one doesn't see very often:
Lunch time Bible talks! I do wonder who comes to these and what they discuss. It would have been interesting to hear the subject matter chosen for this day, but we were not there at the right time. Glad to see that the Bible is still featured there, though.
As is chocolate:
Ooooh, this was dark and yummy!
Can't you imagine delving into these chocolate boats of flavor?! Totally out in the open, in nice wooden bowls, ready to be sampled and purchased. Yum.
Chocolate was VERY big in London. We saw variants everywhere.
Turned out that Domo was thirsty, so we stopped into a local drinkery....and actually, it was probably really a restaurant. I think we maybe visited one pub on our trip. Just not our thing to be in a group and hanging out in something like a bar....even though it's a different cultural experience over there.
Domo followed up with some food:
I don't know how often he eats like this, but apparently, he was quite hungry for serious food at this point in the trip. Maybe it's from being stuck into pockets all day.
We went on a foodie walk, sampling curry, and bagels and chocolate and beer and oh yeah, pork!
St John's Bread and Wine. They use the entire pig from the snout to the tail. Which sounds rather disgusting at first blush, but was in fact the spot for a quite wonderful (if high fat!) sandwich:
Moist, flavorful and quite delicious. Even as it glistened with juicy fat...
And Domo appeared again
Some folks just show up in time for dessert. At least he deigned to wave to us..
And no red white and blue trucks for British mail: oh no! They gotta have the Queen's insignia on the vehicles.
And just in case you thought only the French did the love locks thing, here's proof they are not alone:
In France, the locks made the fence of the bridges so heavy, they were in danger of falling over and into the water of the Seine. So mostly they are seriously discouraged. Not sure if this is a new love locks area in Lonson, or if earlier ones had been cut off and people were starting again.
As I looked at these again while planning this post, I thought of a lot of things. Why spend money on something that will just get cut off or destroyed? In my mind, memorialize your love by telling your sweetheart or hugging and kissing them. But perhaps that's just me!
We did have a wonderful visit to London. And we walked our dogs off! Four, five, six hours each day. Well worth it, but it did mean we didn't do any late night sightseeing or theater. Truthfully, we aren't really theater people. But we did enjoy our visit, very much.
