Yesterday the whole family went to Venice. Venezia, if you want to get away from the one true perfect thing in the world, the English language. I will pause while everyone stops clutching their sides and wiping their eyes from laughter. Of course I could have written, "eye" will "paws" "wile" every "won" stops clutching "they're sighed(s)" and wiping "there" "ayes" from laughter. America! What a country!!
As I said before, we all traveled to Venezia via shuttle boat yesterday. Much like most of Europe that I have seen, there is an elaborate transportation system here and we, once again, took advantage of it. There are a plethora of choices as far as how you wish to travel, which way you wish to travel, and how long you wish to travel. The difference between going one way (not an option) 12 hours, and 24 hours was nothing to sneeze at. We decided, if we couldn't see it in 12 hours, we didn't need to see it. Not really... but we do not own a donkey that poops money, (a new expression we learned over here) so we went a little economical.
The way to the ferry was relatively long but manageable by bicycle. We had enough seats in a car to get most of us to the terminal, but two people had to go by bike. The plan was, when Ruth got tired, one of us would ferry back with her, Dieter (Sylvia's cousin) would take her remaining ticket after waiting in a coffee shop by the terminal and go with whoever brought her back to Venezia. Technically not what we should do with the ticket but "everyone does it." How does the saying go, when in Venezia do as the Venusians do? Or something like that. I'm not going to breath ammonia chloride though...that's just out!
We had our plan, we crossed the sea, we were met with a wall of humanity that rivaled anything Disneyland could imagine! We soon learned that the many bridges and stairs would be a challenge Ruth and her walker (which she "absolutely does not need" but allows us to take because it has a chair) It seems that the charity people feel making them step aside while someone with a walker, wheelchair, or baby stroller, quickly dissipates when there are so many people. I told Jake, "don't fall down, you'll be crushed to death."
After the agreed upon time we checked in with Ruth. "I'm ok." We pressed on. We got lost in the walkways. "I'm ok." We walked down to the cellar of a cathedral to see ancient tombs, priceless mosaics, and famous paintings...all near the rise and fall of the tides. "I'm ok." We rode a gondola around the canals. "im ok.". When we finally went through the most famous, and most crowded cathedral in Venezia...I think that was enough. Additionally, Kristiana and Sylvia were scandalously dressed by having exposed shoulders and knees so web had to pay a euro for a paper drape to be worn to show respect. Apparently the modesty checkers were overworked and didn't know English because I saw at least two people wearing shirts proclaiming the "f" word in big bold letters, and another woman who looked like she may have been working in the door next to Susanna (from an earlier blog) We sat and ate the lunch we brought, black bread and weiners, and she finally said, "ok, I can be done." We called Dieter to let him know we were all on our way back...and thus began the largest real life word problem I have ever been part of.
You see, Dieter rode one of the two bikes back to the campsite after it was apparent that Ruth was a trooper...after three hours! He rode back to the terminal in his father's car. One bike at the terminal. We were seven people with a car that holds five and one bike. It wouldn't be fair, in my opinion, to make Dieter ride back alone again, especially since he wanted to see Venezia by night. I couldn't see asking his dad to bring us again and then pick us up...way past his bedtime...so that was out. The car to pick us up was pulled slightly to the side of the rode while busses and frazzled people tried to squeeze by. I got light headed and started having visions of trains leaving Chicago at 120 miles per hour. We were approaching gridlock. I made a decision (something I am not terribly adept at) and we piled everyone but Dieter in the car and drove away with the thought that Sylvia and I would come back with two other bikes that we could all ride back to camp when we arrived back from the ferry. Dieter's face as we drove off was something like, not again...but I swore we would return. (By the way, if you were keeping score you would have noticed that we squished one extra person in the car so I don't get to pass sixth grade math, but I did get a gold star for creativity.)
Sylvia and I jumped on bikes, traveled back tot he terminal (while I hummed the theme Wizard of Oz bike riding theme song of course...and your little dog Toto too), and we made it back to the ferry with enough time to sample a fine Italian beer before we jumped on and traveled to Venezia again. (Just so envy one knows, I'm going to go around saying I've been to Venice twice...it counts)
Dieter who lives in Europe and vacations here often, had been telling us of the wrong time to go to Venezia. When we went was the exact wrong time. He was so right. When we left the ferry I spread my arms and spun around like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music. (We are near Austria after all). The number of people had decreased by at least a billion and we were free to walk around looking at sites that we didn't even notice before. It was a completely different feel and a completely different Venice. We wandered around and saw things that tourists just don't see. We rode on a water bus around the whole island and got to see parts of it that I would guess only a small portion of visitors even knew about. It was a great time and we got hungry just about the time that it started to rain. Luckily there were many restaurants with umbrellas where we could sit and relax and eat dinner, just the three of us. Sylvia, me, and Dieter (our capable guide).
Just about when the main dish was supposed to be there we checked the time and tried to calculate just how far we were from the dock, how often the ferry traveled, and when our tickets expired...crap, another word problem. The rain stopped, we ate, we settled the bill, and made it back to the ferry with literally zero minutes to spare.
If you are ever lucky enough to travel to Italy and would like to go to Venezia, I would suggest that you travel as we did and see both Venices. The crowded but open to the public Venice where cathedrals and priceless artifacts are everywhere and you have to pay money to use the bathroom. But then also visit the other Venice, the one by night, where the crowds have disappeared and it is lit up, and romantic, and wonderful. If you would like a guide, I can ask Dieter if he is available.
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