OMGYOUGUYS WE GOT TO VENICE THIS MORNING.
It was definitely the first airport we've ever been to where you take a waterbus from the airport to the city centre; we were THRILLED by the concept.
Then we get to the terminal and we're greeted with this guy at the end of the dock:
Yeah, okay, that looks pretty bus-y, pretty capable of transporting a herd of humans.
But then . . .
Where are you going??
Slightly worrying, as at this point we were five minutes from the time-tabled departure. But no problem, this is Italy, time is loose here! Then this guy pulls up straight away. Relief!
A little smaller, but okay. Still sweet!
The line moves, we start to board. Except, instead of the boat above, we're immediately shuffled to the boat NEXT to the boat above, which was so small it wasn't even visible from the queue:
Um.
Tiny. Once we all piled on, it sat so low in the water you couldn't see the horizon out the windows. Very relaxing water movement, delightful choppiness. How alive we feel! Notably our stomachs!
Once we landed, though, we fell in love.
First of all, the city is full of old men who somehow look like proud penguins but are also immaculately dressed. Accompanying them are elderly woman wrapped in fur coats. One older gent spotted Sharona from across a bridge (Claire here; Sharona needed to put on her jim-jams so I took over blogging duties) and hustled right over, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. He wasn't so easy to understand, but we surmised that his job was helping English and Americans in Venice with....things? Of some nature? That part wasn't clear, though he couldn't have been happier to discover that Rona hailed from California and Oklahoma.
Did we mention this city is extremely pretty? It was cold but cloudless, and there were a few hours there where we were even hot enough to unbutton our winter coats.
We also stopped every ten paces (by which I mean I slowed down and forced Sharona to stop, though she was remarkably patient about all the interruptions) to take photos of canals and gondolas and gondoliers and old-timey architecture and teal water (remind Sharona to tell you what "teal" translates to in Dutch).
Extra bonus of traveling in January: we got to waltz right in St. Mark's Basilica and stroll around the Doge's Palace without entering a thunderdome-style battle with all the other tourists. It was almost....quiet?
(After this picture we drank Martinis that were strong enough to fell a horse.)
And I'm back! (Grampa, Claire's totally lying about the martinis, don't listen to her.) Oh, and the word for teal in Dutch translates directly to - I learned this from Natalya - 'appleblueseagreen', which basically describes all of Venice.
Excited to see what day two has in store; looking forward to sharing more soon!
Cheers,
Esss and Ceebs
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