Venice - some pictures

Okay guys

Here are some of the pictures of Venice. It was nice, but I didn't fall in love with it or anything.

Now - I didn't take a whole heap of scenic pictures of Venice, because you get those everywhere.

I was more interested in the activities that made up this city and the people.

Firstly a practical matter. That green boat that you can see (middle right) is a garbage boat, collecting the rubbish from the days market.
And then here is one collecting the rubbish from a cruise liner that has come into port (big ship, next picture gives you an idea just how big).

Anyhow. When I turned up, I found my hotel, dumped my gear and then wandered back out to see the people and places of this town.

I soon found this site. These people are dancing in front of and on a large fishing vessel. Picture several of these fishing ships, docked one after the other, each with stereos blasting different music. Around each there is a bunch of young people (est. 16 to 22yrs) with a smattering of older people, dancing to the music and jumping into the lagoon (then getting out, dancing again, drinking and jumping again.

Now the next couple of pictures give you an idea of the construction of this place. It has a really good medieval feel, simply because so much of it is not built on straight lines. The streets (foot paths) are tight, winding and so are the canals. I did get lost on the night that I had arrived, you can't see enough sky to get reference from and there is no sun to guide you.

Unfortunately, the next couple of pictures are as close to the Arsenele as I got - the only part that was open involved a modern art gallery & was too costly to be bothered with - so I circumnavigated the vast area and saw it from the outside. Still pretty impressive (give how much of a premium land was and is, it was very dedicated of them to put so much land aside).

The first picture is the "gateway" into the Arsenele from the Grand Canal. I guess this was used by officials arriving and such (staff maybe).

The other entrance accesses the lagoon on the other side (away from the Grand Canal, with a direct access to the sea from there.

There were towers all along the lagoon side, and where it was butting up to other islands, the canals around it are wide enough to stop you getting to the walls easily, but narrow enough to stop major engines being brough to bear - a real castle surrounded by moat.

Anyhow, that'll do for Venice - except one last picture showing me reflected in a window, just to prove I was there (Of course, with my choices of photographs, its pretty easy to tell that it was me taking them of course).