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).

What are the odds???

Okay, just a quick post.

I´m now in Nuremberg, Germany. Had dinner with Agilmar (corrected) & Anna (great & funny couple).

Last night, decided to plan a relative early night (the festival the night before & all that). Went back to my room, had my shower, waited for Anna to call and then thought I´ll get a quick bite to eat & then bed.

Local restaurant looked a bit stuffy for one so scruffy as me, so went down the road to pizzeria, got a take away pizza (had a cup of tea whilst I was waiting - not so common in Italy)).

Pizza in hand I decided that it might be nice to head down to the waterfront and watch the activity on the Lagoon whilst I ate my dinner.

I get down there and oops, disturbed a girl who had the same idea. I said sorry & she celebrated finding another aussie. Yet, not only is she from Australia, but Ivanhoe, Melbourne (less than 25 kms from where I live in Australia). She´s been travelling for over a month already in Spain, so we spent about 1.5hrs just chatting & exchanging stories about "those europeans". We headed back to the hotel (she was staying in the same one). I showed her my SCA armour (cause of course I´d mentioned it) and she left to go to her room (introducing herself as the last thing she did and I promptly forgot it). I went on to the balcony to read whilst having a drink (iced tea) and she came down a minute later - her partner had left a note on the bed advising he was out looking for her (but had his mobile with him). She called & he came back.

But what are the odds - 2 aussies on the same place with the same idea, half a world away from home.

Cheers

Italy coming to end - and on to Germany

Well

I've been flat-out site-seeing today in Venice. Last night there was a Festival with Fireworks run to modern music - very clever & well done - although Venice is the city of love & it was thus lost on me a bit being on my own here.

I'm currently in a hotel lobby using their internet with only 24 minutes left. After that I've got to get back to my hotel and have a shower (funnily enough, hot days in a city full of water means lots of humidity).

Okay - lets see what I can cover of the last few days here (briefly) - with a more thorough update to follow later for each town.

POMPEI - Wednesday 11 July
Okay, initially I thought I'd be clever and catch the ferry, rather than the train to Pompei (my Lonely Planet did mention there was a ferry from port [x]). What it didn't say was that there were 2 primary ports in Naples and I went to the wrong one.

I did however find a castle - pretty cool for my first up close & personal (but I was there to early to go in & didn't find my way back later on).

After this I then tried to catch the public transport to the other port - eventually successful only to be told "not today, come back tomorrow" - bugger.

I made my way back to the train station - fairly tired by this time (around 10am - I was up at like 5am though). Got a package tour (train plus admission plus guide) and again it was the right thing to do.

Arrived at Pompei station - the entrance is only about 500 metres from the station which is good - leaves all your energy for walking around the site.

POMPEI ROCKS - I highly suspect that it may be the best bit of my entire trip - it will definately be in my top 5 things that I did (yes I will make up some of these lists when I get back home). If you are interested in how they built things that long ago, GO TO POMPEI (or the other less well known dig that I can't remember right now (Rebecca please write in with the name - starts with a H).

I'll tell you more about it later - need photos I took to help with story.

Milan - Thursday 12 July (arrive) and 13 July (explore)
Travelled from Naples to Milan by train - all worked out well and found Victor without to much trouble (except that wheels on armour bag have completely died now and its just being dragged along -will probably have to be replaced before I get home (sorry dear)).

Victor makes me realise just how casual we are with our SCA in Australia - he really doesn't like the idea of any mundanity at an event (he was commenting that he wasn't sure if he wanted to go to Pennsic because he heard they used trestle tables - I let him know that it would be a much bigger shock than just that).

Anyhow, we went out dinner that night, and then a bar he is known well at.

Next day out wandering Milan - I'll talk more later, but the differences between Naples & everywhere else were starting to become very apparent (cleaner, friendlier, more complete).

More to follow later.