@domino-710 wrote:Oh dear goodness - if you don't post a pic of you and OH in a gondala. 😉
Just drifting....................
😁I wish I could!
The image you have in mind didn't exist, unforunately.
The gondola could take 5 people. My friend and I hopped on and sat together at the back. Her husband came next and had a side seat and my husband came last as he needed help to get in and he sat on the seat closest to where he got on as he could not manage more, he was unsteady on his feet.
All the same, it was a good experience to drift slowly along some of the small canals and the first time it felt stress free, away from the crowds.
Make no mistake, Venice is grossly overcrowded with visitors. It is so busy in the San Marco section near the piers that you can hardly walk at times.
The thing I noticed in Venice is there are no seats to sit down. None at all. There are hundreds of seats but all in cafes and restaurants and I believe it is a deliberate ploy for the tourist dollar. Or euro.
It is an interesting city, full of little laneways but it is very much a tourist city.
That was our driver? ferryman? He said his name was Elvis but unfortunately he didn't sing.He also said his dad had the same job, apparently it is common for it to pass along the family. The women don't tend to do it though.
I have had to blank out the faces as I don't like to post public photos of friends without their permission.
I am the one in pink and the one in blue is my husband. The other two are friends we went with.
It was very peaceful on the gondola.
Some other photos and random observations.
Firstly, glad to have seen these places but it has made me appreciate Australia a lot more.
It is just as beautiful here but in different ways.
We don't have the old churches and buildings or the quaint alleyways from centuries long past.
But we have everything else. We have great scenery and beautiful spots, our food is as good, our public toilets are a class above anything in Europe. For some reason in Europe, they think it is a good idea to put toilets at the bottom of 2 or 3 flights of steps. I saw mums with prams having to be helped down. Occasionally they might have a lift but more often, not. And you usually pay at least a couple of dollars for the privelege.
And some of the places renowned for their beauty, I don't know how to react actually. Take Mykonos and Santorini. Interesting places to visit, but basically located on barren, rocky and dry islands.
Santorini is hundreds of steps, through alleyways that contain tourist shops. There's a cable car to take you to the bottom and the scenery looking out to the ocean is lovely, but Santorini itself? Basically a tourist centre and not that lovely.
These are the sorts of laneways you wander through, but the days we were there, there were 4 cruise ships in port. Our guide said there had been 3 the day before. They are crowded places and in some ways it was stressful being with a guide as she went ahead quickly and we had trouble keeping up. My husband doesn't do stairs easily/ We actually lost her and had to keep asking directions up to the cable car so missed the chance to really linger and explore the shops.
This is what these cyclade islands look like. Apparently celebrities pay thouands to stay here. We kept being told they came for the beauty of the islands.
All I can say is-Australia, you're in with a chance.
If you're wondering what that is, it is a vineyard. The vines are never watered, they get moisture from humidity overnight. They grow low to the ground to avoid wind.
We sampled ouzo and water on Mykonos (not my drink of choice as it is sort of aniseed, not my fav) and 3 wines on Santorini, which did enjoy. I didn't buy any-just too bulky & breakable to try to carry home.
We started our holiday with a couple of nights in Dubai.
These people think their city is the best in the world.
That everything they have is the biggest, best, most valuable or most beautiful.They tell you so.
There is a haze sitting over the city, part pollution, part climate. From what i could see, the city revolves around cars and gold. The city itself is not that beautiful. We stayed in a 5 star hotel and that WAS nice. Best breakfasts I had on the whole holiday. Interesting stuff to try.
We took a private tour around and my fav part was Old Dubai and the markets.
This building is the one they say is the most beautiful in the world. It is certainly striking but the 'most beautiful' is a matter of opinion. It is shaped like a big doughnut. It is the museum of the future. We went inside it but not through it.
Then on to England, which is crowded but beautiful and very expensive.
We then joined a coach tour run by Trip a deal. Awesome people on the tour & good guide, very caring and helpful.
But with a coach tour, you are on a timetable. It wasn't too rushed. We stayed at a variety of places, some great and some we dubbed the worst yet. My husband had trouble with some of the beds (bad back).
I really, really missed having an electric jug in the room or a fridge.
We went through France (okay, not as nice as London but I can't claim to have seen enough to really judge, just my impression), through Switzerland-awesome scenery, dirtiest public toilet I have ever seen in my life & definitely not cheap.
Great cheese though.
That was the scenery from the hotel we stayed at.
The hotel public areas were nice but the rooms themselves-smallest ever & very basic, glad to only have one night there.
Then on to Venice where we started our cruise.
We were on MSC Lirica. When we booked, only balcony rooms were available and we ended up in a balcony suite. OMG, best room ever on any cruise I have been on. Usually we get the cheapest, which is invariably an inside cabin.
This room had an entrance with table, it had a dressing table/desk area, it had the couch area as you can see and it had the balcony, which I used a few times, just to sit with feet up having a drink of water.
The food was okay, but there is a sameness across Europe.
For breakfast they tend to do cold cuts and salad plus maybe eggs and bacon and cakes. Yes, white chocolate cake and such for breakfast.
There were times I longed for dubai and the fried rice and curries.
On the plus side, the ship made great basic pizzas. The hamburgers were ordinary though.
This was at another place we stayed at before the cruise. Not a hotel, a villa. The rooms were quite quaint too but with nice ensuite facilities. Apparently the place had belonged to some noble family but had been converted to guest rooms. The rooms had these enormous, heavy keys.
It was an interesting trip, tiring at times.
Long plane trip home. Off the ship Sat morning, to Venice airport (what a shemozzle that place is, very poorly signposted) to Dubai stop in transit (Dubai airport is amazing, well signposted and state of the art transport-buses at the plane to take you to the airport proper, train to take you to different parts of the airport. First class)
Then on to Melbourne and home in the small hours of Monday morning.
We had beautiful weather throughout the trip and some people keep saying they are sorry we came home to aweful weather but Melbourne is fine. great mild temp, sunny skies. Happy to be home.
Just an extra photo.
I have spoken about how crowded it was so I thought I'd show an example.
This was either mykonos or santorini and nope, we weren't group 16.
We were about group 11 but they were all long gone as we couldn't keep up.
The side alleys were quieter but the main alleys were like this quite a bit of the time.
