Day 3 – Thursday – 23 May – Venice – Innsbruck

Leaving early after a quick breakfast and some snacks tucked away in our backpacks for later (croissants, tarts, dry biscuits and some nutella packs...thanks to Sonalee for introducing me to nutella, can't do without it now) we lugged our luggage to the Rialto Vaporetto stop. This journey was faster than our first one as we were now familiar with the streets and didn't get lost. At the vaporetto stop there were few office goers at this early hour, we checked on the one we had to take to reach the station and hopped on board the first vaporetto which arrived. Reaching the station by 7.45am we had loads of time for our 8.50 train to Verona Porto Nuova.

Finding a spot on a bench I sat down with my luggage and Mansi was just around the corner on another bench. We had other tourists awaiting trains filling up the waiting area which is quite small for such a big station. The display monitors showcasing the trains are a short distance away closer to the tracks inside the station, from where we were sitting so we got up and took our luggage. Strolling to the display on the station we couldn’t spot our train. After lingering for around 15 minutes we decided to head back to the bench returning at around 8.30 to check the display again. Imagine my surprise when I spot a red handbag sitting on the bench, I was so sure I was carrying my handbag. We had been warned of pick pockets who snatch handbags if left idling at restaurants so were super vigilant all the time, ensuring that we kept our eye on each other’s bags...and here I had forgotten mine with all our tickets and my passport on the station bench!

When we got up around 8.30 to check the monitors again; I ensured that my handbag was with me.... the monitors showed our train and the platform on which it was due to arrive just 15 minutes prior to departure. We and other tourists catching our train raced across the platform in search of our carriage. The trains are huge and we had to struggle almost across half the platform, strolleys trailing behind us, till we located our carriage.

Our Train Leaving Santa Lucia Station in Venice

Crossing the Venetian Lagoon

Our first leg of the journey was a short one of one hour 10 minutes where our train went from Santa Lucia across the lagoon to Mestre for a halt then onwards across the Italian countryside to reach Verona Porto Nuova by 10am. We got up and headed to the gate as soon as we heard the name Verona Porto Nuovo being announced on the train. The announcement was in Italian so we had no clue what was said. At the station we had a while before our next train at 11.02 so we decided to use the rest room and grab a bite to eat. Imagine our surprise when we had to shell out 0.80 Euros just to use the washroom. Mansi was most peeved, I had heard about paid restrooms so wasn’t too surprised. There was a change machine where we inserted a Euro and got some change to use at the restroom. We lugged our bags to the McDonald’s and I grabbed a burger and coffee and Mansi had a salad. Having checked the platform number earlier we headed there to await our train. Lugging the bag across the stairs was quite a tiring affair, but we managed to stave off the helpful people standing near the stairs offering a hand as we were sure that was another expensive affair, best avoided!

On boarding our train to Innsbruck we found an old German lady already occupying one of our window seats, I was not bothered and sat next to Mansi in the aisle seat but she tried telling the lady that she was in our seat; finally we had to show her our ticket before we moved across the aisle. Now both of us had gorgeous views from our seats and the journey was very photogenic, I snapped away and took videos with my phone.



Verdant Vineyards just outside Venice - Italian Countryside

Italian Countryside View

The view on both sides of the train was dramatically different making it a difficult choice to choose which side to capture. The train journey was our first of many and very comfortable, there was a toilet on board and the train had huge viewing windows on both sides. The only problem was luggage storage, they had overhead compartments for luggage and most passengers had small bags which they simply plonked in the compartment, there was no way either of us could even lift our bags that high. We had noticed some bags near the compartment entrance where there was  a bit of space next to the seats, we had to keep our bags there as there was no space anywhere else. I was a bit worried about someone absconding with our luggage and took a round pretending to go to the wash room and checked that the bags were still there.  Our tickets were checked by the ticket checker and the German lady purchased one from him for 20 Euros, the train announcements were all in German but our checker understood English and told us that the last station was Innsbruck so we had no worries.

We gradually left the Italian countryside views of vineyards and farm houses and ventured into Alpine terrain, snow topped mountain peaks, forests.



Entering Austria

 


Austrian Town on way to Innsbruck

 

Station on way to Innsbruck

Gradually our train reached the station of Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof in the afternoon, the weather was quite chilly as we and our luggage made it up the stairs to the street level. The Innsbruck station is huge with several restaurants and other stores on the basement level. Our hotel had directions on how to reach there and we decided to walk to the station as it seemed quite close. After a couple of streets we realized that we had taken some wrong turn, luckily there were a couple of locals who directed us correctly and we found our hotel. The Weisses Kreuz Hotel is an old heritage building which still retains its old flavour in the lane leading up to one of Innsbruck’s famous attractions – the Golden Roof. They had a lift and the reception was on the first floor. We were greeted by a very cheerful friendly Austrian girl who did our check in and gave us the room key for our 2^nd Floor room.

Our room was nice with twin beds with yellow comforters (yellow seems to be a popular choice in Italy and Austria...our second yellow hotel bed cover), huge windows overlooking the rooftops of neighbouring buildings at the back of the hotel. The bathroom was very nice, clean and newly fitted with a glass shower stall, there was just a glass sliding door separating the bathroom and the room.

Entrance to Weisses Kreuz Hotel - Innsbruck

 



Beautifully painted ceiling at the entrance to Weisses Kreuz Hotel - Innsbruck

 


Poster in the entrance lobby of Weisses Kreuz Innsbruck

 

View of Innsbruck Rooftops from our window

 

Our comfortable home for two days in Innsbruck

We put our passports and other travel documents in the room safe and headed out for our tour of the Swarovski Crystal World in Wattens which was part of the tour package. Before leaving the hotel we checked with our receptionist on the pick up point for the bus and she said it was close by and told us how to get there.

Imagine our surprise when we reached the stop and the bus arrived after around 10 minutes of waiting but the driver tells us we have missed the last bus, this one was returning from Wattens, not heading there. We had changed our train schedule to ensure that we reached Crystal World before its 5.30pm closing time. Mansi called them up and spoke with someone who had a hard time understanding English, but said that we could still get in by taking a public bus if we made in there before their closing time of 5.30pm, the last Swarovski bus leaving Innsbruck for Wattens was at 3pm. We were both fuming mad at our trip planners who should have been aware of this information and who had messed up badly.

Mansi desperately wanted to see this place so we decided to get there any way we could. A nice college kid checked on this phone for the next bus to Wattens and told us to walk to the main train station (around 15 minutes walk away), we started to walk when suddenly about 100 feet down the road I spotted a bus showing Wattens as its last destination and both of us raced back to the bus stop and hopped on the bus. Mansi checked with the driver and he said don’t worry I can get you there in 30 minutes. Happy we both sat down!

On board we met up with this Indian expat who had been residing in Austria for the last 20 years, Bengali originàlly from Calcutta he was happy to meet some fellow Indians. We chatted about our trip and Mumbai and he said he would give us directions to Crystal World and it was close to the bus stop at Wattens. The bus trip was very picturesque as it meandered down the roads on the outskirts of Innsbruck onto Wattens. With the mountains which had beautiful snow covered tops on both sides of the road, the view was amazing. We got off at Wattens and Mansi spotted a board saying Swarovski so we headed down the driveway. On reaching the gate we realized that this wasn’t it and headed back to the bus stop and the main road. On walking a bit from the bus stop suddenly we spotted the sign on the left, it was around 15 minutes walk from the stop.

 

Wattens

 


Wattens - Austria

 


Swarovski Crystal World - Wattens

 


Phantom Face Entrance at Swarovski Crystal World - Wattens

We spotted the famous phantom face and walked past the spray of water and into the entrance to be told that we had to exchange our voucher for tickets at the entrance office. So it was back to the Entrance office, collect our tickets and be informed by the lady that we would miss the last bus back to Innsbruck too as that was just departing, it was around 5pm by now. Disappointed, but by now resigned to our fate we decided to enjoy the exhibits.

The exhibit starts from the entrance hidden behind the Phantom Face, the lobby has a huge wall made up of crystals which is simply dazzling, there is a horse made of crystals on one of the lobby walls. All the exhibits have explanations in English about the artist and the idea behind the installation; we had a Russian tour group on our tail and had to keep staying just that bit ahead to avoid being blasted by Russian explanation of the displays. Some of the installations were cute and dazzling like the river of crystals, interactive displays, the models of the Taj Mahal and several notable structures from around the world.

After the displays we headed to the store and lo and behold it’s filled with Indians, Maharashtrians from some Kesari Tour Group all purchasing like there is a sale on. We found most items to be very expensive and Mansi finally selected a key chain as a gift, we paid and left the store.

There is a beautiful garden and some sculptures on the huge lawns surrounding the museum, we both posed and took pictures around the garden and the lawns, in front of the Phantom (which was very popular with everyone and we had to await our turn literally). It had started to get quite chilly now with the winds blowing freezing air across the valley; I was amazed to see the Indian women in sarees and a light sweater braving the weather when both of us were literally shivering with jeans and two layers of sweaters and a hat.

Pictures done we headed to the bus stop. There we met two girls who were both working at Crystal World and we got chatting, Julie who was originally from Brazil and now settled in Innsbruck for the last few years offered to take us around to a couple of nice eating joints. The bus dropped us in Innsbruck and we chased Julie down a couple of streets as she had to retrieve her bike. She decided to show us the restaurants she recommended and walked with us to one of them which we opted to try for dinner. She was also studying at the local university and spoke fluent German, we thanked her profusely and it was heartening to have met someone so helpful...but that continued throughout our trip where total strangers went out of their way to help us and spend time chatting and learning about each other’s lives and stories about our part of the world.

The basement bar she suggested was too smoky for Mansi so we opted to sit at one of the sparsely populated tables on the ground floor with a local couple on our left and a bunch of teenagers drinking beer on our right. I ordered fried fish with mayonnaise and Mansi ordered a potato soup, both of us are not beer drinkers so we ordered some wine with our dinner. Our order was brought about soon enough by our cute waiter - Axel. My fish was crisp on the outside and beautifully cooked, delicious...her soup was good and quite filling too.

Tummies satiated we decided to take a walk around the main street and familiarize ourselves with the city a bit, the main street is Maria Theresien Street which is a mostly pedestrian street with cute tables laid out by some of the restaurants.

 

Maria Theresien Street - Innsbruck

 


Golden Dachau Street - Innsbruck

Unfortunately most of these were closed because of the weather which was very cold and the lack of tourists. We admired the Triumphforte at one end of the street, a huge arch which dominates the street. The Nordkette mountain range forms a beautiful backdrop to this street and I got some nice pictures just as the sun was setting with the snow capped mountains in the background.

 

Innsbruck

 


Triumphforte - Innsbruck

 


Maria Theresien Street 

 


Church on Maria Theresien Street

Unfortunately we never saw the mountains again because of the rains and fog which surrounded them. It was getting quite cold by now so we headed back to the hotel and our room which was nice and warm. The hotel comforters are the best thing I’ve used, they are wonderfully warm and cozy and made of some new soft material, the night is quite chilly and I pull on my sweat shirt over my PJ’s to stay extra cozy, Mansi is used to the cold weather at Nagpur so fares better.

Day 2 – Wednesday – 22 May – Venice

We woke by 7 to the smell of wonderful baking aromas, they were baking fresh bread and croissants in the hotel kitchen. Breakfast was a sumptuous affair of fresh baked breads, croissants, cheese, yogurts in various flavours, muesli etc. The only thing we regretted was the orange juice....horrid stuff.

While I waited for Mansi to get ready, I sat outside our hotel and took some pictures of the gorgeous church facing our hotel in the square - Santa Maria Formosa, the shortest way to get to St.Marks square is just past the church across two bridges.

Santa Maria Formosa Campanile (Bell Tower)

 


Santa Maria Formosa Church

 Our pick up point for the Murano, Burano and Torcello tour which was part of our FIT product, was at the St Marks Pier so we ambled along down Venetian alleys which were getting familiar to us. Mansi picked up some miniature carnival masks as gifts to give friends in one of the many shops selling Venetian masks of various kinds which we passed. The large elaborate ones were beautiful and I was keen to pick one up as a momento and for a friend, but they looked fragile and with limited space in the bags worried about damaging the design....decided to purchase one later.

 

We exchanged our voucher for tickets at the Tour Desk on the pier and waited on steps by the pier for the guide to call us. They have 2 tours - one at 9.30am and another in the afternoon at 2pm, I was informed that there is only one tour by our tour operator and couldn't book the Doges Palace Secret Itineraries Tour which is only available till 11am as both tours were clashing, and as this was part of the product it was already paid for and I could not cancel it either, on learning about the 2pm tour I was super annoyed that we were given the wrong information! Informed choice is apparently not a concept that tour operators in India are familiar with.

Mansi ventured around the pier taking pictures of the morning sunlight glinting off the water. The pier was serene till the tourists from various cruise ships which docked around the bay started wandering in huge groups. People watching was great fun as most of the tourists were fashionably dressed and of various nationalities from around the world. Our boat was a huge affair with around 30 of us on board for the trip, our Italian guide was amazing – she said the same thing in three different languages....all with a marked Italian accent which was quite cute (Italian, German and English) all one after the other so if you weren’t paying attention it was all gone, before you heard it.

She pointed out the various attractions in the lagoon on our way to Murano our first island. The ride took around half an hour and was wonderfully relaxing with the sun shining on our faces and the cool breeze blowing in from the few open windows on board. We were herded to the factory at Murano and shown a demonstration by a master glass maker who made a glass horse for us. Then it was the glass museum which had some amazing pieces of sculptures all hand made in glass. There were Christmas decorations and jewellery of glass for sale too. Everything was expensive for us so we just did some window shopping and wandered back to the boat.

Expert Glassmaker at Murano Island showing us how a horse sculpture is made.

 The boat headed to Burano next which was a short ride away. This is a picturesque island of houses painted in bright colours, words don’t do it justice, and you have to see it.

Burano Island Houses

 


Me in the square on Burano

 


One of the many canals criss-crossing Burano Island

Picturesque restaurants by the canal on Burano

 

Cute little canals run through the island with picture postcard wooden bridges running across the canal. Burano is famous for its handmade lace and we went to a store where there was an old lady creating some by hand, it looks like crochet. Very delicate looking and involves hours of labour. The island is very cute and worth just wandering around taking pictures.....we walked around and picked up some scarves for ourselves and as gifts to remind us of this memorable island.

 

 


Church and Bell tower under repairs at Torcello Island

 Soon we were off to the last island – Torcello, this is one of the oldest inhabited islands in the lagoon, but the population has dwindled down to just 11 people now. There is a church which is one of the oldest in the lagoon, we just saw it from outside and decided to explore the area around the church which had a vineyard with beautiful red poppies growing around the vines.

 

Poppies growing in the Vineyard on Torcello

 

We sat on the pier and watched a group of kayakers getting ready to kayak around the island; they were a huge group of around 20 of various ages and nationalities. They took off just as we decided to head back to the boat; we were given 30 minutes to wander around by our guide.



Pier on Torcello Island

Once back at St Marks Pier we decided to grab some lunch on our way back to the hotel as we were tired and wanted to rest our feet. Lunch turned out to be the most humongously delicious thin crust pizza I have ever had, in a tiny alley close to the bridge leading to our hotel. I had pepperoni and Mansi had assorted veggies and we both shared one with a potato topping. Stuffed we headed to the hotel and crashed. We awoke refreshed after a couple of hours and decided to head to Rialto as that area was till date unexplored and we needed to pick up a SIM which we were informed we would get at the Vodafone store close to the bridge.

The Vodafone store had sadly run out of SIM’s so we wandered around the canal near the Rialto Bridge taking in the gorgeous views of the houses lining the canal, the boats tied to the pier, the water glinting with the rays of the evening sun. Luckily we spotted a store dealing in foreign exchange also selling SIM cards and got one for Mansi’s phone.

Gorgeous Houses & Hotels Facing the Grand Canal near Rialto Bridge

 


Gondolas at the Pier on the Grand Canal

 We walked around the canal and some of the side alleys browsing the various wares on offer in the stalls and stores. After a short stop to take pictures we headed back to the store as we couldn’t figure out the pin to activate the SIM. The lady in the store was kind enough to activate it for us and we decided to have dinner at the self service place close to the store.

Both of us had a vegetarian pasta dish which was delicious but a bit too much for me to finish, Mansi was super hungry and polished off hers.  Then we wandered back to St.Marks square which to my surprise was having water in puddles around the square.....this is the famous Aqua Alte I have read about where the water comes up in the streets when the tide level increases. I sat on a bench at the pier and people watched as Mansi clicked pictures. We walked around the bay, clicking pictures and enjoying the sunset on the lagoon. It set quite late around 9.30pm.

By the time we left in a couple of hours the square was almost completely flooded with water and we had to hop around on the small patches of dry floor still visible, the plaza does look beautiful at night but tonight because of the aqua alte the cafes were empty and there were hardly any tourists dancing.

The evening was getting quite chilly so we headed to the hotel to get some rest; we were to depart early the next day to Innsbruck. Before we went up we checked with our concierge on the duration for the vaporetto trip to the train station of Santa Lucia. We had already purchased our tickets in the afternoon at the St Marks Pier Vaporetto station after our tour, so were all set for tomorrow.

May 21 - Venice (Part 2)

Venice is beautiful, sunny but slightly chilly....gorgeous weather. The boat is a speedboat, wow...we hop aboard and soon we are off. Venice has a marked waterway with buoys bordering the path; we pass several ACTV boats heading to the mainland and the airport. The Belgian couple are very friendly and have been here before and we chat as the boat courses across the water. Soon we are in the famous Grand Canal and look in awe at the buildings bordering the canal, I have to say they look better in movies...in real life most of them look quite decrepit, you can see the toll the water has taken on the structures, most are undergoing repair work or are in serious need of some repairs. We pass some gondolas in the water with the ubiquitous gondoliers in their trademark costumes. The boat ride takes around 30 minutes to reach our destination.




Gondolas tied up with Rialto Bridge in the background

 

The boatman decides to drop us first at the Rialto Bridge; we are all excited at our first look of the famous bridge. He gives us a map showing the path we have to take to reach our hotel – the Scandanavia. I had a handbag and a large strolley suitcase weighing around 11Kgs and Mansi had a backpack and a large strolley suitcase again with over 10 kg in weight. I had an empty back pack in my suitcase which I intended to use on our day trips. We lug our suitcases across the staircase adjoining the Rialto Bridge and Mansi discovers that the handle of her strolley is stuck and she can’t open it...oho, after multiple pulls I try and lo it opens...we decide not to push it back in as its difficult to pick up her huge American tourister suitcase. We are lost on reaching the first plaza with a statue, as our map shows the streets but they don't match where we are.  We can't figure out which street to take as there are many going in all directions.

 

We ask a couple of shop keepers and are guided all over the place and land up going down a couple of wrong streets....finally we back track to the plaza and are lucky to meet a shop keeper who comes out of his shop to show us the small narrow alley we should have taken.



After voicing our thanks we meander down the dark looking alley which soon opens up to a bridge, we make our way across and down the road to another plaza....again we are stumped...go straight or take one of the turns. Now we are told to keep going till we hit the Co-op store, so off we go with luggage in tow down the road, it’s around 10-15 minutes of walking when we finally spot the supermarket Co-op on a corner and head down the lane which again looks kind of narrow. Another bridge and just across the bridge is a huge plaza with a church on one corner and several cafes surrounding the plaza. We can spot our hotel right in the centre across the plaza...finally.

We are both hungry, having had our last meal on board the plane several hours earlier. Luckily for us they let us check in early, it’s just going on 11. The hotel building looks quite old but is well maintained and nicely furnished, there is a dining room just to the left of the entrance lobby. Our room is on the second floor, no lift, the bellboy lugs the suitcases upstairs and we follow. The room is beautiful, not too big with bright yellow walls, wooden furniture, a nice clean and modern bathroom and two huge windows opening into the back alleys of Venice.

We immediately plonk our passports and other travel documents into the safe and decide to take a shower and rest a bit before we head out. I am tired after lugging my luggage through the streets of Venice. Of course the shower doesn’t seem to run any hot water, I try both taps no luck, then realize I don’t know how to call the reception desk, there is no data sheet in the room. Looking outside in the corridor I spot a woman cleaning one of the neighbouring rooms, she comes in and asks me to wait a while and suddenly we have hot water. It just takes me a while to adjust the water pressure as the shower is new. After my shower I look around for water bottles to find none in our room; we aren’t carrying any except the empty bottle I carried from Mumbai to refill. There are water glasses in the bathroom so we presume the tap water has to be potable. I just fill my bottle with it and carry it for us to drink. Attired in light sweaters as it’s a bit chilly even in the afternoon we head off for our first attraction.

We have booked a St Marks Basilica tour with their official website and have to meet with the tour guide by 1.30pm. We decide to grab something to eat like a sandwich and walk to St Marks Square.  We head back the way we came as we had spotted some nice cafes on our way in, choose our sandwiches, bacon and cheese for me, veg for Mansi and a couple of tarts which look delicious in the case. The shopkeeper asks us if we want to sit and we think why not, Mansi picks out a table for us and I go in to pay. She says its 36 Euros and I almost faint, our items shouldn’t cost more than 10-12 Euros so why so much...to sit and eat apparently...it’s almost 3 times the cost of the food!

I rush out and tell Mansi collect our things, we will walk and eat. Come back in, pay 12.76 Euros and pick up the heated sandwiches and tarts in paper bags. Walking down the street we realize its cumbersome managing our bags and trying to eat...so we walk towards our hotel and sit on the chairs and tables set outside and finally manage to eat our food. I pop in and ask our concierge on the quickest way to reach St Marks Basilica and he tells me it’s just 10 minutes away. We follow his instructions and walk around the church across the bridge and down the alleys to find streets with markings on them showing the way to Rialto and St Marks Square ....so simple...these are all over Venice, making navigation much simpler. If you are lost just keep walking till you find one of these signs on a building and make your way to something you recognize.

Soon we were in St Marks Square along with it seemed like thousands of others with the same idea. My first view of the square is its size, it’s one of the biggest and most beautiful open spaces I have ever seen and can understand why it’s called “Europe’s Drawing Room”.



St Marks Square with the Doges Palace

We quickly spot our contact at the desk next to the entrance, very convenient. She told us our guide was running a little late so we would have to wait and it was just us on this particular tour. She asked Mansi to drop off her backpack at the Left Luggage counter building across the square, so we did that. He told us it’s free for only an hour, after that they charge.



St Marks Basilica with the "Fake"horses on display



St Marks Basilica

 

St Marks Basilica is a beautiful structure on the outside; it’s huge and dominates one end of the square with the Doge’s Palace on the opposite side and the campanile on one corner just across from the Basilica. There were hordes of tourists taking pictures with the Basilica in the background and of the square.



Doges Palace

Standing just off from the entrance we chatted with the guide who pointed out interesting attractions like the St Marks clock just to the left of the Basilica in the clock tower. It’s a beautiful astronomical clock which has two bronze figures of shepherds who ring the bell with hammers at noon every day; sadly we missed watching that spectacle on both the days we were in Venice. Entrance to the Basilica is free but you can only spend around 10-15 minutes inside and there is usually a huge queue winding its way down the square, where waiting period can be anything from 30 minutes upwards. We could see a hundred or so queued up already. Entrance to the museum, the treasury and other parts of the basilica are ticketed and getting one online is far easier than picking one up on arrival.



St Marks Clock Tower which rings at noon everyday

We headed into the Basilica with our guide who took us straight up the staircase to the first floor and into the Museum. From there we stood overlooking the chapel as she explained the history of the Basilica, the beautiful mosaics on the cupola and how we could identify the various works done by famous painters. She took us through the mosaic studio explaining the process used for restoration of the mosaics and the meaning behind the famous mosaics displayed in the museum. Then we went to the Sala Dei Banchetti which holds the antique fabrics collection of the museum, she explained the various frescoes on display and the various Flemish tapestries on display. We viewed the five carpets of the Doges which are still amazing, made of silk and brocade with colourful embroidery of gold and silver. All of these showcase the wealth of Venice to this day.

Then we went on to view the glorious St Marks Horses, these four horses are made of some mysterious alloy of copper and were supposedly stolen by the Venetians from Constantinople, the ones on the outside of the Basilica are reproductions. To this day the original look magnificent!

 I can only imagine the trouble taken to transport these massive figures all the way to Venice. Sadly photography is not permitted inside the basilica so you have to visit Venice, to view these beautiful objects.

We then wandered around a bit on our own onto the balcony and took amazing pictures of the square, the bay with the isle on the opposite side and the Piazzetta with the two columns on both sides one having the lion of Venice and the other the patron saint of Venice – St Theodore.  Our guide had told us to visit the island opposite the Square – it’s called San Giorgia Maggiore and has a church with a bell tower (campanile) from where we can get some gorgeous views of Venice.

 

Piazetta with the Lion of Venice and St Theodore from the first floor of St Marks Basilica

St Marks Basilica Facade

Mansi wanted to go up to the St Marks Campanile and I decided to rest a bit on one of the brick seats of the loggetta at the base of the campanile. I enjoyed just taking in the plaza and the various groups of tourists who were from all over the world. There were some married couples in their wedding finery taking pictures in front of the Basilica including some from South East Asia with parents and grandparents in tow. They did get some amused glances from others in the square.



St Marks Campanile (Bell Tower)

She returned a bit later with amazing pictures from the bell tower and we decided to venture along the pier. We took a vaporetto across to San Giorgia Maggiore island which has a bautiful white stone church, we took the lift to the bell tower and proceeded to take some panoramic pictures of Venice and the lagoon. Everyone in the tower was doing the same....soon we tired of the views and headed back down.



St Marks Pier and the Campanile from the San Giogia Maggiore Island

Entrance of the Grand Canal

San Giorgia Maggiore Island

Islands surrounding the city of Venice from the Bell Tower of San Giorgia Maggiore Island



Grand Canal Entrance view from Bell Tower of San Giorgia Maggiore Island



Boats docked on Pier of San Giorgia Maggiore Island

 After taking a short walk around the island we decided to just sit by the pier and enjoy the view of boats passing in the harbour and the sun glinting off the water. We settled down next to a European tourist who it turned out was reading a book while waiting for his wife. Soon the four of us were sitting taking in the bright sun and enjoying the cool breeze blowing in from the harbour. There were small boats and slightly larger jet boats and taxis moored off the pier. It was nice to just sit and watch people navigate their way to the pier, tie off their boats and walk around the island. We also finished the tarts we had picked up at lunch, they were delicious.

All relaxed we decided to head back to the mainland and walk back towards Rialto for dinner, we chose a restaurant close to our hotel for dinner, they had a cute little garden restaurant at the back with tiny clustered tables most of which were filled with tourists. Since it was quite chilly we decided to have some red wine for dinner and split the table wine carafe between us, I had chicken pasta and Mansi chose a vegetarian version. The serving was huge and they gave us bread to nibble with the meal.  We wandered around a bit and had our first gelato, chocolate for me. I was feeling tired and it wasn’t even dark yet, just around 8pm. Mansi decided to walk back to St. Marks Square to take some pictures of the square as it grew dark. I headed back to the hotel to rest and wait for her as we had just one key to our room, an old fashioned metal one at that.

She came back a few hours later with wonderful stories of dancing couples, romantic music and lights in the cafes in the square, with some memorable moments captured on film and in her heart. She lost her way on her return but was guided to the hotel by a kind old Venetian resident. I promised her I would accompany her tomorrow to take in the plaza at sunset.

Day 1 – Tuesday - 21 May – Mum to Venice (Part 1)

Day 1 – Tuesday - 21 May – Mum to Venice -  These are our Swiss Airways flights to get to Venice from Mumbai, total travelling time of over 9 hours with a layover of 1 hour 15 minutes.

LX  155 T  21MAY BOMZRH HK2  0050   0615

LX 1660 T  21MAY ZRHVCE HK2  0730   0835

Mansi reached the airport before me and informs that there is a humongous queue at the entrance, I am surprised that so many people are flying out on a Monday. She gets in the queue to reserve our spot with her luggage in tow. I am still around 15 minutes away just reached the turn off from the highway at Andheri. Make it to the terminal at around 8.45pm to find two long queues at the entrance to the terminal, people with loads of luggage of all ages sweating away in the sweltering night outside Mumbai airport. Security staff are barring people from entering unless documents like tickets and passports are checked.  My taxi driver of course doesn’t have change for 500 and I am a hundred short, so search for Mansi in the crowd, spotting her I run to her and get a hundred and dash back to handover the fare to my driver who has in the meanwhile grabbed by luggage and is walking it towards me (nice of him to do so).

The queue moves quickly and we are at the Swiss Airlines counter within 15 minutes, finally air-conditioned comfort. Both of us are in t-shirts and jeans and carrying sweaters for Zurich. We drop off the bags and collect our boarding passes then head towards immigration. Again a huge queue at all the counters, we wait patiently for our turn. The immigration officer doesn’t ask me anything simply stamps my passport and hands it over.

Onwards to security check, I plonk by handbag onto the conveyor belt and step up to the bored looking lady security guard for the metal detector check. All done in minutes; we head into the duty free zone. Since we are not doing any shopping we choose to head straight to our gate which is being shared with other flights – Singapore Airways and British Airways to London. We still have over 2 hours to go before we board....both of us are whatsapping with family and friends. Finally we board just past midnight .....super hungry as dinner was just before I left at 8pm. Mansi grabbed something to eat just before we boarded and was munching away in the queue and the bus.

Luckily they hand us a chicken roll just after take off and of course beverages, Mansi opts for red wine to help her snooze, I settle for orange juice. The whole plane settles down with few people viewing the onboard entertainment options. We are flying an A330-300 airplane and are in 26A and B, Mansi opts for the window seat, its good I had checked us online in the morning and they had already allotted the seats we wanted J, the seats are over the wing while as seat guru had shown them just past the wings, oh well, its okay I guess. I try to sleep but its seriously uncomfortable, I twist and turn in the seat trying to find a soft spot. The couple in the seat behind us keep kicking my seat intermittently just as I am about to get some sleep. Finally I snooze for a couple of hours and wake up to check out the entertainment. They have Julie and Julia, a movie I have wanted to see for ages, bad bit it’s just over 2 hours long and we don’t have that much flight time left. They serve us breakfast which is pretty decent – omelette, beans and mashed potato for non-veg, the vegetarian one looks ok too. We are of course given a Swiss chocolate at the end of the meal; it’s all milk so I keep mine in my handbag.

We land just as the movie has 15 minutes left; I plan on completing it on my return journey.  Zurich is rainy and surrounded by greenery; we can spot pines and plains in the darkest shades of greens surrounding the airport. The city looks quite flat; we barely glimpse it as we fly over in seconds.  Zurich Flughafen looks huge with large glass windows across the front of the building. The plane is of course on time and it’s just 6.15am Swiss time in Zurich. We shiver as we cross the aerobridge to the terminal. The weather is a little chilly and both of us pull on our sweaters. The shops at the terminal are mostly closed so we amble across the terminal to locate our connecting flight; the Swiss have a nice way of announcing and displaying the gate numbers of all connecting flights on the plane itself so we know our gates before we land.

Onto Passport control; where we queue up to meet with the officer. Mansi's queue moves faster than mine as I have the bad luck of being stuck behind an Indian who has issues with his papers, something has expired and the officer doesn't look too happy. After the fellow hands over a bunch of papers, she insists he wait on the side while she awaits a colleague to check his immigration status, signalling to me to come to the counter. She simply asked me the purpose of my trip and how many days I plan to spend and where. That’s it I am done, she stamps the passport and I am through.

We are the only ones from our plane heading to Venice so we amble our way literally across from one end of the airport to the other to reach our gate, pass through security clearance in 5 minutes, the only thing the security guard asks us is if we are carrying water bottles. No metal detector checks; that was fast!

We still have over half an hour to go before we board, both of us are thirsty and the water coolers are not working... we wait patiently to board. There is a cafe near our gate with atrocious pricing for water. All the people on our flight are beautifully dressed Europeans; we are the only Indians heading to Venice.

Our plane is a small one – a RJ-100 Avroliner according to Seat Guru, we are in row 14, EF. The on board entertainment is Mr Bean on screens suspended across the seat two rows in front of us. Mansi sleeps through the flight, I take the window seat as I am excited to be reaching Venice, we are offered water...finally and juice or coffee, I opt for a coffee...seriously need some caffeine by now.. and of course Swiss chocolate. The flight is smooth and the pilot informs us when we are at cruising altitude. Suddenly I can spot water and islands below.  The view is gorgeous with blue skies, even bluer water and grey patches of isles below. Mansi is all excited to capture the view with her camera and we switch seats to help her get some great pics.

Venice looks gorgeous as we come in to land, we can spot all the canals and the smaller islands around the mainland. It’s just like in all the pictures and tv shows I have seen, just more real.

The airport is quite small and the few of us on the plane head to the only baggage carousel which is operational. Nothing is open at the airport, it all looks dead to me....once our bags are collected we wonder about passport control. Do we need to get our passports stamped and where?

We enquire with some security guards near the gate who just sign to the door; we assume there is no passport check here and head out with the others. We are supposed to follow the rainbow on the floor to the desk of our transport facilitator according to our voucher instructions; but there are no rainbows on the floor...

After querying at a few other desks and not getting anywhere we decide to wander around and suddenly spot my name pinned to the glass window. They inform us that they are awaiting another couple who are sharing the boat with us so we sit down and wait. Soon we and another Belgian couple who are repeat visitors to Venice head out of the terminal following the instructions given to us and walk across the terminal parking lot to the boat pier to catch our boat.

 

Planning.....changes.....take off

My Italian sojourn as I like to call it happened quite by chance, after returning at the end of May I thought about penning my experience to help others venturing to Italy learn a few things, but that didn't happen.

Suddenly, I find myself with time on my hands so decided to write about my dream trip to Italy and Austria (not really a destination I ever planned to visit)

For ease of reading I have penned the experiences by days of our trip rather than by location....here it is....

Planning the trip 

It all started in the first week of Feb, 2013 with my boss sharing the latest product offerings from FIT; he said the offering was the best rate considering the hotels and inclusions in the tour. I checked with some of my friends on their interest and settled quickly on Mansi who immediately said yes, tell when we should go.

The original offering from them was 7 Days, 6 Nights – 2 days each in Rome, Florence and Venice.

14 Feb - we finalized the itinerary with the inclusion of 2 nights at Innsbruck to get a different experience from just visiting Italy and the cultural experience. Innsbruck and Salzburg, one day in each city was the plan, getting to view the Alps up close and experience the alpine scenery on our train journeys across the region. Instead of starting in Italy and ending in Austria or vice versa, my boss suggested including Austria as our 2^nd stop after Venice due to its proximity. So the planned itinerary now was –

1 - Bom-Ven

2 - Ven

3 – Ven-Innsbruck (Train)

4 – Innsbruck to Salzburg (Day trip by Train)

5 – Innsbruck-Florence (Train)

6- Florence

7 – Florence-Rome (Train)

8 – Rome

9 – Rome-Bom

We got the E-ticket done on the same day for 21 and 29 May on Swiss Airlines and gave a hefty deposit to show our intent on the next day which was Feb 15. Wow, we were going to Italy a long dreamed of destination for both of us; just that instead of going with a significant other (which would have been first choice for the romantic destination of Venice) we were both going with a friend!

18 Feb – the first draft of the itinerary was shared with me by the travel agent.

19 Feb – Italy visa requirements and form shared by the travel agent, a long list of documents and photographs with specifications given.

We spent the next few weeks till the first week of March finalizing the itinerary including the train timings which were crucial. I had checked the train timings on the Swiss website – sbb.ch and decided on which trains suited our requirements the best.

Some of the trains suggested by the travel agent had a changeover time of just 8 minutes during which we had to jump from one train and go across to another platform to catch our connecting train. I felt the time was just too short to risk it; anything could cause us to miss the connection from bad weather, delays on the track or just us taking time to figure out the station and the platform we had to reach. I got most of the trains changed to ones with a gap of at least 25 minutes between connecting trains. In practice this proved to be a good thing as most of the stations are huge and involved long walks across platforms to reach the one on which our train was to arrive.

Also something we learnt on reaching Europe is that all European trains arrive just 15 minutes prior to departure at the station, that doesn’t leave much time if your first train is delayed. Hence the announcement on the display boards of the platform on which your train is arriving is literally 15-20 minutes prior to your departure time. So if you reach the station half an hour earlier you might not be able to find your train listed on the display.

8 April – Both Mansi and I were busy collecting our Visa documents and getting the photographs done as per the specifications; we finally managed to get them all done today and sent to the travel agent. Now we await news of our visa appointment. We of course thought we would be called in for an interview for the visa.

9 May – After almost a month and many anxious calls to our travel agency contact, finally I heard from him today that our visa is through, yay!!!

Now we are really going to Italy this month end...the excitement for the trip is just getting built.

18 May  - Things really picked up now, we did the balance payment for our trip and purchased the Euros in both cash and put some on a pre-paid card to use there. I finally get the hotel vouchers, Sightseeing bus vouchers and train tickets from the agency + a free travel bag (which I haven’t used till date)

I complete most of my packing today and purchased a couple of extra sweaters as the weather looks to be quite cold in both Italy and especially in Austria. They are showing daily temperatures of 4 degrees to 12 degrees Centigrade in Innsbruck and rains expected during the days we plan to be there....I hate being cold so it’s definitely going to be a challenge.  I have made preparations to take on the cold weather by borrowing a woollen hat and gloves from a good friend; I had a woollen scarf; which has had minimal use in Mumbai...and a last minute purchase of thermals was done yesterday.

20 May - Flying tonight.....really excited now that we are starting our trip. We plan to meet directly at the airport in the evening; both of us are leaving around 8pm from our homes. Cool cab booked for the evening trip well in advance.

Last minute jitters happened when I discovered our Florence Sightseeing Hop On Hop Off bus voucher was missing in the morning when I did a check of our vouchers, I don’t know how I missed it on Friday when I went through all the vouchers. Frantic call to the travel agency contact and I got them to email the soft copy which was done by them by 7pm!!! Print out secured and included in the pouch in which I am carrying all the travel documents.

Bag is already packed, just throw in the toilet case, toothbrush etc. I am worried about the liquid ban regulations especially at Zurich Airport hence choose not to carry any liquids or gels in my hand bag.

Last minute check – tickets, passport, vouchers, train tickets...all there.

All ready, finally....