24 - 25 June

Sunday 24 June 0700  Adriatic Sea We have travelled 5491.6 Nm   from Dubai and we have to travel 65.3 Nm to our next Port of Venice.  Heading 341.2 Temperature on desk is 24.9 degrees. Speeding  20 knots.  Wind speed 23.7 knots across the deck.

Venice – Italy              Currency: Euro.

What an entrance to a beautiful city, we slowly travelled into the main canal, past the centre which is St Mark’s Square and onto our moorings.  I have included some pictures; the skyline has changed from mosques to church towers.  Venice spans 118 islands, with a well-planned web of 150 canals ad 400 bridges.  The public transport is a boat called a vaporetto and the Viennese use boats the same way as we use motor vehicles and as it was Sunday and a beautiful day the main lagoon was full of families all enjoying their Sunday drive on the water.

I have always dreamed about going to the glass blowing factory in Venice and at 1430 I was boarding a water boat to head out to the island of  Murano which is the home of glassblowing.  The glassblowers were banned from Venice in the 16^th Century and set to work and live in Murano because of the danger from fire.  I went into a factory and saw a demonstration by 2 glass blowing masters, one made a beautiful glass and the other a glass jar.  It was magic and then we went upstairs to the showroom where the smallest piece cost 1000’s of euros and then we went downstairs where things were a little more reasonable.  I bought a few small things.  We spent only one hour there which was not enough.

The next part of the trip was to the island of Burano which is a quant fishing village with its streets lined with brightly coloured houses.  The houses were painted bright colours by the fisherman’s wives so the fisherman could see the houses from out at sea; they now have to be painted every year, the same colour.  The ladies of the island are also renowned for the lacemaking and the little shops were full of magnificent lace work and tapestry.  I bought a small lace umbrella for my sister.

We then travelled back to St Mark’s Square and disembarked and by this time it was late afternoon and as we were not sailing that evening, we had time to people watch, eat authentic pasta and pizza’s until then last boat back to the ship which was about 2300 hrs.

As mentioned before the heart of Venice is St Mark’s Square which has been called “a great, marble salon”.  The oldest building The Basilica San Marco was built in 830.

Monday 25 June 0700  Adriatic Sea  Still in Venice.

We were up early and back on the water shuttle to enjoy more sightseeing and of course shopping as it was Monday and more shops were open.

We wandered around the city, through lanes and over bridges, and soon it was time to catch the last tender back to the ship.

Rubbish Barge

This was the first time we were shown how manoeuvrable the ship is, we were parked right behind a huge cruise ship and one right up our backside and we just side moved and left.

The ship sailed away from this beautiful city at 1400 hrs and travelled down the coast of Italy on the way to Croatia.