Sunday, September 23, 2012

Day 14 - Burano, Murano and Venice again

When we woke up weather was a bit overcast so we got a bit worried. The forecast though showed no rain so we decided to go out again to the islands of Venice. We wanted to visit Burano and Murano as well as go back to Venice and do a ride on a vaporetto at sunset to take some pictures of Venice from the water.

We did all of this and it was very good day. We found Burano the most colorful of the islands because of the beautiful colors that the houses are painted in.

Murano was not as nice in our opinion although it was good to see all the shops selling this most beautiful and colorful glass work.

The ride on the vaporetto at sunset around Venice was amazing and we specially liked the area of the grand canal close to Ferrovia and Tre Archi. The approach of Plaza San Marco at dusk was also very beautiful. The pictures came out very well.

Blog in construction

Here are a couple of videos of vaporetto ride as we ride towards Plaza San Marcos

 

Click HERE for all the pictures for Day 14

 

Day 13 - Venice

After a good night's sleep with the breeze of the sea, we woke up to another gorgeous day. We decided to stay in the morning on the beach. After breakfast we went for a walk. Although it was a Saturday the beach was very calm. We sat a bit in the sun and I also was able to go for a swim in the pool and do some training laps.

 

Although Venice waited it was difficult to leave the pool and beach. We eventually took the bus that took us to the port where we caught the boat to Plaza San Marco one of the most well known sites in Venice. We bought a ticket that covered all public transport for 12 hours. Great deal and highly recommendable if you come to Venice, rather than worrying about buying tickets all over. I am sure it is also cheaper.

The boat ride was a bit chilly and on the way we saw a huge ship leaving Venice.

We arrived at about 2:30pm and took a stroll seeing the masses (amazing how many people were there), taking pictures and being totally flabbergasted at the windows of the shops. Lots of color and creativity abound everywhere. Although Paris had more people, Venice felt much more crowded.

We had lunch in a small restaurant close to San Marcos Basilica. Paula (as I did not enjoy it so much) enjoyed a plate with 7 different foods typical of Venice. Too fishy for me. I had a salad. For desert we had a cafe parfait.

We then started our 2 hour tour I had seen in a book, however by the pace we were going at, to observe everything and take pictures it would take us much longer. We did take lots of great pics though.
 
One of the things we noticed is that you cannot walk in Venice in a straight line as we have to constantly be shifting direction due to canals. I was happy I had downloaded an app with Venice map. It also looked at gps coordinate and overlay that on top of map so we knew where we were and where to go.

In the end I found Venice exactly as I expected from seeing so many movies, but I found it much more crowded than I expected. No doubt a city that deserves a visit but not one of my favorite cities. Paula on the other hand enjoyed it and liked it more than I did.

Prices are outrageous. I had been warned but still got a surprise. A gondola ride is now 80 Euros for 30 minutes. Highway robbery.

Although always crowded we loved the bridges. Rialto is the biggest and most well known. Traffic underneath it and around is crazy.

We took the vaporetto from Rialto bridge. A vaporetto is a waterbus. There are 19 scheduled lines that serve locales within Venice, Italy, and travel between Venice and nearby islands, e.g., Murano and Lido. The name, vaporetto, could be translated as "little steamer", and refers to similarly purposed ships in the past that were run by steam. These steamers are great and necessary in Venice as the deep canals prohibit the building of underground railways, and there is no space for overground trains, leaving the canals as the only viable rapid transport system. Our first stop was Ferrovia where we had dinner in a terraza overlooking the canal.

We then took another vaporetto to Plaza San Marco and took some pictures of Venice at night.

In Plaza San Marco we took the ferry boat to Punta Sabbioni where we caught the bus back to our hotel. We arrived well past midnight. It had been another interesting day in our adventure.

 

Click HERE for all the pictures for day 13

 

Friday, September 21, 2012

Day 12 - Verona to Jesolo Beach

One of the things we are looking for while in Italy is to see Venice but as we have found out it is not very easy for motorbikes to move around in Venice so what we have decided is to do Venice in style ;-). We will stay in a very beautiful beach area close to Venice where we can leave the bike, see beautiful sea views from our hotel room and then take a bus and a boat to go to Venice for the day.

Today we arrived at about 4 so we stayed in the pool and beach in Josolo. Temperatures are coming down so we will actually stay in for the night and catch up on Internet and blogging.

This morning we went to visit the arena in Verona and as tomorrow they have a big show we were able to watch the rehearsals of dancing on ice. How cool (pardon the pun) is that ...

Blog in construction.

Some videos of Dance on Ice Rehersal

 

Click HERE for all the pictures for Day 12

 

Day 11 - Bellagio to Verona

The official BMW Lonestar Ride is now finished and Bo, Joy and Steve are on the way to USA. They should arrive there on Friday, September 21, 2012.

We continue on with our European trip but in not so highly planned way. Today we decided to visit Verona. While we were in Perugia, Paula and Joy spoke to some ladies that had been to Verona and had enjoyed it a lot so we are spending the night there.

But before doing that we still took every second we had left in Bellagio. We have really loved this town and so far it is for me of all the places we have visited it is the best for one to live. The proximity to the lake, the old looking towns around the lake with so much character and the beautiful vegetation and weather of this area are exceptional.

We rode from Bellagio to Lecco around the lake at very slow speed so we could take it all in. On the way we saw cyclists from Venezuela that must have come to train here because of the weather. Actually we saw many cyclists during today.

We stopped in Lecco for lunch and had a very good lasagna. I love the pasta in Italy. It is always perfectly cooked as if Mama did it everywhere. How do they do it ? The place where we stopped had a lot of beautiful scenery around and we took many pictures. We also took time to a couple from Munich area in Germany that is touring Italy for two weeks on a camper and a couple from UK that is riding on a new BMW 1600GT. Andy is an instructor of motorbikes in UK and we spoke about the two bikes (GSA and GT) and the pros and cons. He was very amazed at the cockpit of our GSA and told me as so many have done during this trip that he has never seen so many accessories in a bike.

Verona is a very beautiful city with an impressive arena, castle, bridges and the house of Giuletta (yes, the one from Romeo and Giuletta).




Love was all around and took pictures of the ladies of love.

This time we have decided on a Bed and Breakfast rather than proper hotel and while there were given a great place to have dinner at. Typical food from the area which are quite keen on horse meat (not for us though). The dinner was excellent and the dessert to die for. I love biscotti.

While we were walking in the evening in the streets of Verona we saw a sign that caught my attention and in a way it depicts us ... Going around the World.



 

Click HERE to see all the pics for Day 11