Today is Thursday, October
20. Our last port on the Costa cruise
was Dubrovnik, Croatia. The main place
of interest is the walled city. There’s
a walk all around the top of the wall and you can purchase audio guides at
various points along the way. We were
wandering around looking for the maritime museum and inadvertently got on the
one-way walk. It’s only one way since
the wall is only wide enough for one and ½ persons (or one typical American
person). We walked right by the ticket
booth as if we knew what we were doing and got off the walk at our first
opportunity.
We weren’t terribly sad to
get off the ship since, as I said before, this was not our best cruise
experience. We then went to our hotel
for 2 nights in Venice. We stayed at the
Hotel Danieli which is right next to St. Mark’s Square using buckets of our
Starwood Points for a basic room. Good
thing too, since the “special” rates started at over 440 euros per night (one
euro is about $1.40 so that‘s close to $600, right?). And when we checked in they gave us a “double
upgrade” to a room at the front overlooking the canal! Whoo boy, we were living high now. The rate for that room would have been over
800 euros! The hotel is a former doges
palace built in the 17th century.
It was beautiful. Our room was
huge and had the most beautiful furniture.
We didn’t eat any meals there after seeing the price list in the room
for a continental breakfast was 42 euros ($55 or so). Seemed a little steep for coffee, juice and
rolls. We spent the next couple of days
walking around Venice getting lost. It
really is a beautiful city. The streets
and canals were generally odor and litter free and it was fascinating to watch
everyday life going on. On the Grand
Canal it’s like watching a busy city street, only with boats. How they avoid bumping into one another is a
mystery to me since they drive like typical Italians and can’t exactly stop on
a dime. The only advantage is that they
don’t have to deal with pedestrians also.
We took a vaporetto (a water bus) which was a real hoot. And a couple of
times we sat at an outdoor café with a coffee and just people watched.
Yesterday we boarded the Ruby
Princess for our transatlantic crossing and it’s like coming home. We took a couple of cruises on a sister ship
last year so we already know the layout.
The food here is fantastic and once again we hear English everywhere. Our dinner table mates are from Florida,
originally from New York, of course.
They seem like they will be entertaining. For some reason the ship stayed overnight in
Venice and we will set sail shortly as soon as the winds calm down. We’ve had fantastic weather the whole trip
until yesterday when rain and wind set in.
Well, better close now so we
can grab some lunch before we watch the sail away. The ship sails right down the main canal past
St. Mark’s square (and our hotel) so it’s quite a sight. And all the little vaporettos, water taxis
and gondolas scramble around the big cruise ship which is a giant lumbering
through.
Arrivaderci,
Caroline
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