Wednesday, September 28th - Venice, Italy
You may recall from our top page that Venice was the only port-of-call I was aware of until three days before we sailed. I'd always wanted to visit Venice; I'm sure we won't be disappointed -- except that tomorrow we head home.  
Note: Many photos today were taken by Gael; you can easily tell which ones are hers by the red border..
We slept in this morning (and I finished and uploaded yesterday's page and photos). We are scheduled to begin our cruise up the Grand Canal at about 11:00a so SWMBO and I headed up to the top deck to photograph our approach. Engines set to "all-ahead slow" right up the Grand Canal:
Our first gondola!
Our tour today begins with the mustering in the theater to swap reservation slips for bus tickets at 1:05p; we'll be gone most of the day.
We met Octavia:
.. on the pier and hiked a hundred yards to today's "bus"; of course, we're in Venice so the "bus" was an forty-passenger water taxi.
The cruise ship above is the "Happy Dolphin". Before they came up with the name "Happy Cruises" for their line, they tried "Miserable Cruises", "Depressing Cruises", "Crappy Cruises and "Sad Cruises" before hiring the right consultant..
Below is the place where the water taxi drops us off and (hopefully) picks us up at 5:30p:
Here's Kathy disembarking from our water taxi; dunno where Tom is..
We were dropped off near St. Mark's Square and were introduced to our tour-guide Monica:
After getting us all outfitted with "whisper paks" (like we had in Montenegro) we took photos of all the architectural wonders on the Square and then were off to see every inch of the Doges Palace:
Above: Kathy Cooper, SWMBO, Tom Cooper
Then came the tour of the Cathedral of St. Mark; Tom and I opted out and had a drink while we waited for the women. They were out in a half-hour or so and we had some (shopping) time to kill before our 4:30p appointment for our Venice Gondola ride - Yay!
These gondolas hold six so we invited Pat and Peter from Canada to complete our group of six and off we went for forty minutes or so through the minor canals of Venice. Our gondola, benefitting the three queens on board, looked like a floating bordello; it was lovely but perhaps not as romantic as it might have been at night and with just the two of us.
Above our Gondolier..
Above: Kathy, Peter, our Gondolier, Pat, Tom
If you were a bride, wouldn't getting married in Venice be appealing?
More shopping and then back to the water taxi dock by 5:30p to return to the ship.
We arranged dinner with Bill and Phyllis Gifford in the Compass Rose (we couldn't get reservations in the Signature French restaurant); it's their 20th anniversary so we brought champagne. Of course, EVERYONE has a bottle of champagne in their suite so the gesture is more symbolic than anything else.
The ship spared no expense in honoring the Gifford's 20th:
But the Maitre' d staff gathered about to sing so that was plenty OK:
We're advised that our access to the internet will close at 11pm tonight (local); that's 5pm Atlanta time so there'll be no mo' from us until we reach the Delta Sky Club in Venice tomorrow.
Happy Birthday to Buzz Nielsen (yesterday) and Bill Barr (tomorrow)!
Da Boyz have really enjoyed the cruise; they're such a pleasure to travel with:
Click  for yesterday or  for tomorrow..
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