Ciao Venice

It usually takes my body a couple of days to adjust to a time change.  But there is always an upside to this.  If you get up early, you can get much more done.  St. Mark’s Basilica celebrates mass at many times on Sunday’s so we thought let’s go to 7:00am mass since this will allow us to see the inside of the Basilicia for much longer than the normal fifteen minute tour.  And how often to you get to attend an Italian mass in St. Mark’s.  The other benefit to getting up at this hour, is that there were very few people in the Piazza San Marco which made for less people in our pictures.

As we entered the Basilica, we were struck at the size and the beauty of it.  We took our seats and I think in total there may have been only around thirty people there including quite a few nuns.  After mass, we wandered around the square taking lots of pictures because there were still so few people there.  It is so much exploring all of the alleyways in Venice.  We stumbled upon a tiny little bar that served homemade croissants and freshly squeezed orange juice.  We headed back to the apartment to have a quick nap and to finish packing up.

Getting to the cruise terminal was not an easy task.  The only way to get there is either by water taxi (very costly) or water bus.  We decided on the water bus since for 20 Euros, you could get a 24 hour pass and this would allow us to still do some exploring before the ship leaves at 11:00pm tonight.  The ride from San Marco to the cruise terminal stop was about twenty minutes and it was nice to be able to see more of the island.  We got to our stop and then realized we still were not at the cruise terminal.  That was another half an hour of walking while pulling/dragging our luggage.  We finally got to the terminal where the Norwegian Spirit ($3198.49 CAD / person) was berthed.  We dropped our bags, got checked in and then left since we wanted to go to the island of Murano.  It took us about an hour to get there.

Once we got onto the island, I noticed right away it was much quieter than Venice, not as many people.  Murano is known for their glass makers.  But before we could do any shopping, we needed lunch.  We found a little restaurant right on the canal and enjoyed another fine meal.  Pasta and pizza will not be the same when I get home.  After our late lunch, we spent the rest of our time on the island investigating the many glass shops.  We even managed to have some gelato … Karen had pistachio and I had strawberry.  By the time we got back to the cruise terminal, it was 7:00pm.  There were not many people checking in at this point, so we were able to walk right aboard with no waiting.

Our balcony cabin is located on the 10th floor (10050) and as I walked through the door, I was surprised with streamers, balloons and a cake from Maui.  I took a few more steps in and noticed there were chocolate covered strawberries and fresh flowers from Linda and Steve (Thank you guys).  We headed up to Deck 12 where the Raffles Buffet is located.  I felt that there was enough selection and we even managed to grab a table outside at the back of the ship.  The rest of the night was spent unpacking and watching the lights of Venice fade into the distance.