19th June

After a lovely drive along some of the rural roads in Italy and avoiding the motorways we arrived at our campsite near Venice.  We arrived an hour before K&V so we were all set up when they turned up.

As I walked down to reception I saw a pained expression on Kev’s face, he had heard rather a lot of horns blaring at him and saw a few suspect hand gestures directed at him, but he put this down to typical Italian driving. It was only when he turned in the campsite he realised he had a puncture!!!!!

An hour or so later after a lot of hard graft, and a clean shirt, Jane had the great idea of seeing Venice at night, so after a quick cup of tea,  we set of to catch the 7.30pm bus into town.

The light towards the end of the day seems to capture the mood of Venice perfectly.

Kevin managed to negotiate a deal with one of the gondoliers, and so we set of on a trip along the canals, something I never thought I would ever do !

After such an unexpected expense I was pleased I had packed a picnic.  I chose a nice secluded step for Jane and Val to sit on as they ate their sandwiches, and as you can see they were delighted !!

What a delightful experience it was, to walk around Venice with the sun slowly going down and the canal starting to be lit by the “street lamps”

I had never been to Venice before, and as such I had no idea of its scale or its beauty.  I now can’t understand why it wasn’t higher on my list of priorities of places to see.  I would highly recommend this as a destination for a weekend break, however I’m not so sure I would want to visit here during July or August.

Everyone was very patient with me taking nearly a million pictures, even that was very restrained as there was a photo opportunity at every turn !

One thing to remember when you are catching a bus late in the evening is that you will have to return in the dark.  Therefore it is essential to ensure you know when your stop is coming up!  Still we will have to chalk that one up to experience, and it was only a kilometer to walk back! !