Its Venice Baby!

Things I have learned in the last week:
* Venice could be renamed as the island of cats and dogs, It has plently of both
* Maps are mostly useless
* Although Venice is no longer sinking (more about that later) you could be forgiven for thinking so at high-tide when it is raining.
* Gumboots are a very useful wardrobe item and it would apear that most Venitians own a pair. However, they go by the slightly more posh name of high-tide boots and come with a much more posh price tag.

And now a challenge:
See how many times you find a Lion in our photos, don't count the same lion in different photos though. Venices emblem is a lion and they are everywhere! Got it? Right and on with the adventure!


For the first time in the last 3 trips away on Easy Jet, we managed to get to our destination without any problems. (although it was a close call when the train that was taking us to Gatwick stopped just outside of the Gatwick area due to a Power Outage!) We were both quite surprised. We found the correct bus, brought tickets, and found our hotel with a minimum of trouble. We had a quick dinner at the first resturant we saw after we left our hotel that was still open.

The following day we went on a walk-about. We had no idea what direction we were walking in or where we would end up. eventually our feet led us to the San Marco Piazza which was on our to do list anyway. All in all our "walk-about" lasted about five hours. We finally pulled the map out when we decided it was time to go home, only to get lost even further and end up taking twice as long to get home. When we (Amber) eventually got the map sorted out she decided to take us the "back way" home and we discovered that about 5 buildings down from us was a Prison (we think, it was big and scary looking with barbed wire on the brick fence that surrounded it, not too mention it was attached to a police station and the 'carpark' was a marina full of Police boats). This is not to say we were staying in a dodgy part of Venice or anything; we didn't really see ANY dodgy parts of Venice. It was possible to do with space though. . .Anyway, the next day we went back to San Marco Piazza (getting lost several times on the way - see 'what we have learned re: maps')
Note to Poppa Lids: Shelley would like a refund as Amber's GPS unit did not come with a Venice update!!
Anyway, behold San Marco Piazza:

It's even bigger than it looks.

As you can see by these photos, it also floods a wee bit when it rains during high-tide. Amber had to reassure me that we were quite safe and Venice wasn't going to sink while we were still on it! Actually according to our guide books, Venice is no longer sinking at all. There have been strict speed limitations put on all traffic (boat) within the city and this means that there is less waves created which means less sinkage. The waves were the main contributing factor to the detereoration of the bulidings.

And on to the pretty buildings

This was the Doge's Palace. It was the official residence of the 120 Doge's who ruled Venice from 697-1797. The Doge was an elected leader who was elected for life and when he died, his family would come in and remove his personal effects ready for the next one to move in. This means that not a lot of like 'furniture' and stuff survived so the inside is pretty empty. Which sorta just emphasises the HUGENESS of the place. There were certain rooms that we walked into and then said "I feel like an Ant" and, "I'm not worthy!" Unfortunately we weren't able to take pictures inside so the following are from the Net:

This is the Golden Staircase. We were just outside of it and reading about it and were all like "this isn't Golden!" and then walked in and looked up. . . VERY GOLDEN!!!

We walked into the above room and then cowered in the corner. . .

This room was covered with maps and one of the maps showed California on the left side, a bit of sea in the middle and then China on the right side. Amber stood there for about five minutes going "there's something wrong with this picture" before she clicked.

Here's some more photos of the courtyard (and when we say courtyard we, of course mean, a GIAGANTIC sod-off sized space that would quite comfortably fit a couple of rugby fields) of the Palace:

this is looking up towards the apartments, we don't even think a Panoramic camera would have been able to fit the whole thing in. . .


The guy on the left is Mars, the guy on the right is Neptune and the guy in the middle is an annoying tourist who wouldn't get out of Shelley's picture!!!!!


This was the Doge's personal Gondola and was very prettily carved.

It was as we emerged from the Doge's Palace that we discovered Venice was flooding. . .We also found that the queue to get into more of the pretty buildings was ridiculous so we went for a walk and found the Rialto Bridge which was where we (ie, Shelley) got even more scared (she says "concerned") about the flooding:

It's kind of hard to see in the second photo but that dark shape under the water is actually where the canal normally stops.
This is the view off the Rialto Bridge:
And for the shoppers amongst us (aka, Ma Watson), the Rialto bridge is actually famous for it's market. . .it has stalls on the actual bridge:

The rest of that day ended up being walk-abouts and window shopping.
It was over desser at dinner that night that we decided on our master plan. We would sample as much Tiramisu in the city as we could and compare it in a quest for The Best in All of Venice. Shelley wanted to tell the restaurants this in a hope for free Tiramisu however Amber Vetoed this plan as she felt the restaurants would probably want ID of some sort.

The next day we went on An Adventure by Waterbus. We decided we would go out to the Glass-Blower's island (Murano) and then to the Lace-maker's island (Burano) and from there possibly another random island called Torcello, where the guide books told us it was pretty.
The fares were very good with us being able to buy an "anywhere" ticket that would last us 12 hours (handy as it meant we didn't have to figure out too many different ticket options). It was very strange though to be catching a boat as a bus. We waited on floating "bus stops" and everything!
Our first stop for the day was Murano. From the 1500's, when techniques were first developed for glass making, and through till the 17th Century, glass-makers were forbidden to migrate under pain of DEATH. Until recently, glass-blowing was a family tradition and secrets were closely guarded however there is apparently now a school. A lot of the products on the island were ridiculously overpriced (even if they were considered "art") and all were very similar as well.
As soon as we stepped off the "bus" there were men who directed us towards a Glass-blowing demonstration just down the "road". Not really knowing any Italian, but understanding "free" we toddled off for a look. It WAS free to watch, but the show room attached had scarily large prices. It was difficult to take photos of the process due to the lighting but we mananged some:



After escaping the scarily priced showroom we hunted a coffee:

four coffees and fourten euros later, we continued on our merry way feeling much better with the world, if a little ripped off.
After wandering around Murano for a bit we discovered this strange arty thing. We have no idea why it's there or who it's by as all of the information was in Italian and strangely the interwubs has failed us. It was kinda funky and pretty though:

We then went to Burano which was really pretty cause of all the bright houses, see:
The second photo also shows the bell tower of Burano which is, supposedly, leaning. However we couldn't see any evidence of it and the reason it looks skew-wif in the photo is cause Amber can't keep the Camera level.
Next stop was Torcello for it's pretty Basilica. On the walk from the "bus stop" to the Basilica in question we saw our first bridge with no sides:
Amber wasn't allowed on it.

The outside of the church is pretty boring and we weren't allowed to take photos on the inside. There is also a Bell Tower however it is currently closed for "extraordinary restoration" (don't ask us what makes it extraordinary!)
Here is us ON a "bus":
To Be Continued. . .

Let Them Eat Cake

Some of us know that that famous quote is from a French lass names Marie Antoinette, who it seems was more found of carousing around with French Royalty than her own head. In point of fact though this is a miss-quote, possibly the second most famous miss-quote in history. The first being 'Play it again Sam'. Which supposed to be from the movie Casablanca however this line is never uttered in the film. Moving along to Marie and her cakes, She actually said 'Let them eat Brioche'.


The Brioche was also very good.

Bonjour Part Two

The next week of our holiday was pretty quiet in comparison to the adventures of Barcelona and Paris, so feel free to skip this post altogether as it will mostly be about spending time in the sun, reading, drinking and eating and... oh did I mention drinking?

Our housemate, Dan, has an Aunt, Pam, and Uncle, Phil, who live in the South of France and they were nice enough to have us stay with them. They live in a tiny little village called Mont-Clar which is not far from Carcassonne. For those of you who have read Labyrinth by Kate Mosse, most of it is set around Carcassonne. The closest airport that Easy Jet would take us to was Toulouse, which is one and a half hours from Carcassonne. Phil was kind enough to come to Toulouse and pick up Dan and us (Dan flew from Gatwick the same day we flew from Paris) and take us all back to their place where we promptly fell in love with, the views, the house and all of the bread. There is a lady from a Boulangerie (see previous post) a couple of villages away, who drives around the local villages and brings bread directly to the door!!! Fresh bread daily!!! Delivered!! Fresh!!! Bread!!
Pam and Phil have a cute little doggie, Hattie, who was a rescue dog that they have had for a long time now. She is absolutely adorable and more like a cat in the sense that if you call her she will only come to you if SHE wants to, or if you have food.

Our week spent with Pam and Phil kinda melded into one long sunny day. Plans were half-heartedly made then dismissed once we had gotten up and eaten our breakfast outside in the sun. Most days we decided that we couldn't really be bothered to go anywhere and spent the day lazing in the hammock or the deck chairs and arguing over card games.

And now for some photos to set the scene:

In the bottom photo, in the corner you can just see me sitting in our regular spot reading. And in both photos you can see Hattie also lazing in the sun with us.

From these two places you can see this:



Having said that we spent most days laxing out; we did see some of the sights. La Citie is only about 20 minutes away by car. It is a stone city that is surrounded by a castle wall and is full of cobbled streets and narrow alleyways and those five thousand tourists seemed to have followed us there as well. It has a population of about 100 and is full of shops and cafes. At first I said that I wanted to live there, then about 5 minutes later when I had just been trod upon by the 5 millionth tourist I amended that I want to live here, after I kill all the tourists.




It even has a 300 Euro a night hotel
And a church

Another place we did visit was Rennes Le Chateau. According to the legends there was a priest in the early 1900's who was doing renovations to the tiny church that sits on top of the hill in this village. Abruptly he stopped work and went on a trip to Paris. He returned a very wealthy man and stopped all work on the church. The theory is that while renovating he found some secret hidey-hole, which contained something very important that he then was paid to keep secret. Although there are some theories that he just re-hid what he found and then planted clues in the church, such as; there is a statue of the Devil in the church, where he is looking could be an indication as to where the hiding place is, there is a statue that has its left hand raised instead of its right, maybe it is pointing at something? What he found is also theorised on, from the Holy Grail itself, to Jesus's marriage certificate to Mary Magdalene. Also a more recent piece of trivia on the village is that this is where Dan Brown came up with the idea to write the Da Vinci Code, apparently.
Anyway a few metres down from the church is a shop which stocks every type of publication that every existed on the conspiracy theory of this church and a few others.
The church itself is very small and kinda gave me the wiggins. There is a statue of a devil at the entrance which, as mentioned, is included in many of the conspiracy theories that surround the church.


Another place we visited was Parpignon, which is a largish city about an hour and a half away from where we were staying. For six weeks over summer, for the last 16 years, they have a festival there and every week, live entertainment sets up in spots around the city and you can walk around from place to place and enjoy it. The most impressive act we saw was Monty Picon. They all turned up wheeling this cart and then proceeded to set up and start playing in about 10 minutes of arriving. As anybody who has been to see a live music show will tell you it takes ages for musicians to set up and be ready to play. The fact that these guys managed to do it in such a short amount of time was amazing.
On our last full day we took our hosts out to lunch to say thank you. And we went to Limoux, to a nice restaurant. We sat outside and had a traditional 3 hour lunch. (the French don't like to rush when it comes to eating) and then Amber and I went for a stroll around the market that was close by. We had planned to buy some local wines as gifts for people back in the UK and many of the stall holders were selling wine. As we had already had quite a bit to drink over lunch we were pretty merry and then the wine sellers kept pouring out wines for us to try. By the time we got to the last man we were very merry and then he told us that we had to try all his wines before we could get to the dessert wine which we were actually interested. A Muscat, which is a white, very sweet wine that goes well with all desserts! He pulled out actual stemmed glasses from somewhere and we proceeded to try his reds before we got to the Muscat. Amber went to take the glass from him holding the top rather than the stem (as we do) and he was all 'No mademoiselle, please hold it by the stem, like this' then he gave her a demo as to how she should be holding her wine glass. It was very funny. Anyway we brought several bottles of wine and then had to figure out how we were going to get them home. (thankfully Dan had some room in his bags although, due to the new airplane regulations, we had to carry the bottles and he had to take some of our clothes - and all of our shoes, tehehe)

The last day we were there we went to Mirapoix which is a smallish town about an hours drive from where we were staying. They were having a huge market stall there and those five thousand tourists had once again followed us! The town itself is kinda like a oldy worldy place, very pretty and we want to go there when we have managed to lose our following. We went around the market and then went to a bakery for one last baguette. We went in and with our usual pointing and pigeon French managed to procure a baguette and some yummy cakes. I hadn't even made it out the door before I started eating the bread right out of the bag, this got me some some funny comments from Amber and Dan. We got home in time for a late meal and to pack our bags. I took some photos of Pam and Phil's house just before we left.

This is Pam studying her french. She has all of her french notes covering one of the walls in her kitchen in the hope that she'll learn by osmosis while doing dishes, it's awesome.


This is Pam and Phil's lounge, Amber is the one trying to curl up in the hammock style seat, she loved that thing!

This was our bedroom, it was on the third floor and is one of five bedrooms!

Right and now for some more random photos:

In front of La Citie

Lunch at Limoux

Dan and Shelley enjoying themselves while laxing in the sun with wine (normal day at Pam and Phil's)Amber dealing cards while laxing in sun with wineShelley at top of hill that Rennes Le Chateau is built on. The tower in the back ground is the conservatory that the priest had added to his house when he came back all rich.

Well. That's all folks. We packed, checked into the airport and then dragged our packs from Gatwick to Horsham where a friend was nice enough to pick us up from the station. It was about Midnight when we crawled in the front door and Houdini (Dan's dog who thinks that all of three of us are HIS humans and worries if we are not all home on time) was so excited that he couldn't decide which one of us he was more happy to see. Although we think that he must've thought he was dreaming though as he was WAY more excited in the morning!!! He's finally settling back into the routine of having us home and isn't stressing out quite so much when we go out somewhere. (We think he was worried we might leave him for three weeks again). Our tans are slowly starting to fade; Shelley is back at work and Amber only has a week and a bit before she goes back. Our holiday away already feels like a dream. . . .
Oh well, time to start planning the next one - Venice in October!!!!

Attencion

As I started on the Paris post before I remembered that I had planned to write about the Barcelona PO, the blog has actually posted itself beneath "Going Postal"..... So if you want to know what we got up to in Paris then scroll down.

That is all Thank you for reading.

Going Postal

This post is especially for Shelley's Mum.
Having been a few places and sending postcards back home, after we had gotten back to the UK, my Mum commented on how she would like to receive a post card from the actual city that we were in. "OK," we said, "no problem." We wrote out several postcards and then one evening on one of our walks decided to find the Post Office in Barcelona to get stamps to send said postcards.
Amber had the map and was navigating our way through the winding streets and alleyways of the Gotic Quarter (Gothic). As the alleyways started getting more twisty and the area more dodgy looking I started to get slightly concerned about where we might actually end up. Amber however has a GPS unit inbuilt (complete with Europe upgrades) and before too long we ended up in front of a humongous building that looked more like a Greek Temple than a Post Office. If any one reading this has watched Terry Pratchett's screen adaptation of Going Postal then you wouldn't be barking up the wrong tree if you compared the P.O in that to the P.O we found in Barcelona.
Photographic Evidence:

And now for Terry Pratchett's version:

Anyway we walked inside and the inside is as impressive as the outside with lots of people inside little glass booths around the edges of the building and a massive big empty space in the middle. We look around for a bit wondering how to best go about getting what we came for.
Observing other people we noticed them walking up to a little machine and pressing a number and then the little machine spits something out and they walk away. So we approach the machine.
There are three buttons we could press.
Button 1) Gobbledygook in Spanish
Button 2) See Above
Button 3) Imformacion
Out of these 3 options the only one we understood was number 3 for information. We press three. A little ticket prints out that says (we think) see the information desk. We look around for that magic 'I' sign that is known to tourists everywhere. Once located we walk up to the desk to find it is empty. Hmmm on to plan B. We remember seeing a lady sitting at a desk as we walk in so we walk up to her.
Me: "Excuse me do you speak English?"
Lady: "No"
Me: "OK thank you".
Right so for those of you who are counting we are now up to Plan C.
Walk back to the little machine. Randomly pick Button A. We get a new ticket. it has a big number on it and nothing else that we can decipher. Amber looks up at a screen it says A)597, we look down at our new ticket, it reads A)614. Hmmm we look at each other and realise that we may have a bit of a wait, also that we don't even know if we have got the right ticket for what we want. After a brief discussion we decide that Mum will understand. Right now on to the Sangria.