Onward to Venice to Pick Up Some Baggage!

I decided to take the train from Prague to Venice rather than taking a flight.  I chose the train option because I enjoy sleeping on trains, I avoided wasting waking hours traveling and I also avoided the cost of an additional hotel for the night.  The night train to Venice provided the option of First Class accommodation which included a private in suite toilet, sink and shower,  a bottle of wine, and breakfast.  As an added bonus the train arrived at a timely 8am allowing me plenty of time to catch a taxi to meet my party that were supposed to be arriving at Marco Polo airport at 9am.

I made it to the airport with time to spare but the flight I was meeting was an hour late.  So much for best laid plans and my precise schedule for the rest of the day.  Richard, Jackie and Jeannette eventually made it to Italy and in the meantime I hired a speedboat to transport us to our 4 bedroom mosquito infested Air BNB apartment next to the Gallerie dell Accademia.

After a quick and less than impressive lunch we began what Richard referred to as my version of the Bataan Death March.  Between 1pm and 10pm I managed to move them along thru the Gallerie dell Accademia, Correr Museum, Archeological Museum, The Basilica de San Marco, the treasury, Museum, and Pala doro, the Doge Palace and Prison, St. Mark’s Square and Clock Tower, Bridge of Sighs several Historic Houses of Worship and dinner at Cafe’ Abc Quadri.

Of the entire day’s activities my guests were most impressed with the speedboat taxi from the airport and the four giant bronze horses (photo attached) placed at the top of St. Marks Cathedral.  An interesting and not often discussed fact is that the city leaders of Venice were master thieves.  These horses were stolen during the sacking of Constantinople when the Crusaders GPS failed and  they made a left turn at Cyprus and missed Jerusalem by a country mile.

In fact, even the city’s patron saint is stolen.  St. Marks was actually buried in Alexandria where he rested peacefully for centuries until two of Venice’s finest citizens/traders dug him up by the dark of night and spirited him back to Venice.  Stealing a saint – now that is worth burning in hell for!

Unfortunately, after flying all night the group was not up for a late night at the Venice Jazz Club.   Instead we went back to the apartment to offer ourselves as a buffet for the world’s hungriest mosquitos.

 We end their trip back in Venice on the night of June 2nd and maybe I can make it to the Club then with or without  the group.  Attached are a bunch of photos taken in Venice.

 

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One Response to Onward to Venice to Pick Up Some Baggage!

  1. Ginger Goff Phillips says:

    I studied those horses atop St Marks in school and hope to one day see them in person, along with many of the other thing I studied in Interior Design, Architecture and Humanities. Beautiful!

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