Venezia. Day 3. Evening. Reception at Hotel Danieli.

On our last night in Venezia, Paul and Samantha arranged a special reception at the glorious hotel where he, Samantha, Finn and Samantha's parents Flavio and Ubitsa were staying, the Hotel Danieli.






Here are the characters of this story, left to right with their respective partners seated in front.
Paul with Samantha, David with Catherine, Anthony with Clare, John with Andrea, and Michael with Nicky.




Maryellen, cousin to the Cross family.



Bas, Kate, and Matthew.



Ljubica, Flavio and David.



Finn, Samantha and Paul.



Sam and Clare.






Bas, John, Andrea and Josh.








The Hotel Danieli

We all partook of Peach Bellini's, Strawberry Bellini's, sparkling wine, some local merlot and a variety of European beers. A fantastic evening in a beautiful setting. Thank you so very much Paul and Samantha.



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Venezia. Day 3.

Saturday morning was another glorious day to get out and about early to take photos. Anthony joined me at 6.30 am for a walk to the Rialto bridge. I've said it many times before, I love Venice, especially in the early morning. The light is amazing, there are very few people about, and it is still nice and cool.










Another trip was planned to the Rialto markets to purchase more delicacies for dinner that night, so whilst some went hunting and gathering, others went on a cultural journey through the Doge's palace to learn about Secret passageways and the escape of Casanove from prison in Venice sometime in the 1500's. (sorry I can't give dates, far too much information on a reeeaallly hot day.) For my patchwork friends, I purchased a book on the Terrazzo floor designs in Venice, lots of inspiration for future projects!!!



Every second year Venice hosts an arts festival, Biennale. As it happens Paul comes to Venice every second year, and makes a point to check it all out. Apparently there are artistic exhibits from many countries, including Australia, mostly modern or contemporary art, so not really my cup of tea.



This "art" was in fact just plasticene that the visitors modeled into their own designs, so not much inspiration from the actual "artist".


An upturned army tank provides a running track for an athlete every hour.


"Talking Heads"

Anthony and I went to the Peggy Gugenheim museum of modern art. The art itself didn't do much for me, but it was very interesting to see the villa she lived in, right on the Grand Canal.
I also managed to find my friend Marco. When we were in Venice in 2007, I bought some charcoal drawings from him, done with a 2inch piece of charcoal on a piece of white paper. He seems to always be at the Accademia Bridge, and on a very hot afternoon, I found him again. He creates stunning drawings from very simple materials, and they look fantastic. They are also very inexpensive, the framing will cost about 10 times what I paid for the sketches!!!!


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Venezia. Day 2. Morning.

Friday was the morning when my body wasn't sure what time zone it was in, so I was awake at 4 am. After waiting till the sun came up, I grabbed my camera and went walking in Piazza San Marco and along the waterfront. This is the best time to get out and see the the real Venice. No people except for the street sweepers, no heat, and perfect lighting for photographs. I was in my element!!!!















The Bridge of Sighs


After my solo early morning expedition, I headed back to the apartment to collect Sam, Harry and Anthony as we were all off to the Rialto markets with Nicky, Catherine, David, Maryellen, Matt, Will, Katie and Josh ( Bas was too tired and needed a sleep in) to buy supplies for dinner that evening.



Maryellen, Harry, Anthony, Will, Matt, Josh, Kate, Sam with David and Catherine in the front.











The fruit was fantastic! Harry tried his first strawberry and his first raspberry.
Not a bad place to try them for the first time.
A stop to buy cheese and antipasto, then we headed back to our apartments via the Ponte Rialto again.




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Venezia. Day 2. Afternoon.

Nicky planned for a trip to Murano, the island where Venetian glass is made, for as many participants as wanted to go. As it turned out, Nicky didn't go, she waited for Michael to arrive from Australia. So she sent Catherine, David, Maryellen, Will, Kate, Matt, Josh, Bas, Sam and Harry off on their own little adventure. Sometimes the planning didn't quite go as well as it should have. It seems that glass blowing only happens in the morning, too hot in the afternoon, so no great show was to be had. Cath, David and Maryellen sat the kids down at a little pizzeria, whilst they went off to do some shopping. The kids decided that there must have been a conspiracy going on; why had Nicky sent them all to Murano, then not gone herself??? And why had the adults on this mission then deserted them on a far away island?????? Clearly too much time on their hands, for these teenagers and young adults !!!! They all enjoyed their pizza, and conspiracy theories, before a long hot and obviously exhausting ferry ride back to Venezia.



Meanwhile, Michael had arrived from Australia, and Paul, Samantha and Finn had arrived from Istria, along with Samantha's parents, Flavio and Ljubitsa.



Samantha, Flavio, and Anthony lurking in the background.


Paul, finally in Venezia.

Dinner that night was a veritable feast; fresh produce from the Rialto markets that morning. Long balmy nights on the terrace of apartment,




Nicky and Bas on the terrace


Nicky with Harry, overlooked by Will


Fresh pomodoro and buffalo mozzarella.


Maryellen hard at work plating up our delicious dinner.

Paul's dream was just about complete, most of the family had arrived, just John and Andrea to come; they were in Milano, to arrive the following morning.
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Venezia. Day 1. Thursday

We arrived in Venice from Bangkok via London on Thursday afternoon. It was not as humid, but probably just as hot. Not sure if any of you have been to Italy, but it's an interesting experience. Everything will happen, in it's own good time, according to Italian methods, and when the Italians want it to, not when you want it to. I'm telling you this because some things take a long time to happen; queues, water buses, service. The Italians are never in a hurry, so despite the heat, you have to relax and not be in a hurry to go anywhere or get anything done.
Addresses are also difficult to navigate in Italy, more so in Venice. Obviously there are no streets, but sometimes addresses are given with an area and a number only. There is no logic on to how to find a given address, I find it much easier to navigate with landmarks such as shop names or Venetian buildings.

The first thing we did was turn on the air conditioner when we got into our apartment and I don't think we will turn it off for the duration of our stay!!! It is amazing how the Italians can fit 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a kitchen and meals area into an area the same size as our living area at home. It's all very compact obviously, but recently renovated.















We caught up with some friends from home on the first night, pizza and pasta, of course.
Throughout the afternoon we had caught up with some of the family who had already arrived in Venice, so after a quick drink with them at a local trattoria it was back to the apartment and into bed, as it had been many hours since we had slept in a real bed, sleeping on a plane doesn't count!


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Bangkok

Sunday 10th July finally arrived, and it was time for this big adventure to start... 2.10 departure from Melbourne to Bangkok. As is usual for me, the rest of the family often complaining, we arrived nice and early to enable us to enjoy the First class QANTAS lounge; delicious food, friendly hosts, and of course, decadent and free massage in the spa of the lounge. As it happened we had a looooonnnngggg time to enjoy the lounge. Not long after our arrival in the lounge, the flight had been delayed from a 2.10 departure to a 4.00 departure. Oh well, an extra 2 hours to
enjoy the free service. Then someone noticed it was now a 6.00 departure. Not happy!!!!
The flight finally took off at 7.00 pm arriving into Bangkok at about 1.45 am. Really not happy by now. Arriving at the hotel at 2.45 am. It was hot, 29C, late and we were all pretty exhausted.
I'd not been to Bangkok before, so was keen to get out and take in as much as I could. Going through those hotel doors on Monday morning was like walking into a sauna; the hot humid air hits hard!! The boys had their lists of shops /markets they wanted to go to, so off we set. We learnt very early that you need to pace yourself in regards to walking in the humidity. Walk too fast and you exhaust yourself just in the mere act of walking.
Shopping in Bangkok requires one to have their wits about them. We saw lots of counterfeit goods in shops that look legitimate, but clearly weren't as we saw many items that haven't been released yet, one notable item was an iPhone 5. There were various "Beats" headphones in designs that are not listed on the website, so obviously an entrepreneurial marketing strategy had been employed to make one believe that these were limited editions. The real items had similar prices to home, the counterfeit ones were about a fifth of the price.
Shopping in the markets was fun; Harry always knew how much he was prepared to pay; he was pretty good at haggling. The boys and I had a little comp going; see how many he/she's we could pick out of a crowd. The night markets at Patpong were a good place to go looking, lots of them there.
We thought that we should partake in some cultural Bangkok on Tuesday morning, so took the Skytrain down to the river where we caught a local express boat that would take us to the Grand Palace, the once home of the royal family. They don't live there now, but it's a glorious place to visit...... So they say. We didn't actually go in, as men are not allowed to enter if their legs are visible. At 10.00 am it was already 35C with humidity at about 90%, so there was no way Anthony or the boys were going to wear long pants. So after a quick look at the gardens we retraced our steps back down to the river and caught the boat back to the Skytrain. Sorry Thailand, we tried to partake of your culture, but it was just way too hard.
So we went back to the shopping centers, had a delicious lunch of dumplings, and then returned to the hotel for relaxation and swimming.
Wednesday morning was an early start as we were headed for a cooking class in Thai food. The boys were not super keen, and as much as they wouldn't admit to having a great time, didn't suffer too badly. We learnt to make "Golden money bags", chicken soup with Galangal, and Coconut milk, followed by duck in Red Curry. We learnt to make curry paste from scratch; great fun, but the Thai's don't quite understand what very mild means. My own hand made curry was way too hot for me, smelled delicious, but Vezuvius in heat!!!!











We had a late checkout, then a very scary taxi ride to the airport, 140km most of the way, no indicators, dodging and weaving all the way. We managed to arrive safely at the airport, to take the next leg of our journey, to Venice via London Heathrow.
Till next time
Clare
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Checking out the surrounds

This morning Samantha, Finn and I checked out Barbariga beach, close to where we will be staying. It was a perfect morning, for a swim, mid-20s by 9.00am and just a breath of wind.


There we a few young families playing in the water, but they weren't prepared for Finn's arrival. Soon he was showing them how to swim off a pier, Aussie style.




Cannonbaaaaaaaaall!