Venice, the city that is a museum.

Saturday, our last full day in Venice.  We intended to explore San Croce and Cannaregio (ghetto vechio and nuovo) leaving the rest of San Polo for the following morning.  We grabbed our map and walked into the cold sunshine eager to begin an epic walk around Venice.  Our first stop was at an ATM which come to think of it, was the only ATM I had seen in the entire city.  The budget was blown and we needed additional cash. 

The wonderful thing about Venice is that there are no end of beautiful buildings, canal views and crooked streets to distract you as you wander.  The entire city is one big museum and we stopped at churches and art schools and government buildings at square after square.

After spending most of the morning in San Croce we crossed the Grand Canal into Cannaregio and immediately the flavor changed.  Here there were sidewalk food vendors and souvenir stalls and crowds of people all heading toward the neighboring San Marcos barrio. 

Moving deeper into the neighborhood it became much quieter very quickly as the streets narrowed into alleys and we moved from sun into shade.

We were looking for the old Jewish quarter and wanted to see some of the historical schools and the synagogue. 

The lack of people on the streets seemed a little eerie until we realized that it was Saturday.  Great planning huh?

No problem.  We’ll just explore the rest of this neighborhood and some more of San Marcos.  The walk through Cannaregio to San Marcos was as interesting as it was complicated.  We were trying to avoid the crowded Rialto shopping district (Mercerie) but all roads seemed to lead us there.  As we tried to find another historical building we came out of a tunnel, crossed a canal, took a 90 degree turn to the left and found ourselves in a beautiful little plaza next to a picturesque canal.

We were hungry and thirsty so we stopped at a sidewalk café on the square, went inside because it was quite chilly and had a very reasonably priced lunch with the appropriate adult beverages.  Italian food served by Chinese proprietors; a good combination for Venice in my book.  A little more wandering and we decided to return to the hotel for a nap.

Feeling lazy that evening we returned for pizza and beer at what was becoming our favorite little bar in San Polo.  The prices were steep but hey, you got quality food and drink and, they were very, very close to our hotel.  The owner of the hotel had told us that he had a bar nearby and we wandered the dark Venetian streets looking for it but had no success.  Maybe next time.

Sunday, our final morning in Venice.  We rose late, had a leisurely light breakfast, and headed toward the fish market. 

This is a very interesting place if you are looking to buy fish, eel, crabs and other crawly things which we weren’t.

Alongside the market were vegetable vendors and bread vendors weren’t far away.  There was an outdoor market as well where you could find clothes of all types and of course, souvenirs.

We wandered completely around the San Polo neighborhood stopping for coffee at our favorite place on the Grand Canal and turning only when we found dead ends or canals without crossings.  Around noon, knowing that our taxi would pick us up around 2 to take us to the ship we found ourselves once again at our favorite little bar and decided for one more piece of that delectable pizza. 

Everybody waived goodbye to us as we left to pack our bags.  We checked out after confirming that our taxi would meet us on the nearby pier and began wrestling our heavy bags down the stairs and outside.  We pulled them to the pier just in time to see the taxi pull up.  With the bags in we settled in for the 15 minute, 80 euro ride to the pier where our ship awaited us.  We were really looking forward to 3 weeks of great food and relaxation on our Italian cruise ship. 

Finally....Venice, Italy!

Venice!  This is a city we’ve always wanted to see and it’s hard to believe we’re here.  It’s a chilly 11 degrees Centigrade (let’s see….double it, subtract 10%  and add to 32) or 52 degrees Fahrenheit and we’d heard reports that there had been flooding in the city.  Our hotel host had told us by phone, and repeated himself while we checked-in, that the reports had been greatly exaggerated and not to worry.  Guess what?  No worries.

We didn’t want to stay in San Marcos because the area is very touristy and expensive.  We stayed in San Polo because we thought it might be a little more authentic while still being centrally located.  Nothing is very far away in Venice; except the airport.  San Polo featured small winding streets with plenty of shopping and the occasional café.  We stopped at the first café we saw that had pizza and panini in the window. 

Good choice!  The huge slice of pizza we shared with a good glass of wine and a quality Italian beer was expensive but worth every centivo.  The pizza was properly warmed, oiled and spiced; it melted in your mouth.  Now that’s pizza!  The beer, the wine and the slice of pizza each cost about 7 euros; Venice was looking like it would be expensive.

We decided to wander around our neighborhood for a couple of hours before dinner.  Our host had suggested a restaurant in the area and we noted its’ location while we strolled.  The best way to really see Venice is to attempt losing yourself in it while walking.  The city is flat and although there are stairs on the canal bridges they are not steep as a rule.  It is next to impossible to get truly lost in Venice but the small streets and canals make for some wonderful walks, in which you may think you are lost for quite some time.  You can run across a dead end or find yourself on a street that ends at a canal occasionally but it is a very simple matter to adjust your route around it.

Wandering the narrow streets of San Polo is a medieval experience, especially as it becomes dark and the occasional lamps are lit in the streets.  The buildings are uniformly old and as you walk the alleyways open up into one square after another almost all featuring a church of other building of historical note.  It had been a long day so we stopped at the recommended restaurant (Osteria Trattoria) and had dinner with a carafe of house table wine.  The food and the wine were a little disappointing considering the recommendation and the price but we set out for our hotel looking forward to a full night’s sleep with full bellies.

Early the next morning, well okay it was around 10 but hey, we’re in southern Europe, we struck out with big plans starting in the famous San Marcos neighborhood; but first, some coffee and sweets at a lovely little sidewalk café with a gorgeous morning view of the Rialto bridge. 

Thus fortified we crossed the bridge and entered the fabulous San Marcos where we almost immediately ran into an Irish Pub!  It was already 11 o’clock so we stopped in to evaluate the place and partake of an adult beverage; more on that later.

It’s hard to miss San Marcos plaza because there are signs with arrows on every corner in the San Marcos neighborhood. 

After walking through the very expensive shopping district we found ourselves in the square and it being November, the square only had a few thousand people in it.  We snapped a few pictures and headed to the Ducal Palace which we had been told was a “don’t miss it in spite of the cost” place to see. 

32 euros poorer we entered the palace courtyard and climbed the “passage of gold” to the open entrance.

This place is enormous and each room has a placard, in several languages including English, explaining what the room was used for.  The first room we entered had ancient maps painted on the walls and two incredible globes, one of the earth as it was viewed in the 15th century and one of the heavens.  We were fascinated and stayed in that room for nearly an hour.  Unfortunately, there were security guards in every room enforcing a strict “no photographs” policy so we are only allowed to keep our memories in our minds.

This museum provides an incredible education about the history of the Venetian culture and their unique structure of government.  The public rooms were first on the tour and each was filled with priceless artwork and artifacts.  The ducal private quarters were even more lavishly decorated and ultimately began to overwhelm the senses. 

Working our way towards the exit we found ourselves in an enormous hall with incredibly detailed paintings on the walls and on the ceilings and, upon exiting we entered an even larger, more ornate hall.  Wow!  I wish I could have photographed even a little part of the interior of this museum.  Go there!  It is worth the trip.

Exiting we found ourselves next to the San Marcos cathedral and immediately paid the small entrance feel and stepped inside.  The cathedral is rather small, as cathedrals go but is intricately and elaborately decorated.  Again, there was a prohibition against taking photographs so I cannot show here what we saw.  Unusually, the exterior of this cathedral has a number of vaults that contain paintings of biblical stories and we were able to photograph a few of those. 

Suddenly we realized that it was late afternoon, we were hungry and thirsty and it had been almost four hours since we entered the Ducal Palace.

After a quick wash up at the hotel we decided to walk deep into the San Polo neighborhood to a restaurant we had noticed (Pane Vino - since closed).  Upon arriving we were seated, handed menus and told about the special.  The ambience was nice and the waiter was very friendly and after perusing the menus we decided to order the specials.  What a mistake! 

The food was poorly prepared (I had rubbery ravioli with an uninspiring sauce), of small quantity and we were shocked when the bill arrived.  We thought there had been a mistake but as it turns out, the special cost more than if we had ordered a-la-carte and we had been double charged for the small appetizer that we had split!  Further, even though we had ordered food we had been charged for a cover.  The waiter and the owner insisted that the pricing was correct and that we had received fair value for our 120 euros (before the overpriced wine).  They made no attempt to satisfy their well behaving but increasingly irritated customers.

Great day….lousy evening,  With a full day planned for tomorrow we headed back to our little guest house for a good night’s sleep.

General strike in Spain, on the day you are scheduled to travel....

Suddenly we were going to be leaving in less than a week.  We had carefully packed in our single bag in case the baggage delivery service became confused and we would be without our bags for a few days.  All of the instructions had been in Italian.  We figured that we had a few days in Venice for our bags to catch up with us and we refused to consider the nightmare of our bags trying to chase us to South America, or not.

Granada was absolutely being inundated with rain on the Friday before we left.  The Carerra del Darro was flooded as was our little patio.  Because Baggage Express required 5 calendar days to deliver bags from Spain to Italy we stayed home all day waiting for the Bags Express person to pick up our bags.  The pickup had been scheduled for the morning and he showed up a little before 7 in the evening.  Was this Spain, Italy or the weather?

Our landlady Lourdes came by to settle up our deposit and the utilities usage and asked if we had heard about the huelga (strike).  We hadn’t.  She told us that on the following Wednesday, for 24 hours, all of the transportation workers were going to go on strike to protest the austerity measures that effected them and that all transportation would be cancelled except for that which was absolutely necessary. 

Wow, we had scheduled to leave on Wednesday afternoon and have a nice easy bus ride to Madrid, stay overnight and leisurely catch our flight the next morning.  It was time to make a new plan.  We’re going to have to evaluate the benefit of planning.  I think we’re on the verge of understanding something about the Spanish mentality here …….

We didn’t want to leave a day earlier and stay two nights in Madrid but if we caught the overnight bus to Madrid we could miss our flight if there were any significant delays and Easy Jet only flew this route a couple of days per week.  After figuring the alternatives (Ok so I’m a little obsessive) we ultimately decided to catch the 1 a.m. bus to Madrid on Thursday morning (the strike was over at midnight Wednesday) followed by a 45 minute metro ride to the airport.  This would make for a long travel day but …….

We caught our Easy Jet flight to Venice and were glad we paid a few euros extra for priority check-in.  Our flight was on time and uneventful, we even managed to sit together.  The airport in Venice seemed kind of ratty and the plane parked beside other planes away from the terminal and we passengers deplaned directly onto the apron and were directed to a waiting bus.  The bus took us on a winding 10 minute tour of the airport finally depositing us near some stairs.

Luggage collection seemed quick, probably due to the tour of the airport, and we walked out of the terminal to a cold, windy but sunny day and spent the next 10 minutes figuring out how to get to the water coach.  The airport in Venice is a very long way from the city.  Your options are to take a water taxi (very expensive) or to catch the water coach which is like a water bus. We had saved a couple of euros by purchasing our water coach tickets online (fully changeable) at Alilaguna.  The water coach is significantly cheaper (about 14 euros each) than a water taxi (80 euros for the taxi).  Of course the taxi can drop you exactly where you need to be dropped; an important feature we were later to find out.

A water taxi works on your schedule as well. 

After asking some questions we began walking to the local transportation pier that turned out to be another 10 minute walk; some of it over bumpy cobblestones which made rolling luggage problematic at times.  The water coach functions like a bus so you need to know your stop and they are limited.  You tell the pilot/driver/skipper which stop you want and your bags are piled accordingly.  The bus is generally very crowded and during the day they run about every hour.  We were crammed into the cabin of the boat and had limited views out the portholes so the 45 minute trip was rather boring.

The hotel had been trying to contact us and we were worried that there might be a problem but our Spanish cell phone had run out of minutes so we couldn’t return the call.  Just before our stop he finally reached us and we told him we were almost there.  When we reached our stop near the Rialto bridge and upon landing we realized that our hotel was on the opposite side of the Grand Canal.  We crossed the bridge (picture two tired travelers with backpacks each holding one end of a 23 kilo bag climbing and descending stairs that are very crowded) and were really glad that we had sent most of our luggage ahead.  It is impossible to wheel luggage around in Venice, you must carry it because there are many, many bridges over canals, all with stairs. 

Finally, just past the fish market, we turned a corner and found our hotel with our host standing outside waiting for us.  We stayed at Le Repubbliche Marinare which was reasonably priced and excellently located.  Our room was nice and clean and the cost of 190 euros for three nights included breakfast which was basic but good.  Our bags had arrived and we carried them up the steep flight of stairs to our room.  After checking in we bounded down the stairs, camera in hand, eager to explore this famous city, find some good Italian food and perhaps, an adult beverage.

Spain to Uruguay via Venice....shipping bags and all.

With October passing in the blink of an eye we found ourselves getting down to the last crazy things that we needed to finish in order to transition from Spain to Uruguay.  Having found Bag Express we had solved the very expensive and awkward problem of carrying your entire life with you everywhere you go, for this transition anyway.  We were already starting to wonder if we could get by with less stuff….

Bag Express needed to pick up the bags that we were shipping ahead no later than 5 days before we wanted them in Italy.  We booked a hotel for a few days in Venice prior to embarking on the ship since we had never visited Venice, and it gave us a little leeway if something happened to the bags.  The bags were to be delivered to the hotel on the day that we arrived.  We packed them with the idea that we would not open them up until we were on the ship.

We wanted to keep only what we would need to survive in Granada for the last few days we were there and the things we would need while being first time tourists in Venice.  Venice in early November is usually pretty cold, so sweaters and coats and other bulky stuff had to be packed in the bag that would stay with us.  Now, for those of you who know me well you know that I never have a problem fitting a ton of stuff into a bag, however, the problem is weight.  I can get way more weight into any bag than it is ever supposed to hold because I am such a good packer.  With airline weight restrictions that strategy is no longer an option.  With no scale available to check our bags we just decided to make the ones we were shipping heavy and try to keep the final one that would travel with us light, an organizational challenge to say the least.

The weather had turned quite cold and rain was starting to be a regular feature so cleaning the house inside and out and getting all the laundry done so we could pack it away became a bit more challenging than we had anticipated. 

Our friends Allie and Andrew were back from their trip to the US happily married and ready to get back into their real life in Granada.  All four cats had survived the summer without them but were definitely very happy to have their family back together.  We packed in a lot of tapas evenings so that we could spend time with as many of our friends as possible.   We knew we would be back at some point, but with the Peace Corps situation still unknown we really did not have any idea when that time would come and expected that it would be at least a few years. 

Granada does that to you; as soon as you know you must leave you start trying to figure out how you are going to get back someday.

And of course, just to make it memorable my birthday came in the middle of all this and we were able to spend it with Kellie and Brit at Puerta de las Pesas.  Fernando and Paloma were there with us and fixed a spectacular meal, had a very special cake made for me, and served it all with love and a wonderful Spanish Cava (Spanish version of champagne).  

This new life is all about the quality of our experiences.  This was absolutely the best birthday celebration I could have wished for.  The only thing missing was our other daughter Jasel, but she caught up with us on Skype so it was almost perfect!

Cash, Credit Cards and Banking Overseas, a few things we learned.

At first glance this subject really seems complicated.  We have been in a variety of different places using God knows how many different currencies, and we have learned a few things.  Most importantly, we don’t want to have a lot of expenses in bank charges, foreign transaction fees or lose on exchange rate transactions if at all possible.  This led us to ask various questions. 

Do we keep a certain amount of funds in different currencies? 

Do we need to open multiple bank accounts?

What credit cards do we need and how much will we use them?

Do we expect to get paid in foreign currency and how would we cash foreign checks if we actually received one?

The two things we knew up front were; 1) it can be difficult to move more than $10,000 cash out of the United States, and 2) having a bank account in another country would complicate our tax reporting and possibly expose us to taxes in that country.  We also evaluated our credit cards and realized that in addition to a 3% foreign transaction fee we would be subject to unfavorable currency exchange rates (based on our research and from previous experiences).

For us, the solutions turned out to be very simple although we spent a lot of time and effort getting there.  (It wouldn’t be the last time this happened)

The credit cards had a simple solution.  One of our cards did charge a foreign transaction fee but we simply don’t use it for anything other than online purchase (for travel or e-books for example).  We have had the account for many years and did not want to give up the long term credit relationship so we just figured out the best way to use that particular card.  This card was only to be used abroad in emergencies. 

It is possible to find credit cards offered by major issuers that don’t charge a foreign transaction fee and that utilize the best bank market currency exchange rate (Capital One among others).  The Capitol One Venture card and a few others like it also allow you to use “points” earned by using your card to pay off charges for travel and related items (free money, if you are going to be spending it anyway). 

Have at least two different credit cards in addition to a separate ATM card.  Sometimes your bank will stop a transaction because they want to verify that it is really you.  This can happen anywhere, anytime as a security measure for the issuing bank and having another card or two may come in handy so you don't get stuck until you have time to get on Skype and call your credit card company to verify that you are really you and that, yes, you really were in Brazil Friday, Buenos Aires Saturday and today you are in Montevideo.

Unlike in the US, the majority of people, including us, use cash for almost all local transactions outside of the US.  In many countries vendors will charge you extra to use a card, they add the two to five percent that the processing company will charge them to your purchase amount so that they still net their full price.  Cash in the local currency is the best way to go and it helps you seem like less of a tourist as well.  

Both of us really have an issue with being charged to use our own money.  We needed a strong electronic banking relationship that didn’t charge us monthly fees or transaction fees.  Since we primarily intended to withdraw funds, in the local currency, wherever we happened to be, from ATM machines, we needed to find a solution for the ATM fees.   We also needed to be able to make deposits, perhaps in a variety of currencies, occasionally move amounts of money around and pay bills automatically and electronically.

The solution; the Charles Schwab High Yield Investor Checking account.  This was easy for us because we already had a brokerage account with Schwab.  A brokerage account is required in order to have the checking account but they are easy to open and neither account has a minimum balance requirement.  The brokerage account is useful for wire transfers, especially foreign transfers.  Schwab provides market rates on their currency exchanges and rebates all ATM fees, from any machine, anywhere in the world.  An added bonus; the checking account pays a better interest rate than most money market accounts.  

We evaluated a number of US banks along with PayPal and Intuit just to name a few and the Schwab account provided us with everything we needed.  Everybody’s circumstances are different so when you know what your needs will be, do some investigation on your own.  Don’t over complicate it, simple is better.

A final note; it is becoming more and more difficult for US citizens to open bank accounts abroad due in part, to the reporting requirements of the IRS.  Some countries require residency to open an account and in fact, a majority of US based banks won’t open accounts for US citizens living in most other countries period.  Make sure you really need to bank outside the US before you take the step of opening a foreign bank account.

If you need a foreign account, find a bank and open one.  Be aware though that outside of the US banking is definitely a “fee for service” environment and you will not find “free” accounts.  You will pay fees to open, set-up and maintain your bank account pretty much everywhere outside the US.  

Western Union, Moneygram, three currencies, one apartment and too much luggage.

October was turning into a whirlwind month with all of our travel around Spain and getting ready to move to Uruguay.  The weather was still beautiful with only some occasional rain and now our friends Ash and Donna from Marbella came up to visit us.

After some frustrating cross connections on our phones we finally tracked them down at the Minotaur Bar at the bottom of the hill and we ordered, what else, bottles of Alhambra 1925 (otherwise known as “verde” or “milno” depending upon the bar and the location).  Since we started late, it was late when we turned in.

Early the next morning (for us, in Spain that’s 9 or 10) we arose and over coffee took turns taking showers.  By noon we were ready for breakfast and we set out for Puertas de las Pesas for our normal coffee, juice and tostadas.  Since it was a weekend and because Ash and Donna were there and, most importantly, because we were in Spain, breakfast was topped off with an adult beverage…..or two.  We sure like it when these two get together with us.

The weather was beautiful so we went “a tapeo” around the Albaycin starting at the top where Ash took some very nice photos at San Nicolas. 

Later we hooked up with our friends Tony and Chessa at Hannigans and ran into Kellie and Brittani while we were there.  Bacon sandwiches ensued!

Strolling back up the Albaycin we stopped for a nightcap at Puertas de las Pesas around 10 or 11 where we ran into our friend  Hassan and his lady friend and decided to go up to another friend, Ray’s place “La Terraza” for some continuing entertainment.  We picked up another friend, Nicole on the way and suddenly we were a good sized group.  It was just a normal Saturday night in the Albaycin.

At La Terraza we were joined by yet more friends and we all enjoyed great food, great conversation and the wonderful sounds of Wahdi playing his guitar.  We were all exhausted by the early morning hours and decided to call it a night although others were going to yet another after hours place.  It had been just the right amount of fun.

We said good-bye to Ash and Donna the next morning after breakfast and they returned home to Marbella while the weather was good.  We now turned our attention to our upcoming move to Uruguay.  Suddenly, we realized, that there was not much more time before we were scheduled to leave and that we were saying good-bye to friends that we might not see again for a considerable amount of time.

The practicalities of moving were upon us.  We had to get ourselves, two backpacks and four heavy (23 kilos each) duffel bags to our hotel in Venice and then to our ship.  After considering a complicated three day journey involving trains and ferries we decided that it simply made more sense to fly if….. we could travel with only one checked bag.  Enter Bag Express.  We found that for about 50 euros per bag, we could send our bags ahead to our hotel.  This was far cheaper than the several hundred euro charge for extra checked bags on the discount airline EasyJet (about 800 dollars for all four of our bags).  The only catch; we had to allow seven days for the bags to be delivered which meant that packing would have to be carefully done.

One problem solved.  Now we had to tackle another seemingly simple task but one that, in hindsight, was a preview to our Uruguay experience.  We discovered that apartment prices in Uruguay skyrocketed for the months of December through March and we finally found what appeared to be a reasonable apartment in the location we were looking for.  Now we needed to send a deposit to hold the apartment.  Simple right?

The imobliaria (rental agent) in Uruguay needed 500 US dollars sent to her but, here’s the catch; she could only accept US dollars, in cash so we were limited to MoneyGram or Western Union, both expensive solutions.  The situation was further complicated by the fact that, being in Europe, we were dealing in euros, obviously, so we were looking at getting killed at least twice on the exchange rates, and possibly three times if they insisted on sending the wire in Uruguayan pesos and then having the imobliaria convert to dollars in Uruguay.

Western Union seemed the easy solution - we could do it on line from our US bank account in dollars and avoid any currency exchange issues, perfect... right?  Wrong!  Western Union would not allow us to use their on-line service because we were not currently in the US (our IP address was alas, a Spanish one and is one more reason to obtain a VPN service) "please go in person to a Western Union office in Granada with your identification and we will be happy to help you", came the auto-response.  In the morning we headed down the hill and after over two hours of walking and three different Western Union offices we gave up in despair.  It just simply could not be done, even after one manager called their headquarters and was told they could and should do it, no one was able to make it work.  Evidently, in order to use my US bank account and send money to a foreign country I had to be either in the US or in the country I was trying to send the money to.  

The following day we dutifully went to an ATM, took out enough Euros to cover it and found the one place in the Albaycin that could send a MoneyGram to Uruguay for us, they of course, charged exorbitant fees and gave horrible exchange rates, but they did allow us to send dollars so we avoided the additional pesos to dollars conversion..

What a stupid way to do business we thought and sure enough, the imobliaria had quite a difficult time acquiring the cash after we emailed the pick-up code to her.  Why on earth wouldn't she accept PayPal or any other normal electronic payment system?  We figured it served her right, but we learned that this was more common than we thought and would come back to bite us again later.