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.
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