May 19, 2022
It’s another travel day and we have things to do before we get on the train at 12:20pm. After breakfast we met up and walked a half-mile or so to the pharmacy that does the Covid antigen tests we need in order to get back in to the United States. This is the place Aiden went to yesterday and it went pretty well. They took copies of our passports, lined us up, did the swab, and said it would be 15-minutes or so for the test results.
While we were waiting, Mark and I walked over to the the Galileo museum so he could exchange a book he’d bought the day before that was in French for one in English. That went well and as we arrived at the pharmacy our test results were being handed out. All of us were negative so we are are good to go.
We are down to a total of 7 in our group since Aiden left to go back home today and Terrin has left to meet his wife who just flew over. We headed over to another art supply store to see what they had. We passed the Duomo which looked like it was getting some work done.
We decided to go back to the hotel and check out but leave our luggage there while we went to the Central Market for an early lunch.
We went to the Poke vegetarian place where I had lunch the other day. I tried the Mediterranean burger and it was great.
We went back to the hotel and picked up our bags and did the walk to the train station. We found our track and waited for the train.
The train ride was pleasant, except for the guy in the next row who was sleeping with a very loud snore. When he woke up he got his phone out and was watching something with volume up loud.
I worked on the watercolor for the sketch I did the other day and pretty much finished it.
The scenery was nice and the train is really smooth.
We arrived in Venice and walked about one-half mile to our new hotel. This is on the “mainland,” not the old part of Venice where we stayed before. It’s quite modern and looks like any other major city.
Checking in was amusing.
We got settled in our rooms. Mine is pretty nice and located just off a terrace.
Several of the others went to the corner shop for a snack and Jodi, Mark, and I joined them after a bit. The place had an interesting light fixture.
We decided to walk to the commercial center of the city and possibly visit a museum.
The museum, which was about the history of social science, was getting ready to close so we headed on to the center of town. We went past a small kiddie ride place, a canal, and eventually a piazza. We settled in at a place for some refreshments.
We were curious about the large tower that sat nearby and walked over to it. Inside it turns out that it was the original gate to the walled city many hundreds of years ago. A woman there explained the history of the area over a 3D model of what it might have looked like back then. We the took the stairs to the top of the tower.
It turns out that this long piazza we are walking through has been the main commercial road through this area for hundreds of years. We continued on and found a place for our last group dinner in Italy. The food was very good, just like always.
We headed back to the hotel while taking in the sights.
The others, who have an early flight, headed to the hotel while Mark, Jodi, and I went across the nearby park to a place for a nightcap. It turns out that the place was the Anda Venice Hostel. It wasn’t what we expected and I surmised that it was the type of place where well-off young people go for their gap year. None of that sleeping on the floor. This was communal but quite upscale. We went out to their courtyard which had a cabana-type bar, lots of tables, and lots of people. A stage set up with instruments promised some live music so we got our drinks and wandered around.
We decided to call it a day. I worked on the blog a little before turning in and was awakened with a message at 3am from the early risers that United 325, which most of us are eventually taking from Denver to Billings, has been cancelled due to a winter storm. I check my email and the only messages I had were two warnings from United that weather may cause some delays or disruptions of service. I open the United app and it showed that my flight to Billings is cancelled.
So, as of Friday morning, it looks like we will all just try to get back to the states and figure out rerouting options once we are there. Elizabeth indicated that flights aren’t available to Billings until Sunday. I guess we’ll get an extended vacation.
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