I am sitting at Marco Polo airport in the BA lounge drinking a glass of wine. I have had an amazing weekend and even enjoyed it by myself! There were so many times I wished or imagined Jamie with me though, especially watching the couples go down the canals in gondolas.... Oh well, it just means that I must go back!!! There was so much I didn't see that I could go back for a whole week and be happy.

I arrived Friday night at about 11pm. I got lost walking 5 minutes to the vaporetto stop. Don't ask me how.... the man said go out of the airport to the left and walk 5 minutes.... yeah so I got lost.. I eventually saw a mass of lights and headed that way and lo and behold!! A dock. Well the getting lost part made me miss a vaporetto by about 3 minutes so I had to wait 40 minutes for the next one. A group of us considered pooling together and taking a taxi (very expensive...) but the man had said 20 minutes.. when we asked him 10 minutes later he said 20 minutes again. There was a lot of people in front of us so we took the vaporetto instead. A vaporetto is like a miniature barge. It's basically a water bus. It took about an hour and I got off at San Marco (my hotel was within a 5 minute walk.) It was somewhere around midnight at this point and I was exhausted and just wanted to go to bed. This is when I remembered that I had forgot the directions to my hotel... Venice is not exactly know for it's logically laid out streets. I tried looking at the map for my hotel and gave up pretty quickly. Taking a lesson from the fantastic gay couple on Amazing Race a few series ago, I popped into the nearest luxury hotel and asked directions. The man at the desk was so friendly!! He gave me another more detailed map and circled my hotel and his hotel and showed me how to get there!! Thank you Amazing Race! (Can I sign up now?) I was so surprised when I got there, I had only reserved it on Wednesday evening and booked it because it was so cheap and near San Marco. But wow! It was such a nice little hotel. I recommend it to everyone. La Locandiera (http://www.lalocandiera-ve.com/) The man at the front desk was named Ivan and he was very nice and helpful. But I didn't meet him until the morning. When I got there the man at the desk only spoke spanish, I kind of felt at home... ahhh... I got to my room and was so pleased to see it was pretty and clean and oh the bathtowels!! When you travel and stay at cheap hotels as much as I do, you really appreciate nice towels!

I was so excited the next morning, I hurried up and showered and ran to Piazza San Marco. The book had said to get there early before all the tourists showed up. Well I wasn't early enough, there were other people there but a lot less than later in the day. I snapped a few of my first pictures and marvelled at where I was. So very amazing.... wow. I walked back to the hotel and had my breakfast and got ready for the day. About an hour later I was back at San Marco and it was packed!! Wow what a difference an hour makes. I lined up to go into the Basilica and it started to rain. Not too much, just a little but it was still warm out so it felt nice. Inside the Basilica was beautiful just as expected. A cool thing though that makes it stand out from the million other churches I have seen were the four horses at the top. You can go up into the church museum and go out on the terrace and see the horse replicas outside. It was agreat view though as I was able to see down into the square and out into the canal. I think I got some very good pictures. Inside the museum they have the original 4 horses that were looted from Constantinople back in 1200 something. They were beautiful, unfortunately I couldn't take a picture of them. I then went into the Palazzo Ducale, this is where the important people of Venice met and had political mumbo jumbo meetings. Very swell inside to see. It never ceases to amaze me how much money politicians spent on buildings and art and monuments to themselves.

A bit of a walk down the Calle Larga 22 Mazo, which is Venices Rodeo Drive and then for some lunch. Pizza fo course!! I sat right across from a group of men selling brand name purse knock offs. It was fascinating! Not as exciting as watching the women of Amsterdam do their business in the windows but interesting nonetheless. It makes you not even want to express any interest at all or they practically chase you down the street trying to make a deal!

Most of the rest of the day is a blur of churches, buildings, canals and bridges, and most of all... walking. By around 6pm I was half dead so I went back to my room and took a nap! Around 8:30 I managed to get myself up and out and I went to San Marco and had another pizza on one of the side streets. I then treated myself to a tea in the Piazza. I sat at a table outside at the Lavana restaraunt and listened to the band play. 3 of the restaraunts in the square have bands that play on these stands outside It was so nice. The weather was warm and I had a happy tummy full of pizza and I was just so content!!

Today I went down and talked to my new friend Ivan. He arranged for taxi to come pick me and another couple up and take us over to Murano to a glass factory. The taxi was so much fun! It is a speed boat that is specially fitted as a taxi. It picked us up in a canal and drove through them a bit until we got out of Venice then we were out in the sea. It is interesting. They have all these bouys set up to create roads and they drive the boats on the right. I absolutely loved it! And it was free!! It turns out it is paid for by the factory. We got dropped off at their door and they ushered us in and showed us how the glass makers work and then hustled me into the showroom. Right off the bat I made it clear to the guy that I wasn't interested... well after about the 3rd vase he showed me that was over €2000!! Jamie would be proud of me, I didn't buy anything. I left and had lunch and started to wander around. I did actually want to buy something but I knew €2000 was a bit out of my price range. I found that the further I walked from the maid area, the better the prices got. I saw the same things as the first place but at half and sometimes 1/3 the price!! I did finally find a couple of things and left the island as there wasn't much else to do there but spend money.

I took the vaporetto back to Venice and walked back to the hotel to drop off my purchases. Then the best part. I put away the map and the book and just started walking. I try to do this on every trip. See all the touristy stuff that I must see and then spend part of the second day just taking my time and walking around. This is when I get a feel for the city and really enjoy it. I was able to just wander into shops and sit and eat gelatti (mmm... mom!) It was a lovely end. And now here I am in the airport waiting to go back to London. Only 4 more trips left! Home in 4 weeks, then Budapest, Athens and Vienna. It's down to the countdown now! I'll work on getting the pics up sometime tomorrow. Hope you all have a great day off work tomorrow!