Vienna to Venice

27 May – Sunday

Left Vienna with regrets (especially the Hilton Hotel), vowing to return for a longer period of time. Much cooler today with rain developing. The drive through the Alps involved lots of tunnels and viaducts and some lovely scenery. Even with the rain, the clouds were fairly high and the mountains still visible, with pockets of mist and some cloud wrapping around the hills. Italy – and much heavier rain, in fact, the Venetian Plain had suffered a severe storm just before we drove through, the corn fields were under water, a large amount of wheat had been flattened and some trees were down.

Venice – first impressions were not good. Rainy, smelly, dirty with garbage floating in the lagoon. The boats which had been ordered for us hadn’t arrived, the tour director had to find others, it absolutely poured, the lagoon was rough, the boats dropped us at the wrong place and we had to walk through the rain and back streets to St Marks Plaza. We were supposed to have a welcome drink sitting in the square, making all the tourists jealous, but as it was too wet the tour director managed to get the café to let us inside. The Caffe Lavena is evidently pretty exclusive, being the oldest café in Venice (over 1000 years old) and the only one in the Square with live music. The violin, double bass and piano players were marvellous. Then it was back out into the rain for a walk to the boat and discovered that a regatta was being held, with everyone dressed in medieval costume. Another boat ride to Lido, where our hotel is, and what a difference! This island doesn’t have canals and crumbling buildings, it has a much more holiday feel to it, more like a seaside resort with a beach only a block away. The hotel is undergoing renovations on the outside, so the manager wanted to apologise and gave us all a glass of champagne on arrival. Venice is starting to look better!!!