Arriving in Venice

We departed Dulles at 3:40PM Thursday and arrived Frankfurt at 5:15AM Friday.  At 8:10AM we left Frankfurt, arriving into the Marco Polo Airport at 9:30AM (or 3:30AM our time).

The airport is on the mainland northeast of Venice.  We took an Alilaguna launch from the airport to the stop nearest our hotel, Fondamenta Dell’orto, about a 30 minute trip.

We are staying at the Boscolo Dei Dogi Hotel, in the Cannaregio, a neighborhood facing the lagoon on the Northern edge of Venice. Our room was ready about 30 minutes after we arrived.

After a quick shower and change of clothes we strolled toward San Marco.  It was a beautiful day, sunny and in the high 60s.

Neither one of us slept much on the flight.  About 4:00 we returned to the hotel for a nap, but headed out again about 6PM.  It is now 9 and we are dead tired.  But here are a few pictures of our first day in Venice. Clicking on any picture should display a larger version.

Here's Jeannie in the lobby of our hotel.

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This is a view out of our hotel window.  The tower is the Madonna Dell'Orto (Our Lady of the Vegetable Garden) Church

This is the front of the church, same tower as above.

This is corner of a building not far from our hotel.  The statue is of a Greek merchant who built this as his house in the 12th Century.

On our walk we purchased a wine-screw from the store in the corner.  This is essentially a Venetian "Dollar Store."  Almost everything here sells for 1 Euro (there are also 2 Euro and 3 Euro corners).  Can you imagine a Dollar Store with contemporary jazz playing over the sound system, situated between a Clarks Shoe Store and a wine bar?

Here's Jeannie at lunch.

We first went to San Marco just after lunch, but it was so crowded we made a quick retreat.  We returned about 7PM and, as you can see below, it had cleared out nicely.

We window-shopped and chatted the way back to our hotel, returning just as the sun was setting over the canal.

Now to sleep.  More tomorrow.  Much love.