The tourism thread

[Helmut83]

[unomusette]

While we're on a roll, here we go for part 2, Son of Venice, the tourist trail.

Our first landmark was the Rialto Bridge, it has shops along both sides of it and did become rather clogged with tourists by the end of the day. It's one of only three bridges we could find that crossed the Grand Canal

Here's a better view without so many gormless tourists in front of it, but with some gondolas inexplicably both wanting to be in the same square foot of water.


Just behind the bridge on the right hand side, you can see a tall building with a bunch of people on top. This is a really swish department store where you could only get in if a guy in a suit opened the door for you. We could see it from our hotel roof terrace and were determined to get in and see the view - once we realised they'd open the door for anyone we breezed in trying to look like eccentric millionaires. Inside it was really cool, with an indoor courtyard housing a (probably extortionate) coffee shop

They only let 80 people at a time onto the roof for about 15 minutes, but we only had to wait for the last crowd to be shooed away. I bet it's a lot longer wait in the summer. The views were, as predicted, amazing. This is looking up towards our hotel, which is on the right bank just by a tall white pole with a load of gondolas parked in front. In the background you can see the Dolomite mountains, which had snow on the tops.

This is looking the other way, across the top of the Rialto Bridge


And so on to St Mark's Square, on the one day there were clouds in the sky. Here's the Basilica and the Campanile bell tower. I LOVE that Campanile, it's so enormous and so completely unreasonable when you think it's built on a swamp. I'd have liked to go up it but it was shut

Good news for cheapskates, it's free to get into the Basilica and it's really beautiful inside with lots of gold mosaics on the ceiling.


The floors weren't half bad either, all those triangles are tiny pieces of different sorts of marble, and they were as smooth as anything despite being walked over all the time


The other big attraction is the Doge's Palace, on the right in this pic, where Venice's head honchos used to live. Don't panic, it's not sinking beneath the waves, I think Mr Musette needs to learn about keeping the camera level...


Inside it was amazing, this is the stairs up into it, the ornate ceiling was just the first of many

See?

And there were stacks of paintings like this, with a million things going on


This is the Bridge of Sighs, which leads from the Doge's Palace into the prison. Condemned people could have a last glimpse at Venice before going to their doom, hence the name.

Here's the view from inside, you can see crowds of tourists taking photos of it from a bridge further down


Getting tired yet? Tough

After much whingeing from me about not being able to go up the Campanile, we took a vaporetto across to a little island called San Giorgio where there's a monastery with an almost identical tower which you can go up in a lift. The view back across Venice is fantastic, you can see the shadow of the tower we were in just at the bottom.

There was a warning that the bells rang the time every half hour, unfortunately for us we were there at 12 noon so they rang for blimmin' ages, argh! Me lugholes!

We ventured across the lagoon by trusty vaporetto, to Murano where they do clever things with glass





And Burano where all the houses are brightly coloured like some mad kid's TV programme



And the island that's just a massive cemetery where lots of people are buried in high rise tombs like blocks of flats



Nice scuplture in the water on the way back from there


Alright, you've probably had enough of all this culture. We had, and so we acquired some beer from the trusty kebab shop and rested our aching feet under a very rare thing in Venice - an actual tree! (Kebab shop just out of shot)


Next instalment...soon. Unless you're done with this whole lark of course
NOTE: If you ever go to Venice for more than a couple of days, there's great museum pass which gets you into 11 musuems including the Doge's Palace - it costs 24 euros but the admission fee to that one alone is 19 euros so it's a proper bargain

*wins Cheapskate of the Year 2017*

[Helmut83]

Wow, Uno, we can't say we are not getting our photos of your trip! The first one looks like everyone is poking out of the bridge to look at you two, it looks like they are going to start applauding you at any moment (in which case you would have had to kiss or something).

Birra Moretti! That beer is famous in Italy! Was it good? Nice sculpture in the water, although it seems like while the woman is pointing at something in the distance the guy is taking advantage of the situation. Those coloured houses make that street look gorgeous, and the man sitting, wow, what a sculpture! Cemeteries in Argentina are exactly the same as that one. Wonderful views from a charming city.

Let's see what the next installment brings...

[Helmut83]

Nice photos of Egypt, Horacewimp! To be honest, the city does look quite ugly to me, all brown and the buildings are so charmless. What must be fascinating is the amount of history you can be in touch with there. Those monuments are so well preserved, you wouldn't believe they are so ancient.

That incident of the AK47 though... I reckon it must not be a daily sight, but I'm not surprised either. Unfortunately those countries are quite dangerous. I'm not sure I'd dare to visit.

What you say about the attitude the Egyptians had during your second visit, my sister and her husband suffered something similar in Morocco. They got permanently harrassed in the streets, taxi drivers tried to scam them, everything they paid for they tried to charge them in excess. She said the moment of crossing to Spain couldn't come fast enough.

[Horacewimp]

Great pictures unomusette, looking forward to part 3.

[Horacewimp]

Feb 1, 2017 5:25:16 GMT Helmut83 said:

Nice photos of Egypt, Horacewimp ! To be honest, the city does look quite ugly to me, all brown and the buildings are so charmless. What must be fascinating is the amount of history you can be in touch with there. Those monuments are so well preserved, you wouldn't believe they are so ancient.

The actual City of Luxor is a dump like I guess a lot of African towns. It's saving grace is its museum, Luxor Temple which is right in its centre and Karnak Temple which is on the outskirts of the town.

It is great as a base you can cross the Nile to the West Bank and it's totally different, little houses, fields and agriculture, not forgetting The Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, Queen Hatshepsut's Temple, Deir el-Medina, Colossi of Memnon, Papyrus Factories to name but a few of the attractions.

[queenofthehours]

Those Egyptian pictures are superb, Horacewimp . Very atmospheric. Stuff Thomas Cook, Horace has better photographs than any holiday brochure . I especially love the picture of the sunset over the river with the boat.

Wonderful Venice pics, unomusette . If I had a room with a view like that I'd be sat there all day just looking out the window! Those masks - both fascinating and sinister. I love that Murano glass, I'd buy it all, it's so beautiful.

All those photos make Venice look as gorgeous as everyone says it is. I can't tell the difference between unomusette 's pictures and Canaletto .

[unomusette]

Thanks for the likes Helmut83 and queenofthehours  

It really was like being in a painting, especially on the Grand Canal and at St Mark's Square, probably because hardly any of the buildings have changed since the city was first created. I could guess exactly where that Canaletto was painted as I remember a building with pointy bits on like the one on the left and pondering aloud why they bothered putting them on the roof. They weren't chimneys, I think they're just for fun, or possibly to show off to the neighbours. It's that kind of place, a bit frivolous but totally charming.

As for the beer, it certainly was the most popular brand I'd say and jolly good too. The other beer we drank a lot of was Forst, which sounds German but is apparently Italian, yummy. Trust Helmut83 to see the sculpture like that - now I can't see it any other way either

[Helmut83]

Feb 1, 2017 23:20:49 GMT unomusette said:

Trust Helmut83 to see the sculpture like that - now I can't see it any other way either

Hard to "unsee" it now, huh?

Hey, and you complained about it being crowded? Look at the piece of art queenofthehours shared, that has to be an invasion of Japanese tourists without a doubt.

[unomusette]

I blame Marco Polo for the invasion of Orientals, he started it by going and stirring them up....

[Helmut83]

Yeah, but at the same time Marco Polo brought silk that orientals produced with their saliva.

[BSJ]

Big fresh bag of popcorn ready for the next riveting travelogue!

[Horacewimp]

Feb 2, 2017 20:02:07 GMT BSJ said:

Big fresh bag of popcorn ready for the next riveting travelogue!

I can do one tomorrow, any requests.

East Europe, West Europe, North Europe, UK or America.

[vlogdance]

Feb 2, 2017 20:41:25 GMT Horacewimp said:

Feb 2, 2017 20:02:07 GMT BSJ said:

Big fresh bag of popcorn ready for the next riveting travelogue!

I can do one tomorrow, any requests.

East Europe, West Europe, North Europe, UK or America.

Didn't you once mention Croatia, Horace? 

I went to Dubrovnik once, on the Dalmatian coast. In true Eurovision style, it got my douze points. Plus there were cats wandering around. 
(We didn't see any Dalmatians, alas, although I did hear a far-off bark. But in the film, all 101 of them had American accents, so it was hard to tell.) 

[Horacewimp]

Feb 2, 2017 20:49:31 GMT vlogdance said:

Feb 2, 2017 20:41:25 GMT Horacewimp said:

I can do one tomorrow, any requests.

East Europe, West Europe, North Europe, UK or America.

Didn't you once mention Croatia, Horace? 

I went to Dubrovnik once, on the Dalmatian coast. In true Eurovision style, it got my douze points. Plus there were cats wandering around. 
(We didn't see any Dalmatians, alas, although I did hear a far-off bark. But in the film, all 101 of them had American accents, so it was hard to tell.) 

I have got some photos of Dubrovnik and the surrounding area, very beautiful scenery, I'll post them up tomorrow. We saw plenty of Russians but no Dalmatians.