Wednesday, September 17, 2014

A quiet last day in Berlin and travelling to Venice!

With the church bells chiming each hour we began a pretty leisurely start to our last day in Berlin. We needed to pack pretty precisely for Air Berlin and are pretty tired so we opted for an easy day - we need to leave some things to come back for!!

We took the chance to ring people at home and arranged for Todd to come up to Mitte for dinner before heading out to Maur (aka "Wall") Park where there is a huge "trash and treasure" market. This was  good insight although there wasn't much to entice us, we did, however, complete our "presents" catalogue with ease! A quick dash into the city to pick one  last thing for Les then home about 4:30 - central Berlin really does shuit down on a Sunday! Galleries Lafayette was closed ... how would DJs keep the shareholders happy??

With the usual pre-travelling restless night behind us (aka Mick's anxieties!) we were up at 6:30 and out the door by 7:30. We took the "U" to Alexanderplatz and the Tegel airport bus which meandered around the whole city before dropping us, choc-a-block by this stage, at Tegel around 8:20

Sorting Air Berlin was easy enough (if a bit like leaving Wagga!) and we arrived uneventfully inat Marco Polo airport in Venice around 12. We rang Brigitte from a payphone and caught the Vaporetto (after about a 40 min wait!). This is indeed a lovely, gently-paced introduction to Venice even though our path took us via Lido rather than San Marco. It took a good 90 minutes but gave us plenty of time to orient ourselves using the maps. 

When we alighted at Arsenale, there was no sight of Brigitte but it has to be said that you couldn't have waited in many nicer places in the world!!! San Marco and San Giorgio Maggiore in the background and the sun shining and warm!!!! Mick borrowed the phone from a Melbourne couple and rang Brigette, who had met the 2 pm ferry, she scuttled down and all was well. Aflat walk (only one bridge!) with clear instructions - left at the Photographiers; right at the canal; cross the bridge opposite the Church; left at "the Lion"; past the free Wi-Fi and down the passageway! Easypeasy!!

The weather was glorious so we immediately unpacked and headed out to check out the supermarket etc, The Coop is a bit ordinary but we at least purchased milk and coffee and a nearby fruitshop had some much better fruit, As we hadn't had lunch we had some lovely bruschetta and a beer (much dearer here than elsewhere!!). Home again for a little while than exploring the various ways to San Marco - the crowds there, to put it mildly, are overwhelming but we wandered for a while, had a beer in one of the outrageously priced places (just for the sake of it!! .. 15 Euro each!!), some pizza at a much smaller nicer place on the way home and collapsed into bed, after a lovely, luxurious bath!!!

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