Venizia

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The day before yesterday we took a train from Rome to Venice. It was a nice ride that went without problems. Our transfer guide met us as scheduled and we got to our hotel without a hitch, where we met up with the rest of our party who also arrived safely! The seven of us had a nice dinner and went for an evening Vaparetto ride on the Grande Cannal before turning in.

I would like to be posting pictures as I had planned but due to security restrictions on the shipboard computers, that's not as easy as it sounds, so it seems the pictures will have to wait for our return. They have Skype blocked too, so no cheap phone calls either! grr... Yesterday we had a guided tour of Venice in the morning. We saw Saint Marc's Square, the Clock tower, the Bascilica de St. Marc and the Doges (sp?) Palace as well as a few boutiques. Our guide was quite well informed and pleasant. I almost bought a Salvador Dali original sculpture, a painted bronze melting clock hanging over a tree branch.

In the afternoon we boarded the MS. Veendam. There are roughly 1200 passengers and half as many crew. As is expected with Holland America, everything is top notch. After lunch on board, a liesurely tour of the ship and a stop by the spa to schedule our services for the week, we settled in to the room for a nap at about four in the afternoon. We slept through dinner and rose about eight in the evening and went in search of sustanance. I think this is about the only time when it is difficult to find food on this ship. The main dinning had just ended and the late night buffet doesn't open until eleven. We eventually found Pizza and Mojitos in the crows nest about ten o'clock. We played some Black Jack for a few hours; I'm down $40 at the moment and Julie tried to get me to walk away when I was up $150. One poor guy at the table lost several hundred while we watched.

We turned in about midnight and the first thing Julie said this morning was, "I've decide that I like cruises!" I had little doubt! After a quick bite to eat, we had our scheduled tandem massage. As I write this, the ship is pulling in to Dubrovnik Croatia. We have a shore excursion planned so I must run and prepare. We are having a fantastic time and time is passing much too quickly!

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Comments

[Luke]

Hey Jealousy....
It sounds......ruff.