It gets light very late in the arctic so we had a lazy morning in bed and went down to breakfast about 9:30am. Breakfast is buffet style and there is a section of cereals, breads and toasts with jam, some sort of unidentifiably porridge type mush, baby sausages and what looked like scrambled egg but tasted like baked custard… There were also croissants and several cheeses, cured meats, tomato, smoked salmon and cucumber to choose from. Following breakfast, we collected our clothes (ski jumpsuits and boots) and went back to the igloo to try them on for size. We didn’t think we needed them today so we put our own thermals and clothes on and went for a walk into the village. It is only a few hundred metres down the road and there is another ... read more

This morning we had a light breakfast and spent our final morning walking around the town and looking in shops. Our hotel had allowed us to check out an hour later than usual, at 1pm, so at 11:30am we went to our favourite restaurant, Pizzeria Ristorante Dolfin, for our final dinner. We had a delicious meal (Insalata Primavera for Jo and Lasagne and Insalata Caprese for me). Our waiters gave us a complimentary drink to finish and kissed us goodbye. We will really miss them and the superb food there. After dashing back to our hotel room to put our final things in our cases, we walked back across the bridge to the Piazzale Roma, where the coaches leave from. It is only a 2 minute walk and there was a bus there already so we ... read more

This morning we walked to The Ghetto with the aim of being at the Museo Ebraico (Jewish Museum of Venice) in time for their daily tour. We stopped on the way for a quick breakfast to eat on the go and walked through the tunnel which was the entrance to the Ghetto. The Ghetto is on an island accessible by 3 bridges and in the early years (1500s or so) the Jews were not allowed to leave their homes at night. The Museo Ebraico has a small entrance but extends upstairs and either side into buildings next door. There were originally 5 synagogues in The Ghetto and there are no others in Venice. We were taken into the 2 smaller Ashkenazi synagogues, which are only rarely used today. The first is the oldest and is in ... read more

This morning we had our breakfast at a different café then wandered around the streets for a while, ending up at the Rialto Markets. As it was a wet day, we mooched around the shops for a while and then came back to our hotel room at midday for a cup of tea and a rest before heading off again to go to Scuola Grande di San Rocco. This had amazing floors, wooden carvings and paintings along the walls and ornate carved and painted ceilings. They had large magnified mirrors there that you could use to walk around and look at reflections of the ceiling in. Across from this was the Leonardo da Vinci Museum, which had copies of his paintings and wooden replicas of a lot of his inventions. You were allowed to touch them ... read more

This morning, I left the Arthur Findlay College and my cousin Christine drove me to her place where my other cousin Jo collected me to go to London Gatwick Airport for our flight to Venice. We landed and got a coach to the terminus area and then walked to our hotel, the Hotel Papadopoli Venezia. http://www.sofitel.com/gb/hotel-1313-hotel-papadopoli-venezia-mgallery-by-sofitel/index.shtml https://www.accorhotels.com/gb/hotel-1313-hotel-papadopoli-venezia-mgallery-by-sofitel/index.shtml After settling into our room, we walked a few streets until we found an amazing restaurant where we had dinner. Jo and I shared a delicious Bruschetta and then she had Gnocchi and I had lasagne. It was the best I have ever tasted as it literally melted in my mouth. Wow….. Our hotel is amazing, with brocade wallpaper and doors and crystal doorknobs. What an experience. :-)... read more