The Long Haul

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After 41 hours of travel, my parents and I arrived at our hotel in Venice. But it wasn't that much of a fun trip. A turbulent flight from Sydney to Singapore left me feeling less than chirpy and then at Singapore we missed the city tour because in our haste to join it, we left our boarding passes in our luggage in the cloakroom! Instead we booked into the transit hotel for just over five hours. The next flight was full, so there was no switching seats and spreading out like the first flight. This was the 12 or so hours to Milan too. We arrived in Milan to find we had to wait for the car hire place to open, but after about half an hour we got our car and were on our way to Venice. The drive was pretty much limited to the autostrada, which meant the first part was relatively un-scenic. Closer to Lago di Garda and onwards our appetites for the Italian countryside were whetted as we could see the beautiful towns resting on the hillsides surrounded by vineyards.

Finally we arrived in Venice and while it took a while to figure out where to leave our hire car, we managed to catch the vaporetto to the wharf closest to our hotel. Which wasn't actually that close. After walking with our luggage (even across bridges) we found our hotel and even though we were early (it was only 12:30pm) we were able to check in. At around 2pm we headed out for lunch, but actually didn't have any until 5:30pm! We were distracted by the beauty of Venice and the Doge's Palace. What a way to spend the first afternoon in Venice, wandering through the palace and enjoying the quaint streets and bridges that connect Venice at every point. We had some gelato (limone of course) earlier in the afternoon and then an early dinner at a random restaurant on our walk home.

Definitely looking forward to our next few days exploring Venice!

x Sarah

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