Grand World Voyage Part 9: Mediterranean

Venice, Italy. This was an interesting stop for me because I had been to Venice back in 1967. I remembered a little of it, but was looking forward to seeing the city through new eyes. It started with the sail in, which was early in the morning, and well worth being up for.
























The first day we had an excursion that toured the city by water. That was very pleasant, and there was much to see that was beautiful. At the end of the boat ride we ended up at one of the restaurants in the Piazza San Marco, where we were introduced to a now favorite drink, the peach Bellini, and had some wonderful green olives (the only ones I've ever considered edible; they may have been fresh). This was an altogether enjoyable day.




























On the second day we had signed up for a walking tour. That enabled us to see the city from an entirely different point of view. We walked from the train station, through town, to the Piazza San Marco. There were some passages between houses that were intended for public use but that are barely wide enough for one person to get through. We stopped at a market for a while; the produce was beautiful. We crossed the Rialto Bridge, saw gondoliers getting ready for their evening's work, and spent time window shopping in Piazza San Marco, especially admiring the Murano glass.









































Split, Croatia. The port that wasn't to be. We were able to catch a glimpse of the city from where we were anchored, but the sea was far too rough for taking passengers to shore. One tender did have to go, to take some people to catch a plane and to pick up others. When they came back to the ship, I was watching the tender bob on the water, and also the struggle to get it back aboard. I'm not sure they did manage, because the ship ended up minus one tender, and abandoning it at Split is the most plausible reason. I had heard good things about this port and we had a great excursion planned, so we were very sad that the landing was canceled.






I cannot get this to publish so the text matches the photos. The first 4 photos relate to the sail-in. The next 6 photos are from our sail-around tour. The subsequent 6 are from the walking tour of Venice. The last two are from Split, Croatia.