Cruise of the lagoons of Venice

Colourful views around the island of Burano

St. Mark's Square in Venice

A view down the canal

Views across the Venice lagoon

Views of Venice from a clock tower

The Grand Canal during the gondola serenade

We made the short drive to Venice, where we departed our coach and hopped on a boat that took us to the main island of Venice. From here, we had an optional lagoon cruise around Venice. And to finally put it to rest, since everyone has asked me this: the water does not smell...at least my nose couldn't smell anything offending. The microphone on the boat was in such bad condition that Andee sounded like he was rapping while trying to give us running commentary. He then gave up and started yelling at the top his lungs so he can be heard above the loud engine of the boat. At the end of the cruise, at the island of Burano, we gave him a round of applause for his well-deserved throat-straining effort.

Burano was without question the most colourful of all the Venetian islands, due mainly to the multi-coloured houses along the canals. Quiet and peaceful, we sat down for what was the freshest seafood lunch in my life at a restaurant named "Al Raspo de Ua". The meal included seafood lasagna as an appetizer, seafood pasta and fresh fried fish and the freshest calamari and breaded prawns I've ever had. And as usual with our special optional meals, all the drinks were included. We then had free time to roam around the island. Many did a bit of shopping and took plenty of photographs of this unique island. It was then back onto our cruise boat for the trip back to main island of Venice. The restaurant had given Andee a bottle of a specially prepared drink that was passed around to everyone. It tasted very strong, thick and much like cough syrup, to which many gagged on. I was one of the few who actually downed it all in 2 gulps. Of course for the next 30 seconds, I regretted it.

When we got to the main island, we visited a glass factory where we observed a glass blowing demonstration, and then browsed around the glassware shop. Some of the items were just amazing in their intricacies.

We then had some free time to ourselves to wander around this unique island. The total lack of land motor vehicles seemed usual, especially after the 4 previous days in Italy, where traffic was usually chaotic. After braving the swooping and swarming pigeons in St. Mark's Square and venturing up a clock tower for a full panoramic view of Venice, we took the optional gondola ride. There were 6 gondolas for all of us, with an accordion player and singer who were serenading us during our entire ride through the twisting canals all leading into the Great Canal.

As evening approached, we hopped back onto our boat to meet up with our motorcoach on the mainland for our drive to our Holiday Inn Express Hotel. Again, Lucas received a hearty cheer and applause from everyone for dropping off our luggage at the hotel earlier in the day.