Venezia!

Well, in the end we spent 5 days in Venice because our cosy little cabin with its very own heat pump was sooo luxourious. The cabin was in a campground in Mestre, which is a suburb on the mainland and to get our to Venice proper you have to cross a big bridge over the lagoon to the island.

On the first day we headed out to the island we had a rather interesting time. The information lady informed us 'everyone bikes and walks over to the island...they all do it'. You cannot bike or drive on the island, but apparently this was a usual way to get out there. So off we went...but before long we were on a big horrible motorway with no retreat..yikes! After some terrifying time we reached the bridge, where in the middle of nowhere a cycle path miraculously appeared..i have no idea how you are supposed to get onto it! So we biked across and locked up bikes up. There were NO other bikes around and I am confident we are amongst a rare few to have breved the gaunlet to get out there!!

We wandered the canaled streets and Chris even got confused there are so many narrow alleyways! The $180 gondola rides proved a little beyond us sadly and Chris had to turn down the funky $800 Venetian glass vase because it wouldnt quite fit in his pannier (0:

At the end of the day it was time to brave the motorway again, yikes, this time in a thunder storm in the dark! But we survived through an ingenious route involving grass wheeling, bush bashing, lifting bikes over fences, train tracks, and small buildings and never biked on the road at all!

Leaving our little home..

Needless to say, the following two days we took the pleasant 15 minute train ride out to the island. A lot more relaxing! Eventually we decided it was time to depart Venice and we packed our gear and we were on the road again...