Days 3 & 4 Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 1

Where We Reluctantly Leave Venice, And Venice Is So Sad To See Us Go, It Cries Buckets Of Tears

That Is: It Rained. A LOT.

AND

Port 1 – Split, Croatia

I’m combining Days 3 and 4 into one post in an attempt to catch up.

Day 3 – Transfer to the ship

Thursday, May 16 – Departure Day. I don’t think any of us really were ready to leave Venice, but alas, it was time to transfer to the ship and begin the actual cruise.

I had booked a driver through Day Trip – I really like this company. They sent me constant updates as to who our driver was, passed along the request for some mechanism to help us climb into the Mercedes mini-vans (they are ubiquitous here in Europe – if you’ve ever seen one, these vans have a very high step up into the car.

Our assigned driver, Boren, also did a great job of keeping me informed. He even sent me a photo of the step-apparatus that he concocted to help us climb into the van. Is this not amazing?

Apparently he was bringing passengers from our ship (docked in Trieste) *to* Venice, before he picks us up to take us *to* the ship. Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, it was pouring out. Mix that in with the usual traffic around Venice, and Boren ended up being almost an hour late.

Another challenge was that he was not allowed to park in front of our hotel, so he spent extra time looking for a parking spot. When he finally found one, it was across the street in a different parking lot. Andy went out to find him and noticed the sea of black Mercedes mini-vans, making it a fun game to pick out exactly the right one.

Fortunately, a hotel staff member told Boren to bring the van up to the front of the hotel. And so he did. We Tetris-ed ourselves and our luggage into the van, and off we went!

The Italian Country Side As We Zipped By

Boren was fabulous – we made it to the ship in Trieste in about 90 minutes instead of 2 hours. I had requested assistance at the cruise port, so as we were saying goodbye to Boren, cruise ship people swarmed in and loaded our luggage onto carts. Thanks to the assistance, we were able to bypass the Very Long Line that snaked its way into the cruise terminal.

Look at the size of this ship! For sure the biggest one we’ve ever been on:

View of Trieste From The Path To The Ship

Even though Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) sent us FOUR separate emails to watch the 90 second safety video, we were required to go to our muster station and check in. It is not clear how we’re supposed to know where our muster station is from the code on our key cards.

THERE ARE *A LOT* OF PEOPLE ON THIS SHIP. AND THEY ARE VERY NOISY. DOESN’T HELP THAT THERE WAS A BAND PLAYING IN THE ATRIUM AS WE MADE OUR WAY TO OUR STATEROOM.

Oh, my apologies for shouting, but, yep there’s a whole lot of people on this ship. The elevators were jammed; it took a few tries to get into an elevator to go to our floor. After we plopped our stuff in our stateroom (which is very nice and roomy for a cruise ship), we made our way to the O’Sheean’s Bar (get it? Oh-shee-an? Ocean?) to meet with our group and finally have lunch at 3:00 p.m. The bar was even louder than the general hallways, but we were in a good spot – in a booth by the window, so there was no one near us. After lunch we dispersed to unpack.

I think all of us had oddball things wrong – in our room, the towel bar fell off on one end and I was missing one of my NCL excursion tickets. Susie’s room had (still has) a broken closet door. Stefania was missing ALL of her excursion tickets. All of us were missing the same ticket – the accessible excursion for Florence. Oddball things, really, but annoying.

We met up for dinner at the Manhattan room – one of the “complimentary” dining rooms, meaning – it’s included in your fare. Or most of it is – we noticed that the included options were limited (and a little boring), so if you wanted a filet mignon: $25 extra, please!

I ordered chicken piccata. Andy ordered the strip steak (included). Neither of us were impressed with the meal.

Good news! Our stateroom was very quiet all night, even with the huge storm outside.

Day 4 – Split, Croatia

The group was split for Split. {Pun intended}.

The women were on an “easy” bus tour to Trogir (a town about an hour from Split), and the men were on a tour of Split itself. Our excursion left at 7:30 a.m. – which meant we were up at Oh-Dark-Thirty. Considering the elevators are in a perpetual rush-hour state, there really wasn’t enough time to go up to deck 16, have breakfast, and make it back down in time.

Plus, yesterday, Andy went to the Excursions Desk to ask if they could reserve a front seat (or near the front) on the buses for our NCL excursions. Unfortunately, that did not work. There was no reserved seat.

The day was off to a rocky start.

Fortunately, the woman who was sitting in the front seat was by herself, and she invited me to sit with her.

Our tour guide for Trogir (pronounced troe-jir (I think)) was wonderful. He promised that the walks from the bus would be short and that he would walk very slowly. Typically when I hear this, I know it’s all from the POV of a tall young man. But he was indeed correct – it was less than 1/3 of a mile from the bus to the Trogir town square, and he did indeed walk very slowly, such that I had no problem keeping up with him.

Trogir is a scenic and ancient little town.

A part of the tour group opted to follow the tour guide to the other side of town. We opted to stay and have some breakfast. I had the most amazing chocolate croissant! It was relaxing to sit in the square in the beautiful weather and eat delicious food!

Eventually we made our way back to the bus. The next stop was a mill where we were going to have a snack of local traditional foods and wines. Apparently the constant winds are great for producing excellent prosciutto. The snack consisted of cheese, prosciutto, olives, bread, and two different wines. I had some cheese and bread, but the ham, olives, and wine I left to everyone else.

Soon we were on our way back to the port. It was only 12:30 – a long day already. There was much discussion about going back into Split, but it was a long walk to the taxi stand to take a taxi into town; then we’d have to reverse the process. Lunch and lounging sounded better.

Andy and I have a strong memory from when we were in Split in 2010? 2011? That the ship was docked right up close and personal to the town. Maybe it was a smaller ship?

Andy and Tom took a different excursion that included a walking tour of Split.

I will come back and add a caption when I find out what this is

I’m guessing this is a city/fortress/castle wall

Split is a beautiful city. The citizens are very proud of what they have accomplished – many olympic and professional athletes have come from Split. Probably an attributing feature: people from Split are ridiculously tall.

I’m going to finish this up for now before we go to dinner. I’m going to leave this here:

Tomorrow: Dubrovnik (a new-to-us city)

Day 2 Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 1

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Where We Had Hoped To Go To Burano, But The Weather Had Other Ideas

The marvelous idea of spending the day wandering around Burano was literally drowned out by rain showers alternating with downpours. Somehow the thought of walking around in the pouring rain did not sound attractive at all.

Stefania suggested the Ca’ Presaro International Museum of Modern Art. In theory, a short bus ride away with only ONE bridge. Sounded good! Since we had the time, Andy and I went to their bus stop, because my other favorite European chachke shop, Pylones, was right there at the entrance to the stop. I first saw this store in Avignon in 2023 – somehow managed to not have enough time to shop there.

We had sufficient time for me to find all the items I had hoped to get the last time, without having to pay shipping by ordering online from home.

Our group found us right on time, and we hopped onto the water bus for one stop.

In theory, this museum was almost without spitting distance of where standing. BUT, Venice had other plans in store for us. Off we went following our gps (which works erratically in Venice at best). Toddling along, we come to something that looks like a hole in the wall. The directions said to make a left turn into the hole in the wall. Stefania went first, the rest of us behind her like ducklings. She gets to the end and all she sees is water. Oops. So we all back our way out of the cleft. Then we thought, maybe there was a way to make a right turn? Below is the photo of Tom going down to check. He thinks it’s possible, so we all go back down the cleft. Uh oh, nope, that was wrong. No way to turn left. We back out of the cleft again.

Since this happened yesterday and I didn’t get a chance to write it up, the details of what happened after that are now fuzzy. I do know it involved wandering around, asking a couple very confident sounding people for directions that we tried to follow exactly, but somehow we just kept finding little bridges to climb that took us nowhere.

Such is the magic of Venice – we suddenly found ourselves at the museum! Really not clear how we got there, but it didn’t matter anymore.

It was now late enough for lunch. Of course! We ate in the museum’s cafe. Unlike American museum cafe food which is almost universally horrible, our lunch was great. It’s possible our server might have been a little frustrated with us? But then again, her English was better than our Italian. There was great potential for complete and total miscommunication.

After lunch we finally started seeing the exhibits. The good news is: this museum is only 3 floors. We covered the whole thing in a couple of hours.

Forgot to make note of the artist’s name

I dunno what this was about, but there were elephants involved

This was the view of Venice from the 3rd floor

Before we left the museum, we went back to the cafe to have what was labeled “chocolate gelato”, but there are differing opinions on the accuracy of that statement.

When we exited the museum, we saw a little bridge that looked like it might be the way we SHOULD have arrived earlier. Sure enough, up and over the little bridge, down a cleft, a left turn and we popped out right at the bus stop. Even for those of us taking a little longer on the bridge, it was under 5 minutes.

This is Venice’s charm – getting lost and getting unlost is all a part of the fun!

We hung out a while at the others’ hotel, and then toddled down the street to find a place to have dinner. After dinner, we had to have some REAL gelato at the gelateria in the piazzale. Unbelievably good dark chocolate for me! YUM!.

Even with the rain and the getting lost, it was a marvelous day.

BTW, this is what the entrance to the bus stop looks like. You will notice that there are zero indications that there’s a bus stop down that alleyway. Everybody just knows where it is.

Ciao, Venice, till next time!

Tomorrow: The Ship

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventures: 2024 Edition, Part 1: “Ciao Time” Day 1

Or, Day 1 AND Day 2, or

As Is Tradition: The Day That Never Ends

So far, our current Excellent Adventure 2024 is off to an auspicious start: we experienced no traffic at all, all the way through Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and even Brooklyn (the Belt Parkway was eerily free flowing – unheard of!). That is, until we approached JFK airport. Apparently something huge was going on (my guess – the usual major road construction), because Google maps took us on a scenic tour of the south shores of Brooklyn and Queens, taking us to places we had never been before, or it had been a very, very, very long time. For example: I cannot remember the last time I was in Rockaway, Queens other than maybe in college? I did not think to take photos; it was a very pretty drive.

And I learned something new: The reason Cross Bay Boulevard in Queens is called “Cross Bay Blvd” is because…it crosses Jamaica Bay. I’ve driven past and across Cross Bay Blvd many, many times without a thought as to why it was called that. Who would have thunk?

Parking our car at the SmartPark lot was simple, easy, and fast. We were at Terminal 4 in no time. The flight itself was uneventful (always good). I slept maybe an hour, which seems to be what I do on long flights.

We zipped through Passport Control, our bags came quickly, a cab was immediately available for a flat fee of $40. We were at the hotel sometime after 10:00 a.m. Really couldn’t get much smoother than that!

We’re staying at the Hotel Santa Chiara in Piazzale Roma next to the bus station and arrival point into Venice. We picked this hotel because of Venice’s logistics – the city has no wheeled transportation (no cars, bicycles, golf carts, etc.). This means you have to walk everywhere. The vaporetti (water bus system) is fantastic and can get you close to your hotel, but inevitably you have to walk some distance lugging your bags. You can hire a porter to schlep your bags for you; those guys are amazing how they haul huge dollies full of luggage over bridges and through the tiny streets at top speed. Good luck keeping up with these guys. Which I couldn’t do 20 years ago; now it’s impossible.

The airport taxi was able to drop us off within a short walking distance of the hotel. And all the vaporetti lines have a stop in Piazzale Roma. Perfect!

We were able to check in immediately. The view out our window isn’t much, but that’s ok – we know what’s waiting for us on the other side of the bridge.

View from our hotel (Santa Chiara) in Piazzale Roma, Venice

We rested for a bit and then ventured out. We decided to walk to the Jewish quarter, hoping that the Google maps’ estimate of 15 minutes would be correct. Unfortunately, no, not really. We had to deal with 3 bridges: one not so big, one not so bad because of side-ramps meant for luggage trolleys, and one ginormous monster that just took me a while.

We did take a break along the way to have lunch. The server tried multiple times to entice us to order a full sea bass, including bringing the whole fish out to us on a plate. Nope, nope, nope – one thing I’ve learned from many years of travel is to keep meals on the first day small. I’m not normally a pasta fan, I selected cheese and spinach ravioli. It was delicious!

After lunch, we made our way to the Ghetto di Venizia – the first Jewish ghetto created in the 1500’s

For anybody who is not familiar with the origin of the word “ghetto”, take a look at this link on Wikipedia. Good bet it’s not what you think.

We first came to Venice in 1999. We had a blast touring all the old synagogues and shopping in all the stores. My favorite was a shop called David’s Shop selling Judaica items made of Murano glass. Andy and I bought two kiddush cups (one red, one blue, both with 24 k gold embelishments) that we’ve been using every Friday night ever since.

We came back to Venice in 2011. Bought two more kiddush cups – both purple and a different design from the first ones.

So, my main goal this trip was to buy two more kiddush cups to give us a mis-matched set of six.

Lo and behold, David’s Shop was still there! We picked out two more kiddush cups – one green and one amber (not yellow, we were told, definitely amber).

We had a great conversation with the shop owner, who’s been working with the glassblowers in Murano for over 50 years. He told us that there were no kiddush cups for several years during COVID; if we had come just a couple of months ago, there would have been none. He has to order thousands of cups at a time, with a certain number in each color/pattern. His sister is the person who personalizes each item upon request. Apparently she is now in her 70s with aches and pains in her fingers and her neck, and she really wants to retire. He said he’s thinking about retiring in 3 or 4 years, too. So glad we were able visit this time!

Fun coincidence: on a wall was a photo of a bar mitzvah invite to a congregation in Rockville, MD! The photo shows the invite and the kiddush cup as engraved in 24 K gold leaf by the shop owner’s sister. The photo cuts off the name of the congregation, but we’re pretty sure it’s not ours. Still an amazing coincidence!

Of course, we bought much more than 2 kiddush cups, including a Murano glass yad – a pointer for reading out of the Torah. Wonderful conversation with someone who felt like an old friend. As we were leaving, he threw in an extra fridge magnet.

Went a slightly different way back hoping it was a little easier. Depends on the definition of “easier”. Chilled out – Andy went to the grocery store to get breakfast stuff.

We decided to walk back a different way in an attempt to avoid the really big bridge we tackled on the way here and take an easier bridge. Kinda depends on your definition of “easier”. The path we took replaced one huge bridge with another huge bridge (maybe even higher), but the steps were smaller and maybe easier to navigate.

After a rest at the hotel, we made contact with the rest of our group. They had spent the entire day on a “let’s cram as much Venice as we can into one day” tour involving many huge bridges. We decided to meet them where they were staying.

This time we decided to try the vaporetti – the public water bus. We Made contact with the rest of our group. We decided to go to them – spent a whole long day climbing all the bridges in Venice. Decided to try the vaporetti (water buses) instead. Took us several tries to figure out exactly where to go to catch the correct bus. The good news is – the location of our hotel is the end of the line for ALL the bus lines. The bad news is – it’s really confusing to decipher which is the correct dock for where we wanted to go. Eventually we figured it out, and it was super easy after that.

We had a wonderful dinner, but we were fading fast. We found our way back to the vaporetti stop (note: there is no visible marker indicating where the stop is from the main street).

Tomorrow: Hoping to go to Burano, but the weather forecast is bleak: TBD