Venice -- there was no one like her.

Dear Venice,
 I’ve been longing to cross your waters ever since that beautiful golden gondola graced my parents drawing room and captured my imagination. You were that romantic city caressed by the criss crossing canals upon whose undulating curves sailed the golden gondolas carrying the most beautiful people.

But unfortunately life goes on and you  never  were a priority in the grand mosaic of life – until recently that is. Once we had decided that we were coming to see you we quickly booked our flights and hotel after a bit of research as usual—but nothing much, nothing like usual. Just ensured through tripadvisor reviews that our hotel was going to be nice, clean and comfortable within a quick walk of San Marco. Once that was sorted we decided to fly by British Airways just for the simplicity of it—no hidden charges and  baggage allowance included in the fare. Expedia expedited the whole process and we had no cause for concern this far.

Once the tix and hotel was booked we just left it at that – myself because I had several other pressing jobs that needed my attention , OH because he usually leaves this sort of thing to me and couldn’t be bothered(anyway I did tell him he would have to check transport options etc as I didn’t have the time to allocate for it).

Anyway our ‘spur of the moment’ kind of trip to see you  took off without much of a hitch—car parked at Gatwick Long stay, bus boarded  to airport, flights taken and finally we landed at Venice Marco POLO.  Now from the airport we needed to figure out how to get to you—I mean the real you—after all airports are seldom within the real location of its name. We figured that our options were either to take a private water taxi for 110 Euros or go by the Alilaguna for 15 Euros a head. Opted for the second. Now we had to figure out how to get to the boat station as we would call it anywhere other than in Venice. We walk out the airport and look around for signs and find none so continued straight ahead. Sensing that all was not right i ask the nearest uniformed person I find if we were on the right path. No we weren’t! We were shown a semi covered walkway that was made to mimic a tunnel or at least a half tunnel leading to the left from when you exit the airport. A brisk 7 -10 minute walk gets us to the boat station. Next we had to figure out which Alilaguna we needed to take as apparently there were three different lines - colour coded into blue, orange and green. Decided that the blue line was the best bet and waited patiently.

Along it came eventually and we boarded uneventfully. Got some good seats and set sail. 
I feel, dear Venice, that the approach to your shores can hardly get any more dramatic than this. Speeding on the freeway of the seas, the wind blowing against your hair and the quite unmistakable scent of the water - it felt most James Bondesque! Bit by bit, slowly but surely, you Queen of the Adriatic sea was revealed to the world.

Almost an hour and a half later we touched down at the San Zaccaria Jolanda pier--a busy bustling pier and surrounds. Tourists milling around, hawkers with makeshift shops selling the usual touristy ware, photographers clicking away joyfully -- we passed them all and peering into a map tried to figure the way to our Hotel. 
We went down your tiny alleyways which were in fact called streets(I've seen wider alleyways), up and down a few bridges bags pushchair and all-- no all in all I cant say it was too easy especially because of the pushchair that we had to carry up and down the steps of all those bridges! And finally we just chanced upon our hotel quite unexectedly! Check in at the Colombina was smooth, staff escorted us to our room and helped with the luggage. No change or smaller denomination Euro notes so porter consequentially received a very large tip from OH.

to be contd