Posted: 24th August 2010 by ryan in Trip Log
Tags: Artviva, Italy, Venice
We arrive at Ferrovia about an hour before our meeting time for the tour so we decide to walk around the train station. The area is naturally a little touristy, but nothing like it is near Rialto. We pick a direction and check out some of the little shops and never ending gelateria. Mrs. AT decided to check out a cool little Italian Lululemonish place called Tezenis Intimo which sells some very comfy and cool underwear and sleep wear. She didn’t end up getting anything but I picked up a few great T-shirts.
We make our way back to the meeting point a few minutes early and find that everyone else is already there. Ziggy, our tour guide, hands out our little radio receivers and disposable head phones, does a quick radio check, and we promptly head off towards our gondolas. One of the nice things about taking the Artviva gondola tour is that you get to go down some of the less busy canals, avoiding some of the long gondola line-ups that we’ve witnessed. In addition to seeing some of the usual sights along the Grand Canal we also got to see some of how the quieter real canals work which watching people loading boats in and out of buildings, make deliveries, and all the other things regular Venetians do just around the corners from most tourists. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 4th August 2010 by ryan in Trip Log
Tags: Rialto, TIM, Venice
Still having some trouble sleeping, but glad we planned on a ‘staging’ stop in London so that we didn’t lose too much Venice time to jet lag! As usual, I wake up very early and eventually fall back asleep. We get down to the breakfast room a little late but well before the 10:30 cutoff.
Breakfast is pretty nice. As we walk towards the tables we see the standard hotel breakfast fare of muffins, cereal, yogurt, milk, and juice spread out along one side of the room. At then end of that table there is also a plate with scrambled eggs and bacon. We’re greeted by a woman who comes out of the small kitchen at the end of the room who seats us and asks us and makes us some tea and cappuccino. While we eat she also brings out some peeled and sliced kiwi to go along with the food. My wife is very happy that juice selection includes apricot juice. The meal rates better than standard hotel breakfast. While the food isn’t quite at bed & breakfast quality, the service is comparable.
After breakfast my wife points out a pamphlet that they have for the Artviva tours of Venice. I had planned on checking out Rialto and just getting lost in the city, but the Mrs is pretty excited about this tour that she read about at Tripadvisor. We ask the nice lady at the front desk about it and she calls to see if there is any space left on the tour. We end up signing up for their all-in-one 5 hour packagethat runs from 2:00pm until dinner time. The tour includes a gondola tour, a walking tour, Doge’s palace, and a boat ride down the grand canal. At 135 € each it wasn’t cheap, but then we were also expecting to spend almost 100 € just for a 30 minute gondola ride so maybe a giant tour wouldn’t be too bad. In the mean time we head towards Rialto to see the market and to find a TIM store.
Our hotel is right around the corner from the Accademia vapporetto stop. The vapporetto are water-buses of Venice running through the grand canal and around the outside of the islands. We ended up buying a 36 hour pass for 23€ each. Single rides are 6.50€ so it only took 4 trips to justify the pass. They run every 5 or 10 minutes and boats travel in both directions. The number 1 boats make all the stops and the number 2 only hits the bigger stops but for some reason we very rarely say any of those. Our trip to Rialto would have worked using the #2 express, but we watched three #1’s go by before we gave up and jumped on the fourth one. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 28th June 2010 by ryan in Trip Log, Uncategorized
Tags: Gatwick, Italy, Venice
Today we head to Italy. We have a mid-day flight out of Gatwick and our friends have suggested that we cab it to Victoria station before taking the Gatwick express. This is pretty good advice as we avoid hauling our luggage up and down the stairs to the tube again. As we get down to the train there is one just about to leave. There is a short line-up at the ticket desk so we jump onto one of the automated ticket machines, but just get started as the train pulls away. It turns out that we could have jumped on the train and paid onboard, but luckily the next train came shortly after. The train ride is fairly short and pleasant.
We get to Gatwick with plenty of time to spare and after walking all the way down Terminal 1 we learn that BA is in Terminal 2 and we have to take a shuttle over. We quickly find BA and check our bags with about 90 minutes to go before our flight. We find a Café Nero and have a quick chicken and orzo salad with some San Pellegrino Limonata to get into the Italian mood. Not bad for airport food, especially since they plated up my boxed salad onto a fancy plate with proper cutlery after I told them that I was not taking it to go. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 21st June 2010 by ryan in Photography
Tags: Flickr Gallery, London
Posted: 18th June 2010 by ryan in Trip Log
Tags: Borough Market, Fifteen, London
We’re still trying to get onto London time. Once again I slept a few hours at night, was up in the wee hours and slept again a little more around 7am.
While completely awake at night, I check my credit on the Orange SIM card and notice that it is running down. This is a little strange given that I’ve only received one short phone call and sent 3-4 texts. Calling the support line in the middle of the night leaves me exploring automated prompts, and I eventually figure out that I’m still on the Orange Base plan. I decide to select one of the Orange Animal plans to get free Internet. Although the little card that came with the SIM says it’s only 50mb, it turns out that this plan gives you 100mb per month. We’re not spending too much time in London so that should be ok.
Today we are hanging out with another good friend and have agreed to meet up at Borough Market around 11:00 for coffee prior to eating our way through the market for lunch. Our friend calls and says that she missed her train by 2 minutes and will be about 20 minutes late. This is okay with me because I’m still really tired. In fact, we leave the hotel a little late and rush to try to make it in time. She gives me directions to the Monmouth coffee shop, but because I’m so tired the details slip out of my mind – all I remember is that if you are facing the main entrance to the market you head to the left and go down one of the side streets.
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