Firstly… due to our late arrival and some technical difficulties… no-one to give me the Wi-Fi password… this post is a bit late… so apologies to those of you who were expecting it at the usual time.
We spent our last morning in Venice doing a walk around the Jewish quarter. This part of the city started as a Ghetto in the mid 1700s as Jews came to Venice from other places in Europe and Italy. The Ghetto gates were locked nightly to keep them within the Ghetto. There was a very interesting Museum that details this migration and subsequent growth. Jews were barred from many occupations, so in Venice they were Pawnbrokers and bakers. By 1944 there were about 1600 jews living there and about a quarter of those were deported during the short German occupation. Today, there are still multiple Synagogues and various shops in the area. There are also lots of monuments to those murdered by the Nazi’s and is a stark reminder of what happened across Europe.
And today….
Following the walk Deb we still had a bit of time to spare and Deb reminded me that she still hadn’t had her ‘romantic’ gondola ride… so we found a local Gondolier and repeated that experience… just the two of us this time. I believe the requirement is now satisfied.
One of the things we noticed about Venice was the lack of traffic noise. We were not far from the Grand Canal, but really couldn’t hear it… but with no cars, trucks and trains in the old city it was much quieter than expected.
Although sad to leave, we felt that we had hit most of the highlights, but will miss this view at breakfast time!
After lunch it was time to get our way back to Paris. We had booked a cheap RyanAir flight and through the afternoon we would learn that one of the reasons they are cheap is that the airports they use are not near anything. From Venice they leave from Treviso – 40 Minutes by bus … 90 minute flight. They land at Beauvais which is 80 KM from Paris … so pretty much another 90 minutes in a bus … and then on the Metro to find the Hotel. I do have to say thought the flight took us over the Alps in Austria and Germany and I really enjoyed the views as I had a clear view most of the way.
Anyway … we are back here in Paris and the blog schedule will be resored this evening.
Until tonight
Rob
Rob's "Beats Working" Blog 