Arrival Day

 

Vendor in the Amsterdam Airport

Nancy and I flew out of Seatac and into Amsterdam today. The Amsterdam airport was huge and many of the shops were full of tulip bulbs and types of gifts like that. I'm not sure if we can bring bulbs home but it reminded me of the Dutch Gardens catalog in person and my son the master gardener, would be in Heaven.

The Alps

The flight from Amsterdam was a little less than two hours and we could tell we were close to Italy when we crossed over the top of the Alps and toward the coastland. AND THEN....THERE IT WAS... from my window seat that Nancy strategically had chosen for me! It looked exactly like the pictures I had seen in the books while gearing up for the trip!








Venice:117 tiny islands and over 400 bridges



Nancy treated me to a tour of the grand canal by private water taxi on our way into Venice before heading up a small canal to drop us off. Notice how beautiful the water taxi's are.

Since there are no cars in Venice, Lele the porter from Hotel Flora was waiting there with a big smile as he saw Nancy. He whisked our luggage away as we followed him to our new home for the next ten days; about two blocks along the cobblestone sidewalks and through the narrow walkways.

We spent the rest of the day unpacking and meeting up with her friends at the hotel. Of course I couldn't help but get my camera out and begin snapping a few pictures on some of the streets and canals close by the hotel.


The Rialto Bridge



Locks of Lovers

A few of my favorite pictures are the ones of the pad-locks on the bridges. These represent Lovers in Love; couples put their names on a lock, lock it to the bridge and throw the key in the canal.



The best hotel in Venice



Tonight, Nancy and I are sitting here in the courtyard at Hotel Flora and I can't hear a thing except the birds chirping and the sound of church bells out in the distance. We are just fifty feet down an alley from a main tourist shopping district (did I mention Gucci, Prada...) but we are far enough off the main street that I only hear occasional footsteps of people walking by outside the courtyard.

Hotel Flora court yard

The Hotel Flora is beautiful! We have a modest room but it's perfect. The bathroom has a towel warmer; something I've never seen before. FYI, I plugged my electronic devices in today just as a test and Ashton Krutcher would be proud, the lights are still on at Hotel Flora!!! We had dinner in the dinning room tonight, a couple salads, one with dried beef and the other with fresh mozzerella and tomoates. It was delicious! Thank you Vinicio.

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