Friday, August 29th:
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| What's in the box?... Surpriiiise!! |
We wake up early in the morning and have a quick breakfast. The taxi driver is already awaiting for us and he takes us to the HST station. We are travelling to Madrid to meet the grandparents and our children who have been spending two weeks with them before departure.
My pulse is raising as we get close to the scanner but everything is all right. Fiuuu! First test passed.
We arrive at Grandpas' at 5 pm. Have a brief meal and Grandpas give the four of us 4 small and beautiful boxes- they've been working on this for a month and a half and can't wait any more-. I begin to record a video with my mobile while the children open their boxes.
Little Romulan says- with a little bit of disappointment- that it's full of papers buuut, as they read the short letters that the Grandpas have written down for them, they begin to realise that these are more than papers: they both read their letters in which the Grandpas tell them how good grandchild they are aaand... and that the invite them- all of us- to a cruise. There is also a voucher for the cruise, a picture of the little boat in which we are going to travel around the Mediterranean Sea and an itinerary of the places that we are going to visit.
Butt jumping on the sofa, standing up, sitting down, a nervous breakdown. Well, it is only Mrs. Soft Kitty the one who is having a nervous breakdown. She's always dreamed with travelling outside the little shape of Spain (in her own words) and this is to much for her. She's got tachycardia and cold sweat so I tell her to go straight away to bed and have a little rest.
Now that I have stopped recording it's my turn. As I read my letter I find out that I'm not the tough Earth being I thought I was. Such beautiful and loving words are going to make me cry...
In summary, we spend the rest of the evening enjoying in anticipation what's going to come, have an early dinner and go to bed because we're going to wake up at 5:30 am to take a flight to Venice.
- Hours of travelling: 4.
- Hours of crocheting: none.
Mrs. Soft Kitty has insisted on sharing bed with me to have no sleep at all. We've been awake for the whole night because " mummy, I cannot sleep can you stay awake with me, please?" (read this with the sweetest voice that you can imagine). Meanwhile, Mc Husband and Little Romulan have been snoring in the bedroom next to ours for hours!
The alarm- what a piercing and annoying sound- wakes us up and I go to the kitchen to have 3 coffees and prepare another 3 for Mc Husband.
Two taxis for the 6 of us and off to the airport. Our adventure begins!
Here is when I tell you that I've decided to put my crocheting bag into the suitcase and check it. What were you thinking, that I'm crazy enough to take it as hand luggage? Well, I am but not that much, you know...
I've also put into my suitcase a flattened small travel bag so that I can bring back my new yarns in it, this time as hand luggage ( what a smart monkey I am, eh?).
So, checking is ok and- as we've arrived the airport pretty early and have plenty of time- we have a nice and proper breakfast and spend the rest of the time before departing having a look, and another one and another one to all the airport shops.
We arrive at the Venice airport at mid morning and go out to find that it's fairly hot. Do the check in at the MSC stand and a bus takes us to the port. Mc Husband, the children and I have an excursion around Venice so we leave our luggage at the indicated drop-off point and walk to where a riverboat is waiting to take us to down town Old Venice.
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| Mc Husband, Little Romulan and our gondoliers having a chat between them.No singing! |
It takes us to a place behind the Grand Canal. We now have to walk to reach a pedestrian crossing street close to the Fornace river that will lead us to the Grand Canal. We all take a gondola (6 persons/gondola, 5-6 gondolas). Our gondolier sings a little bit but then decides that he prefers to chat with his colleagues while he "gondoliers" us through the Grand Canal.
It's really hot and were a bit dizzy now but the views are amazing and we forget about the heat and the fact that we haven't eaten anything since 8 in the morning.
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| A detail of our gondola. |
The rest of the excursion consists on walking veeeeery slowly from the gondola berth to the Piazza San Marco and once there we have 5 minutes to have a quick view of it before going back to the ship!!! Our tourist guide has been complaining about everything all the time, it has taken us much more time than expected to go from one place to the other and she has not given us any information at all. What's more she made one of our fellow tourist carry the lolly pop for her! Lazy bagger! A pity, I must say, since on top of that, I know that Lellabella and its yarns are out of reach.
Anyway, Mc and me came to visit Venice around 10 years ago- mesmerised by the night views from the vaporetto that took us to our hotel- and spend 5 splendid days that we'll never forget. We are planning to come back with the children and visit all the places that we have missed this time. And as many times as our budget permits.
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| A small part of our "little boat". |
Back to the port, do the check-in and in to our little ship. We reach our cabin completely exhausted and starving at 4:30 pm. Our Luggage is close to the cabin's door, two queen size beds and a balcony, what a luxury! (how nice of Grandpas! Flying kisses to both of you).
A quick refresh and off to the buffet deck. For Clon's sake!! What is this??
Hordes of tourists all eating at the same time and not a single table to have our meals!!
I don't know how but we finally have our super late lunch after half an hour of walking around with our trays and we're back in our cabin to have a nice "siesta".
We're trying to find the grandpas but, after an hour- we decide to give up and wait until 9:45 pm which is our assigned dinner time. Back to the cabin at 12:30 am. With my eyes half-closed I manage to find our pyjamas and our bath bags and to check that my crocheting bag is in my suitcase. And, yesss it's there!
At last, my prreciouss, my bed! Mmmmm, I feel a bit... I have a couple of sea sick pills and to bed again.
Tomorrow we'll be visiting Bari but not too early and by ourselves, no pressure at all.
- Hours of travelling: pfff…..too many.
- Hours of excursion: 3.
- Hours of siesta: 2.
- Hours of crocheting: none ( no worries, it's just the first day of seven).
- Sickness pills: 2.
That’s all for today which is no small thing!
Catch you next Sunday!
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