Grand Hotel Esplanada Bibione

... celebrations which end with a fireworks display over the sea, bringing 2009 to a close in a shower of kaleidoscopic sparkles.

Lastly, on 5 January at 5 pm, in the harbour and in Piazza XXVI Maggio, there will take place the representation of “The Arrival of the Varvuole”, the legendary sea witches who are said to reach Grado the night preceding Epiphany to take naughty children away from their homes.

... The nice stuff always is!

It was a very pleasant day although coming across the bay was foggy and made the other islands appear as if they were floating between the sea and sky. Great illusions. Once back we had an Italian favorite, some gelato. Now it’s time to pack up and my husband goes back to work tomorrow and I move east again, to Romania.

... I wandered back along towards the main square on the route along the water, then headed up the hill to the bell tower and churches. This area does afford beautiful views in both directions – one of the harbor, main square and town and the other of the hilly coastline that extends across the bay. I wandered around for a little while and then decided it was time for me to be on my way – I did have quite a drive ahead of me, and a couple of more ...

... smoother and either could knock a large stevedore on his back. Everywhere we go the streets are near empty, the rush is past, there is no trouble parking or getting questions answered. After a lunch of truffle soup and carpaccio with black truffles in Motovun we stopped at a store owned by the areas leading restaurantz and got a good talk on the difference between black and white truffles, I can reallz smell the difference. So of course we had ...

... we are tranferred to another person. It takes a while before he calls us back and the only job for him left is to order the taxi from Jesolo Lido to Venice through the italian assistance. However this taxi never arrived. The Italians Pietro and Mauricio take us to the airport at the last moment but it is too late and we miss the plane.

There are very agressive reactions from some member of the insurance company: "How is it possible ...

We spend the day on the beach with all the Italian family. We play jungle speed (Italian kids love it like all the kids), sunbathe, swim, wait until Monday because that is the only thing we can do now.

We are offered by Patrick an Patricia to stay over night at their place. However there is a free apartment in the ...

We go to the garage with Pauolo and Sonia but... it is closed as it is 15th August the biggest summer celebration and there is NO way we can take the bikes and see what is left from Michèle. And tomorrow it is Sunday so no chance there as well...
We go back and we are invited by all Paulo and Sonia's family and friends and co-habitants to have a lunch with them. There are appox. 30-35 people with all the kids and it is one big FIESTAAAAAA!

After having ...

I met some girls at our campsite who pointed me in the direction of a bookstore which sold English books. So off we went on an 8km bike ride to the bookstore...and low and behold they even had Mr. Pip by Lloyd Jones! I bought that and another big book to try and get me through the next couple of weeks... "Mr. Pip" only lasted the day! What an absolutely amazing story, I was engrossed from the minute I picked it up. Grant and Jordan are now both reading it ...

... really save money and there is plenty of great bridges and canals to sit on and take in the city. No reason to city in a restaurant. The specialty pizza is tomato sauce, mozzarella, sausage, Canadian bacon (called salami here) and green peas. It was not to bad, but hard get use to the peas. Yes, they do roll off easily. Just fold the pizza and enjoy. We are off to Munich for the land of beer, pretzel and wurst sausages...... Thanks for reading, J and K

May 6th continued - email done and after meeting Ta in San Marco (St. Mark) Plaza (what a crowd of people! And the pigeons - those rats with wings creatures!), where she had gone to see the Doge's Palace Museum, we began our exploration of the Cannaregio section of Venice. This area was once home to Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto-the "little dyer"-because his father was a dyer by trade. See a bit more about him at http://www.italiamia.com/art_tintoretto .html. We wandered up and ...