"Random thoughts and memories......."
Trip Start
Jun 06, 2008
1
8
18
Trip End
Jun 24, 2008
Venice,
Italy
Friday, June 13, 2008
**Some things I liked in our apartment: the water heater - a box mounted on the wall that heats water only as you use it. There is no storage tank, so you never run out of hot water, and you're not wasting electricity keeping the stored water hot. The heated towel rack and the toilet with 2 separate flush buttons (you can figure that one out) were novelties to me, also. Moving on to the kitchen, there was a microwave with a broiler element that was great for warming up and crisping the fried ham and cheese sandwiches DH liked so much. Above the sink was a cabinet dedicated to drying the dishes after you washed them. It consisted of a plate rack, a grated rack below that, and a solid pan beneath the racks to catch the drips
Our gondolier!
. That way, no counter space was wasted when you washed the dishes. I was DEFEATED by the combination washer/dryer, though, and never could figure out how to dry the clothes in the blasted thing! I'm talking about something that supposedly washes and dries all in one unit. It probably would have helped if all the dials weren't printed in Italian, but then again, maybe not. Every time I thought I was drying clothes, you could hear water trickling in and the clothes would just end up very hot and WET. Poor Dave had to wear damp slacks one morning.**Add our gondolier to the list of friendly Venetians! As we were crossing "our" bridge this morning, there was a shout from below, and he was waving at us while steering more tourists down the canal. This afternoon we were eating lunch by the same bridge, saw our friend pull up to disembark his latest load and when he was done, he looked up and saw me and waved again (with that dazzling George Clooney smile, I might add...). That man has no trouble keeping his gondola filled with customers!
**Venetian dogs. Some time back, I mentioned how the dogs go everywhere with their owners, and they're so well-behaved. I've now come to the conclusion that it's a case of like Master, like dog. The dogs totally ignore anyone they don't know, and they plow through the crowds just like the people. The dogs I did manage to pet (with their owners' permission) were polite, but distant. So I just gave up trying to make friends with any of them! Walking past some outdoor tables the other day, we spied a chunky yellow Lab acting just like OUR chunky yellow Lab, Rosie... instead of laying under the table snoozing like all the other dogs we've seen, she was sitting next to the chair and drooling in her mistress' lap. Must be a Lab thing...
**Another "it's a small world" moment today... an American woman and I almost bumped into each other in a shop, smiled and excused ourselves, and I told her she looked so much like somebody I know at home. As we struck up a conversation of "where are you from?" she insisted I had to meet her travelling companion when she found out I was from Texas. Turns out the girlfriend is in the military, and bought some land along the Lampasas River when she was stationed at Ft. Hood, and plans to retire there. The property is somewhere out around Oakalla and we had a good laugh when I told her my dogs were vacationing there while we are gone. If you're not familiar with the area, Oakalla is one of those places where if you happen to blink while driving through, you've missed it!
**I wish the churches and museums would allow at least no-flash photography, but I can understand why they don't want cameras going off. Everything is just so beautiful, and the books and postcards don't have all the things I want to be able to remember... one instance that comes to mind is the glass museum in Murano. One room's exhibit dealt with glassware from the FIRST and SECOND centuries. I had no idea glassware was even being produced that early - and we're not talking crude stuff, either. Small, delicate, colored toilette bottles dating from the first half of the first century - this is when Jesus Christ was walking on this earth, folks...
Tomorrow we will be in Chiusdino!
