Just One Cornetto

Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Tue 23 Nov 2010 23:12
44:04.61N 012:34.35E Marina Blu, Rimini, Italy, Tuesday 23rd Nov 2010

Heiki and I returned to Venice last Friday and later whisked the Pickup's
Snr. from the airport to the Grand Canal by posh water taxi. Stepping out of
a boat directly into the lobby of a hotel was a novel experience even for
me. Their suite in the Foscari Palace was a bit swanky with 15-foot high
carved ceilings; a giant fireplace and fine views out over the gondolas and
vaporettos up and down the Grand Canal. I shouldn't let Heiki make the
arrangements for this kind of thing as it will be giving the oldies ideas
way above their station. And me.

On Saturday morning we went to the island of Murano for the glasswork tour.
Horribly expensive stuff but there was none of the expected hard sell which
was good. We wandered the canal banks of Murano for a while then took the
vaporetto almost right around Venice. The night was spent at the opera and
then humming World Cup theme tunes on the way back. On Sunday it was a quick
sing-a-long in Latin at the service in the big Santa Maria della Salute
church then roaming around the creepily ornate Doge's Palace and St Mark's
Basilica followed by a panini and a gelato at the Lido. On Monday morning we
took a wobbly gondola across the Grand Canal to the market and the Rialto
Bridge then took in the view out of the top of the Campanile down into a
flooded St Mark's Square. Then it was a boat back to the airport and away to
Manchester. It was the train down to Rimini in my case to clear out the
fridge on Grapto. I'm back in Berlin tomorrow.

M