Venice to Florence

Water taxi

It’s Monday November 5 and we awake to the rain on our transition to Florence. We drag our luggage down to the covered water taxi stop on the Grand Canal and in a few minutes we have a fun ride to the train station. The high tide is just covering the street as we leave our Venice home.

Our water taxi to the train station

The train station if very efficient and we are off for a short several hour comfortable ride, with some wine and lunch along the way. Once we get to Florence our apartment is a ten minute walk and we find our host waiting for us. It’s a very nice one bedroom on the first floor so only 1 flight of stairs. Our host has arranged a walking tour of the city later in the afternoon as well as a taxi to the airport after our stay.

Santa Maria del Fiore and The Duomo

Our guide is waiting at the street as we begin our introduction to the beautiful city of Florence. The history and art are beyond description but in a few hours we are overdosed. 

Florence town hall

Basilica of Santa Maria Novella

Dinner was  al fresco at the La Cantinetta Osteria con Cucina. We were interrupted by a shower and the waiter moved everything in doors without missing a beat. We settle into to our first night in our apartment.

Venice

High tide overflowing the sidewalk

Sunday, November 4 we take it easy in the morning exploring the streets around our neighborhood and figure out how to get a water taxi to the airport the next day. We have lunch right along the Grand Canal as high tide a receded below street level. We watch the many boats with all manner of people and things that pass by as though it were a street.

Just walk up and hire a gondola

In the afternoon we take a city walking tour through the neighborhoods. It is fascinating to see how people live with canals rather than streets. The history is almost too much to take in but the things that experienced guides point out can not be beaten. Then a gondola ride just as a shower breaks out, but we have has the experience.

Street scene

Hidden canals

Two of Venice's 403 Bridges

On our way home we walk into Saint Mark's square with the ornate basilica. Its opulent design with gold ground mosaics, and its status as a symbol of Venetian wealth and power, from the 11th century on the building has been known by the nickname Chiesa d'Oro (Church of gold). We also get to see the dueling bands on the square and can only imagine what it was like earlier in the week when it was underwater. Many of the restaurants are closed on Sunday but we find a nice spot on our street for our typical Sunday night pizza.

Saint Mark's Square

Venetian pizza with capers, anchovies and olives.

Venice

"It seemed like a magical city, floating on the lagoon as if conjured by an enchanters wand." 
- Kate Forsyth

Early Morning Venice

Saturday November 3, 2018. We wake early ready to see Venice in the light.  It’s a nice day with none of the wind and rain that produced the large floods early in the week. We walk to the Rialto Bridge at nearly high tide to see the water just coming over the walk. Venice is an amazing visual experience the first time you see it. We walk around to get our bearings.

We have some lunch at a small at Osteria al Garanghelo. and retire for some relaxation before our early evening tour of the typical Venetian experience of Cicchetti and wine. We leave early for our tour to check out who is on the streets on Saturday afternoon in this non tourist season. We find families and dogs and some tourists, like ourselves, taking a gondola ride.

We join our small tour of 7 at the round church in Campo della Maddalena. Its a church which dates back to the 12th century and the square is very good people watching.

Rialto Bridge

We taste our way through through the back street bacari’s in Venice to eat cicchetti. Bacari’s are tiny, hole in wall wine bars, where you eat standing and drink standing up. Cicchett is Venice’s version of Spanish tapas. We first crossed the Grand Canal on a Traghetto ferry. A gondola that takes many people from one side of a canal to the other. Getting off at the Rialto Bridge we went to 5 different Bacari’s where we tried grilled baby squid, calamari, meatballs, polenta topped with sardines and marinated artichoke to name a few. All served with a local house wine.

Cicchetti

Waking up in Switzerland. Evening in Venice.

“...what thrills me about trains is the fact that they are moving, that they embody a connection between unseen places.” ― Marianne Wiggins

Friday November 2, 2018. We wake as it’s getting light and slowly collect our thoughts. When we finally get up we thead to the bar car where they are serving morning coffee. Our cabin steward makes our cabin into its day configuration and after a while brings us a continental breakfast. We savor the food and the scenery as we travel through the Swiss alps in alternating sun, clouds and an occasional shower.

Coffee in the bar car

Soon it's time for lunch and we dine alone for this meal. The meal is inspiring as is all the food we have had. We begin to realize that we can’t eat much more. We have a bit of down time in the afternoon as we enter Italy. We are offered afternoon tea, but settle for coffee and no food. It has dawned on us that our journey is coming to an end. We pull into Santa Lucia station and Venice where we will transfer to our apartment in Venice.

Duckling Duo in cranberry reduction sauce, quinoa with pistacchio oil and pumpkin. 

Our journey is coming to an end. We pull into Santa Lucia trainstation in Venice where we will transfer to our apartment in Venice. This entails getting a water taxi because there are no roads or cars in Venice. Plus this is all done in the dark.

Train station during day light.

The transfer didn’t go to smoothly as the cell phone wouldn’t connect to get GPS map. After some confusion our host walks to meet us at the water taxi stop. After a short walk at a fast pace we are in our apartment. Taking some deep breaths we go to a small restaurant about 20 feet from the door to our apartment for some nice pasta and wine. We fall asleep leaving one adventure for another.

The Orient Express

"All Aboard. We are now leaving London. Our final destination is Venice."  - our cabin stewart

Thursday, November 1, 2018. We check in for our train trip, first on the 1920’s Belmond British Pullman which has hosted members of the royal family, aristocrats and statesman. It has art deco decor and mosaics. We have a morning train ride to the tunnel to France during which time we are served a wonderful breakfast. We transfer to a comfortable coach (bus) for the tunnel crossing which is very strange since you can’t see any movement even though you feel the movement.  In Calais France we see the Orient Express for the first time and board to find our hand luggage placed in our compartment.

We depart and settle in for our journey. We have our dinner reservation and change into our formal attire for the evening. We have an enjoyable dinner with a couple from the midlands area of England who are traveling to celebrate the husband’s birthday. After a leisurely wonderful dinner we retire to the bar car for after dinner drinks.

Although we planned our outfits well in advance, Susan’s dress and accessories were the hit of the train. She got compliments for men and women alike.  We had a wonderful evening talking with people and even did a brief dance as the piano played played a ragtime song, consistent with the period of the train.

We returned to our cabin to find it made up for sleeping, an upper and lower berth, complete with robes and slippers. We were tired from our adventure and fall asleep to the movement of the train, sleeping through the night. It is a very special experience.

London Calling

"If you're curious, London's an amazing place." David Bailey

Wednesday October 30, 2018. We board an overnight British Airways flight from San Francisco to London and land in London Halloween in the morning. We travel to our Hotel, the historic Grosvenor Hotel, adjacent to the Victoria Train station. The weather is nice and we do an orientation walk for the area and we find the Venice Simplon office where we will check in for our trip on the orient express to Venice.

Since it’s Halloween we take a Ghost bus tour after dark. It's a theatrical bus tour in an old double decker that travels to historic spots in London where murders, ghost sightings and other scary things have happened. It’s lots of fun and the kids on our trip make the day as they scream when scary things happen. We have a quick dinner near the hotel and fall asleep for the first real sleep since leaving home.

How we traveled

Bus in Bagan, Myanmar

Travel Documents

We knew our trip would be a long time, but we underestimated how slow and difficult it would be to get from one place to another.  This was especially the case for Myanmar and Laos.  Over the trip we took a total of 12 plane rides, 14 different buses sometimes with several days on the same bus, 6 tuk tuks, 14 boat trips and 1 bicycle tour.  We stayed in 15 hotels ranging from one night to 3 nights.

Yangon Air out of Myanmar

Tuk Tuk in Vientiane, Laos

In Myanmar the popular tourist destinations such as Yangon, Mandalay, Inle Lake and Bagan are open to foreigners. However, much of Myanmar is closed to foreign travelers, and many land routes to far-flung areas are also closed. Myanmar's infrastructure is presently being built and rebuilt. Since the sanctions were lifted in 2013, a number of highways and bridges were built, and many roads are now more modern, making more destinations accessible. An interesting feature is that most vehicles are designed to be driven on the left side of the road, but the traffic is on the right side of the road.

Biking in Sukhothai

On The Mekong River in Laos

In 1970 all traffic was moved to the right. One theory is that the ruling dictator’s wife’s astrologer said that the country would be better off driving on the right side of the road. The second is that the dictator  had a dream that the country should switch directions. Either way, the dictator called the shots and traffic was directed to move sides overnight. Despite the lane shifts, virtually every vehicle in Myanmar has right hand steering.

Our bus in Laos

Taxi in Myanmar

The adjective that was most often applied to Laos is forgotten and traveling by air, road or river in Laos can be as interesting as the destination itself,  but flexibility is important for the near inevitable delays, cancellations and breakdowns. The cars are designed to be driven on the right side of the road and this is the side that the traffic is on. The highways in Laos have improved in the past ten years, but 80% remain unpaved. The main routes connecting Vientiane, Vang Vieng, Luang Prabang and Savannakhet are now mostly asphalt. On these roads you see pedestrians, animals, tuk tuks, buses, minibuses, big trucks, various converted trucks and everything else I have forgotten.

In Thailand they drive on the left side of the road and the cars and other vehicles are those designed for this side driving. Thailand's roads are head and shoulders above its neighbors Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, but driving habits are still quite dangerous. We had excellent drivers but speeding and reckless passing are common and motorbikes drive close to the curb and on the wrong side of the road. Accidents increase major holidays, especially Songkhran (New Year), when bystanders often throw water on passing cars and bikes. Many drivers don't use headlights at night and we seldom were on the road at night, except in cities.