Friday, June 8, 2018: It has been a looong day and night. After doing laundry and late check out from hotel, I went to a restaurant for a snack and then to the airport.

I was about 4 hours early for my flight and when I went to check my bag they asked if I wanted to be on an earlier flight. I said, sure, if it all worked out. After lots of looking and trying to get the supervisor to assist (she was too busy with two other employees and I was the only customer) they finally said it wouldn’t work out. I think it had to do with my connection to Venice from Munich which didn’t really make sense because I would be there in plenty of time.

I went to the Lufthansa lounge and the earlier flight was just boarding so I after that, I was all alone. There were sandwiches, soup, snacks, and other things but I didn’t eat much. My flight boarded at about 10:00 PM and took off pretty much on time.

The flight was pretty uneventful, although there was turbulence here and there all the way. Most of the people went to sleep after a couple of hours, but I was not able to. I think I dozed off for a short time at one point.

I arrived in Munich and went to the lounge again and washed my face and combed my hair. I got some water and sat for a bit feeling strangely out of place and time. I didn’t eat anything because they had fed us a little breakfast on the plane and my stomach was feeling a bit off.

My flight to Venice was late by about half an hour. I was to meet up with another couple, Rob and Kristy (who were part of the group going on the cruise) at the airport to take a water taxi to the hotel. Their flight was also late. Then we had to wait for another 6 people to show up before heading to the boat. There were moving sidewalks all the way to the boats but the guy they gave the voucher to was too busy kissing his girlfriend to actually walk so it took us a lot longer than it should.

The boat was a low profile wooden boat and the driver obviously had been doing it for a long time. He maneuvered it around the narrow canals and pulled up to the docking areas easily and didn’t even put out fenders!

Don and Frankie met us at the dock and helped with the luggage. The hotel was over a couple bridges and around the corner from the dock. There was a long flight of stairs up to the rooms, but luckily, Frankie carried my large suitcase or I would have had to make two trips. By this time, I was a sweaty, tired, cranky mess. By this time it was about 7:30 in the evening and I had been awake for about 30 hours.

Ann and Patrice had arrived with Don and Frankie and they had all taken naps before our arrival so were ready to go out to dinner. All I wanted to do was take a refreshing shower and lie down so I didn’t go with them.

We are staying at the Palazzo Odoni which is a XV century building with a warren of rooms. Ann, Patrice, and I are in one suite. My room is through theirs with my own bathroom and shower, which is nice. The room is very nice and fairly large for Europe. It doesn’t have much of a view, but it does have two large windows.

Room without a View

I took my shower, had two glasses of prosecco, put on my headphones, turned on my book and lay down. I dozed off fairly quickly but then woke after about half an hour. I continued listening to my book and heard Ann and Patrice come in around 10:00, then fell back to sleep.

I woke at 2:00 AM and the room was stifling. There is air conditioning but it doesn’t work when a window is open. The suite has a key card that must be fitted in a slot inside the door or the lights won’t work. I figured either they had opened a window or removed the key when going to sleep, so I opened my windows

I woke up again around 5:00 and could hear the rain pouring down outside. Then I heard lightening and saw thunder. This continued for several hours. I did not go back to sleep but listened to my book for a while then got on the internet. I was listening for Ann and Patrice to make some movement so I could go out and have coffee.

I had realized that there were no lights working in the suite but the plug ins did, so I figured the key was out. The bathroom was very dark so I had to use the flashlight on my phone to see to brush my teeth, etc.

I opened my door around 7:30 and Patrice was standing outside their bathroom and said the power was out. So, the key was in but there was a problem.

The hotel has breakfast and coffee from 7:45 to 10:00. I went out around 7:40 and the tables were all set up with service but no coffee was out. Rob was sitting there talking with some of the other guests. When 7:45 rolled around everyone headed into the breakfast area. The host came in and started making cappuccinos and latte macchiatos while everyone got their croissants, meats and cheeses, and fruit. My kind of breakfast.

Don, Frankie, Rob and Kristy in breakfast room

The hotel has umbrellas for our use so I imagine we will do some exploring today. Hopefully, the rain will stop and the sun won’t come out since that would really make it humid as it is supposed to get into the upper 70s today.