Venice - Grado

Today's Route

At about 7am it started raining really, really heavily so I got up to close the roof of the van and the side windows (it's not really designed for water tightness and ventilation at the same time – it has to be said), at about 7:30am there was some lightening and the BIGGEST thunder you ever heard – 2 bangs in succession, like a cannon – and then more rain. It was still raining at coffee time at 9am, but had stopped by 9:30, so we braved it and headed to Venice.

I have been twice before – Jon has never been – but my memory is rubbish and it was a long time ago since I went, so it was all good.

First things first, we took a water bus to St Mark's square (€5 each for a single trip) and had a bit of a wander about – trying to avoid the massive crowds until we finally had to give in and go into the square itself. It was packed. And, we were both a bit unsure why. I mean, as squares go I suppose it's quite impressive, but it's not all that amazing. Still – it had to be done.

We spent another couple of hours just wandering about the little streets and then getting soaked when it started to rain – heavily.

Shame really because Venice is a really attractive place to be – especially once you get out of the main touristy areas and just wander about. The buildings are really very glamourous in a slightly faded way, and the canals, bridges, piazzas and boats all make it somewhere quite unique. But in the rain, it's not somewhere to hang around – I don't think anywhere is – but we have been really lucky so far, this is the first daytime rain we have had apart from the downpour the day we went walking in Chamonix. Not too bad I think.

By 3pm we were back in the van and back on the road with a bunch of pastries to keep us going!

In good news, Jon managed to 'fix' the CD player. It is the header unit and multi changer I used to have in my old Golf – many moons ago – and in that car it the multi-changer stood upright in the boot. In the van it is lying down – and it turns out that there is a dial that needs to be turned to change the orientation of the damper springs. Now that's done, it's perfect – so we have all the tunes that Will brought us on our 3 CD “Verona Mix” pack (thanks dude).

It's nice that it's cooler today – although it's typical that it was absolutely scorchingly hot over night until the rain started, and by then it was nearly time to get up. C'est la vie I suppose.

In other news, my sister (Helen) and boyfriend (Andrew) have their flights booked for Amsterdam – they are over for a full 5 days, so we need an itinerary for them. One day in Amsterdam, and then 4 days of travelling about. Not sure what yet – but apparently my Mum & George (both of whom have travelled about a lot around there) had the maps out last night and were coming up with some good suggestions – so keep that up guys :)

Also, Will is thinking he might try and meet up with us again, and potentially James (Jon's other brother) on weekend of 20^th August – so we need another itinerary overhaul tonight I think. Will let you know how it's looking.

Finally, in random ramblings, I am failing in my search for an “I”- Italian car sticker (like our “GB” I mean). I got an “F” for France and stuck it our table – so then I decided I should have one for each country we visit (not sure how I am going to get one for Switzerland mind you), but it's looking pretty rubbish if I can't get Italy........... hmm.

We ended up in Grado – billed by the Rough Guide to Italy has having one of the best beaches in that part of Italy, we decided to give it a go. We ended up camping in another motorhome car park – which was functional (electricity, water, etc) and cheap but not exactly pretty. Still, does it matter? We thought not.

After setting up we got the bikes down and went to check out the area – a bit of a ride down the sea front, and then back to the van for dinner and the “thunder and lightening show”. Honestly, I haven't seen lightening like that in years – it was incredible, and the storm went on for about 2 hours all together. The only bad bit of it was that the joker that had been parked up next to us but had pushed off at about 9pm, when it was pouring with rain, left the electricity box wide open after unplugging his van!!! Er, Hello – electricity and water don't mix dumb ass – so I braved the rains to go shut it, before anything bad happened :)

Funny being confined to the van – not bad, but different.

Fingers crossed for a return to sunshine tomorrow!