REMinLA

Just like that, Italy was over, and it was time to move on to London. To get to the airport from the island, the easiest way (though not the fastest) is to board an Alilaguna public water boat for about 15 euros one way. The boat takes about 50 minutes and takes you straight to the airport. That's right, boat dock right at the airport. Pretty cool if you ask me.

We booked a flight on EasyJet which is a budget airline in Europe, similar to a Southwest for us in America. Problem is the airline sucks! They allow you one free carry-on bag per person. No, I don't mean one carry-on and one personal item, I mean one per person. The seats were horrible. It felt like sitting on a cardboard box, or something where when you sit up, the wood pops out, then when you sit back down, you push it back in. But, you know, I guess you get what you pay for, and it was a good deal if I remember correctly.

We arrived in London at the Gatwick airport. I think in distance, the main part of London is almost twice the distance from Gatwick than it is from Heathrow. However, getting there by train seems to take almost the same amount of time. So, if Gatwick is cheaper, might as well.

Our hotel, Thistle Piccadilly was located right in the heart of Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square.

It's a really nice hotel, and not far from an Underground station (public subway system). From the hotel, it's about a 5 minute walk to Trafalgar Square.

Compared to researching restaurants and eateries in Italy, I spent probably about 1/100th of the time researching restaurants in London, so we went with our hotel's recommendation. They pointed us to Sherlock Holmes restaurant.

The first floor is a pub, and the second floor is a restaurant.

I ordered Dr. Watson's Traditional Sunday Lunch with chicken and giant Yorkshire pudding. Don't know what Yorkshire pudding is? Neither did I, but it's that bread thing on top of my chicken. The chicken was pretty good. Sophy got Mrs. Hudson's Homemade Steak & Ale pie. The pie was not bad, though it was not the best we had in London.

After dinner, we just walked around. Found our way to a bridge with a view of Big Ben and the London Eye (that big ferris wheel looking thing).

When the London Eye was built in 2000, it was the biggest ferris wheel in the world. The current largest is the "High Roller" in Vegas, completed just this year.

We made our way back to Leicester Square, right outside our hotel.

Here's a look at Chinatown, not far from all the action.

As we walked along, I noticed it was literally casino after casino!

Out of curiosity, we went into the casino above. It was pretty nice inside. Had a few table games and slot machines. Not a whole lot changes, you walk over to the baccarat table and there's a whole bunch of asian people huddled around the table. There were two noticeable differences: 1) They let you play on top of other players money without any problems. I guess they're more open to that in local casinos, but definitely not Vegas; and 2) the Roulette wheel only has a single zero, no double zero.

Fortunately or unfortunately, we didn't play.

We started the day by walking through the Rialto Fish Market, or Pescheria del Mercato di Rialto. Check out the fish, some of it looks much different from what we normally see.

This fish was so fresh it flipped itself off the ice and onto the ground.

We walked over to the Campanile in St. Mark's Square. And of course, you can get to the top of the tower. Well, here's one where there's an elevator to get all the way to the top, and it's the only option.

There are some nice views from the top, but it's not really high enough to be able to see the intricacies of the Venice canals.

St. Mark's Basilica

Doge's Palace

If you look in the distance, you see what looks like a long strip of land connecting the mainland to Venice. The train actually travels along that and stops at the edge of Venice.

Next, we went to St. Mark's Basilica.

This church was not the most impressive looking. In fact, it's very dark inside, and in the spirit of Venice, they charge you for any and everything they can. It's free to get in, but if you want to see a particular area, you pay 5 euros, then for another area, another 5 euros and so on.

A lot of people come to Venice and are disappointed. Here's my thought. There's a few sights such as the Rialto Bridge, Doge's Palace, St. Mark's Basilica. Sure, you can take time to see those, but the part that we enjoyed most about Venice was experiencing the water, cruising the back canals on a gondola, seeing the Grand Canal on a boat. Venice is essentially a water world, and that's what makes it unique...best way to experience that is being on the water.

Our Gondola Ride

Going under this bridge required our boat to be tilted to the right, a bit worrisome actually haha.

These gondoliers are pretty good at what they do. The boats border the walls of the buildings, going perfectly straight and never actually touching the wall.

Occasionally, just like anywhere else, there's traffic.

The gondola ride was definitely the highlight of Venice for me. I would recommend taking a gondola ride to explore the smaller canals in Venice. To explore the actual Grand Canal, I would recommend the convenient and affordable Vaporetto.

But first, we stopped at Antico Forno for lunch. What a great way to end our pizza eating in Italy. This one was a little different, but it was very good.

But I digress. The vaporetto: this is essentially the public transportation system for Venice. There's one that goes from one end of Venice, down the Grand Canal all the way to St. Mark's Square, some go to the other islands such as Murano, etc. A ride costs 7 euros, but a 24 hour pass costs 20 euros. We got the 24 hour pass, and got our money's worth and more.

We took the Vaporetto to explore the Grand Canal, and to accompany us was a great Rick Steves audioguide. The #1 boat is slow, it stops at almost every stop along the Grand Canal. The #2 boat is the faster one, so it only makes stops at the major stops.

The unofficial tour starts at the Venezia S. Lucia train station, the main gateway for commuters into Venice.

According to Rick Steves, more than 20,000 people commute to Venice from the mainland each day. As you'd imagine, this bridge ahead is very busy.

Along the Cannaregio Canal, you'll see the Jewish Ghetto, and in fact, this is where the word ghetto originated.

Another view of the different types of traffic along the canal. I believe the one to the right may be a trash boat.

And of course, there's the Casino di Venezia. Apparently this and other casinos are run by the state in order to diminish Mob influence.

Ca' d'Oro, an art gallery.

Below, you'll see what looks to be a gondola. More specifically these are traghetti. For 2 euros, they make the short trip across the Grand Canal. There aren't many crossings along the Grand Canal, and so these are quite useful if you need to get across. One of the Grand Canal crossings is ahead, the Rialto Bridge.

On the right, somewhat covered is the Rialto Market. There's the fish portion I showed earlier, but there's also a produce section of the market.

Below, just before the Rialto Bridge is where we sat for dinner last night.

I already shared pictures of the sides of the Rialto, so why not underneath it?

One of these is City Hall, and the other the Mayor's Office. I'm not sure which is which.

This was not mentioned by Rick Steves, but I believe the building straight ahead in this photo, with the two obelisks on the rooftop, is Aman Canal Grande Hotel...that's right, where George Clooney got married.

This is the Academia Bridge which connects to, you guessed it, Academia Gallery.

Peggy Guggenheim Collection (shorter white building)

I didn't get a good picture of the transition, but this is where the Grand Canal starts to lead into the open ocean.

And as you go out further, you get a nice look at the Campanile, Doge's Palace, and St. Mark's Square.

I guess the allure of a gondola ride in front of St. Mark's Square is intriguing to some people, but I wouldn't recommend it. You can see there's quite a few gondolas here, but when you actually watch them in person, it just looks like a teeter totter on the water, a roller coaster of sorts. If you're gonna go for a gondola ride, I still say it's better to go for a nice peaceful ride on the smaller canals. But hey, that's just me.

We got off the vaporetto at the San Marco stop, and with nothing else planned, we decided to take a different vaporetto to the island of Murano, famous for glass blowing.

Looks pretty similar to the rest of Venice, though it's shop after shop of glass blown stuff.

For dinner, we went to Dal Moro's (Alfredo's) Fresh Pasta to Go. It was a cool little shop, although they don't let you take pictures inside. For about 5 to 10 euros, you get these boxes of fresh made pasta with whatever sauce and toppings or extras you choose. The pasta's great, the ingredients taste fresh, it's a good find.